Every week there are several conversations like this. In the photograph is a jacket, a skirt, or a gown that has hung on its hanger for years. The question is simple: can it be altered, and roughly how much?
I usually begin by apologising, because I cannot give the number. Not out of mystery; I genuinely do not know yet.
A photograph shows the style, not the condition
A photograph tells me what the garment is, roughly when it was made, and what family the fabric belongs to. It cannot tell me whether the fibre still springs back, whether the lining has gone brittle from time or dry-cleaning, how much seam allowance was left, whether the boning has aged, or whether the beadwork sits exactly on the seam I would have to open.
And these are exactly the things that decide how far a garment can go, and how much work it will take.
Sometimes one short seam has to be opened
A jacket is most honest on the inside. Open two inches of the side seam and you can see whether a previous tailor cut away the allowance, whether the canvas is fused or hand-padded, whether the lining still hangs in step with the outer cloth. Those two inches decide whether “taking it in” is an afternoon's work or means rebuilding the whole front.
So we say it plainly first: we need to open and inspect; if, once inspected, it should not be altered, we close the seam exactly where it was and return the garment as it came. This is not a sales step. It is how we stop you paying for the wrong direction.
Sometimes the best answer is “leave it”
There is one kind of conversation I always remember clearly. Someone brings in a garment they care about deeply, already prepared for a major change. After the inspection I tell her: this cloth can no longer hold the shape you want; go ahead and you will lose the part of it that is most beautiful now.
There is usually a pause, and then relief. What she wanted was not the alteration. It was for someone to look properly and tell her how she might keep it with peace of mind.
The price is the last step. Read the garment first, decide how to work, and the number appears on its own; a number you understand.