Have YOU Ever Created an UGLY Costume?-We have!

Satin Stitches | Nov 30, 2009 | 0

NOT a Satin Stitches Costume!...Although there is something interesting about it!

People occasionally ask me if I have ever created costumes that I think are ugly?

To be honest, yes. I have blogged about many satisfying experiences with our many wonderful Satin Stitches clients. For this blog, I decided to share about a not so wonderful experience.

Anyone who works directly with clients, will sometime find the need to tap dance around working with the needs, wants, and desires of a client. We are paid to create what our client envisions. As I have mentioned many times in previous blogs, custom design works with the INTERPRETATION of the needs, wants and desires of our clients. As a fashion designer, I need to influence and edit these needs and wants, to hopefully, create a beautiful result.

I enjoy sharing my personal and professional opinions on what I find attractive, and NOT. BUT,we all need to be reminded that beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. There are costumes that most people might find attractive, and costumes that very few people might find attractive.

With my four years of training at MCAD, an art college, I had the opportunity to learn reasons why and how combining certain shapes, colors, textures and so on are generally considered more attractive than other combinations. Aesthetics-what makes something more pleasing to the eye, was part of our curriculum, along with learning about historical works of art, in all media.

If you watched PROJECT RUNWAY this season-OK-LAST season really, you will have noticed that the self-taught designers generally had more trouble with the tasks than those who went to design school. There IS something valuable about book-learning.

So why have I allowed Satin Stitches to create ugly costumes? Well, in over 31 years there are a few costumes that I am not totally proud of. How did my clients feel about them? As far as I am aware, they liked them. They were created to their vision, even if they were not what I would have chosen for myself.

Has Satin Stitches created costumes that I loved, but my clients did not? Unfortunately, we have. Thankfully not very often. We always strive for a Win-Win situation, but sometimes we miss the mark. We have created thousands and thousands of costumes, so I think the percentage is incredibly low, for those un-loved costumes.

Recently one of these rare disappointments occurred. What happened? And how could it have been avoided?

I booked an in-person appointment with a young woman, wanting Satin Stitches to design and create both a Latin and a Smooth Ballroom costume for an upcoming ballroom event. She had only worn off-the-rack costumes prior to seeing me. She had a difficult-to-fit, body. I am used to fitting hard-to-fit bodies, but she was definitely going to be a challenge.

When working with a new client, there are several things that need to be understood. One of them is for the client to understand what to expect with creating a custom garment. Another is an understanding of the time and effort, and therefore the cost for creating custom.

Something that needs to be understood by potential clients for professionally designed competition dance costumes, is that having an adequate budget is important. There is a definite difference between commissioning a professional full-service company to create your costume versus having a friend or acquaintance who sews on the side, sew something for you. Someone who sews as a hobby, or to supplement their income can charge MUCH LESS than a business needs to, to cover all the overhead expenses that we have, that Suzy Seamstress does not have.

During our complimentary design appointment, I quoted starting prices for our work, and gave her an estimate of basic costumes. I mentioned, before the appointment was booked, that we barely had time to complete costumes for her. She needed to come in immediately, and place her order immediately. That did not happen. I had given a deadline for when she needed to place her order, for us to have the time to do it. She missed that deadline. Apparently she was scrambling to work something else out, and in fact, only decided to move forward with one of the two designs.

My original quotes were based on creating 2 costumes at once, with saving money by doing both patterns and fittings at the same time. My client did not realize that doing only one of the two designs would have an impact on the pricing. And now she allowed half the time we realistically needed.

Nevertheless, I was prepared to MAKE IT HAPPEN for her. I knew that there were many factors that were coming together, to make this a bad situation. But I remained optimistic that everything would work out.

I always start with a basic shell of a costume at the first fitting. I then pin to fit, with an eye to the mirror. In working with fitting a new client, unsure of their fit expectations, I am usually watching the client more than the costume, to see their reaction to how I am working the fit.

It did not go well. Only people with vision should attempt a custom design. If you cannot picture how something will look on your body, you need to stick to buying something that is already created. Unfortunately, this client did not have vision. And to make it worse, she was not able to articulate what she was becoming frustrated with. She seemed to think that we could magically transform her body to a totally different shape. I have worked a lot of miracles, but this was not an option. I realized that it was going to be very difficult task to satisfy this client. I was prepared to do so.

I assumed everything was going as plan, but at her second fitting, she showed up with a friend who told me that my client did NOT like what was happening with her costume, and she wanted it to go in another direction.

We now REALLY did not have the time to regroup. And I know that the budget is totally blown. My client has no confidence in me and I do not have any confidence that she will now like what we create together. But the frosting on the cake was that she was not able to talk to me. I am not difficult to work with. I understand clients concerns and wanting to create something that they can feel beautiful in. And you know what? I DO know what I am doing!

What happened? I decided to cut my losses. I have never done this before, in over 30 years of creating performance costumes. I stopped work and I refunded her money, in full. I have never not completed a costume for a client, until now, with this client. I had ALWAYS completed our projects. But I felt I was not going to be able to fulfil my clients wishes and it had become a lost cause, for both of us.  

RED FLAGS FOR WHEN IT IS PROBABALY NOT GOING TO WORK OUT.
When you do not have the budget that is needed, because shortcuts may be needed and they may not work out well.
When you do not allow enough time, by ordering at the last minute, or past the last minute. This puts more pressure on everyone.
When you really cannot visualize what a style will look like on yourself.
When you do not have confidence in the abilities of your designer.
When you cannot speak up, at the appropriate time, to question and offer suggestions for getting what you want.
When you do not have a realistic idea of your body. You are unhappy to see that you do not look like a size 0, when you are clearly not a size 0.
EVERYONE can be attractive, no matter what size or shape, but do not feel bad, that you are not perfect.

There is a saying. You can have 2 out of 3 things, but not 3 out of 3. You can have something made well, You can have something made fast. You can have something made inexpensively. You need to pick 2-not 3, from these statements.

Sometimes *#^@ happens! But thankfully, not very often, here at Satin Stitches. How about at your company? Do you have any client horror stories?

Print Email Link

• Share
  • add to facebook
  • add to del.icio.us
  • add to digg
  • add to yahoo
  • related at technorati

Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, Modern, Broadway, Ballroom, Teacher, Enthusiast, Parent, Studio, Costume Design, Costumes (all tags)