What if you could have a complete wardrobe of outfits delivered to your doorstep, ready to wear, tailored specific to your tastes, needs, and lifestyle from the comfort of your desk? The Trunk Club is an online stylist site which sets out to provide sartorialist guidance for men who know what they like, but perhaps do not necessarily know how to put it all together. I've never been accused of being disinterested in clothing or fashion, but I decided to give the service a try to see what someone else would envision I should be wearing...
Upon signing up for Trunk Club (unlike Fight Club, you're encouraged to talk about membership), I was assigned my very own online stylist (Brittany), complete with her contact information via email and phone number. A preliminary interview over phone or email about general style and measurements is required to establish exactly what you're looking for. Here is a sample of the survey I received:
1. In terms of the reason you're joining Trunk Club, what would you most like to get out of this experience?
2. What is your occupation?
3. How do you dress for work?
4. Do you want to use our service to receive business or weekend/casual clothes? Or both?
5. What do you like to do on the weekends/away from work?
6. What are your favorite pair of shoes on weekends and at work?
7. When you've bought clothing in the past, what stores/brands have you usually shopped with?
8. What are your most common fit "issues" with clothing in the past? (e.g. shirts too baggy, etc...)
9.Tell me the size and brand of your best-fitting:
10.How do you like your jeans to fit?
Alongside the answers to these questions, I also had to provide a credit card number, but nothing is charged initially. The Trunk Club operates under the try-before-you-buy model, and you're given ten days to try on and decide what to keep and what to send back. Return shipping is all prepaid, with the trunk perfectly constructed for easy opening and repackaging, so whatever you decide not to keep can be packed back and returned without any cost or hassle. Only what is kept is tallied and charged.
So back to my own trunk. I not only provided survey answers to my friendly stylist, Brittany, but also directed her to my Pinterest boards and favorite online clothing brands and retailers to help her understand my lifestyle, what I currently wore, and what I was aspiring to wear shaped by her fashionable expertise. And so with great hope I awaited the arrival of a fashionable new me in a box with the same
Less than a week later a medium-sized cardboard box arrived by FedEx adorned with the Trunk Club branding. Inside, a carefully packed selection of clothing was topped off by a thoughtfully handwritten letter from Brittany describing her selections: shoes, socks, underwear, trousers, jeans, button-up shirts, sweater, and coat...a truly head-to-toe wardrobe. Unfortunately, what I described to my stylist wasn't necessarily reflected by the trunk's contents. Perhaps it's due to the regional location, or the personal preference of my stylist, but the clothing picks left me initially wondering if I had received another customer's mix. There were some fine choices offered and everything delivered fit quite well (so well, I considered purchasing what would have been the most expensive pair of jeans I've ever bought). If you've ever shopped at Saks 5th or Gilt, you might even recognize some of the designer brands and their accompanying eyebrow-raising price tags. Everything is clearly priced, and a whole trunk would cost you in the ballpark of $1,500 if you decided to keep everything.
The handwritten letter from my stylist Brittany was a thoughtful touch, which made it all the more difficult to return her choices for me.
But disappointingly, almost everything inside my trunk communicated the sense and sensibility of someone whom I imagined who knew and cared about a golf handicap and carried a Blackberry, rather than reflective of a Southern California fella who loves sun-filled weekend road trips, rolled-up pants tide pooling, and rugged yet refined hiking wear. What Brittany imagined for me unfortunately was a new me I had no desire in becoming, nor could I necessarily afford. And thus I sent back everything except a pair of socks and an incredibly comfortable pair of boxer trunks, slightly relieved I didn't love more, escaping relatively unscathed financially but still left wanting fashionably.
Customers are given the option to provide feedback, explaining why they loved or didn't care for delivered fashions. The feedback supposedly helps fine tune future choices.
In concept, the Trunk Club is a promising service which could prove helpful to formerly-fashionably disinterested men (or as a gift from their partners) seeking a one-stop makeover. The aid of stylist can be every bit as helpful as an interior decorator for a home or a personal trainer to a body, lending insightful expertise in regards to colors, patterns, and fit. But without an ideal match between assigned stylist and a customer's criteria, my own experience felt like trying on someone else's clothing and life for a few days only to realize I liked the fit and feel of my own well enough.
(Images: Gregory Han)
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. This specific product was purchased by reviewer for testing and review purposes.
Where to Squeeze a Home Office into a Full House?
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
Yuck: A Fourth Grader Reveals What School Lunches Really Look Like
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
This is sort of like a grown up version of Garanimals. I know a few men who would love it, depending on price. They want to look good, but don't want to put any thought into it.
I honestly have a hard time believing that the "stylist" is actually making personalized choices. I'd be more inclined to think that the stylist is simply selecting items from whatever companies happen to be giving The Trunk Club the best deal at the time. It's a good idea in theory, but I don't think I'd trust them to make decisions or selections for me.
Maybe you sent her to the wrong Pinterest board to understand your lifestyle.
Can you provide your survey answers? Honestly, I find it hard that someone could make decisions for you based purely on survey answers and Pinterest. I think Pinterest was the problem, though. A Pinterest board is a snapshot of three things: who you think you are, who you actually are, and who you want to be.
