Netflix for Clothes! Review of Le tote and Couture Squared

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Recently I stumbled upon two ingenious websites and I had to try them out.



They are clothing rental sites that lend out an "unlimited" number of clothes to girls for a monthly fee. It's like Netflix, but with clothes and no live streaming (due to the disappointing #fail of science to create teleportation yet). 

Anyway, awesome idea right?


The sites are done really well to let you customize your selection. Just like Netflix quizzes you on which movies you like to give your suggestions, they give a quiz to see which clothes fit you and your style best.


How it works:
- You pay a monthly fee between $30-50.
- You set up a customized style profile.
- Based on that profile they send you 4-6 items of clothing and/or accessories. (Sadly those clothes/accessories are not necessarily paired to match or create a complete outfit. They want you to have to mix them with your own clothes)
- You wear the items (don't rip or stain or you will be charged $5 or the price of the item if it's not an easy repair)
- You wear them as long and often as you like
- Send back when ready 
- Receive a new package of new clothes
- Repeat as often as you want in a month! 

Tips:
- Wear and send back as quickly as possible to get the most value for your monthly membership
- If you like something a lot you can keep it and will be automatically charged a discount purchase price when you send back the other items. 
---------------

Cool! So how do they stack up? 

I only tried Le Tote and Couture Sqd, but there are others out there I am told. 

Let's see how the services scored: (SPOILER ALERT! Le Tote completely blows Couture out of the water)

-------------------
Website
 - Ease of Use: 4
 - Design: 5
 - Mobile Site:5
 - Usefulness:4
 - Social Aspect:4
 - Fun: 5

Clothes Selection
 - Style: 5
 - Quality: 4
 - Ability to Customize Closet/Your tastes:  5
 - Updated (how often they get new arrivals): 3.5

Pricing
- Individual items (if you choose to keep):3
- Monthly Service Fee: 3 - it's a little pricey 

Packaging:
 - Box presentation: 5
 - Ease of Returning: 5
 - Speed of arrival: 5
 - Speed of new box turnover: 5


Clothes Received
 - Accessories: 4
 - Quality: 4
 - Accuracy in assessing my style: 5
Couture Sqrd
----------------

Website
 - Ease of Use: 4
 - Design: 3
 - Mobile Site: 2
 - Usefulness: 2
 - Social Aspect: 1
 - Fun: 3

Clothes Selection
 - Style: 3
 - Quality: 3
 - Ability to Customize Closet/Your tastes: 2
 - Updated (how often they get new arrivals): unknown 

Pricing:
- Individual items (if you choose to keep): 4.5
- Monthly Service Fee: 4 (very reasonable)

Packaging
 - Box presentation: 1
 - Ease of Returning: 3
 - Speed of arrival: 1
 - Speed of new box turnover: N/A cancelled before I could test this 

Clothes Received
 - Accessories: N/A
 - Quality: 3
 - Accuracy in assessing my style: 3.5

The Good:
Couture Sqrd is $14 cheaper than Le Tote, making it more affordable. It also has cheaper prices on the items if you choose to buy them. 

The clothes I received were cute and affordable if you choose to keep them. $15 for this dress as a newbie special!


Their website has a more comprehensive quiz and is simple to use. It can also be used on your phone relatively simply. They have a good selection of clothes and are at least communicative with you about their service, you will see what I mean below.

The bad:
The first and most horrible thing is the loooong turnover to get set up. To their credit they do warn you, but it will take 1-2 months before you receive your first box. I was on my third box from Le tote before I received my Couture "box". They are seriously doing their company a HUGE disservice with this slow start and you will see why.

Second though the price is cheaper ($14 less) the difference is definitely felt. If they had been able to ship right away I might not have already receieved my Le tote box, but since I had the bar was set high.
Look how different the two experiences are:

Couture says you will receive your "box", but it is actually a bag. Le Tote has a nice branded box with tissue-wrapped clothes zip-locked accessories, a cute advertisement card (so cute I hung it in my room) and a pre-paid return label. 

Couture sent a first class usps bag with clothes and a cheap printed return label that I must affix to my own packaging, I guess?  

Though they may say they are offering a better price by cutting costs here, it really is not a smart move. It makes the entire experience feel cheapened. Le tote opening really was an experience. Couture opening felt like my friend just sent me the sweater I left at her house last night. 

Third the quality of the clothes was not as high as Le tote. The clothes mostly didn't have tags so there was no way to know who designed them. In contrast Le tote clothes often had tags with popular designer brands like "BCBG". The clothes I tried on looked cute, but felt cheap in their materials. I did not feel classy. I felt like I just got someone's hand-me-downs.

If that wasn't bad enough then FOURTH, the website is plain and boring in design compared to Le tote.

Let's compare:

To 


Le tote had cute graphics, ways to heart what kind of clothes you liked and made it easy to come back again and again and update. Couture had no images, at least on the mobile site, and no ways to see what kind of clothes they offer or star the ones you liked.

It's like Couture really didn't try. They seem to have had a half-baked idea to be the next Le Tote and just failed miserably. It's so bad I cancelled immediately. Even though by canceling rather than finishing the month I lose money, I just couldn't risk being involved with them another day. It was that disappointing. 

Moral of the story : 
Try Le Tote! It's super fun! There is nothing more exciting than new clothes in the mail every week and not having to wear your same old clothes. If you do it right (ie: wear and send back clothes every week, don't ruin them and don't buy them too often) you will probably save money! With a constant stream of new cute items your shopping fix will likely be satisfied so you won't waste money on yet another top you are bored of next month. Le tote will make you feel like a classy girl who shops at Nordstroms weekly, but really all your spending is an extra $50 a month.

Click here for a discount at Le tote :



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