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Should You Text Your Stylist Before or After You Try On What You Have? You're standing in the closet with a shirt in each hand, one that might work with...
You're standing in the closet with a shirt in each hand, one that might work with the new pants and one that definitely won't, and your phone is right there on the dresser. Text your stylist now, while you're still deciding? Or pull everything on first, see what actually happens on your body, and message her after?
Both are fine. But they solve different problems, and knowing which one you're actually facing saves you a round of back-and-forth.
If the question in your head is "what should I even be reaching for," that's a before-you-try-anything text. You're not sure whether the wide-leg trousers can pull double duty for a work thing and a dinner out. You've got a wedding in three weeks and no idea where to start. You bought a great blazer and want to know what else it plays nicely with.
None of that requires you to be standing in front of the mirror. It's a planning question, and planning is exactly where texting first earns its keep. Send us what you're working with, what the occasion is, and what's already hanging in your closet that you'd like to build around. We can point you toward pieces before you waste an evening trying on combinations that were never going to come together.
This is really the heart of custom solutions at Ruby Claire. You don't have to arrive with the outfit half-solved. You can arrive with the question. Tell us "I have a black midi skirt and I don't know what to wear it with for a summer event that goes late" and we'll take it from there. The point of having a stylist on text is that the thinking happens before the trying-on, so you're not doing both jobs at once at nine at night.
Now flip it. You've got the pieces on, you're looking in the mirror, and something's just... off. The top's a little boxier than you expected. The pants are great but the length is doing something weird with your shoes. You love the color but you're not sure the neckline is you.
That's an after text. Fit and feel are things you genuinely can't judge from a product photo or a description, and we'd rather hear about them once you've had the real experience of wearing the thing. Snap a quick photo if you're comfortable, tell us what feels wrong, and we can tell you whether it's a sizing thing, a styling thing, or a "this silhouette isn't your favorite and here's one that will be" thing.
The honest truth about fit is that it's personal and it's physical. Two people wearing the same size in the same top can feel completely different in it depending on their shape, their height, and what they like to show or skim over. That's normal, and it's why we always want the real-world report, not the guess. If you want to get a sense of how much variation is baked into clothing sizing before you even start, the Federal Trade Commission's guidance on clothing and textile labeling is a reminder that a "size" is less standardized than most of us assume. So no, it's not you. It's the industry.
Here's where people overthink it. You don't have to pick one moment and stick to it. The smoothest way to work with a stylist usually goes in two beats.
First beat, before you try anything: you tell us the occasion and what you already own, and we help you narrow the field. Second beat, after you've pulled the shortlist on: you report back on how it actually sat. That's the loop. Plan, try, adjust. It's the same rhythm you'd use with a friend who happens to be great at this, except you're not making her stand in your bedroom while you change.
The reason this works so well is that each text is doing one clean job. The before-text handles direction. The after-text handles reality. When you mash them together, "here's a photo of me in this, also what should I have bought instead, also is this the right occasion for it," we end up untangling three questions at once, and that's slower for everyone. Keep them separate and you get faster, better answers.
Before you try on, the useful things to hand us are the occasion, the temperature and setting (a rooftop dinner in July is a different assignment than an air-conditioned office), the pieces you already own that you want to include, and roughly how much fuss you're up for. That last one matters more than people think. "I want to look pulled together but I have four minutes" is a completely legitimate brief, and it changes what we suggest.
After you try on, the useful things are a photo if you're willing, one or two words on what feels off (too long, too tight in the shoulders, too plain, too much), and whether the problem is the piece or the pairing. Even a quick "I love the pants, hate them with these shoes" tells us exactly where to aim.
Before, when you don't know what to reach for. After, when you've reached for it and something needs adjusting. And honestly, both, because the good version of working with a stylist is a short conversation with two parts, not a single perfect message you have to get exactly right.
The whole reason we do styling by text is so getting dressed stops being a thing you solve alone at the end of a long day. Reach out at whichever point you're stuck. We'll meet you there.