Vince Unfold is a clothing rental and subscription service that provides members with various clothing to fit their lifestyles.
Vince unfolds promises members “a boundless wardrobe season to season” sending four items, all of which you get to wear, then ship back each month.
I was hoping that this would be a great way to expand my wardrobe, so I thought I’d give it a try.
My Honest Vince Unfold Review: Did I Like It?
Yes! I would definitely use Vince Unfold again and really love this clothing rental service and can imagine expanding my wardrobe!
I have never tried a clothing subscription service before. This was my first time, and I was also stepping out of my comfort zone to try clothing I would typically ignore at the mall. So I took a few risks, wondering what could it hurt.
Overall, I loved the pieces that I received. I got two cardigans, one long-sleeved top, and a pair of trousers in my first order. I was delighted with how everything was packaged, the delivery speed, and the clothes’ quality.
The quality was unmatched, and I felt very rich and wealthy wearing cashmere sweaters so effortlessly. However, there were a few hiccups and things that I wish were better to justify the steep price of $185/month.
I will get into those later when I discuss the pros and cons, but for now, I’ll explain some of the basics you need to know if you’re looking to try Vince Unfold or any clothing subscription service.
Discover the latest in versatile and trendy fashion at Vince Unfold. Explore our curated collection of high-quality clothing and accessories to elevate your style effortlessly.
My Personal Approach to Fashion: Why I Chose to Test Vince Unfold
I grew up hitting the mall. Today, you can hardly find anything unique in the stores, so I was super curious to try something new with Vince Unfold.
My personal brand and style choices are very important to me. I avoid fast fashion low-quality selections that have taken over department stores and online shopping these days. I’ve been looking for some staple items for my wardrobe lately. With my remote lifestyle, I still want to dress daily in pieces that make me feel confident and speak to my personality. I started doing a ton of research, and by research, I mean watching YouTubers and searching on TikTok for ways to revamp my closet without killing my wallet.
Once I started going down this rabbit hole, I learned many ways to get new wardrobe items at a reasonable price. I also began finding the brands that I wouldn’t really see at the mall and who are about quality and not quantity. One of those brands is Vince. Vince is sold at our luxury mall in Atlanta, but I was shocked to learn that they had a lower-tier line for a middle-class consumer called Vince Unfold.
Ordinarily, the style of clothing that Vince sells wouldn’t be up my alley. I love oversized shirts, comfortable jeans, graphic tees, and fly sneakers, and recently, I am obsessed with hats.
Yet, I know that there are considerable gaps in my wardrobe. Items such as a crisp button-down oxford white shirt or a simple black sweater or blazer I don’t own.
I’ve been tired of my typical style lately and have wanted to style my fave pieces of clothing with more sophisticated and preppy clothes. This is why I decided to give the Vince Unfold subscription service a try.
Key Features of Vince Unfold
If you had told me at 21 that it’d be “in” to wear clothes that others have worn and pay more than $5.00 for it, I would have laughed in your face. I loved thrifting in my past, but there was no way I would’ve considered something like this, yet c’est la vie.
Here are some of the key features of Vince Unfold:
Build a Custom Wardrobe
Vince Unfold is a monthly clothing subscription service that allows you to build a custom wardrobe and select up to 19 items to add to your edit.
Each month, you’ll receive four things from your edit, and you can wear them as many times as you want, return them whenever you want for $185/month, and you have the option to purchase the items at a discounted price.
High-Quality Clothing
One of the things that made me pull the trigger on this service was the high-quality factor that all the clothes offer.
I knew this would be the case because of the leading brand, Vince, but I wanted to know if Vince Unfold lived up to the same standard. There were tons of pieces to choose from. It took me about a week just to go through all they had and nail down the things I wanted to try. For women, you can choose from skirts, sweaters, pants/trousers, outerwear, etc. For men, there’s also a great selection and many options.
Great Selection of Choices
After scouring through their site, I had a few winter wool coats, cashmere cardigans, cashmere sweaters, trousers, satin skirts, and shirts in my edit. I was excited and pleasantly surprised at the style of the clothes as well.
