We Bought From That IG-Famous Online Retailer — & Were Very Surprised

If you, like us, are avid online shoppers, you probably know what it's like to stumble upon a site that both entices and befuddles you. Such is the case with FashionNova, a brand popular with celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Amber Rose (both have done #sponcon for the retailer). It's, of course, one of the many sites that's tapped into the Kardashian/Jenner empire to sell its wares; most models on the site have polished beach waves, too-perfect makeup, and seemingly digitally enhanced curves — something we called Fashion Nova out for last spring. And though its logo looks like it hasn't been updated since 2006, it boasts a cool 8.7 million followers on Instagram. Clearly the retailer (and its #NovaBabes) are doing something right — and we tried to figure out just what that something is.

Similar to our curiosity with those sketchy, too-cheap-to-be-true Asian e-tailers, what we really wanted to know was this: What are Fashion Nova clothes actually like in real life? To start, we scanned its new arrivals section, which is littered with everything from the expected bodycon dresses, leggings, off-the-shoulder tops, and bodysuits, to more surprising flannels, knits, and outerwear, and picked out four stand-out items — one of which, drumroll, please, never showed up. To this day, a latex dress (similar to this one) is sitting on our order tracking page with the words "preparing for shipment," despite the fact that the three other pieces had already been long delivered.

Though we'll keep waiting for it to show up (no one's responded to our customer service inquiry, so odds of that happening are slow), we did have the chance to put the rest of our Fashion Nova buys into action. Next time you see a member of the World's Most Talked About Family wearing one of its pieces, remember what you'll read ahead: We did this experiment so you don't have to.