Saw It On Social: Frank & Eileen

Yes, the long awaited review of Internet darling Frank & Eileen is here. Does the must-have, phenomenal, life-changing shirt live up to the influencer-fueled hype? Let’s find out.

If you are over the age of 30, your social media feeds have no doubt been bombarded by the Frank & Eileen popover.  It’s showing up in ads.  It’s showing up on your influencer must-have lists.  It’s showing up on the woman you went to college with who always looks a little too put together for a mother of three kids.  

Frank & Eileen is a woman-owned brand that prides itself on creating sustainable styles.  It touts its 15-year track record of making soft knits and button ups designed to make women feel and look great.  And when you order from them, you get a cute, little, heart-shaped tea bag of surprisingly delicious Irish Breakfast Tea.  It’s the little things.  But alas, not even the tea could make me love this top.

Before I ordered the signature Popover Henley from Frank & Eileen, I consulted their online size guide.  Just the week prior, I had taken my measurements to order a new suit, so I knew exactly what I was looking for.  And according to their website, I needed a size large.  

But this didn’t feel like the right answer.  Not because I’m in denial about the depth and breadth of my early-40s body but because looking at the photos of influencers I know who are close to my size, they were all wearing mediums.  But the website was sure that the piece ran true to size, so I was about to play online retailer roulette.  Given that the description also said the piece was “slightly cropped” and a “relaxed” fit, I decided to trust my gut and order the medium.

Shirt ordered and in the trust hands of UPS, I went on about my life for a week while I waited for it to arrive.  But when I opened the box, I took one look at the shirt, and knew it was going to be too big.  And also, frustratingly, too short.  

As a long torso’ed gal, the “slightly cropped” shirt that hangs to pocket length on the model hit me at the waistband of my jeans.  Every time I raised my arms, I was showing my midriff to anyone present.  And the fact that the shirt was also too big just made it look schlumpy.

When I tell you that I was seriously disappointed, I mean it.  A natural skeptic, I usually don’t buy into the social media hype, but I wanted to love this shirt.  I wanted to write this post about how it changed my life.  How I now owned four.  How you should buy one for yourself, one for your best friend, and one for your Mom.  She birthed you, she deserves it.  But nope, that post exists only in my imagined memories.

On the plus-side, I will tell you that the material was nice.  Not as soft as expected, but 100% cotton and on the heavier side.  I ordered a dark color, but I imagine the white would also be opaque due to the heaviness of the material, a rarity these days.  I also appreciated the cuppa tea that came with the top, like I said, the little things.  But that is all of the good news that I have to share.

If you’re not long torso’ed, your experience will likely be very different.  But the cut of this top did not work on my body at all.  I don’t want to look wider, or shorter, or schlumpier.  Go figure.  And I don’t want to spend all day fighting with a collar that won’t stay up, even though it’s popped in all the photos.  I have a toddler for when I want to fight battles I can’t win.

Bottom Line. I think Frank & Eileen looks like a great company.  I may try one of their button up shirts in the future, but the life-changing, must-have Popover Henley style did not work on my body type (at all).  I thought about exchanging the medium for a small, but with it also being so short, it doesn’t seem worth the effort or the potential second disappointment.  And while I accept that the shirt is supposed to fit in a more relaxed way, I am seriously frustrated with clothing brands whose size guide is as untrustworthy as the guy with the fast car you dated in high school.