Panel of Experts: Giulia

I consider Stitch Fix as my fashion education. I pay for someone to teach me what to wear, and they choose my clothes and send me updates on what's in style and how to wear it. It's a good system so far. There's homework too, keeping my Pinterest style board up to date (though I realize this wouldn't feel like homework to most people).
I'm learning a lot.

Then there are people study Fashion Design in college. This is an actual fashion education, though I assume most people who enter the Fashion Design program already know how to dress themselves.

Such is the case for my friend, Giulia (pronounced "geeeyuuulwieeeaaa..." Just kidding. It's like "Julia" in English). Giulia is my Visiting Teacher, which means she visits with me every month as part of a program through our church to share a message about the Gospel and to just visit and help me out. It's seriously one of my favorite parts of church, this network of women that we create.

In the course of our visiting, I found out that she's finishing up college in the Fashion Design program. She's working on her final project, creating a bunch of outfits and having them made and then shown at a fashion show at the end of the year.

How did people so much younger become so much cooler than me?

I was able to catch her during her mid-year break, and she answered some interview questions for my blog! 

• Where do you get your fashion inspiration?

Most of the time I try to know what celebrity I most identify with and watch what they are wearing or have worn. But I only use what really pleases me and is good for my body.

• If you have a nice event to go to (date, brunch, night out, etc.) when do you start thinking of what you’ll wear? How do you plan an outfit?

Well, it depends on when I find out about the event, but usually that day I start to think about what I going to wear, even before I'm sure if I'll go (laughs). Planning clothes depends on where the event will be held, the hour, the weather and the people who will be present. I always try to learn some of these details before to prepare myself, but if it is a date for example, and the person does not say where you're going, or you are embarrassed to ask, I suggest versatile clothes that are tidy but not too much or too little. For example, a dress and heels are perfect for going to a movie or to a fancy restaurant.

• What is your current favorite thing to wear?

Big Earrings and Fluffy Sweaters

And let me just interrupt to clarify for a moment. I grew up in the nineties, so when I read "fluffy sweaters," my brain came up with this:



Turns out, the new millennium comes with its own updated sweaters. This is the one Giulia has in mind:

 Carry on.

• Top 10 items to have in your wardrobe:

1. Fluffy Sweater (see above)

2. Nice Accessories

3. Pumps

4. Boots

5. Day dress

6. Night dress

7. Nice Jeans

8. Blazer

9. A basic shirt

10. Sandals

• Shopping: What is your plan of attack when you go clothes shopping? Do you have a plan of attack?

Actually, I do not have a plan of attack. When I go shopping I'll first go to stores that I like and try something that pleases me and makes me fall in love with it, which is not too hard (laughs).

But one tip I give is to look calmly and be patient. The faster you go through racks, the less chance you will have to find cool stuff and like it.

• What are some of your favorite stores (in person, online)? What do you usually buy there?

Some of my favorite stores are: Renner, C&A, Zara and Forever 21. They are in person, because I like to try things on and see the quality before buying. 

I confess that I usually buy more shoes than anything (laughs), because you can change a whole look only with a pair of shoes, nice makeup and some accessories.

Um... I didn't realize Forever 21 was an international brand. Turns out, it is! Who knew?!

• What advice would you give me or people like me for whom dressing well is challenging and out of their comfort zones?

Be yourself. You do not need be fashionable to dress well, or even be a trendsetter. Dressing well means feeling good about yourself, and being comfortable-- yes, comfortable! There is nothing worse than when you go out in a beautiful outfit, but it itches, hurts you, or makes you feel uncomfortable in any other way. As much as you think you look wonderful, you actually look uncomfortable rather than confident, and people can see it. But also being comfortable does not mean being sloppy. There are many beautiful clothes that are comfortable and tidy, but you just need to use patience while you shop.

Another tip is to ask someone you trust to evaluate if your clothes are good or not, and even help you to choose.


