Frequently Asked Questions

No. We have everything you need to get started. You order directly, complete a short intake form at checkout, and we begin.

Once your Technical Foundation is complete, and we've had a chance to look at your project and agree it's the right next step, we kick off sample development with a dedicated call — reviewing your finished tech pack and pattern, and covering what's needed to begin: fabric sourcing, timelines, and a quote for your sample. Nothing moves into sampling before your Technical Foundation is complete.

Any preliminary questions before then are answered by email, which also gives you a written record.

Your creative design must be final before you submit it. However you have it — a rough sketch is fine, or photo references showing a front and a back, or a similar look found online. The moment we receive it, your order begins, so an unfinished design means redoing technical work, at a cost to you.

Add any fabric direction you have; we work out measurements ourselves, though a desired sample size or another brand's size chart helps if you have it. Everything technical from there is ours — send it all in writing and images, not on a call, and the intake form becomes the record we work from.

Yes. One style is enough to begin. You can also start with a tech pack and add the pattern later.

A style is one garment. A two-piece set — a top and a bottom, say — is two styles, each with its own tech pack and pattern, priced and ordered separately.

If you have a full collection, though, submitting your styles together lets the same Couture Patternmaker engineer them side by side — stronger cohesion in fit and proportion, and one technical design language across every piece, rather than one built up style by style. This matters especially for new brands who do not yet have that language established; building it across several styles at once, rather than one at a time, is what defines it for your brand.

No. "Couture" describes the technical level we work at, not a requirement for your brand. We apply the same Italian Alta Moda method to accessible luxury and ready-to-wear.

In practice, that means a level of fit, finish and attention to how the garment moves on the body that couture-level tech packs and patternmaking give any style — whatever category or price point your brand sits at.

No. Choose Pattern only and upload your tech pack at checkout. Our Couture Patternmaker reviews it before development begins.

A usable tech pack includes technical flats, construction and sewing callouts, points of measure and a bill of materials. If yours needs further work to reach that standard, we tell you exactly what is required — which may include a Couture Tech Pack for the style — before any pattern work starts.

The Couture Tech Pack is the technical document your patternmaker works from — flats, construction, measurements, materials and finishing.

The Couture Pattern is the physical blueprint the garment is cut and sewn from, hand-developed on the mannequin. The two are developed together so they never contradict each other.

The Couture Tech Pack and the Couture Pattern for a style, ordered together at €1,999 — the same total as buying the two separately, in one step. It is how we recommend beginning.

The tech pack as a PDF together with its editable source file. The pattern as a digital file, in a single base size. Your original paper draft — the actual pattern paper drafted by hand — can be prepared and shipped to you at checkout for €150, covering the labor to finish it for travel and the shipping itself.

The pattern is not size-graded, and it is not meant to be yet. Grading — producing the pattern across your full size range — is a separate later stage that only makes sense once a sample has been made and the pattern is finalised. A first pattern is a starting point; it is normally refined after you see your first sample.

Yes, entirely. They are the property of your brand, usable with any manufacturer, for the life of the brand. We retain no rights over them.

No. The pattern is the blueprint. The prototype is the first physical sample sewn from it, in your chosen fabric. The pattern comes first.

No. Your pattern is engineered to your style and your fabric direction — a target composition and behaviour is enough to begin. The exact fabric is confirmed and dialled in during sampling.

A Couture Tech Pack is typically 7–10 business days. A Couture Pattern is typically 1–3 weeks per style. Both are measured from the point we have your complete information, and both vary with atelier scheduling and time of year.

Sample development typically runs 4–6 weeks per round, and production typically 6–8 weeks — the industry standard for made-to-order work. Both depend on many factors: supplier lead times, your feedback schedule, the complexity of the style. Luxury couture is made almost entirely by hand, with hand finishes that simply take the time they take — these are estimates, not guarantees, and every project is different.

Luxury development works to estimated timeframes, not guaranteed dates. Timing depends on the garment, the fabric, artisan schedules, fittings and your feedback. We always give our closest realistic estimate and keep you updated as the work progresses.

Incomplete or unclear information at the start, slow or fragmented feedback, design changes after work has begun, and added scope. Every revision you request is added to the schedule.

Italian mills and ateliers also largely close through August, which can affect sourcing and sampling timelines.

One to two revisions are included in the price of the Couture Tech Pack — send feedback and we refine the document until it's right. Additional rounds are quoted separately. Your Couture Pattern is drafted once, precisely, by your Couture Patternmaker directly on the mannequin — engineered from your design and tech pack from the start.

Adjusting details within the same design — a neckline, a hem length, a measurement — is a revision. Changing the design itself — a different silhouette, added panels, a new construction — is a new style at a new fee.

Yes, but design changes are treated as new scope, quoted separately, and they extend the timeline. Revisions within your existing design are covered as described above.

Sample development is billed per round, starting at €299. The first round is your prototype: your pattern cut and sewn in your chosen fabric, then fitted, reviewed and corrected. Most collections settle in one or two rounds; you can go further to perfect a piece.

The exact price depends on your design's complexity, the fabrication and the finish requested — reviewed once your Technical Foundation is complete and we've agreed to take your project into sampling.