Vince Unfold is based in California, and this shouldn’t be very surprising if you’re familiar with the brand. The look and vibe suggest simplicity and neatness. The clothes are simple, but some pieces have a little flair.
In my mind, I envisioned myself throwing on these cute tops and pairing them with ripped jeans or camo pants. I saw myself looking elevated but as if I didn’t try too hard, and that’s exactly what it gave me. I will be sure to include some pics to show you guys how I styled everything.
But before we proceed, let’s discuss how to recieve your first package.
You Can Wear the Clothes Many Times Before Sending Them Back
Another feature of this subscription service is that you don’t have to worry about sending the clothes back clean, and you can wear them as many times as your heart desires!
Once you’ve worn them once or even 100 times, you can drop them in the mail with the included return slip and send them back. Vince Unfold doesn’t rush its members to ship things back and doesn’t expect you to handle the dry cleaning.
I can appreciate this because I am awful with post office runs. This errand is always low on the totem pole for me, so knowing that I don’t have a deadline to return the clothing helps me relax and gives me more time to decide if I want to keep the piece.
Even if I wasn’t ready to commit to a sweater, I knew that I had a paid return label to send it back at my convenience. This is a key feature, in my opinion. The shipping should be the least expensive and cumbersome part for the price point. People are always excited to receive packages but never thrilled to return them.
Returns are Simple
Vince Unfold has made the return process relatively simple.
Once logged into your account, you can see your virtual closet and see what’s on your wish list, what’s on hold, and what you have at home.
When you’re ready to return your package, all you have to do is hit the return button under each garment. This notifies the company that they should expect these back soon and allows you to prep for your next shipment.
I thought this process was so smooth, and it was exciting knowing that I was about to get more cute clothes in the mail, especially because two of my items didn’t fit as perfectly as I would have liked.
Exclusive Sizing
The Vince Unfold sizing chart is available on their website. Currently, they cater to sizes XXS-XXXL. So they’re very inclusive and have something for everyone, even men. I would advise anyone looking to order from a new brand to review their size chart thoroughly. It helps even more if you know your measurements.
Sometimes, brands can offer the same standard sizing but run big or small. The trousers I ordered were too big for me and were my usual size 6. So, it’s possible some of their pants run a bit large, or I lost a few pounds and didn’t realize. Either way, I wish I had paid more attention to the size chart.
Discover the latest in versatile and trendy fashion at Vince Unfold. Explore our curated collection of high-quality clothing and accessories to elevate your style effortlessly.
Vince Unfold: The Ordering Process
Once you’ve built your closet, you get to select the items you want to be a “Priority.” This means if you really want it in your shipment, you can make this known, and Vince Unfold will do its best to get it to you.
I absolutely loved this feature because trying to eliminate 15 things you’ve hand-picked and having to settle on four is hard for an indecisive girl like me. To make this process smoother for myself, I tried to curate complementary looks or select pieces that could be interchangeable with one another or with items I have at home.
Some of the things I prioritized, like the “BRUSHED WOOL DOUBLE BREAST COAT IN GOLD TOFFEE,” weren’t available to send in my first order, so you’ll have to be patient if there’s a popular item in your priority list.
However, I still felt like I was able to get some excellent items to test things out with, and I ended up with the following:
- Intarsia Wave Cardigan in Plum Night Combo
- Striped Pleat Front Wide-Leg Cropped Pants in Hickory/Dark Zinnia
- Long Sleeve Henley in Black
- Cashmere Ribbed Raglan Cardigan in Camellia
Make Sure You Use the DART Feature
I was prompted to use the DART feature to select my items and expedite my order. This was a bit confusing because I was expecting there to be a notification or screen that displayed the free shipping option. Whether I was selecting my items for standard shipping time or expedited was unclear.
Instead, I was met with the screen letting me know about DART. Essentially, DART is the add-on shipping option that allows you to get four immediately available items shipped to you within the next business day versus waiting on the standard 2-3 day shipping window.
