People ask about clothes before they ask about anything else, and they are right to. Fabric, weight and colour do a lot of the work in a portrait, and the wrong shirt pulls the eye away from the face. We talk it through before the session so nobody is standing in front of a wardrobe at seven in the morning.
The clothes that look right on camera are usually the ones already hanging at the front of the wardrobe. They fit, they move with you, and you stop thinking about them within a minute of putting them on. Something bought the day before tends to sit stiffly, and the stiffness reads.
Wool, linen, cotton and denim hold shape and catch light in a way that stays interesting. Very shiny synthetics bounce hard highlights that fight the soft window light we work in. Fine stripes and tight checks can shimmer against the sensor, so we keep those for wider frames where the pattern sits smaller.
Muted colours let the face lead. Deep green, oatmeal, charcoal, navy and off-white all sit well against the studio walls and against most rooms we shoot in. A strong colour works when it is the point of the picture, and we plan the frame around it when it is.
Two or three outfits give the session a shape. We start with the one you feel steady in, because the first frames are about settling. The later changes are where the looser, more surprising pictures usually turn up.
Press what needs pressing, check hems and cuffs, and bring the shoes you would wear with each look. Jewellery works best when it belongs to you rather than to the occasion. If you wear glasses every day, wear them: the picture should look like the person who walks into the room.