Pictures are worth thousands of words – they give us much of what we need to know when considering clothing for the rental collection. After all, our stock has to work on screen!
Certain colours, prints, textures and styles just don’t rent to productions. They may be too loud, “buzz,” look bulky or have the best part of the design happening out of the shot.
Ian does want to see everything, but we don’t always need to see individual items. A quick snap of the closet, or the items spread out on a bed gives a lot of information. But by all means, do send us as many as you can!
Something that happens from time to time is that the pictures sent are so large and so many that they “crash” our mailbox.
If you’re taking images on your smartphone, iPad or tablet and emailing them to us, your phone will often ask you what size to send once you’ve selected them – choose the smallest option, please.
Please consider using a resource such as Dropbox or Imgur. Either will let you share as many photos with us as you like, and we can zoom in on detail if needed.
If your email account doesn’t use your name, please let us know how you’d like to be addressed.
Put “Clothing for Sale” in the subject line is helpful, because it makes us easy to sort messages to return when organizing our day.
Before you hit “send,” it’s helpful for us to know certain things that the pictures can’t always tell us.
Questions we’ll ask:
What is the quantity? A break-down such as 5 coats, 10 dresses, 3 sweaters, 7 men’s suits gives a great idea of how much time Ian will need to spend looking at things when he’s booking an appointment.
What are the sizes? If they don’t have labels, using a measuring tape or ruler to get a waist measurement, or chest measurement is very helpful.
Are there any interesting labels? What stores did they come from back in the day? (We like to know where people shopped – it gives us an idea of how they’ll suit the characters who’ll be wearing them!)
What kind of condition are they in? How have they been stored (basement, attic, closet, barn, garage, storage?) (We have to clean everything that comes into the studio – but attics sometimes lead to dry rot, and basements to mildew problems. It means we’ll have to look closer and check the fabric more carefully.)
Where are you located? Ian often makes a few calls in a day, and will want to group them in the same area. Is it time-sensitive? If you need to have the clothing looked at by a certain date, do mention that, as Ian’s schedule fills up very quickly.
Please do feel free to call and and we will be very glad to help you with this in any way we can!