Aaaaand, it sounds like Giulia will be coming shopping with me later this month for Visiting Teaching! 

Dressing for the big game

I've always been a big fan of dressing up for football games.

My fashion theory boils down to this: Wear as much BYU gear as possible. I'm sorry, but there's no other sport and no other team, and that's it.

My family believes in my theory as well.
That's me in the dark blue shirt, BYU shorts, and BYU visor.
My sister's the one in the pink. It's a BYU hat and a BYU 5k shirt, so she is excused.

Winter games add more depth to your team spirit.
You better believe I'm wearing about six layers of BYU memorabilia under my coat!

Painting yourself blue and white is also a good option. Wigs are fun. The fashion options for football games are really quite extensive.

I feel kind of bad for U of U fans. I mean, at BYU, we never coordinate our BYU gear with red pants. But U of U fans go to games with blue pants on, inadvertently supporting the better team--with the better fight song. Go Cougars!

If there's anyone who knows how to dress for a game, it is the Brazilians. My personal favorite is the guy who has only worn Brazil colors for the last 20 years after Brazil won the World Cup in 1994. (He would also be the world's easiest person to buy presents for.)

But apparently there is more than one school of thought on what some people refer to as "Ballpark Style."

Ballpark STYLE?!? I had no idea....

Stitch Fix put this post on their blog to help people decide what to wear to baseball games this summer. And my eyes were opened. I never really considered the possibility of looking chique AND all team spirity.

I think she remembered to look in the mirror before leaving the house,
unlike some people who just look in the bottom of the drawer for more BYU memorabilia.

I can get on board with this.
I still think at least one (or two) of your shirts should be actual team memorabilia,
but I like this idea of looking nice AND spirited.

And this last outfit? Well, you can't win 'em all.

If you're going to wear a grey shirt to a live game, it should be this one:

Recipes

Not to brag, but I'm kind of an amazing cook.

Someone should tell my kids

Last week I was at the store and impulse-bought some basil and tomatoes to make a caprese salad with basalmic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

When I got home, we were out of cheese, and I had to improvise. I pulled out the food processor and threw the basil in with some olive oil and salt to make pesto. We didn't have pine nuts, but cashews are practically the same. It's against my personal religion to put fresh garlic into anything, so after pureeing the heck out of it for a few minutes: voila! Italy's best! -- made by an American expat in Brazil, of course.

We had pesto pasta tossed with diced tomatoes for dinner, and when my kids grow up they will know what they missed.
The next night I made pizza with the leftover pesto. I topped it with shredded chicken, onions, and cheese. It was fantastic! 

Someday I'd like to get to this point with my clothes. Stay with me; it will make sense in a minute. Right now I feel like the person who eats every night at McDonald's. I know it's not great, but it's easy, comfortable, and I've been doing it so long it's all I know. I love wearing jeans and t-shirts, but they're my McDonald's. 

To be fair, McDonald's has a nice variety on their menu these days, with salads and yogurt and apple slices. And I have some nice t-shirts. 

But let's say this McDonald's person heads over to the grocery store and buys some basil and tomatoes. Fresh vegetables and herbs! Watch out, world, I'm a foodie now!

Then they get home and realize basil and tomatoes make a terrible dinner. Sure, it's edible, but it's not delicious like the fries at McDonald's. So they toss the leftover basil and go back to justifying the tomatoes in ketchup and the whitish-pink tomato slice in the Big N' Tasty.

That's how I feel about fashion. I don't really know what to buy, and even if I do buy something nice, I don't have belts or shoes or even pants to go with it. 

So... I need recipes.

I've been really looking forward to my Stitch Fix order, almost as much for the styling cards as for the actual clothes.

Almost. :)

My Grammy puts magazine pictures up in her closets or sticks them onto the hangers to inspire her on what she can wear with certain items. I, on the other hand, just get dressed until my body's covered. This idea of planning and accessorizing certainly didn't get passed down genetically.

But I'm sticking these "recipe cards" up on my closet doors.

