This is 2023 It is a social media world We are all very busy but not too busy to share like comment have a good laugh and even show others around us.
The fashion industry is busy too, coming up with new styles designs and trends Some are beautiful- everyone want to have it, some are funny but some people still jump on it, some are supposedly easy (‘supposedly’ because only the tailor should know that) while others are obviously difficult- you know it took a lot to get that level of beauty and perfection out.
What I ordered Vs What I got has become a regular occurrence these days especially on social media. Tailors and fashion designers being “called out” on a daily basis, clients being dissatisfied and disappointed also. It is not like it just started happening but these days it is loud because social media amplifies it. What then is the way forward? How do we get satisfied clients and happy tailors?
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Here are few essential tips to ace “What I ordered Vs what I got,”
For Clients
- Know your body type: Not every beautiful style or design will fit your body type. The mistake a lot of us make is probably seeing a dress look beautiful on an hourglass shaped person and assuming it will look same on our pear-shaped body. Which brings us to the rather hilarious question: you ordered the dress but did you order the body?
- Take note of the fabrics used in making the dress: One of the major reasons why what we get doesn’t look like what we ordered is because of the fabrics used to recreate it. It is better and easier to replicate a style or design using fabrics of the same quality texture and sometimes even tone.
- Pay attent1on to the colours and your skin tone: Seeing what we want on a celebrity often creates a mental image of what we want to look like in the dress. Often times however, we forget that different colours goes well with different skin tones. Identifying what colours suit your skin tone will go a long way in making the dress more beautiful.
- Consider what it costs to make the dress you want: This may sound unreasonable but it’s very important. There’s a reason why the initial dress cost maybe N200,000.00 to make. If you want to recreate the same thing offering N7000 or Nl0000 might just, be you setting yourself up to get sonneting bad.
- Avoid a tailor who can sew everything: The fashion industry is big, it should scare you that one tailor would be able to sew every you throw at him/her Except it is a fashion house with many tailors, that your tailor that claims he/she can sew everything for you will disappoint you one day.
For Tailors
- You cannot sew everything: So, taking off from the last point above, it is unrealistic to think or say you can sew everything. As a tailor, have a niche and be excellent at it. Not everybody must sew corset.
- Study and explain designs clients: This are very important especially for bespoke tailors. It is important to explain the details of a design to your client to see and know if your explanation matches their expectations. Do so with pictures, videos other dresses within your reach… just make Sure you two come to agreement.
- Charge Client Appropriately: Trying to fit into a smaller budget is the reason why that dress won’t come out well. It is better to lose the opportunity to make that particular dress because you charged appropriately and it is high than to charge too low and get called out. At that point almost nobody would want to know that the client paid N5000 for a N200,000 Dress.
- Do Fittings: Fittings!!! This cannot be overemphasized. It is not enough to measure the person properly, you are human and imperfect therefore before you finish sewing the dress, doing all the embellishments and applying all the appliques, make sure the clients come in for fittings to check and confirm the work so far and make adjustments where necessary.
- Advise your clients: Being the professional in the field advice your clients When they choose designs that don’t suit their body, shape, type, skin tone… advise them. It is better to know that you have told them the truth about what to expect.
