I think that’s a good point, some things are extremely obvious for some people and they don’t need any consulting on that subject. Good for them, but it may not be obvious for other people. That’s normal and that’s fine.

It is completely normal to hire a trainer for learning a new sport, why shouldn’t you do that for other skills. If you’re bad at picking clothes, you can easily spend way more than $175 on stuff that isn’t comfortable and you will never wear.

And if you look at people on the street, at least one third seems to be bad at shopping clothes ;)

> I didn't know what I didn't know.

so it was money well spent.

I believe Men’s and Women’s is 8-10% commission rate, but believe Kid’s is higher. Shopping in Men’s a single jacket from Armani runs about $1500-1800, formal trousers in the $350-500 range, decent jeans or shirts seem to be in the $150-250 range, tees they carry from e.g. Robert Barakett around $70.

It adds up and I feel like it’s hard to get out of there with a few new outfits for under $2000. It’s worth using their loyalty program [1] and worth considering their store card, although “Icon” status means spending >$15k per year on their store card.

If you end up liking Zegna then you’re up into the stratosphere at $3500-5500/ea for many of their items.

I guess it’s possible tips are appreciated if you’re going to visit, take an hour of their time and emerge with one $70 tee at the end? That’s not been my shopping experience, I don’t wear Zegna, but I usually buy a few pairs of Paige jeans and some Bugatchi shirts, perhaps a new merino wool pullover, probably some shoes. By the time I’m ready to spend 90 minutes in Nordstrom shopping and getting the tailor to measure for alterations, I’m usually looking for enough new stuff that the stylist will make $200-500 in commission.

[1] https://www.nordstrom.com/browse/nordy-club/manage-card/icon...

Edit: Oh, and worth knowing is Nordstrom does sales at the start of the AW season [2] for incoming items. It’s a quirk, and it’s worth timing some of your shopping to coincide because it’ll save you 15-30% off a lot of items!

[2] https://www.nordstrom.com/browse/anniversary-sale/details

Which means they will give you the clothes with the highest commission, and are going to tell you that those look best on you.