Wardrobe Fittings 101: What Happens Before the Shoot
The Appointment Between Booking the Job and Filming It
Your child booked the job. Congratulations. Before the shoot day arrives, there is one more appointment on the calendar that surprises first time parents: the wardrobe fitting. It sounds like a quick try on, and sometimes it is. But fittings are real work sessions with their own etiquette, and kids who handle them well get remembered by costume departments, who talk to everyone. Here is what actually happens at a fitting and how to make it go smoothly.
How a Fitting Usually Goes
First: sizes get confirmed. The costume team checks the sizes on file against your actual child, because kids grow faster than paperwork updates.
Then: options get tried. Your child may change through several outfits while the designer and sometimes the director weigh in on the look of the character.
Next: photos get taken. Wardrobe shoots reference photos of every look so the costume matches perfectly across filming days, which can be weeks apart.
Finally: the clothes stay put. Nothing goes home with you. The chosen outfits remain with production until filming wraps.
The Rules That Make Kids Welcome Back
Arrive in clothes that are easy to change out of, skip anything with logos, and bring snacks and patience in equal measure. Under union contracts, fittings count as paid work time, and a parent or guardian stays present the entire time for a minor. One warning worth repeating: after your child books, do not cut their hair, and do not let them get a surprising new style. Continuity depends on the actor matching the fitting photos.
Patience is genuinely the job here. A fitting can run an hour of standing still while strangers pin hems and debate shoe colors, and the kids who stay pleasant through it make an impression that reaches beyond the costume rack. Crews remember cooperative young actors, and crews get asked for opinions more often than parents realize.
Fittings also teach a professional habit: costume is part of character. Kids who train seriously, like the students in our Junior Varsity and Varsity programs, learn early that every department on set is a partner in their performance.
What Parents Should Bring
Pack like it is a long appointment, because it might be. Snacks, water, and a quiet activity for the waiting periods will save the day. Your child should arrive in something easy to change out of, with no logos anywhere, and camera neutral: no fresh haircut, no temporary tattoos, nothing that changes the look they booked with. If production sent paperwork ahead, bring it completed rather than filling it out in the lobby.
Treat the costume team like the professionals they are. A parent who is patient, prepared, and pleasant gets remembered, and costume designers work on dozens of productions a year. In a town built on relationships, the fitting is quietly an audition for the next job too.
Ready for the First Fitting?
Professional habits start in class. Book a free interview and get your child training like a working actor.