Skinny jeans: I guess I can dress these up or down-- though both of these are dressing up for me.

I didn't keep this shirt, but I still like the styling ideas.
This idea that you can have more than one purse -- and then accentuate your outfit with it-- is novel to me.
I have one purse. It is blue. Because blue goes with everything.
Especially when you always wear jeans.

Dress this up with white jeans! Ooooohhh, I'm not so sure I could do that with kids.
Or without kids.
I like most of this, but on this one I started to get the feeling the stylist was just kind of throwing pieces together.
I mean, yes I can wear a necklace with this, but that coral and teal necklace on the right? It looks completely random.
I think my pharaoh necklace would actually match better.

And this is nice and all. I like the yellow necklace and teal clutch.
But I'm pretty sure that even I know you're not supposed to wear a black cardigan with a navy dress!
Maybe they ran out of pictures for cardigans. 

So maybe I won't try every single one of these "recipes." But I really need to stop eating McDonald's every day.
Maybe I'll try the white jeans.

Fixed!

Pretty soon I'm going to be out of excuses for showing up places in scrubby t-shirts and jeans.

I just got my first Stitch Fix and took pictures today. Wahoo! 

Turns out, when your photographer is five years old, you have to wait until the sun and shadows are in the right places in the yard AND until she feels like helping you out. 

It is a miracle these clothes aren't smeared with ketchup, because I had to wear them through breakfast AND lunch before my photographer was ready.

Stitch Fix: in a nutshell

An online styling service that sends you five items of clothes and accessories, based on your measurements and preferences you provide them in your account. They send the box, and there's a $20 styling fee. If you decide to buy something in the box, the $20 goes toward your purchase. If you decide to buy EVERYTHING, there's a 25% discount. If you decide to send things back, they provide a prepaid pre-addressed mailing bag-- which is a big selling point to me. Also, you sign up for a "fix" whenever you want. Every couple weeks or once in a blue moon. Up to you!

But anyway... on to the fix!

Item 1: Shirt

(Am I supposed to say blouse or top? Because I just call them shirts.)

Pixley: Tracy Dot Print Cross Back Knit Top

Ooooh! Fun X in the back. Hence the name, "Cross Back"

This shirt makes me smile. The back is fun and interesting without being scandalous. It's comfortable like a t-shirt, but it drapes nicely because it's rayon-- which I love. And it's blue! It's about time the blue-shirt section of my closet tried to keep up with my green-shirt section.

I pinned this exact shirt on my Pinterest board from someone else's Stitch Fix review.


Item 2: Pants

Mavi: Freida Skinny Jean

You know when you try on a pair of pants and they feel like they're yours? I was sure Stitch Fix wouldn't be able to do that the first time around, but turns out they did! I am amazed! Especially since I just made up my waist measurement on my profile... They're fitted but not too tight, so I don't wind up in the hospital with nerve damage. (You can't make this stuff up!)

Item 3: Necklace

Marlyn Schiff: Lia Pave Bead Necklace

My styling card says that this necklace is "great for summer and goes with everything." It's beautiful and stylish, I'll give them that. But after I took these pictures, I was exhausted from trying to look nice, so I changed into my oversized yellow summer camp T-shirt and scrubby jeans.

I have it on good authority that "everything" is an overstatement. 

I'm 50-50 on this one. 

I'd wear it with this teal shirt, but it doesn't go with the silver earrings I like to wear with it. And unfortunately, most of my wardrobe is more camp t-shirt than stylish top, so I'm not sure what else I could wear it with. Do I keep it and hope to find things to wear it with in the future? 

Decisions, decisions.

Item 4: Tank top

Crescent: Murrey Embroidered Hem Top

Beautiful crocheted lace details

I love the coral and navy embroidery!

But I don't wear tank tops. Actually, I tried it on, and even if I did wear tank tops or decided to wear it under something, it's just the wrong length and shape for me.

Gorgeous, but sending it back.

