Frequently Asked Questions

LookSmart transformed alterations into an industry, by establishing over 100 stores in New Zealand and Australia. Our mission is to service customers with our heads, hearts and our hands, to deliver a seamless experience that creates a positive impact on people, their clothes and on the planet. To our customers, we guarantee hems for life, and a refit guarantee. So they can be confident in trusting us with their clothing.

How long is a piece of…thread? There are so many kinds of garments and so many ways these can be altered, and different deadlines for the work to be completed. The most accurate way to price a garment is bring it in to one of our stores in New Zealand, so our tailors can provide you with an obligation free quote.

We are located in every major city in New Zealand, with multiple locations across CBDs. To find your closest location, visit our Store Locations page.

Yes certain stores do provide dry cleaning. You can search by service and location on our store locations page to confirm the service you want is available, where you want.

Selected LookSmart stores have specialised machines and materials specifically designed to provide high quality embroidery results. To find one near you, check out our store locations page or embroidery services page.

Yes. If you have a picture from a magazine, a photo or even your own drawing our experienced dressmakers will collaborate with you to bring your dream dress to life. Find your nearest dressmaker here (select dressmaking category in search filter).

Yes! We can shorten and hem standard pants within the hour and always aim to complete minor repairs and simple alterations in the same day, depending on the work already in progress. Complex alterations may require more time so we can ensure we provide you with the right fit and quality. If you need a more complex alteration done faster, ask our team about our Express service.

Good question. It can be easier to understand this via the exclusions. Standard pants and jeans, don’t require an original hem which is more complex alterations work. It also excludes any bottoms with wide legs (greater than 22cm), wider than 2cm hem stitching width, cuffs, split, zips or double stitch. If ever unsure about your alterations quote please ask our tailors, they will be happy to explain the work to you.

In short, yes you can. If you need the garment sooner than our tailor has quoted you, ask for the cost and delivery time of express. Express starts from $5 but will depend on the garment and work needed.

Express for standard jeans and pants shortening is just $5, to get it done on the same day or even within the hour! With more complex alterations Express costs and timing depends. Please ask for the Express quote if you want a garment ready sooner than our tailor advises. Our standard is 2-3 days for Express alterations (excluding bridal dresses, for obvious reasons!).

An original hem is a finishing technique, specifically for jeans. The original finish on the jeans is cut off, and reattached at the new length, like a binding, so you retain any original dye or distress hem finishes at your new length.

Most stores provide dry cleaning through local partners. Dry Cleaning Service takes anywhere from 2-5 days, with excess staining, specialist materials like leather or bridal pieces taking longer.

Generally, alterations is altering an existing garment, to achieve the perfect fit such as hemming, tapering, lengthening. When you make, add to or embellish a garment, for example, add lining to a jacket, this is considered dressmaking or tailoring.

Altering can be more complicated than making clothing, and takes considerable skill and time to get right. Whether it’s expensive can also depend on the cost or value of the garment to you. If you are ever unsure why an alteration costs what it does, please ask our expert tailors. They will be able to explain what is involved in achieving your desired look.

No at all! Just try the garment on as you are going to wear it, and we will manage the pins and pinning from there.

For sure! Let your local store know you need the alterations by a very hard deadline so they can advise on this. If you need it faster than our tailors have advised, ask about the Express service to guarantee a faster turn around time. If there is a large group it’s good to call ahead, as fitting a group may require more time.

Importantly, by allowing LookSmart New Zealand to communicate with you we can notify you when your garment is ready for collection. We can also let you know about business and store updates as well as specific promotions that might be of interest to you. And of course you can opt out any time.

We would advise yes – also as we guarantee the life of the hems for pants we pin and sew. At least, we would advise you try on the pairs that are not from same company, or not the same size and style.

Yes, if there is a specific shoe you are likely to wear your outfit with. That way we can achieve the correct length. This is important for men (as heels have become more varied) and especially for women where different shoes change the look of the dress/pants they pair with.

This is definitely possible. Most dresses don’t have enough fabric to be let out significantly. When there is not enough fabric to let out we can add a panel to the back (like a corset) or the sides to create the extra size and space.

The best thing is to visit one of our stores and discuss your alterations goals with our professional tailors.

Yes, on most men’s trousers there is seam allowances for letting out. Otherwise, we can add panel on waistband to increase the size for you. There are lots of ways to alter and refit pants to look great on you. Learn more on our Pants Alteration page!

Yes, we can. Working with stretchy fabric is trickier than standard fabric. It can require our tailors to change the needle on a standard sewing machine, or use one of our cover stitch machines.

We’ve fixed lots of holes to help customer get more wear out of their woolen clothes. Depending on where the hole is and the size of the hole, we can mend it by either patching the hole taking in from the seams. We also provide an invisible mending service, at specific stores.

Yes we can. We let down as much as the seam allowance and fabric of the garment allows us to do. If that isn’t enough to achieve your desired length we can also potentially maximise the length by adding fabric inside for hemming..

You can pin yourself, but we advise coming in for a fitting so one of our team can pin you. If we have taken care of the alteration for you from start to finish, you are protected by our guarantee as well.

While we all thread and some basic buttons and zippers, unfortunately it is impossible for us to stock all the items and fabrics our 1 million customers per year may want for an alteration.

If there is specific haberdashery or fabric you want your clothing finished in, please bring it to our store so you can get the exact alteration, repair or upstyle you desire!