A Note on Wardrobe Timing

The single most useful thing you can do for a session is decide on wardrobe two weeks before the shoot, not the morning of.

Two weeks gives time for the things that go wrong. A button comes loose and needs replacing. A jacket needs to come back from the cleaner. A blouse you thought worked turns out to read poorly in the light at your kitchen window, which is a reasonable proxy for shoot-day daylight. Online orders arrive late, or arrive in the wrong size, or arrive in a color the photographs differently than it did on screen.

None of these are catastrophes individually. All of them, if discovered the morning of a session, will quietly compress the part of the day that should be spent settling into the shoot. By the time wardrobe is sorted, the calm has already been spent.

A short checklist that has saved a lot of mornings:

• Lay out every full look on a hanger or bed at least one week before, including shoes and any visible accessories.
• Photograph each look on your phone in natural daylight. Look at the photos the next morning, not the same day. You will see things you did not see while standing in front of the mirror.
• Wash and iron everything five to seven days out. Day-of ironing rarely produces the result you wanted.
• Bring at least one extra option per look, even if you are sure of the choice. The session will reveal what works.

The goal is for wardrobe to be the part of the day you do not have to think about. Everything else — light, location, energy, direction — benefits from that.