golden tote!

one of my favorite treats as a kid were the $1 grab bags at the hello kitty store. you'd pay a dollar and get to choose a sealed paper bag with little treats inside, promised to be at over $1 in value. it was usually just a pencil with an eraser or a little notepad (and probably nothing i'd necessarily pick for myself) but it was really exciting to anticipate what you might get. 

it turns out they make something similar for clothing - what fun! normally, i'm not too too much into clothes. i'd say that about 1/3 of my clothing is from the thrift store, my wedding dress was secondhand. the world does not need gap to produce another long sleeved shirt for me to buy. in a nutshell, golden tote more or less capitalizes on the joys of the hello kitty grab bag premise. there are two sizes of "totes," $49 for 2-3 pieces of clothing, $149 for 6-7. if you buy the smaller tote, you pick one piece of clothing from about 5 choices, and then the golden tote folks "curate" and pick out the other surprise pieces for you. for the larger tote, you pick out two items from a larger number of choices. you also fill out a style profile which has you pick what stores you normally shop at, what colors you don't like, and what pieces of clothing you would never wear. i think i put that i don't wear hot pink, which now that i think about it, i actually do so color me a liar!  

i decided to try out the smaller tote and was really pleased with what i got - the surprise choice isn't something i would have normally been drawn to had i seen it hanging on the rack, but i like it! 

i picked out this dress: 

http://www.goldentote.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/o/boho-dress-1.jpg

 and got this as a surprise:

http://cdn.makeuptalk.com/6/64/900x900px-LL-64440a77_2013-10-1721.56.48.jpeg

it also comes in a cool tote bag:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEao4pE75Iw6Hl8XEDCbVPWk2LIG0KlY3zb-netVS71t1mKwZUgwzOyE8gHc_2XGK3r31_O2BzW_ud8ROR-WnQhyphenhyphen1Yli7s1QJifj9_-k10ULgS5DxL_5EAoKvL3qPto6L7LFyeIU3KVR0/s1600/IMG_2108.JPG

i'm a little hooked - there's a certain rush to the head when you're opening something that you know will be yours, but you don't know what it is! (...i guess like opening a present! ...that you paid for...!) the return policy is either you return everything, or you keep everything. 

the good news is that they introduce a new tote at the beginning of the month, so there's a new tote to look forward to come november 1st! the bad news is that it's significantly more expensive than a hello kitty grab bag and it looks like it'll be more of a once in awhile indulgence for me.