Category: LulaRoe

10×10 Challenge – Edition 1

10 pieces, 10 days. I was originally just going to do work days, because I work at an office during the week and I’d be totally lying if I said I wore anything other than pajamas all weekend, but then I figured what the heck – go big or go home, right? And I’m fortunate in the fact that my office is on the casual end of business casual, so I can wear jeans on a fairly routine basis, thus the 10 straight days prevailed.
I got the 10×10 idea from Carolyn of the blog Un-Fancy. She hosted a 10×10 challenge a couple months ago, but I was too lazy to get on board at the time. It did get me to thinking, though – I’ve done capsule wardrobes in the past, so why not limit my options a little bit more and see what happens? With so much of my wardrobe the same color scheme, this seems like a pretty fun challenge. I’m deviating a little bit because I’m only counting clothing in my 10 pieces – shoes are counted separately. Is that cheating? You’ll see pretty quick that I have limited shoes, though, so I’m going with a no.
This is my first time playing around with Polyvore, and I’ll be honest I’m not so sure how this is going to work. The original pictures I took of my 10 pieces aren’t great, so I’ve found similar ones in the graphic below. You’ll see the actual pieces (slight deviations only – my pink blouse is from Lularoe and has a teal pattern, and the gray tunic is slightly different) when I post the outfits later.
So without further ado – let’s introduce the clothes!
1. Black leggings (LulaRoe) – because who doesn’t need a pair of basic black leggings?
2. Navy blue corduroy skinny pants (DIANA)
3. Teal crop pants (LOFT)
4. Black cotton skirt (LOFT)
5. Black/Gray dropwaist dress (LOFT) – this is the one piece that’s the same as the pic
6. Black 3/4 sleeve boatneck top (Target)
7. Teal Carly dress (LulaRoe)
8. Pink perfect tee (LulaRoe)
9. Gray Irma tunic (LulaRoe)
10. Gray cardigan sweater (Target)
10x10

 

For those of you who got this far – here’s a picture of my actual 10×10 pieces:
10x10

LulaRoe

Soo…sometime in the middle of January one of my girlfriends casually mentioned that she was having a LulaRoe party and invited me to come. My first response was, of course, “Lula-what?” I don’t even remember what she told me it was, something about a clothing line and leggings, but I decided I’d go because 1) she’s my friend; and 2) I love clothes.

I probably should not have gone.

To make a long story short, I ended up buying a miniature new wardrobe and in fact purchased so much that I earned myself a pair of free leggings for being the person who…well…spent the most money at the party. Which is funny considering I didn’t intend to spend ANY money, I was just going for moral support. Plus, I don’t (didn’t) even like leggings!

Anyway. In a nutshell, LulaRoe is an independent clothing brand that specializes in super comfortable clothing – most notably their leggings. The kicker about their clothing is that they only manufacture a certain number of any specific pattern – so their selling point is that if you see something you love, you had better buy it NOW because you might not see it again.

It totally works.

So, being fairly new to the Lula world, I decided I’d share some of my honest thoughts – in no particular order.

  1. It drives me absolutely BONKERS when I hear their leggings described as “buttery soft”. Yes, their leggings are super soft. But for whatever reason (call me crazy), likening them to something I use to grease casserole dishes and cook scrambled eggs just doesn’t hold much appeal to me. Unfortunately it’s like a LLR coined phrase and so I see it ALL THE TIME.
  2. Some of their patterns are, if I may say, UGLY. Obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder and everyone has their own opinion…but man, some of the items I see make my eyes go crossed. That said, there are tons of patterns that I ADORE and have on occasion spent more time than I will admit here searching facebook groups for a particular pattern. (I’m looking at you, shark-and-whale-print leggings!!!)
  3. Which leads me to this: it’s frustrating that you can’t buy clothes directly from the LLR website – you have to make purchases through independent consultants via their facebook pages. I am now a member of approximately 5,000 lularoe facebook groups and now the only things I see in my facebook feed are announcements on giveaways, shop openings or live parties, or happy memes from consultants.
  4. Not only that, but independent consultants have no control over their inventory, so there’s no guarantee who has what pattern and so you have to make purchases from different people – each with their own varying sales tax percentages and shipping costs, and everyone has their own little rewards or benefits. My case study on this uber-frustrating aspect:

Exhibit A: I purchased clothes in person from one group and they have a “buy 10 items, get 1 pair of free leggings” rewards card. I’m only 2 items away from a free pair of leggings, but I’m not really all that keen on the items this particular group has available and so I may never get that free pair of leggings.

Exhibit B; I joined a birthday club from another group in which I receive 10% off all purchases during my birthday month.

Exhibit C: I bought a pair of leggings from one group and received $5 “lulacash”…which is only good if I purchase something else from that particular person’s shop.

Exhibit D: I bought a shirt from another group and received $10 “lulacash”…which again is only good if I purchase something else from that person’s shop.

So, which technically I am two items away from a free pair of leggings, could get 10% off my entire purchase, AND have $15 “lulacash” to spend…by the time to break out individual purchases from each retailer and then pay taxes and shipping fees…it’s totally not worth it and I’m really not reaping any benefit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the CLOTHING isn’t worth it, but to try to take advantage of all the separate “rewards” is not worth it and doesn’t save me any money whatsoever.

5. All of the above aside, their clothing is darned comfortable. I never considered myself a leggings person before, but I think that was because I couldn’t find a pair that I really liked. These leggings are so soft that I could live in them. Along with the rest of the LLR clothing I now own.

6. In addition to being super comfortable, certain styles of their clothing fit my own personal fashion “style” to a T. I’ve tried trends in the past, but they don’t last. I am classic to a fault, which is why the styles I gravitated towards when I went to that first LLR party were the Randy (a baseball style tee), the Perfect (a longer tee fitted in the top but flows out slightly at the hips), the Classic (a simple tee that works with anything), and the Sarah (a knee length cardigan sweater). I love that all the tops fall a little longer in the bank so to adequately cover my bum. And as long as I’m wearing solid colors or somewhat tamer printers, I can dress them up enough for work and still be 100% comfortable at home. Lastly, if I had to choose one “outfit” to wear for the rest of my life it would be jeans (or leggings now!), a simple tee, and a cardigan. Forever and ever, amen.

Translate that into LulaRoe and I would live in a pair of leggings, a classic tee, and a sarah. Every day for the rest of my life.

I could probably go on and on, but I’ll step off my soapbox for now.

lularoe