Loading blog content, please wait...
By Shop Confete
You Booked a Stylist but Have No Idea What to Send Them The stylist appointment is on the calendar, you're genuinely excited, and then your cursor is bl...
The stylist appointment is on the calendar, you're genuinely excited, and then your cursor is blinking in an empty message box. What do they even need from you? You don't want to send too little and get generic picks back, and you don't want to write a five-paragraph essay about your feelings toward off-the-shoulder necklines. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot, and it's easier to hit than it looks.
Here's the good news before we go a word further: a personal stylist's whole job is to fill in the gaps you can't articulate yet. You don't have to arrive with a vision board and a color palette. You just have to give them enough real information to point them in your direction instead of the internet's average direction.
The single most useful thing you can hand a stylist isn't a dress you like. It's the event you're dressing for. A stylist can do wildly more with "September vineyard wedding, cocktail attire, ceremony's outdoors on grass" than with "something cute for fall." Every one of those details changes the answer. Grass rules out a stiletto that'll sink. Outdoor September means the temperature could swing twenty degrees between the ceremony and the last dance, so a piece with sleeves or a wrap in the mix suddenly matters.
So lead with the facts. What's the occasion, what's the date, what's the dress code if there is one, and where is it happening. If the invitation lists a dress code you've never seen before, send the exact wording. Stylists translate "garden party attire" and "festive cocktail" for a living, and the phrasing tells them more than you'd think. If you're not sure how formal the whole thing is, say that too. "I honestly can't tell how dressy this is" is real information, and a good stylist will ask the follow-up questions that get you there.
This is the part people skip, and it's the part that separates a dress that fits your life from a dress that just fits the dress code. Are you the guest who wants to look great in photos and then not think about her outfit again? The bridesmaid who has to move, dance, and hug people all night? The mother of the bride who'll be in more pictures than anyone realizes until the album shows up? Your role changes everything about comfort, coverage, and how much the dress needs to hold up over several hours.
Tell them what you actually like to wear, in your own words. You don't need fashion vocabulary. "I always feel best with something on my shoulders," "I hate anything tight around my middle," "I want to be able to sit and eat without holding my breath," and "I'd love color but I always end up in navy" are all gold. Mention what you own that you reach for again and again, because that pattern says more about your taste than any single dress on a screen.
If you can, send two or three images. Not a curated mood board, just a handful of dresses you've genuinely stopped scrolling on, screenshots included. A stylist reads those fast: she sees you keep saving V-necks, or midi lengths, or a certain kind of soft, romantic fabric, and she can tell what's drawing your eye even when you can't name it. Send the ones you love and, if you have them, one or two you clicked on and then thought "not quite." Knowing what's almost right is as helpful as knowing what's right.
Photos of yourself help too, if you're comfortable sending them. Not because anyone's judging, but because a stylist wants to dress the actual person, and a picture tells her about proportion and coloring in a way measurements alone don't. Which brings up the thing worth being precise about.
Send your actual measurements, not the number you wish were on the tag. Bust, waist, and hips, plus your height, get a stylist most of the way there, and height in particular decides where a hemline is going to land on you. Every brand cuts a little differently, so the more concrete you are, the fewer surprises when the box arrives. If you're between sizes, or you know one part of a dress always fits differently on you than the tag suggests, say it plainly. This is a boring detail that quietly makes or breaks the whole thing. The women's clothing sizing standards that brands loosely follow have drifted for decades, which is exactly why your own numbers matter more than a size letter.
Budget, timeline, and any hard "no" all belong in that first message. Tell your stylist the ceiling you're actually comfortable spending so she's not showing you things that make you wince. Tell her when the event is, because if it's three weeks out, that changes what she can realistically source and ship in time. And name your non-negotiables. If you refuse to wear white to someone else's wedding, if strapless is off the table, if you need something you can nurse in, say so up front. A stylist would much rather know now than send a beautiful pick you'll never wear.
Once you've sent the event, your role in it, a few photos, your real measurements, and your limits, you've done your whole job. You don't have to solve the outfit. That's the trade you made when you booked a person to do this instead of opening forty tabs yourself. The point of personal styling at Shop Confete isn't to hand us a finished idea to rubber-stamp. It's to hand us the raw material and let someone who dresses people for weddings all season pull the pieces you wouldn't have found, in your size, for your exact event. Send the mess. We'll shape it.