What to Wear for your portrait session
The one rule
Dress as though you were going to a black-tie evening, or dining somewhere you'd remember.
You are the subject of the portrait. Clothing exists to frame you, not to compete with you. Dark, solid, richly saturated fabrics do this best — they hold the eye at the face and hands, which is where a portrait lives.
Long sleeves are more flattering than short. Jackets, shawls, wraps and coverings give the print structure and let us control where the brightest area of the frame falls. Skin is the brightest thing in most portraits, so the more of it exposed, the more the eye wanders away from the face.
Dress completely, from shoes to jewelry. Bare feet are welcome on infants, and on adults where it suits the portrait — just have them prepared.
Color
Black, charcoal, navy, deep royal blue, burgundy, forest and olive greens, aubergine, and deep browns flatter nearly every complexion. Let accessories carry the color — a tie, a scarf, a piece of jewelry, a shawl.
One note specific to this studio: many of our commissions are printed in platinum palladium or carbon transfer, which are monochrome processes. In monochrome, hue disappears and value is everything. A red and a green of identical brightness become the same grey. So coordinate tonally as well — keep the family within a similar range of dark, and let texture and embroidery do the work that color would have done. It's one reason heavily worked fabrics photograph so beautifully in these processes.
Men
Tuxedos and suits, sherwanis, ethnic jackets every time. Bring the jacket even if you don't think you'll want it — a shirt alone reads as unfinished under studio light, and creases show. Dark socks, dark shoes. If your outfit is the more colorful one in the family, let the tie be where the color lives.
woMen
Formal gowns, sarees or ensembles falling below the knee. Bring a shawl, wrap or jacket — options in the studio are always better than options at home. Darker fabrics are more forgiving across every physique, and a defined neckline and sleeve give the portrait its architecture.
families
Choose one palette and hold everyone to it. A green dress beside a pink one beside a blue jacket beside a black tuxedo is four decisions, and the portrait shows all four.
Pick the scheme first, then let each person find their own piece within it. Simple, elegant, dark, consistent.
Heritage and cultural attire
You are warmly invited to be photographed in the formal dress of your own culture. A saree, a lehenga, a sherwani or kurta, a hanbok, a cheongsam, an agbada, an abaya, a kimono — these are among the most beautiful things a person can be photographed in, and they belong in a legacy portrait as much as any tuxedo does.
Three conditions, and they are the same three we'd ask of black tie:
It should be your finest. Formal, not everyday. The heirloom piece. The one that was kept.
It should be coordinated. If one person is in heritage dress and another is in a suit, that can work — beautifully — but it has to be deliberate, matched in tone and formality, and decided in advance. What doesn't work is a family arriving as four separate ideas.
It should be planned well before the session. Draped garments need time and hands: a saree pleated and pinned properly can take half an hour, and it cannot be rushed in a changing room ten minutes before we begin. Bring the pins you trust. Come pre-draped if you can, and we'll handle the finishing touches.
Tell us at the consultation what you intend to wear. Heavy zari, gold thread, mirror work and dense embroidery all catch light in specific ways, and knowing in advance lets us plan the lighting and choose a backdrop that gives the fabric room instead of fighting it. Jewelry that carries family history is not a distraction — it's often the point.
Where prints are involved: bold ornamentation reads as texture rather than pattern, which is why it works. Fine repeating prints and busy small-scale patterns are the ones to avoid, in any tradition.
Please avoid
— Stripes and heavy graphic patterns
— Mixing dark and light across the group
— Words, logos, slogans or images on clothing
— Casual attire. It sits at odds with the sets, the studio, and the print itself
— Anything brand-new and untried. Wear it once at home first.
Before you arrive
Lay everything out the night before, down to the shoes and the cufflinks. It removes almost all of the morning's stress and buys us session time we'd otherwise spend hunting for a missing belt.
You're welcome to change at the studio — arrive ten to fifteen minutes early if you plan to. If your commission includes several people, dress ahead of time and leave only the finishing touches for us.
Bring more than one option. Some of the best portraits we've made came from a second choice pulled out of a garment bag.
Things that belong in the portrait
Bring what matters. Books, instruments, a degree, a uniform, a piece of jewelry passed down, a photograph of someone who can no longer sit with you. Pets are family and are welcome, with the understanding that they stay with their owner throughout and that animal portraiture isn't our specialty.
In a solo portrait, an object does something clothing can't: it tells us who you are when you're not being photographed. The violin you've had since you were nine. The fountain pen. The chisel with a worn handle, the camera, the cricket bat, the well-thumbed book, the surgical loupes, the ledger. A single well-chosen object gives the hands something honest to do and gives the portrait a subject beyond the face — and a century from now it's the detail your descendants will point at. One or two, not a collection: the object should look like it belongs to you rather than like it was placed there.
If an idea occurs to you the night before, bring it anyway.
If the object is too large to carry — a workshop, a studio, a stable, a study — we can come to you instead.
Details
- Nails manicured as desired; bare feet pedicured as desired.
- Wear the jewelry that means something. This is the occasion for it.
- No drastic hair changes in the weeks before, and nothing falling across the eyes.
- Cosmetics natural to you — the portrait should be recognizably you in twenty years. If you'd like professional hair and makeup, ask and we'll recommend someone.
- Men wanting a clean-shaven look should shave about an hour before the session time.
- Allow everyone enough time to shower and prepare without hurrying.
