I Feel Rich: A Curateur Subscription Review

Rachel Zoe is my stylist.

No, really! I’m not wealthy or famous and I don’t live in L.A., but every three months I get a box of personally picked items from Curateur (formerly Box of Style), Rachel Zoe’s personal curation service for subscribers.

A celebrated Hollywood stylist, Rachel Zoe is also an author, fashion designer, mother, and entrepreneur. I have long been her fan. I discovered her while in fashion design school and immediately resonated with and respected her avant-garde attitude toward fashion. Her willingness to take risks gave me confidence to take risks in my own style as well.

In her book, Living in Style: Inspiration and Advice for Every Day Glamour, Zoe describes her early style as urban boho, then later, as her business grew, she wanted to incorporate more structured looks that told her business partners that she meant, well, business.

I am drawn more to this recent manifestation of Rachel Zoe’s style, to the bits of layered details that she incorporates into her look like lots of gold, bulky jewelry, structured bags, and oversized sunglasses, while remaining drawn to the ethereal pieces that define her signature style. The kimonos, bell bottoms, and wrap dresses that look like they might have come out of your mother’s closet twenty years ago—if your mother was Jane Birkin.

I love her ability to mix luxe items with every day finds and I completely understand and reciprocate her love of vintage. All of these things I like to incorporate into my own fashion. As a student of fashion design, I have an appreciation and admiration for good design and construction and, as a lover of history, an appreciation for the story behind the item and the way world events and every day people influence fashion. I also understand there is no set style. There is only your style and when you find, accept, release that signature style it is absolutely freeing. From Rachel, I learned I can change my mood or confidence level or even how I am perceived by the inhabitants of a room in an instant, simply by a pair of earrings or a hat or tying a scarf around my neck.

I follow Rachel Zoe on social media, along with some of my other favorite style icons, like Alexa Chung, Olivia Palermo, and Clemence Poesy. About a year ago, shortly after the entire world began to close up doors and I found myself shopping Anthropologie sales online at three a.m. and browsing social media, I stopped my scroll on an ad for The Box of Style as Rachel Zoe revealed in a video what she had curated in her most recent box. I was sold.

Nearly one year later, I can not express how pleased I am with Curateur. The price is very reasonable, especially if you pay the annual subscription. For $350 a year (at the time of this article), you get a box every three months with about five items. The items are advertised at a value of over $850. In addition, as a member you get access to discounted items in the Shoppe, all part of the Curateur Collective.

One of the things I love most about Curateur is that it promotes sustainable fashion and highlights new, small, but impactful changers in the fashion industry. You won’t find any leather handbags in your Curateur box, but you will find items ethically sourced, designed and created with exceptional craftsmanship. Each item comes with a story about its creator and the way small designers are shaping the future of fashion.

This season’s box did not disappoint. I always love a hat with personality. Teressa Foglia’s hat for Curateur is valued at $400.

The Vita Fede Cassio Earrings are handmade and can be detached and worn at different lengths for a variety of styles. Value: $388

The Jules Kae Zola Bag, created by New York designer Jules Kae, is durably made and PETA approved. Value $95

In each box is also a couple of beauty products. Illamasqua Beyond Powder highlighter is illuminating and can be worn all over or on highlighted areas and the makers of the night serum, Hugh and Grace, are interviewed in the Curateur magazine and describe how they discovered that the majority of beauty products on the market contained hormone-disrupting chemicals.

This box is one of the most exciting deliveries that get set on my doorstep. There are a lot of subscription services out there and I've tried several. This is the only one I am still subscribing to after a year. The quality speaks for itself, the style is on par with my personal style and ethics, and it really is affordable, but elegant. It makes me feel rich!

(P.S. the maroon tote in my profile picture is from the fall Curateur box.)