Each round is new physical work — cutting, construction, finishing and fitting. The price of a round covers that round only, and does not include fabrics, materials, trims or shipping. If you want another sample after reviewing the first, it is booked as the next round.

It will fit well, because it is built from a couture pattern. But seeing your design in your fabric for the first time almost always surfaces small aesthetic refinements — a neckline eased, an armhole adjusted. That is exactly what a prototype is for.

What you receive at purchase is a complete, professional Couture Pattern and Couture Tech Pack — genuinely usable, and the foundation your style is built on, not a draft.

Translating any design from a flat pattern into a physical garment for the first time is normal to refine, at any atelier, anywhere in the world — a fit correction here, a measurement eased there, once you can see and feel the real garment rather than its blueprint. That is not a flaw in what you bought; it is what the sampling stage is for.

Once your sample is approved, we update your pattern and tech pack to match it, so the final documents reflect the finished garment exactly — the same foundation, perfected.

This applies when you sample with us. If you take your pattern and tech pack elsewhere — by choice, or because sampling with us is not the right fit for your project — updating them to reflect your fitting is your own team's responsibility from that point on. We deliver both in an editable digital format for exactly this reason: any patternmaker can pick up from where we leave off.

Yes, once you are in sample development. Our sourcing time is complimentary; you approve and purchase the fabric itself. You are also welcome to supply your own.

No. Shipping is billed separately from the work itself — both when we send finished samples or your paper pattern to you, and when you send us materials such as fabric, trims or reference samples.

Customs duties and import taxes on anything shipped internationally are the responsibility of whoever is shipping it, and vary by destination country — yours on what you send to us, ours on what we send to you.

The Couture Tech Pack and Couture Pattern are open to everyone, on the store. Sample development and production are a separate step: once your Technical Foundation is complete, we send you a short application form to fill out via email, reviewing your planned styles and production quantities to confirm it is the right fit for our schedule.

Your Technical Foundation stands on its own either way — it is a complete, professional Couture Tech Pack and Couture Pattern, and it is not refundable on the basis of that decision. You are welcome to take it to any atelier or factory in the world for sampling and production instead.

Small batches of around twenty units per style, through to several hundred a month. Select exclusive or made-to-order pieces can be produced in smaller quantities at a higher unit price.

Per-unit pricing is confirmed after your final sample is approved, and reduces as your quantity rises.

Yes, as a separate pre-production service, priced according to your design and pattern pieces, and prepared from your approved base pattern and final sample. It is not part of your initial Couture Pattern, which is delivered in a single base size — grading a pattern before it has been proven in a sample would only have to be redone.

How you pay depends on the stage. Your Couture Tech Pack, Couture Pattern or Technical Foundation is paid in full upfront, checked out directly on our store.

Sample development is also 100% upfront, invoiced by our accounts team once your round is booked.

Production is billed differently: typically 50% upfront to begin and 50% on completion, before shipping. For select high-couture projects this can be structured as 70% upfront and 30% on completion — decided case by case for your project.

Your order confirmation and invoice list exactly what each payment covers. If you are ever unsure what a payment covered, that document is the reference — nothing is included that is not itemised on it.

Yes — pay in whichever currency is easier on your side.

No. Everything we make is custom, developed just for you and your style alone — it has no value to resell or repurpose, so it cannot be refunded. Development is also reserved time in our atelier schedule, and our digital deliverables cannot be returned once made. Fees are non-refundable once a development slot is opened or work has begun.

Short pauses can usually be accommodated around our schedule. A paused project resumes in the next available slot rather than immediately, and an extended pause may require re-booking.

Tell us specifically what is not right.

For your Couture Tech Pack, one to two revision rounds are included in the purchase — send us your edits and we update the document to match. Your Couture Pattern is drafted once, precisely, engineered from your tech pack and design from the start. If we have made a genuine error on our side, that is handled case by case — though with a Couture Patternmaker, that is rare.

For samples, the distinction is between a mistake and a refinement. If we used the wrong fabric or made an error on our side, we redo it for you at no charge. If you would simply like something adjusted — a neckline eased, a proportion changed — that is a normal part of product development, and the next round is booked and billed like any other; that is exactly what the sampling process is for.

Everything we make is custom, developed specifically for you, so we do not offer refunds — whether work is in progress or complete. We will always work with you to get it right within the scope you have booked.

The Technical Foundation is managed through a structured written process, ensuring every design decision and revision is documented clearly. If our Couture Patternmaker determines that live technical clarification is necessary, the atelier will arrange it.

Your completed tech pack is delivered for written review. Included revisions are submitted through the revision form so that every requested change is clearly documented. Calls are not included as part of the standard review process.

In principle, yes — for clients with an active development project, once the work has reached a point where seeing it in person genuinely adds something.

Whether and when a visit is possible depends on the atelier's schedule, the stage and scale of your collection, and the other projects in development at the time. Much of our work is under NDA, and access is coordinated carefully around it. If you would like to visit at some point, mention it once your project is underway and we will let you know what is possible.

In the meantime, development meetings run over video, and we document the making of your collection so you see it come together either way.

Yes. Send us your NDA and we will review and sign it before you share your designs.

Rome, Italy. Our atelier works entirely in English and Italian, so you never need to travel or speak Italian to develop your collection with us.