DART costs an extra $10 and will be available as an option depending on what’s in your edit and the availability of the clothes.
Now that I’ve touched all the main things you need to know if you’ve been eyeballing Vince Unfold let’s dive into the pros and cons.
The Pros of Vince Unfold
Overall, I liked this clothing subscription service, but here were the real highlights of my experience.
Shipping was fast, and returning was simple; all items came in pristine condition.
Considering that I mistakenly used the DART feature and didn’t realize I was placing an expedited order, I waited about a week before checking my mailbox for the package. I do wish it had been delivered to my doorstep, but I also understand why they don’t do this. Once I realized I hadn’t gotten my order, I dug through my email and saw that it had been shipped two days after placing it.
When I finally opened everything up, I was shocked to find each item beautifully wrapped in unwrinkled tissue paper and sealed with a sticker of their logo.
I loved this because it’s really the little details like that when you make expensive purchases that make you feel special. I was so excited because it made me feel like the clothes hadn’t been worn by anyone else, even though I knew they had been.
Every item was clean, had no odor, and appeared as if it were brand new. I would not have been able to determine how many times the article had been worn or where it last was. Out of everything I could say about this service, this is one of its biggest and best things.
Endless options for the person trying to build the foundation of their wardrobe.
I mentioned above that reviewing everything on the site took me about a week, and I have to emphasize why. For the women’s category, there are 8 total subcategories. I shopped from 7 of them, and each subcategory had an average of 10-15 pages. The top section had 33 pages of pieces to choose from, with 24 pieces on each page.
That’s over 700 items to choose from – a great selection of choices!
If you’re anything like me, you want to see every shirt or top to ensure you get the gem or the needle in the haystack. It’s unnecessary and slightly excessive, but it’s my therapy sometimes.
So, it took me a long time to build my list. However, this can be a bonus for someone looking to fill the holes in their wardrobe. If you’re overwhelmed easily, you can filter the choices by size and color.
The Cons of Vince Unfold
While I did enjoy a lot of features of this clothing subscription service, there were a few low notes.
The price point is a bit high for a monthly commitment.
If there was a way for Vince Unfold to give you more garments in one order, it would be amazing.
I know they have to consider overhead, shipping, and cleaning costs, but I love odd numbers, and adding one to two more pieces to the order would’ve given me more excitement for what I had to spend.
$185/month is a hefty bill, and the 30-day subscription renewal comes around fast. I didn’t wear my items until close to the end of my first billing cycle, so I was charged again, yet I was unable to place a new order.
Obviously, they don’t want customers stockpiling their clothes, and I completely understand this. In some ways, they operate on the honor system. If you return your clothes in good condition, they’ll send you more.
However, receiving 1-2 more of my priority items would have been nice if I hadn’t sent anything back yet as a courtesy for paying another month. I still haven’t put my clothes in the mail, so I elected to pause my account and only be charged $10 for my next billing cycle. Which leads me to my next con.
It’s a weird loophole to keep you subscribed, and they do NOT offer refunds.
The idea that a subscription service allows you to pause your account isn’t new or foreign. It’s actually a great way to keep customers engaged with the brand.
However, having to be charged for pausing felt a little weird to me. I was willing to pay it because I did not want to pay another $185 for the third time and still could not receive new clothes from my second billing cycle.
Naturally, anyone would take this option, especially if they had yet to receive their next order. While this pause method was a temporary fix, I decided it would not be for me in the long term.
The cost alone is high and significantly increases my monthly expenses. But once I began digging around on the site to find out my options regarding a credit, cancellation, or refund, I was disappointed that they do not offer refunds.
Let’s say, for example, you are like me. You had yet to return your items before the next billing date. You’ve completely bought into the ‘keep as long as you want’ mentality, and perhaps you only wanted to try this for a month, intended to cancel, and simply forgot about the renewal. If all of this is the case, you will not receive a refund or a credit for the subscription fee you were charged.
