Gwynnie Bee Clothing Rental Service Review

Hello again! I got lots of questions from the last clothing subscription box review I did, so I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts on another service I recently tried. Like many other ladies out there, I’ve been swept into the clothing subscription box trend. I recently wrote about my experience trying the Express Style Trial here.

Today, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on a different service, called Gwynnie Bee. Unlike the Express service, this box falls more in line with a traditional clothing subscription box (i.e. Le Tote).

What is it?

Gwnnie Bee is a clothing rental service that covers a much broader size range than anything else I have seen out on the market, including plus sizes. Yay for inclusivity! I also noticed that this particular service contained a much larger inventory of work-wear type items, leading me to believe it might be much more geared towards the professional woman.

How does it work?

You pay a flat fee per month based on the amount of clothing items you have ‘checked out’ at the same time. To have 2 items per box, it’s $69/month, 1 item is $49/month, and it goes up from there. Once you’ve created an account, you start ‘closeting’ pieces, which is basically like online shopping for anything you’d want to wear, and saving it in one location. Based on availability and preference, GB sends you two items out at a time (for the free trial plan). You can ‘prioritize’ items that you REALLY want to try, or would prefer to get first. You can continue to swap out the items as fast or slow as you wear them.

What did I get?

I got three boxes in total during my trial month. Each box contained two items.

Box 1:

Box 2:

Box 3:

 

How did I wear it?

The picture quality isn’t great, but I figured you might want to see how these pieces look on a non-model 😉

Box 1:

The Vince Camuto Jumpsuit was SO STINKING CUTE. It was also very comfortable, despite making it difficult to take a bathroom break mid-day without someone unzipping you at work. I honestly almost kept this one.

On the other hand, the Vince Camuto Dress was not cute on me at all. I think I’m just too short for that cut of a maxi dress. I never even ended up wearing this one, or taking pictures in it.

Box 2:

This Calvin Klein work dress was perfect for an office day. If you work in a more casual office, it might be on the dressier side. The material is nice and thick, and the mesh detailing was fun but still professional.

This dress, oddly enough, might have been my favorite item of the whole month. It was a comfy cotton material, but the fit was oversized. I definitely should have gotten a small instead of a medium. I added a belt so I didn’t look like I was wearing a potato sack, and felt very put-together running around town for errands. This is the perfect dress to slip on Tory Burch Miller sandals for a casual look, or a pair of wedges for something dressier. I would have 100% kept this dress if it was a small instead of a medium.

Box 3:

I ended up not taking any photos with either of these items. The first problem was the dress. It was tiny. By tiny, I mean SO SHORT there was a zero percent chance I would ever wear it out of my house. I was honestly super bummed, because it would have been such a great throw-on work dress. I seriously think it was incorrectly washed by Gwynnie Bee, because there is no way it was designed to raise above my belly button if I stick my arms straight up in the air. On the other hand, the striped blazer was semi-cute. It wasn’t ugly, but the cut/style of the blazer wasn’t very feminine and hit me at a kind of weird height on the waist and arms. Both of these items were sent back without ever being worn.

What did I think of the service?

I was actually fairly impressed with this service. Of the three clothing rental services I’ve tried, GB is by far the quickest in terms of returning/getting new items. Since I only got two items per box, if I worked in an office daily, I could probably get 5-6 boxes a month without too much trouble, and REALLY get my bang for my buck. I also appreciated that this service had a much larger selection of work wear that was appropriate for my office.

To be perfectly honest, I really do appreciate the idea of clothing rental services. I find myself more willing to try different things, and not being as bummed when something I pick out doesn’t look great. I also enjoy having less laundry to do. In theory, I suppose these rental services could be considered environmentally friendly as well, since they cut down on waste and excess production of garments that would otherwise sit in your closet.

Ultimately, I decided to end my subscription for similar reasons to the Express Style Trial. While I enjoyed the service, I was really only using it to refresh my work wardrobe. Since I only find myself wearing office attire twice a week, it just wasn’t the best fit for my lifestyle. However, I’d highly recommend the service to someone who wants to refresh their work clothing on a fairly regular basis. However, if you’d like to try out the service *for free* yourself, check it out here.

———————————————————————————–

Have you had any luck with clothing subscription boxes? Let me know your thoughts!

Until next time,

Amanda Kennedy

Follow along on IG: @amandadev4