Item 5: Dress

41Hawthorn: Rocco Faux Wrap Tank Dress

Pretend that I'm twirling in this one

Again, I don't wear tank tops, and the waistline on this one didn't do anything for MY waistline. It looked pretty awkward on me.
Sending it back.

I am happy with this. I haven't decided if I'll keep two or three of the items, but as far as a first try goes, this went pretty well! There are a few things that I need to change on my Stitch Fix profile. I tried to write things in a positive way, like "I always wear short sleeves" in the summer. But I guess that could be interpreted as "not long sleeves" or "the shorter the better," instead of what I actually meant, which was, "I always wear short sleeves, not tank tops or long sleeves." I know what I mean in my head, and it's not always clear from what I write.
Also, I'm not sure I'll ask for jewelry in the future. I'd like to have clothes to wear before accessories to fancy them up with.

So... until next time, Stitch Fix! Maybe I'll be brave and start wearing my nice clothes out in public!

And here is my unabashed referral link. If Stitch Fix sounds like something you're interested in, please sign up through this link. It gives me credit, which makes me a happy, chique lady.

Delivered!!

In America they have this phenomenon called "two day shipping". Apparently your stuff magically appears at your house two days after you order it.
And if I were living in America, I would have my Stitch Fix by now. Actually, I would have had it by last Friday when it was delivered to the mail facility.
That would have been fun.
But all that came in the mail today in Brazil was my husband's Boba Fett costume. Because we're cool in our family.
But no clothes for me.
There IS a way to peek into your order and see what they've sent you. You just go and hit "check-out" and there's the list! Then with the magic of google, you just search for photos of each item, and voila! there's your order!
HOWEVER. This is being written by the world's biggest fan of surprises. Kevin bought my Christmas present last October, and it sat in MY closet for months just staring down at me. And I didn't open it! Not once!
(I actually knew it was a watch. But I didn't know what KIND.)
So I'm still waiting for my clothes.
I think I jumped the gun, telling people I'm going to dress so chique now. Speaking of surprises, I should have just waited for my Stitch Fix and then just showed up at a birthday party looking all amazing and then being all, "What? This old thing?"
Anyway.
This shipment better not get accidentally misdirected and wind up in New Delhi like that one last January. (You can't make this stuff up.)

Deflated numbers

Yeah! My Stitch Fix is "in progress!" I know this because, while I haven't been logging in every day, sometimes I go in and tweak a few things on my profile. Often. Like a few times a week since I signed up.
Okay, it's almost every day.
I'm kind of excited. Can you tell?
In your profile you can write a note to your stylist, letting her know things like, "Well, I would love some new things for my upcoming cruise in the Bahamas." Or, "I need something I can wear to work in the summer when the crank up the AC in my office." You know, so they know what kind of first-world problems they're dealing with.
My first world problem goes something like this: "I have no idea what to wear-- ever-- and the last time I wore jeans that fit right was when I was 9 months pregnant!"
I like to leave options wide open for them.

So I would go in and tweak my Stitch Fix profile. They give you like 6 styles of clothes to go through. Some are flowery and frilly, some are colorful, some look like a British prep school uniform. You can like them, hate them, really like them, really hate them, or something like that. So before my Fix was "in progress," I would go in and reevaluate my preferences. I mean, I like the flowers and lace and ruffles. But would I ever wear anything like that? Kate Middleton looks amazing in blazers and stripes, but would blazers and stripes make ME look like Kate Middleton? I think I know the answer to that one!
Some seriously, seriously deep contemplation.

Then they sent me a last-call email. "Go in and make your final changes to your note, your preferences, all that." (I'm not sure that sentence deserves quotation marks. But it's my blog.)

That was when I decided that lying about my weight probably wasn't the best idea when someone is sending me clothes sight unseen.

I'm not so chique

One of my favorite Portuguese words is chique (rhymes with sneaky). Fashionable, fancy, cool, stylish. This is not me.
I live in Brazil, and Brazilians are chique. They wear 6" heels to church or a birthday party at the bowling alley. They rock their fashionable maxi dresses, mini dresses, and everything in between.