This is the downside to subscription services. The companies profit from your forgetfulness, hoping you can be billed in perpetuity, which is excellent for them but bad for the consumer. I was agitated that the option to cancel was so easy, yet I wouldn’t be able to access anything I had already picked out for my next shipment.
Everything would be closed down, and they would have gotten another $185 from me and received their clothes back.
Personally, I am not great at remembering to cancel or renew subscriptions. I’m horrible at it, actually, and I believe the average person would be. I was giving myself the benefit of the doubt, believing that I would remember because it was so expensive. Boy, was I wrong. I was so wrong. So, if that sounds like you, be extremely mindful of this.
For all intents and purposes, it is not the company’s fault that I took my time to return the clothes, but I do fault them for not being able to issue refunds if you made a lapse in judgment. Things happen, and if you remember, within a day or two of being billed, you should be able to cancel and get a full refund.
Alternatives to Try
Rent the Runway
I’m sure you’ve heard of Rent the Runway. They’re one of the first in the clothing subscription niche and have been around for quite some time. Initially, Rent the Runway was a solution for women who needed gowns or formal wear for events, but it has evolved to encompass casual wear, formal attire, and accessories. If you’re hunting for formal attire, RTR will send you two sizes to ensure you get the right fit because you can’t alter the clothes.
Their subscription service is very similar in structure to Vince’s, as are almost all of the alternatives I suggest. One key difference between RTR and the two below is that you are not limited to only one designer.
Rent the Runway offers a selection of over 750+ designers, and they also offer accessories.
Vince Unfold only offers men’s and women’s clothing but doesn’t sell hats, sunglasses, or jewelry.
Rent the Runway is much more affordable to try as well. You can choose from three subscription options starting at $89/month and going up to $169/month.
Rent the Runway offers more perks in their memberships, such as discounts on event rentals, 5+ items at home versus Vince’s four max, and personal styling. It’s much more affordable, and you have way more to choose from.
Even at the most expensive tier, you will get 4 shipments a month and still spend less than the monthly subscription cost of Vince Unfold. I would highly recommend trying this company as an alternative.
Elevate your style with Rent the Runway, your go-to destination for renting designer clothing and accessories. Unlock a world of fashion possibilities while saving money and reducing your environmental footprint. Join the fashion-forward movement today!
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix is similar to Rent the Runway and very different from Vince Unfold. Stitch Fix is about personalization and engaging with one of their stylists one-on-one. When you sign up, you take a quiz to determine your style and needs, and you’re paired with a stylist to curate a collection of clothing items for your order.
I like this concept because sometimes getting additional help or tips and tricks to elevate your style is lovely. Stitch Fix is great if you’re in between sizes, celebrating weight loss, or just looking to dip your toe into personal styling. Another bonus is that they offer the service for kids. In my opinion, this is perfect for the teenager who’s unsure of who they want to be just yet or the kid growing like a weed and can’t fit their clothes from the week before.
My fellow subscription box tester Crystal tried Stitch Fix and was happy with everything she got; you can read her full review here!
It's pretty simple. StitchFix has an AMAZING styling system that quite literally leads the market. Couple that with an amazing selection of brands and StitchFix truly makes it easy to look good without really trying! Keep Everything in Your Fix & Get 25% Off!
Nuuly
Of all three alternatives, Nuuly will be the next one I try now that I’ve experienced the modernness of clothing subscriptions. Nuuly offers younger and more modern pieces of clothing that speak truer to my style.
I love vintage pieces, graphic tees, leather, and neutral colors. I like to dress eclectic some days and very sophisticated the next. After browsing their broad collection, I got excited seeing pieces I hadn’t seen before. They were unique, different, and had a little flair, right up my alley.
Also, the rentals begin at $98, which is more my speed and comfort zone for monthly clothing spend. They offer 100s of premium brands and designers, and the clothes just look cool. If you’re a millennial or Gen Zer, this may be the best option because it’s a slightly younger vibe than the others I mentioned, including Vince Unfold. Some brands they feature are Free People, Urban Outfitters, Paige, and Citizens of Humanity. Each month, you’ll receive six items for $98.
