Guides
Part of Designers and stylists: quality, fit and selection criteria
How to choose designers and stylists: what to know and why
How to choose designers and stylists: scope the job first, then compare fee structures, contract terms and image rights before anyone is hired or a piece is lent.
Hiring goes wrong at the start, not at the end. Most unhappy jobs in this trade come from a scope nobody wrote down and a fee structure nobody explained, and both are settled before any cloth is touched. The order below is the order the work actually happens in, which is why it is also the order to hire in.
What to take away
- Write the scope before you meet anybody. A brief that names the date, the movements and the budget range turns three vague quotes into three comparable ones.
- Fee structures are not equivalent. A day rate, a flat fee and a commission arrangement create different incentives, and the last one needs a disclosure.
- Settle who bears the risk on a borrowed piece, and who owns the photographs, in writing. Both are cheap to agree in advance and expensive to argue afterward.
Step one: write the scope
One page, before any conversation.
- The date, and the date you need a finished piece in your hands, which is not the same day.
- Where it happens, indoors or out, how long you will be seated, and whether there is a stage or stairs.
- What you must be able to do: walk a distance, drive, dance, carry a child, use a bathroom without help.
- Your budget as a range, and what is inside it. Alterations, undergarments, shoes and cleaning are usually forgotten and are usually a large share.
- Whether you are buying, renting or borrowing, since that decides who can do the work at all.
Three references and one sentence about what you like in each is worth more than twenty saved images. The sentence is the part a practitioner can act on.
Step two: match the role to the job
Most jobs need one of three people, and confusing them wastes everybody's time.
| You need | When | What they do not do |
|---|---|---|
| An alterations tailor | You have the garment and it needs to fit | Source anything, or design |
| A maker or designer | The garment does not exist yet | Usually, assemble a whole look including shoes and jewelry |
| A stylist | The pieces exist somewhere and have to be found, borrowed and assembled | Cut and sew |
A costume designer is a fourth thing again, engaged when the clothing has to serve a character or a production rather than a person, which the pillar on costume work separates out. Hiring one for an evening look is not wrong, but it is buying a different skill.
Step three: compare fee structures honestly
- A day rate is predictable and rewards preparation. Ask how many days the job is estimated at, and what happens if it runs over.
- A flat project fee shifts the risk to the practitioner. It suits a well-defined scope and punishes a vague one, since every change becomes a negotiation.
- An hourly rate suits alterations and small jobs, where the work is bounded and visible.
- A retainer suits repeated work over a season and rarely suits a single event.
- A commission on what you buy, or a payment from the house whose pieces are placed, creates a conflict that has to be disclosed. It is not automatically disqualifying, and it is disqualifying if it is hidden.
Ask what is not in the fee. Travel, sourcing time, returns, courier costs and the hours spent sending pieces back are all real and all commonly excluded.
Step four: settle the paperwork
Four clauses cover most of the trouble.
- Scope and change. What is included, and what a change to the brief costs.
- Dates. What happens if the event moves, and what the cancellation terms are.
- Borrowed pieces. Anything lent is held under an arrangement the law generally treats as a bailment, which means someone is responsible for it while it is out. Name that person and name who insures it.
- Images. Who may photograph the work, where it may be published, and whether your name appears. Practitioners want portfolio rights; clients often want the opposite. Decide once, in writing.
If a practitioner has no template for this, that is information. A short document they wrote themselves is a better sign than a long one they downloaded.
Step five: test the working relationship
Meet once about the brief and once about the plan, and watch for two things. Do they ask what the piece has to survive before they ask what it should look like? And do they tell you early that something is expensive or impossible? Late pushback is the expensive kind, and it is the difference the pillar on the roles keeps returning to.
Where a trial is possible, run one. A single sourcing brief or one fitting will show you the communication pattern for the whole job. What to look for in the results is set out in assessing the work itself, and the construction checks give you the vocabulary to describe what you are seeing.
Common questions
Do I need a stylist and a maker, or will one do?
For a single event with one garment, usually one. You need both when the pieces have to be found rather than made, and something also has to be built or heavily altered.
How far ahead should I start?
Work back from fittings rather than from the event. A garment being made needs fittings spaced apart, and the spacing, not the sewing, sets the calendar. Ask for proposed fitting dates and judge the schedule from those.
Is it reasonable to ask what someone is paid by a brand?
Yes, and a professional will answer plainly. You are not asking for their accounts. You are asking whether a recommendation has a second reason behind it.
What if I cannot afford any of this?
Buy fewer hours rather than a worse practitioner. One paid fitting with a good alterations tailor changes a garment more than a whole budget spent on the garment itself, which is the argument running through spending less without pretending.
