What to Prepare Before a First Consultation

Most people assume a first consultation starts with opinions about clothes. In practice, it starts with information. Before we talk about silhouettes, colours, or the difference between a good knit and a great one, we need to understand how your wardrobe actually functions. That means looking at what you wear weekly, what stays untouched, and where the gaps keep showing up.

The most useful thing you can bring is not a mood board. It is a honest list of your regular commitments. A teacher in Johannesburg has different clothing demands than someone running a small gallery in Cape Town, and neither should be dressing for a life they do not live. When you can name the rooms you walk into each week, the advice becomes specific rather than generic.

We also ask clients to bring three garments they genuinely love and wear often. Not the expensive ones, not the ones that look best on a hanger, but the pieces that get reached for without thinking. These items tell us about your fit preferences, your fabric instincts, and the colours that already work with your skin and habits. From there, we can build a capsule that feels familiar instead of foreign.

Finally, think about what frustrates you. Is it the constant need to iron? The blazer that pulls across the shoulders? The trousers that fit in the morning but sag by midday? These small irritations are the real starting points for change. A consultation is not about replacing everything you own; it is about identifying the patterns that keep repeating and finding garments that do not fight you.

If you are unsure what to bring, start with the basics: a list of your weekly activities, three loved pieces, and one or two problem garments. That is enough to begin. The rest we can figure out together, piece by piece.