Dressing My Man Dime *

A buddy of mine at work, Charity, recently told me about a neat online personal shopping service called Stitch Fix (more on that later).  When I described the idea to Chris, his immediate reaction was, “do they have one for guys?”  He’s metro, that one.

In doing some research, I ran across a few sites that will allow you to fill out a style profile with your measurements, preferences, budget, etc, and using a frequency you set, the stylist will pick out clothing for you and drop it in the mail.  The site we tried is called Bombfell; apparently, the founder’s naming logic is that if a good-looking woman is a “bombshell,” the male equivalent is a “bombfellow,” hence “bombfell.”  Yeah, I have doubts about that, and I can see you do, too.  I mean, clearly.

Anywhoo, the style profile seemed pretty comprehensive; you fill out a ton of measurements (ideally, while your wife is watching Project Runway.  Scratch that - trying to watch Project Runway), and you pick sample brands that fit your aesthetic, your preferred style of dressing, your complexion, and so on.  Here are a few screen shots of the style section of the site: 

As you can see, Chris clearly has the body morphology of a sunburnt Will Ferrell, the pasty whiteness of Joel McHale**, will not be growing a tiny Michael Cera sleeze-stache anytime soon, and wouldn’t hesitate to emulate Jay Z, John Legend, Andre 3000, or Ryan Gosling.  That sounds about right.***

Bombfell defaults to sending you one item in each shipment (although you can request more, if you wish – we tried two the first time), and you set the price of that item.  Chris chose the lowest bracket, which is $69 and below.  That means that anything they send you will be a maximum of $69, although in reading other reviews online, they don’t seem to hesitate to send less expensive things (t-shirts and accessories – belts, wallets, ties - mainly). 

You schedule the shipments as you see fit, and there’s no obligation to sign up for shipments in any recurring timeframe, or at all; if you wanted to, you could fill out the profile and not schedule a shipment, ever.  You also have the option to dictate what type of clothes the stylist sends you; you could choose to receive just long-sleeved shirts, or alternatively, you could choose not to receive jeans.  You also have the option of choosing a more general category (say, “shirts” or “pants”), or having the stylist surprise you with an item based upon the notes you’ve entered and your profile.  You can also select outerwear or blazers, but more expensive items will default you into a pricier cost zone, which makes sense; Chris hasn’t tried this yet, but if he does, I’ll report back.

Personally, the thing I think is coolest is that the clothes come to you (via the mail.  Although via a gremlin on a unicorn would be amazing.  I believe that’s a premium shipping option).  There’s no need to trek to the mall and wander around, picking things out and getting your heels nipped by soccer moms in velour tracksuits with baby strollers.  Also, since the stylist is looking through a different lens than what you would on your own, the clothes that come should be interesting things that might work well, even though you might never have selected them for yourself.  Since the clothes are mailed to your location, you can try them on with your existing wardrobe options, to see if they’ll enhance the items you already own.  You have 10 days to try things on and if you don’t like them, to send them back in the postage-paid envelope that comes with the clothes.  Bombfell only charges you for the items when you don’t send them back within the required period of time.

Okay, now that the boring, informational part is out of the way, here are Chris’ actual results.  PICTURES!  

First, here's the package the shipment came in.  I have to say, we were both a bit disappointed it took so long to ship a bag of clothes to us.  Chris filled out the profile and shipment request on Thursday, 10/3, and the shipment was immediately given a shipping date of the week of 10/7.  Chris received an email preview of the items on 10/10 (during the email preview phase, you could remove items from your shipment and request others.  Chris decided not to do this, figuring he’d try everything on and see where to go from there).  Ultimately, we didn't receive the package until 10/19, which seemed a bit slow.  Maybe we're just getting too dependent on Amazon Prime...

Props to Bombfell for sending us this little dude in the package as well.  You can never have enough plastic cow squeezy toys, right?

The first item Chris requested was a long-sleeved shirt, since it’s now “fall” (fall in Phoenix, of course, being nights in the 60s and days in the 80s.  Ooh, break out the apple cider!).  This was an Original Penguin plaid heritage shirt in “cherry,” priced at $69. 

Chris really liked the color, and the fit was fine through the shoulders and chest, but alas, the crazy-long monkey arms strike again!  As you can see from the picture (oh, sad face), the arms were too short.  Back into the bag to be returned.

We also requested a second item in the shipment, and chose to let the stylist surprise us.  It ended up being two t-shirts, actually.  I guess since the t-shirts were a lower price point that added up to about $69, we ended up with two.  This one was a good hYOUman basic crewneck tee in “faded black,” priced at $29. 

The shirt felt good, and it fit well, too, but it didn't really seem unique enough to pay $29 for it.  Back in the bag!

The second t-shirt was a Cooper Jones essex slub v-neck in “pewter,” also for $29. 

We found a keeper!  The fit was good, the shirt was comfy, and the white thread detailing around the arms and waist made it interesting enough to be worth the price for us.  Finally, Chris has a t-shirt that has neither a race logo or a brewery name on it (...and now everyone knows where we spend all of our time).

Chris went back onto the Bombfell site and made detailed notes about how the clothes fit and why he was keeping/sending back each item.  He also had the option of uploading pictures to the site, so his stylist could see the results of his/her sections.  As of this writing, Bombfell has not charged our card, but we'll expect that within the next week or so.

Overall, Bombfell seems cool, and I'm sure as Chris uses the service longer, the picks from the stylist will fit him better and be more his style.  Actually, on the style front, the stylist did very well - Chris easily would have kept all three shirts and worn them regularly had they all worked, fit and price-wise.  He's signed up for another shipment in early November, and he's requested pants this time (all together now:  oooh, pants!).

If you want to try out Bombfell, please consider using Chris’ link as a referral.  It’s here - https://bombfell.com/?rc=31744JHhwR – and if you order through Bombfell, Chris gets a $25 referral credit.  BUT!  Even better, so do you!  That’s a win for everybody!  Wow, that’s enough exclamation points.  Got a bit excited there.  Sorry about that.

More later!

Amy

* A giant thanks to Rob Dyrdek and the cast of Fantasy Factory for the phrase, “man dime.”  Actually, a giant thanks to Rob Dyrdek for several years of making me laugh until I pull something in my side.  If, for some reason, you’ve been living in communist Russia or in a Mexican prison for the past fifteen years and have missed Rob and Big, Fantasy Factory, or Ridiculousness, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

** How amazing is it that the skin tone pictures are the cast of Community?  Instant love.  Also, that section of the profile prompted this exchange: 

Chris – I think I should pick this one (points to Ken Jeong).  I’m not as white as Joel.

Me – Honey, you’re not Asian.  You’re the white guy.  Pick Joel.

New family slogan:  “Chris Olsen - white.  But not as white as Joel McHale.”

*** My favorite part of the style profile – and there are many amazing sections – is that under “What Fit Issues Do You Have?” there is an option for “Man Boobs.”  Outstanding.