Tailor Archive

Hi everyone!

I just became a novice tailortwo days ago on the new server! And the moment I changed my title to Novice Tailor i get swamped with tells asking for custom clothing. So I'm wondering how my fellow experienced tailors deal with customers who dont know exactly what they want or give a vague description as to what they are looking for.

My method is.. I just make a few choice selections that match the description they wanted and color. So ifa person wanted a long sleeve jacket, I would make them a casual, padded, and rugged jacket for them to try on. And if they say they wanted tan, i would vary the color.. from dark tan to light tan on multi clothing. The customer would then select what they want, and return me the rest of the items. And i would then go sell the excess clothing on the bazaar.

This method is more tedious, time and resource intensive. But the customer is more happy and doesn't nesscary have to be stuck with someone that isn't what they totally pictured.

But I'm also looking for a way to be more effiencent, so if you guys dont mind teaching me some secrets of the trade. And go through the sets you go through with custom orders. I would greatly appericate it!

Also I'm thinking about doing a 10c per resource for custom orders and 8c per resouce for bazaar and from my store. What do you guys think about that?

I do alot of business in custom orders

I also do alot of business in trying to match a color they already have.

To match colors I examine the person/article of clothing and then compare.

I also have examples of many of the items I can make to show my customers so they can choose, I also vary the colors of my examples to try to show off the palette.

Also ask a ton of questions. One of my conversations last night was like this

*tells you I want the decrative vest and slacks in green and white

you tell * okay do you want a mint green, light green, medium or dark green

* tells you medium green but use your best judgement

you tell * okay you want a medium green base, white tassles, with same green pants with white strip

* tells you correct and thank you!

Sometimes I have to ask a lot of questions and have to drop a lot of different displays to folks and sometimes (like example above) its a bit more brief. The best are when they drop in and say I want something sexy and I say formal sexy,night club sexy, date sexy, classy sexy to get an understanding ofwhat to show them.

I charge the same for special orders as I do in the bazaar and on my vendor. I always confirm the color after the item is made, if its not right I try again, luckily it doesn't happen very often.

Another thing I have done is to track what items I have sold in what colors. Also making suggestions on colors and outfits (when someone buys all black I also try to sell them a dark blue shirt or another color shirt as well as they usually tell me they want to look different and I say well everyone is wearing all black, with a blue shirt you will look different!).

GL

Fawe

Flurry

oh another thing

if they say something like I want pants, shirt, and something to go over it, you can ask questions like these

Pants with pockets, stripe, or solid color?

Vest, jacket (open/closed), long sleeves, short sleeves? etc..

That way you don't have to make the item unless they ask to see it (or if you already have examples premade you can just show them)

I do ALOT of custom orders/business. I spend more time doing that then anything else it seems. I have one basic rule to my custom orders. I MUST see their character/avatar. If you just want clothes, go to my vendor. If you want an outfit, you have to come to me, and I'll sit and find what will work best for you.

Questions I ask:

What field/look you want to go for? (Suggested answers: Smuggler, Woodsy, Casual, Formal, Ninja, etc...)

What colors are you interested in? (When they say black, as for a secondary color).

Then I make the clothes and find colors that go well with the Avatar's colorings. I've gotten pretty good that even for complicated requests I tend to get it in the first try or two. People have come to trust my judgement, so now most of the time I get: I don't care, I trust your judgement, make me look good.

When I get such a request, I am so happy. At times even when the person asks for something specific, if I feel their character would do better in another color, I make them try that color first. Usually they are happy to find that yes the Green looks so much better then all black.

Anneke Rose (Tailor on Naritus)

First I start asking what kind of look they want. For men the first decision is rugged or space age. If it's rugged, I stick with earth tones and avoid items with plastic ribbing. If it's space age, I'm more likely to go with colors and I'll probably suggest some of the items with ribbing. For women I ask what kind of clothes they're looking for and the answers are usually hunting or dancing with the occasional person saying something for their boyfriend. For hunting I usually suggest one of the cute nipped waist jackets -- I don't stock those, there's about 200 that all look more or less the same and they're all cute. If they don't want that, I go with the same question as with mens. If they want dancing or something for their bf/hubby I ask if they want something elegant or something revealing or something casual.

For colors I try to steer people away from black, we've all seen way way way too much of it. If I'm making something custom I'll usually try to get them into something that's not the usualstuff I leave on the vendors which for me is blue, red, green,purple in the strongest colors for women and black/brown for guys. Instead I'll go for the maroons or a dusky red or a teal-blue -- if they'll go for it. Or a yellow, which looks great but nobody thinks of. For guys who want black, I'll suggest a brown with black accents and recently I've sold a lot of the dark green/grey as khaki.

For the final items, I'll try to steer people to things I haven't seen for a while. I figure nobody wants to be a clone.

The exception is l33t. I am pretty good at reading them and I just sell them their black pants, shirt, boots, gloves, and duster. The sooner I get them out the better. We'll all be happier.

Most people know about my website and they just send me orders with what they want exactly. For those that do not know about it, I either refer them to it or make a recommendation. Sometimes we both alt-tab to the website and discuss which color might look best against their skin tone. It saves me time when trying to make an outfit for somebody, I just go to my website and take a look at the different clothes and try to picture what they might look like together. Otherwise I end up making about 4 of the same item in 4 different blues