How Do You Choose a Couturier, and What Should You Ask in the First Conversation?
Choose on the answers, not the photographs. Ask where the pattern comes from, whether there is a toile you personally fit, how many fittings are included, what an extra one costs, and what happens if the finished piece is wrong. An atelier that answers all five plainly is one you can work with. Vagueness at the fourth is the warning.
I am writing this from the other side of the table, which makes me an interested party. So read it as what I would want asked of me.
Why is a portfolio not enough?
Because photographs show taste and hide method.
A beautiful image tells you what a maker likes. It tells you nothing about how many hands touched the garment, whether the pattern was drawn for that person, how many fittings it took, or whether the delivery date held. Those are the things that decide whether your commission goes well.
Look at the pictures. Then ask the questions.
What should you ask about the pattern?
Where does my pattern come from, and what happens to it afterwards.
If the answer is that a house block is adjusted to your measurements, that is made to measure. It is a real service and it gets you a good fit quickly. If the answer is that a pattern is drawn from your body and proved on a toile, that is a different process, a different amount of time and a different price.
Here, the pattern is drawn from your body and it stays in the atelier. It is never sold and never used for anyone else, and it is there if you come back so a second piece starts from a shape that already fits you.
What should you ask about the toile?
Is there one, and do I put it on.
A toile is a full version of the garment in plain cotton, made to be marked, taken apart and cut again. It is the single clearest signal about how a garment is being made. A mock-up you personally fit means the pattern is being proved on your body before the real cloth is touched.
No toile is not automatically bad. It does mean an existing pattern is doing the work. Know which you are buying. The five steps here are set out in order.
What should you ask about fittings?
How many are included, and what does an extra one cost.
Fittings are where a garment becomes yours, and they are also the easiest place for a price to move quietly. The number should be stated before you agree to anything, and so should the cost of going beyond it.
Three fittings are part of the price of a couture piece here. A wedding dress usually asks for more, and any extra fitting is agreed and priced before it happens, never afterwards.
What should you ask about time?
How long, and what happens if my date is close.
One to six months is the range here, depending on the model, the design and the cloth. Ask for a date in writing, and ask what would put it at risk. Cloth that has to be ordered in, a design change after the toile, a bodice that needs an extra round: those are the usual causes.
The answer you want to hear when your date is too close is that it is too close. A maker who will tell you no is a maker who will tell you the truth later, when it matters more. In this atelier, if a date is too close to do the work properly, you will be told so instead of being sold a rush.
What should you ask about price?
Ask for it in writing, with an inclusion list and a date, before any work starts.
There is no price list here, because what a piece costs depends on what you ask for and how difficult it is to make. What there is, is a written quotation after we have talked about the occasion, the design and the cloth. Work starts once you accept it. Until then there is no agreement and no cost.
Be careful with a number given before anyone has discussed the cloth. It is either a guess or it is going to move.
What should you ask about what happens if something is wrong?
This is the question that separates a professional answer from a nervous one.
A piece made to your measurements cannot be returned, because European consumer law removes the fourteen day cooling off period for goods made to your specifications. The plain language version sits on the European Commission's Your Europe pages, and it uses a made to measure suit as the example.
So the protection has to be somewhere else, and it is: if a finished piece does not match what was agreed, it gets put right. Ask any atelier that question directly and listen to whether the answer is a sentence or a paragraph of conditions.
How do you know if it is a good fit personally?
By whether you can disagree with them.
You will be in a small room with this person several times, half-dressed, saying things like "I do not know, something about the shoulder". The toile stage only works if you feel able to be difficult. If the first conversation leaves you feeling that objections would be unwelcome, that is real information.
The first conversation with me is free and nothing is decided in it. That is not a sales device. It is because both of us need to find out whether this works before either of us commits several months to it.
What should you bring?
The date, the occasion, and what you already know you do not want.
That last one is the most useful thing anyone brings. Reference images are welcome, but a list of things you have always disliked on yourself narrows a design faster than twenty pictures of other people's dresses.
You can read how this atelier works, look at recent couture work, or write to me and start with a conversation.
Questions people ask
What should I ask a couturier before commissioning? Where the pattern comes from, whether there is a toile you personally fit, how many fittings are included, what an extra fitting costs, how long it takes, and what happens if the finished piece does not match what was agreed.
How do I know if I am getting made to measure or a cut pattern? Ask whether the pattern is drawn from your body and whether a cotton toile is fitted on you. A house block adjusted to your measurements is made to measure.
Should there be a written quotation? Yes. A price, what is included, and a delivery date, agreed before work starts.
Is the first appointment usually free? It varies by atelier. Here the first conversation is free and nothing is decided in it.
Can the first conversation happen online? Yes. The atelier is in Amsterdam and fittings happen there by appointment, but online meetings are welcome for the early conversations.
By appointment only · Currently Amsterdam · Online meetings welcome