Steven Alan - Quality Control

The downfall of purchasing clothes online is that you can never be too sure of fit until your clothing arrives, and doing mail returns is as dreadful as asking for the bathroom key at a gas station. So when I finally visited the Steven Alan boutiques in New York and LA last year to see the clothes in-person and try them on for size and fit, I was pleased to see that their Made-in-America craftsmanship pays off. Steven Alan makes simple, quality Americana clothing with covetable details. SA is appropriate for 'office casual' but also rough-and-tumble enough for a day in the studio, a picnic in the park, a dance-off. And so a few months ago when several occasions arose including two outdoor summer weddings, I surfed the SA site and called the LA store for more product information and ended up buying an off-white, high-waist, cut-out, lined skirt with a matching crop top. I also ordered several Daisy Tops to wear underneath cardigans. But the clincher (and reason for writing this post!), is that my online and over-the-phone shopping experience with Steven Alan was made even better when the package arrived. All my items were neatly wrapped in a parcel containing a handwritten note from Andrew, the manager at the Los Feliz store. That little gesture guarantees that I will shop SA again for myself, and my styling clients. Quality and care should be present from the first point of exposure of a brand to the very last stage of possible contact. A good label does not take an adoring client for granted.