I, on the other hand, usually dress like this:

At the park

In a crystal shop in Crystalina

At the Jaguar Sanctuary





At William's birthday party

No, I don't usually dress like that. I ALWAYS dress like that.

It's easy to notice several things from these pictures:

A) I accessorize by carrying my son. Who needs handbags? I have children!

B) I really rock those t-shirts.

C) I'm wearing the same pair of capris in three of the four pictures. 

D) In the last one, I'm wearing a pair of cargo capris. How did they make it to this side of 1999?

I love what I wear. I love being comfortable, and when I feel comfortable I am happy. 

But sometimes, now that I'm a grown up, I get invited to brunches. Or my husband brings me to a work shindig. Or I host a playgroup for the children of expat diplomats and company executives. And then suddenly there's no right way to answer, "Well, what t-shirt would go best?"

But here's my problem: I hate shopping. Always have. I don't know what to buy. I can think of a million better ways to spend my time than traipsing through the mall trying on clothes. I can think of a few things I've bought online and been happy with, but I can also think of the rest of the things I've received that hadn't fit, hadn't looked good, or hadn't been the quality I was hoping for. But unfortunately, we're still expected to wear clothes.

So I read about Stitch Fix on my friend's blog. It's an online shopping service. She wrote about it last year, and it piqued my interest, but not enough to do anything about it. Then she wrote about it just last week, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

What is Stitch Fix? It's a (genius) company where you have a personal stylist who chooses 5 things (clothes and accessories) for you to try, based on your sizing and preferences you provide for them. It costs $20 for the "styling fee," and if you decide to keep any of the items, that $20 goes towards the cost of the item(s). If you decide to return anything, you put it in the postage pre-paid bag provided for you and ship it right back. If you decide to keep nothing, you pay the $20 styling fee and move on with your life.

You can sign up for every two weeks, month, two months, or just schedule a "fix" one at a time. It's not like one of those CD companies that used to send you a bunch of CDs you didn't like and then make you buy more every month until you finally begged them to stop. Stitch Fix can be as often or as seldom as you want. I like that.

I love that you have someone choosing clothes for you. It's not totally random, either. They use computers and algorithms to help you get things that you like, based on your preferences and body type. One of the people working at Stitch Fix headquarters worked for Netflix to develop their preference selection system. Netflix's recommendations have been pretty good in my experience, and they have hardly any data to work from. Stitch Fix uses the data of what you buy or return, PLUS all the data of what you tell them in their rather extensive profile questionnaire.

With each item your stylist sends you, they include a card with a couple of outfit ideas for how to wear the item. This is gold. I'm very interested in those. I don't know how to accessorize. I don't know how to pair a shirt with jeans and then dress it up with a skirt. I don't know any of this stuff, so these will be like textbooks for me! (And like shopping lists, if the card ideas include anything but t-shirts and ill-fitting capris.)

I've been reading about Stitch Fix online, both positive and negative reviews. And to be fair, it IS pretty expensive, especially to me. I'm one of those people that hates spending more than $5 on a shirt. I shop at thrift stores and the sales at Target. But I'm trying to take my clothes up a notch, and I'm thinking of this as a good investment. I'd rather have a few nice items that I know I like, I know fit well, and that have someone else's approval that they are muito chique. And to have someone else do all the legwork? Well, you can't put a price tag on that.

So, I've scheduled my first "fix." It should be coming later this month. But since I live overseas and will have to wait for the mail to arrive, it might be more like July. I can hardly wait!

Stitch Fix isn't like scriptures or vaccines. I don't recommend it for everyone. But I've decided to try it out, and I invite you to join me and watch as I attempt a journey to chique.
And should you decide to try Stitch Fix for yourself, here is my shameless request that you use my referral link. Because then I get credit-- which is apparently a good thing.