Golden Tote September $149 Tote Review

Whew.... back from LA and I brought a vicious cold with me! Gonna be a long week!! SOooo much coming on the blog, including Emmys recap! Can't wait to share my weekend with y'all! In the meantime, I've got a few reviews in the pipeline! :D

Golden Tote is a service that I've been wanting to try for a while. Each month they launch a small online collection and you can choose either a $49 tote (up to $150 value) or a $149 tote (up to a $600 value). You get to make some selections, 1 item for the $49 tote or 2 items for the $149 tote, and then Golden Tote fills your tote with other surprise items. The $49 tote contains a total of 2-3 items, the $149 tote contains 6-7 items. Items are returnable but you have to return everything, no picking and choosing.

I went with the $149 option and had a little bit of difficulty picking my two items. There weren't any pieces that I LOVED, so I finally just picked two that I thought had the most potential. It definitely irked me that Golden Tote continued to add NEW pieces as the week went on, after I had already made my selections. 

Is this typical??? I saw at least one thing that I would have chosen instead of what I picked. It seems like a bad idea to do that and discourage people to select right away for fear that something better might come along, you know?? Anyways, here are the two pieces that I chose:

French Terry Moto Jacket,  Original Retail $78

Vintage Pattern Denim Dress, Original Retail $68

It's funny because, although some things sold out pretty quickly, my selections were still available two weeks later. I've always been the one to pick the oddball stuff, so this is no surprise! LOL! 

I'm not a fan of the fact that they state the price as "original retail." This kind of makes me feel like I'm buying things that are out of season or on sale now or something? And that feeling was kind of solidified when I went to check out and I was given the option to add lots of the pieces that I didn't pick to my cart for dramatically lower prices than the "original retail," seriously like half of that or less.  

I've read some complaints about the shipping process with Golden Tote so I was expecting it to take forever and had no stress. They mentioned shipping concerns several times on Facebook, so it seems like that are trying to get better at that part. I placed my order on September 4 and it shipped on September 13. It arrived via UPS on September 19. This followed the schedule they are promising, totes ship the week after the week you place your order. No worries from me, that's all fine. 

Here's the first look:

And the items I received:

Under Skies French Terry Moto Jacket, $62 on Golden Tote - This jacket is super cute and is something I will wear a ton as an alternative to a lightweight hoodie. It's unlined, which doesn't make it as soft inside as I would have hoped, but I'm happy with the style and fit and feel like it's a unique piece.

Under Skies Vintage Pattern Denim Dress,  $46 on Golden Tote - This dress is super cute and stylish. The sizing runs a little small and tight across the bust and it's a little shorter than I would normally buy, but I loved it with bright cropped tights last weekend in LA! :)

Flying Tomato Sweater, $30 - Eh, this is not something I would have picked out for sure. The quality feels really, really cheapy and I figure it's going to be a misshapen unwearable mess after the first wash. I'll try to get a couple of wears out of it before it winds up at Goodwill! LOL! 

LovPosh Dress, $30 - This is also something a bit outside what I would normally pick out. It's rayon and shorter than I would wear with bare legs, but it was fun for something different with capri tights and studded sandals. It was cute in LA last weekend, too! :)

Puella dress, $68 - I was excited to see this brand in the tote! This USA brand is sold in boutiquey stores like Anthropologie and is known for being super soft and comfy (like Splendid, etc.). That's the good. The bad? They sent me a medium to provide a longer length. There was a handwritten note on the inside of the box explaining this, which was nice, but the thing is just a big and shapeless mess. Add, with the blah color, I'm not sure there's much I can do with this besides layer and cover it up, like the last picture! LOL! I wish they had just given me the correct size and let me deal with the length - or sent me a piece that didn't have so many issues in the first place. 

Saint Grace 3/4 sleeve tee,  $68 -  This is another brand I was happy to see! This USA brand is sold in stores like Barney's and Fred Segal. They make "luxuriously soft modern basics." The tee is super comfy but the color is a little drab for my taste. A nice basic, though. 

Stay Golden Tote, $10 - Stay golden, ponyboy! ;) I thought this tote was cute! 

It was difficult to come up with a valuation for these items because none of my additional items are listed as choices on Golden Tote. I had to base my prices on clues I could find while digging around online. All of that being said, I came up with a realistic value of $314 for this tote. Pretty short of $600, but not too terrible a deal for $149. 

I was a little disappointed in the overall drab color palette and the fact that, of my 6 items, 3 are short dresses. It would have been nice to have a bit more variety in both color and style. I'm going to give them some pretty extensive feedback and hopefully things will become more customized as time goes on. 

I won't buy a Golden Tote every month, but I will definitely try their service again! It was an interesting way to shop and I love that I got pieces that nobody else around here will have! Love having something unique!