And the clothes you received as a result are a snapshot of someone you assume is a golf-club carrying, BlackBerry using kind of guy....but isn't that kind of presumptuous? My husband would wear at least those shirts and the sweater and he doesn't play golf or carry a BlackBerry. What do sun-loving beachy guys wear to the office? Not flip-flops.
$1500?! For a few shirts, a pair of shoes, a couple pants and underwear? My most expensive piece of clothing is a $35 pair of Levi's, so I'm obviously not in their target market.
I wish they had something like this for women. I'd love to break from my usual Gap/J.Crew/Banana Republic routine
After 12 years I still can't shop for my husband and pick out stuff he's willing to wear, so good luck to any business that tries to take on shopping for a man!
This would work well for my dad, if my mother for some reason suddenly decided to stop shopping for him. He's happy to put on whatever she gives him. He generally looks quite smart as he defaults to button down shirts, sweaters, and nice trousers unless he's in the garage woodworking. Then it's a v-neck undershirt, cotton shorts, and black socks. Black socks and snow white legs!
@claireunderwear Check out Stitch Fix. I've gotten a few deliveries from them to try and get myself to get away from my usual. I have definitely gotten a couple things that I would not have normally given a second glance in a store.
I've tried out a couple of these companies geared toward women, and had a very similar experience. It seems like a good idea, but the reality of what came in the boxes left me scratching my head, and I have yet to keep anything.
After my experience with the DesignerAtHome.com service (an online-only interior design service) I am very dubious about any online design service. IMHO there needs to be some personal give-and-take that just can't be done entirely online.
Men's clothing can get to be quite expensive depending upon what it's made out of and who the maker is. Plus, if this truely is a "full wardorbe" replacement I'm assuming that you are going to get a couple pairs of jeans or slacks, undershirts, shirts, sweaters, etc. so I could see going over a $1000 fairly quickly. Take a look at your wardrobe and tally up the total cost of everything if you were to buy it all at once and you might be supprised.
If you are going to allow some random person to make choices for what you wear based on a few questions or pinterest, then perhaps they are psychic as well? How do they know your personality? How do they know that your skin tone is exactly what you tell them it is? And what about that slightly outdated baseball cap that you wear with everything? Most of us whether or not we admit it are very picky. My family doesn't even buy me any sort of clothing anymore because they know it will go back, and they know me.
While certainly most of us can use some help in the 'what to wear' areas of our lives, we are taking a huge leap of faith based on someone else and the companies that supply them clothing.
"Today we have lots of red/yellow/orange plaid slacks, so be sure and push those."
Clothing is no more one size fits all than medication. Not every person is going to react well to the same RX as everyone else. And at the prices companies like this charge? I know a local Men's store that opened up recently, and was very needed in our area, so I went to check them out. Nearly everything in their store was one specific online brand and not very stylish.
I will pass and stick with my own fashion sense.
Hi Gregory - Thanks for trying our service and sharing your experience. Sounds like we didn't nail your style this time but happy to try again if you're up for it. We're working hard to make it easier to collaborate with your stylist so he or she can better personalize it to your preferences. Thank you for the candid feedback! - John Tucker, VP of Member Experience
I'm curious how these companies do with larger men (Brawny sized). I think I would need a steamer trunk.
From the picture of the contents, it looks as if you get 5 shirts, a jacket, a sweater, a pair of shoes, 2 pairs of jeans, and a few sets of socks/underwear. You can judge for yourself if this, combined with the service provided, is worth $1500. I would assume that this appeals more to the "money is no object" crowd.
@claireunderwear - they do! Nordstrom and JCrew both offer personal shoppers and stylists.
A stylist is not supposed to send you stuff that is just like what you already have -- a stylist is supposed to send you new stuff that is in keeping with an image you want, but can't seem to pull together on your own.
I COMPLETELY see the box of goodies you got as "Southern California fella who loves sun-filled weekend road trips, rolled-up pants tide pooling, and rugged yet refined hiking wear." -- AKA Ralph Lauren or Polo. Unless you were expecting out-door wear from Patagonia??
Check out CakeStyle, Claire. :)
This would be the type of service I would need. My whole office dress is just, eh and somewhat ill fitting. At least I finally found the perfect fit jeans for me!
Don't get me wrong, I do think hat $1500 is likely way too much for what came in the box but on the same token, if that is the full inventory than that is effectively almost a full wardrobe. All you would need a second pair of shoes, two more shirts, and maybe another sweater or jacket to consider it a full basic wardrobe. Or a complete one you try to ensure that you aren't following the 80/20 principle. :)
I would love to use a service like this. That is, if everything wasn't so ridiculously expensive.
$40 for a tee? Really?
My cousin uses this service. He said that, yes, the first trunk was a bit of a miss. He expected there to be a bit of a learning curve, so he sent almost everything back with feedback. Trunk number 2 was a vast improvement. He's been using this service for 6-8 months now. It was a good answer for him. He's 6'6" and thin. He needs to dress for the office, but also wants some casual clothes that will fit whatever he feels like doing in his down time. They've been marvelous and he loves that he now has a full wardrobe that looks good on his physique.