Tailor Archive

Location plays a great part of my shops sales.
I try to stock basic colors of everything.
If I do custom orders and have to make several pairs before the customer likes the product, those items go into the vendor.
Ive been so busy the past week Ive had to setup a 2nd factory to make synthetic cloth as I was running out faster than 1 factory could supply me.
Location Location Location
Stock at least 4 color schemes of everything that you can
I try to do 6 colors on the items that sell the most.
With my merchant skills I have the ability to put clothing on my vendors, it helps show people styles and color schemes.

---

NJ62 wrote:

but you can just know who is going to be a problem client from the initial tell:

• do u make cloths
• hi (hi is my favorite because you don't know what is coming next)
• u there? (use the friends list doofy)
• r u talior
• where r u

---

*laugh*

My sentiments, most of the time. Sometime, I grit my teeth and hope that perhaps they just don't speak English well, and sometimes people *do* get nicer with a bit of conversation, or after I tell them that I'd be glad to help if they put more effort into it.

In response to an earlier post - getting the colour described to you before crafting seems to be standard procedure for me, but they multiple shades can be a problem, particularly because of different graphics settings (slight tinges of yellow or bluishness may be more evident on other displays). Ideally, ask them to show you something you can match it to. My vendor contains lots of clothing in as many colours as I think would sell, and people do refer to it: "Can I get dress slippers in the colour of that dress?"

I'm not in tailoring for the money, but rather for the satisfaction I get from making something people like. With that in mind, customers who offer me money to drop what I'm doing and fly across the galaxy to make them an outfit almost invariably get the shoulder from me..unless it's for say, a wedding (so other people are depending on them), and they're VERY nice about it. If I do comply, I don't raise my prices any, either. Did I just digress?

Anyway, as n'Jessi said, hard rules to maintain sanity. Realise why you enjoy tailor, and don't give in to anything that takes you away from that.

---

JehannumRaver wrote:

---

DarcyJ wrote:

"Make me something, I'll like whatever you choose."

---

I love that. Of course, I ask them about colors, and the purpose of the outfit. They want combat gear? Casual clothes? A party dress? Exotic outfit? For a warm planet, or a cold one? "Waterproof?" Etc, etc. There's some room for a bit of roleplaying there Most of my customers will answer some of these questions, and I will then design them an outfit... most of them leave happy. Oh, and if the color is unspecified, I stay away from black. Let them try some other good-looking colors; often they will like it.

______________________________________________

Oh, but that I'm perfectly fine with -- the folks who can actually answer some questions on what they're looking for... *grins* The awkward ones for me are the people who want something new -- and whose interest ends there. When the answer to several different questions is "Oh, I don't know, whatever you like", I get nervous and go generic.. *laughs*

But I agree absolutely about charging only for the garment that is satisfactory, if it's just a matter of mismatched or undesirable colours. Things will always sell eventually, either on vendor or bazaar -- even a pair of truly hideous yellow hide boots that I made by accident last week... *shudders*

Now that you are a master tailor you get to the fun part of actually mastering the craft. You get to learn what comes in what colors, how those colors take since sometimes you have to dye a shade darker or lighter to get a good match on some items. You get to experiment and figure out what looks good together and if you can't get a perfect match on something how to change things so that the entire outfit fits together despite this fact. This just takes time, but if you like the profession and stick to it you will learn it. There will always be the customer who is really dissatisfied that you can't get the particular shade that they want, but most orders go smoothly. As I posted in the image designer forum, tailor (and image designer) are easy to "master", but hard to *master*. Just stick with it and it will get better.

---

JehannumRaver wrote:

I love that. Of course, I ask them about colors, and the purpose of the outfit. They want combat gear? Casual clothes? A party dress? Exotic outfit? For a warm planet, or a cold one? "Waterproof?" Etc, etc. There's some room for a bit of roleplaying there Most of my customers will answer some of these questions, and I will then design them an outfit... most of them leave happy. Oh, and if the color is unspecified, I stay away from black. Let them try some other good-looking colors; often they will like it.

---

Thats great and a lot of fun when they actually mean it. A lot of time time when someone says this time me, it really means, "I have a specific outfit in a specific color in mind but I don't really have the vocabulary to describe it, so please read my mind!". After spending too many times of randomly making clothes for them until they come up with some odd combination that no one with any fashion sense would think of, I now just send them to my shop to look around until they can figure out what clothes are closest to what they really want.

I've been a tailor since August. I stopped doing custom orders in September for exactly the reasons you detail. In fact, I now only do bio-enhanced clothing (very profitable for significantly less effort). I NEVER do custom orders except for a RL friend of guildie I've known for months.

I'd say you've had the typical tailor experience.

-Ashia, Radiant

There are a few places that you can go on the web to get a basic course on colour matching and understanding the way colours go together. This is a great site that I recommend to people. It's easy to understand and will explain a bit of how colours compliment each other:

http://www.colorschemer.com/tutorial.html

When a customer asks me to make something for them, I get some information about what they would like first. What they have in mind, and then make up a nice suit based on that. I never settle for black. It's just too dreary and won't show off the colours well. But I do like explaining how some colours will change mood and feel of clothes when it's done. For example, I made a Jade and Teal dress for a woman that needed a nice outfit for a wedding. I told her that the spring colours would offer a sense of "beginning" and newness, at the start of a long and happy union. She was elated, and loved it. I also threw in matching bracelets, necklace and shoes.

Being a tailor means enjoying the fashion and colours and spending time with your customers. If a customer wants to think about different colours and is not sure. I offer them Aircake and Tea or Kaf while they wait. That little touch makes a big difference in how they feel about getting new clothes. It puts them in a better frame of mind, so they can be more relaxed and enjoy themselves.

Have fun with being a tailor. It's NOT a grind. It's a calling!!

I can't find a BE supplier for the life of me or I would do the same lol.

I mostly stick to restocking the vendor, and helping the occasional customer who wants something. I enjoy the whole merchant thing more than dealing with customers really, mostly because my sense of fashion is somewhat limited.

After reading your post though, I would say that you're prolly not made for it hehe.

There are always customers like that, but those are definitely the exceptions imho. One thing though: you do get better at it (picking colors, selecting colors etc.) if you stick with it.

But it sounds to me like you may not be cut out for tailor if you don't like the customer interaction side of things.

They should just add more and betterleather colors

---

hi (hi is my favorite because you don't know what is coming next)

---

lol

sometimes i have 3'hi' tells before i even get loaded into the game... i know right away not to make any plans for the next hour or two.