not sure which dress to make? book a designer consult first

A consult is worth booking if one of these sounds like you:

• You can’t choose. You’ve saved a Pinterest board, three ChatGPT images and a dress from a shop that no longer sells it, and they all pull in different directions.
• You have an event, not a design. A wedding, a gala, a talk on stage. You know where you’re going and how you want to feel, but not what to wear.
• Your AI design might not be makeable. Generated images often show seams that can’t exist, fabric that drapes in impossible ways, or details that cost more than the rest of the dress combined.
• You’re worried about budget. You want the dress in your head, but you need to know which details drive the price before you fall in love with them.
• It’s your first custom piece. You’ve never ordered made-to-measure and want a person to walk you through fabric, fit and timing.

It doesn’t have to be about one dress. People book consults to plan a first capsule for a fashion label, to check whether a ChatGPT design can actually be sewn, or to work out what to wear on stage. If it’s about making clothes, it’s a good use of the 35 minutes. Starting a label? Read how to start a fashion label without holding inventory first.

If you already know exactly what you want, skip the consult and go straight to a quote. We’ll tell you if anything needs a second look. For what a tailor checks in that review, and the issues that are usually fixable, see how to get feedback on your dress design before you order.

Before. Book whenever suits you and send what you have: images, the occasion, a date and a rough budget. We’ll email you within a day with the best times to meet, and the designer looks through everything before the call.

During. A 35-minute video call. The designer works through four decisions with you:

• 1. The silhouette. Which shape suits the occasion and how you like to move. This is the decision everything else hangs on.
• 2. The fabric. What will hold that shape, how it behaves in heat or on a dance floor, and whether silk is worth it or a good polyester will do.
• 3. The details that drive the price. Boning, hand beading and layered skirts cost the most. Colour and neckline barely move the price. You decide which details are worth it.
• 4. What’s makeable. If you started from an AI image or a photo, the designer tells you honestly what translates to a real garment and what needs reinterpreting.

After. You get one design brief: a single agreed design, the fabric direction and a realistic price range. When you’re ready, it goes straight into a quote. Our master tailor reviews every design before an order goes ahead, and the dress is then made to your measurements and checked at every stage of production.

Shuntéga Meadows is a US-based fashion designer with a B.A. in Apparel and Textiles from Kennesaw State University. Her work covers apparel and accessory design, styling, technical design, fashion illustration and CAD. She thinks about a dress as a story first, and about what it’s for and who’s wearing it. Her background in retail means she’s used to helping people narrow a wish list down to one piece they’ll actually wear.

Want the dress to be one of a kind? Add a hand-printed finish from The Ardent Artifacts, a lino-printing studio in Boorloo (Perth). Every motif is sketched, carved into lino by hand and pressed one garment at a time, so no two prints are the same. Printing starts from A$45 per garment, paid directly to the artist. Your designer can help you decide whether a print belongs on the dress and where it should sit.

You don’t need a finished idea. You need material to react to.

• Every image you’ve saved, even the ones that contradict each other. What you keep coming back to tells the designer a lot.
• The occasion and the date. Making takes about two weeks once a design is approved, and about four weeks in total with shipping, so the date shapes what’s realistic.
• A budget range. An honest number helps the designer spend it where it shows.
• What you’ve loved and hated wearing. “I hate straps that slip” or “I always feel good in a wrap” is more useful than any trend.
• Your fabric, if you have one. You can supply your own fabric. Bring a photo in daylight with something for scale.

Measurements can wait until after the consult.

Both routes end with a made-to-measure dress. The consult adds one conversation at the start.

A consult is a paid session with a working designer, and your fee pays her for her time. It costs US$45 (A$60) for 35 minutes.

The dress is priced separately. Here is what that price covers:

For realistic price ranges, see custom-made dresses in the USA or how much a custom-made dress costs in Australia. Our page on custom made dresses covers how the making works.

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