There aren’t any late fees; shipping and returns are free, and you can pause or cancel anytime. With all of these subscriptions, it’s important to remember and learn from me that you can keep items as long as you’d like, but you can only get new shipments once you have returned your items.
Further reading: Nuuly Review: Let’s Talk About One of My New Favorite Companies!
Rent, resell & thrift clothes online in ways that are gentler on the planet & your wallet.
FAQs
Question: Can I look through the clothing on Vince Unfold’s site before I commit to a subscription?
Answer: Yes, you definitely can. I appreciated the fact that the clothes were not hidden behind a paywall. You would need to register as a guest, and then you can begin browsing. Be aware that they send many emails once you’ve registered as a guest. They will immediately and continually flood your inbox.
Question: What will happen if I accidentally damage the clothes in my possession?
Answer: According to their website, you will not be liable for everyday wear and tear. It’s unclear how this is defined, but I’m sure you’ll be fine as long as the items aren’t ripped, burned, or almost destroyed.
Question: Does Vince Unfold offer styling services or conduct a quiz to identify my style?
Answer: No, they do not. They are missing the mark with this. Competitors offer personalized styling and are a fraction of the cost that Vince Unfold charges. You can browse freely and source your clothing, but it’d be nice to have assistance considering all they offer.
Conclusion: My Final Thoughts on Vince Unfold
For those who want to deviate from fast fashion, a clothing subscription service is a great way to venture out and try new brands with less hassle.
Overall, though, I am happy with my Vince Unfold trial. I got to try some really stunning, high-quality pieces and loved that you could wear them as many times as you want before returning.
They have a plethora of clothing to choose from, with plenty of sizes as well. If you want to expand your wardrobe with some quality, staple pieces each month that keep changing, I say give Vince Unfold a try.
If you want to build your wardrobe and keep the pieces, Vince Unfold might not be for you. This service is for those who want to mix it up every month and are looking for new looks each month. The investment can be worth it if you remember to return the pieces and keep selecting new pieces for each month. If I were better at getting to the post office and needed to refresh my wardrobe each month, I would happily keep my Vince Unfold subscription active.
Of course, you can pause a month (for a small fee) as well if you want to skip a month as well, which I found helpful. For my next subscription box test, I have my eyes on NUULY and am excited to see what they offer compared to Vince Unfold.
Discover the latest in versatile and trendy fashion at Vince Unfold. Explore our curated collection of high-quality clothing and accessories to elevate your style effortlessly.
Related readings:
The 5 Best Clothing Rental Services: Guide to Enhancing Your Everyday Wardrobe
FashionPass vs Rent the Runway: Should You Try Either One?
Armoire Clothing Rental Review: Why It’s My New Favorite
Since embarking on her beauty career in 2010, Gray has made significant strides in the industry. Known for her unique ability to master clean beauty looks on ethnic skin across various mediums, she quickly became a sought-after name in Atlanta and beyond. This expertise has opened doors to collaborations with some of today’s most influential Black women and notable brands, including Amandla Stenberg, Teyana Taylor, Letoya Luckett, Storm Reid, Draya Michele, Angela Rye, and Lori Harvey, to name a few.
Now, Gray brings her expertise, classic beauty philosophy, and keen eye for trends to Subscriboxer. As our newest tester, she's diving into the world of beauty and clothing subscription boxes. With a belief that true beauty starts from the inside out, Gray is on a mission to discover the best subscription boxes that not only meet the aesthetic needs of today's fashion-forward individuals but also resonate with their inner essence.
Stay tuned to Subscriboxer as Gray tests, tries, and tells us all about the beauty and clothing boxes worth trying. Follow her journey and get inspired to find your own true beauty, inside and out. You can learn more about Ashley and her work at her website, follow her on Instagram, or explore Glamour n Glow.
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