This Montreal startup is bringing personal shopping to your front door
photo: 39th Avenue
Shopping can be a pain, especially if your job requires you to follow a certain dress code. While some people relish in the thrill of sorting through racks of clothing, many – myself included – would rather spend their time on other things. For these people, there’s 39th Avenue.
Founded by childhood friends Catherine Henry and Elizabeth Killen, the Montreal startup aims to take the legwork out of getting dressed by providing a curated collection of quality, Canadian-made clothes hand selected to suit you.
“Our mission is to take the pain out of shopping and help customers make better wardrobe purchase decisions, founded on quality investment and timeless pieces,” says Henry.
Henry acts as the creative director for the company, having picked up her garment construction and tailoring skills working at Norma Walters in New York City, TeenFlo Paris and Judith & Charles in Montreal. Killen handles the tech side of things and has a deep understanding of the travelling business woman who doesn’t have time to shop.
So, here’s how it works:
Create a profile
Creating a profile on the website helps inform the stylist of your sizes, what you like and how much you typically spend on clothes. It asks things like your age, whether you prefer long sleeves to short, what kinds of prints or patterns you like as well as some of your favourite brands of clothing.
Using this information, a stylist then creates a custom box of clothing that will be sent to your home for you to try on.
Get the box
Once the box arrives you typically have three days to try everything on and make some decisions. My box arrived on a Thursday, which gave me the weekend to test out what Cathy, my stylist, had picked out.
Inside the box was a basic black blazer, two jackets, four dresses, three pairs of pants, two button up blouses, a top and a black pencil skirt. I had mentioned that I preferred neutral tones so aside from a the red top, most of my items were black or tweed.
Trying on a few of my items (photo: Simone Olivero)
I’ll be honest, I didn’t love everything in the box. My typical work wear is probably a bit casual for 39th Avenue’s target market so I found a lot of things dressier than what I would wear to work.
“Our collection is aimed at the contemporary woman, who is looking for classic yet modern pieces from a great power suit to that perfect sophisticated dress that can take you from the office to an evening out,” explains the website.
That said, there was a good mix of silhouettes, colours and styles for me to try out. There were even a few things I would have never picked up myself that I ended up liking once I put them on.
Keep what you want and send back the rest
Don’t like anything in the box? No problem. Send it all back and you’re no worse off than you would have been if you tried on a bunch of things in a store – except you didn’t have to leave your house. If you like something (or everything), you simply keep the stuff and your credit card gets charged the amount for those items. A price list comes with the box so there are no surprises.
Currently, all of the clothes offered by 39th Avenue are designed in-house and made in Canada.
“We design and build our own collection here in Canada, sourcing quality fabrics from the best mills around the globe.”
Pricing is based on clothing of comparable quality from other top clothing stores with dresses ranging from $275 to $365, jackets/blazers from $375 to $450, pants from $195 to $260 and tops from $75 to $225.
Would you consider trying out a personal shopping service like 39th Avenue? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.
