Costuming Tips - Commissions: Do's and Don'ts for Buyers and Sellers

I credit this valuable resource to Eriol from cosplay.com. I am posting it here with his permission.

If you are a customer looking to have someone make a costume:

1) Shop around. Check out the quality and prices of different costume makers. Don't ask the costume maker to do comparison shopping for you. They aren't supposed to do that.

2) Also, read every part of the costume maker's website. Look for FAQs. Any question you may have may have already been asked.

3) Once you decide to deal with a costume maker, give them lots of reference images. Costume makers are not psychic. If you cannot find any reference images, try harder.

In my personal experience, I've had to go out and buy artbooks and sent them to the costume maker and told them to look at page X and Y. Yes, that means you may have to go buy something to provide reference material. If you absolutely can't find more reference images, find out if the costume maker will charge you if they do the research.

4) The costume maker is your partner on this project. If you have certain ideas you want the costume maker to consider, say so. This includes choices of materials or design ideas. The more information you give them, the better. If you let them make the choices for you, you may not get what you want.

If you have a deadline to meet, make that clear to the costume maker. The costume maker should tell you if that deadline is doable, provided measurements are received and payment schedules are met.

5) Get everything in writing. Both sides should have a copy of the same document detailing what is to be made, what parts is to be made, and the deadline. There should be conditions for when work will be started, when measurements are received and what kind of payment schedule is expected (these are sometimes called "milestones").

There may also be details on when conditions are NOT met (i.e. if you're late with measurements, the deadline must be pushed back; if the costume maker is late, shipping is free).

Both parties sign the document and have a copy.

If the costume maker doesn't hold up his/her end, you have signed writing to prove that (in court if need be).

Likewise, the costume maker will hold you liable for things you didn't fulfill.

The document is to keep both sides accountable, rather than having a bunch of "he said/she said" arguments.

6) The costume maker is human. They will try to achieve accuracy to your reference materials, but 100% accuracy may be totally unattainable. Unless the costume looks blatantly different from the reference images, it is their best effort.

Remember that costume making is a subjective process and no two costumes made will be alike.

7) If you end up not using a particular costume maker, you can write to that person stating why you don't want to do business with them, but don't scold them like a little child or give reasons with no backing. "Your prices are too high" is completely shallow, and nobody will take you seriously for it. "My friend can make it for $20" is a bad reason, because your friend is doing a favor for you. If your friend had to pay for housing, food, etc., it is unlikely that your friend will charge you $20. Explain why you feel the prices are too high, but keep in mind these costume makers do have bills to pay or live in expensive areas. Keep your email civilized.

After you write your email, go shopping elsewhere. Don't come back to that looking for a fight. If the costume maker you complained about replies to you and isn't shouting you down, you can continue to keep a civilized conversation. The moment either side starts using lots of exclamation points, lots of capital letters, or any type of "yelling," the conversation is dead. Move on.


If you're a costume maker with a potential client:

1) Keep conversations civilized. The customer is likely very emotionally driven about this process, so try to keep the situation calm. Try your best not to get angry at them, even if they get angry at you. If the conversation gets into a shouting match, just kindly end the conversation, because at this point, neither side is going to budge. The conversation is dead.

2) You must spell out your policies to the client. If you have a website, point potential clients to that, especially your FAQ page. If you need to do a lot of preparation work even before accepting work, you have to decide whether or not to include that in the project cost, but obviously this needs to be spelled out too. If you do not sell your patterns, say that also. Make sure your FAQ is prominent on your website.

Some people, however, will not read anything on your site. It is up to you if you want to deal with them, but if it is obvious that they didn't bother to read anything on your site (even if they said they did), they are probably troublesome clients who will waste more time than you have budgeted.

3) You should ask the potential client for reference images. It is at your discretion if you will charge them to do the research for them, but you must disclose that as well.

Ask for anything you will need from the client. Assume nothing. Sometimes, the client has no idea what they want other than "I want what's in these reference images." The problem is that humans tend to nitpick. You may get the overall design right, but the client may nitpick over one aspect of your design. If you think a costume is going to have some trouble, talk it over. Draw some sketches to demonstrate.

An example from my past experience: The costume maker chose velcro for a fastener. I hate velcro, but I didn't state this. I'm to blame, but if the costume maker brought that to my attention, I would probably have said "use secret buttons" instead.

4) Review the deadline the potential client gives you. If you cannot meet it, kindly decline. Don't try to cram projects. Leave space between projects for delays or other surprises (yes, unexpected things can happen!)

5) You should also ask the potential client if they have any preferences. Listen to their ideas. If the idea doesn't make any sense, offer a counter example. If they still insist, warn them that the outfit may differ because of that idea, but you'll go ahead with it.

6) Once you've accepted the project, get everything in writing. Both sides should have a copy of the same document detailing what is to be made and the deadline. You should have stipulations on how payment is to be made. In addition, payment to cover materials or retainer fees before doing any work should be covered, in case the client bails on you. This payment or fee is yours if the client bails.

There should be conditions for when work will be started, when measurements are received and what kind of payment schedule is expected (these are sometimes called "milestones"). There may be also details on when conditions are NOT met (i.e. if you're late with the costume, shipping is free; if they don't get you the measurements in time, the deadline has to be pushed back).

Both parties sign the document and have a copy.

If the client doesn't hold up his/her end, you have signed writing to prove that (in court if need be).

Likewise, the client will hold you liable for things you didn't fulfill.

The document is to keep both sides accountable, rather than having a bunch of "he said/she said" arguments.

7) You may end up with a client who will not be satisfied with your work. As long as you put your 100% effort, there is nothing more to be done.

8) Once the costume is shipped and in the client's hands, it is their choice to do whatever they want with it. They can use it for something you didn't think about (i.e. using them for a rag, nightgowns, etc.). You don't have much say what they can do and can't do with the costume, since you were already paid.

Now, you can state that the client shouldn't compete in the costume, but if he/she tries to compete with it, he/she is doing something uncouth. The best you can do is to try to contact the judges to notify them of the transgression and get them disqualified (you have the contract and photos of your work, right?). Other than that, let the client do whatever they want with the costume. If you didn't sell the patterns, you still have them to make more costumes if need be.

9) When pricing, price appropriately. Account for all materials, trips to the fabric store, electricity usage (obviously, you don't charge the whole month's electricity bill, but you should charge something), etc. Most importantly, charge for labor. The Federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. States may have minimum wages that exceed that. If the price you charged for labor divided by the number of hours you worked ends up being less than the minimum wage, you're ripping yourself off. This applies whether you charge hourly or fixed fee for the whole project.

Keep a log of the hours spent on working on a costume. Make notes. You should have the log if you charge by the hour, so you can show the client where your hours went. If you have to make the costume in the future, you will hopefully get more proficient at it. Then, you'll spend fewer hours on a it, because your notes and experience told you what to look out for.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm, Ltd. The Lord of the Rings is the property of Tolkien Enterprises, the Tolkien Estate, and New Line Cinema. "Moulin Rouge!" is property of Bazmark and 20th Century Fox. Dragonball Z, Yu-Yu Hakusho, and their characters and names are property of FUNimation, Toei Studios, and Yoshihiro Togashi. Yu-Gi-Oh is property of Kazuki Takahashi. Resemblance to their designs is coincidental, and no attempt is being made from this site to profit off copyrighted names. I'd pay good money for licensed costume patterns if they made them (hint hint). Don't sue me, I just sew what people tell me to sew.

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