Why Clothes Look Different Online Than in Person (and Why Ours Don't)

Here's a little industry secret that brands would never say, but customers end up learning on their own: on most (if not all) e-commerce photoshoots, the clothes you see on the model are pinned, clamped, and tucked out of sight to make them look like they fit perfectly. And as someone who used to work as an e-commerce photo shoot coordinator, it does makes sense. Every model is a different size, and getting one standard sample to sit right on every body is genuinely tricky. So brands pin, everyone does it. If you’re in charge of that photo shoot, your job is to make sure that the clothes look amazing. That is your WHOLE job. If the samples come to you not fitting right, you have to make it work. That’s the truth, and most of the time photo shoot coordinators are not the designers of the clothing brand. When you are small like Triplicity, the founder is often the one doing just that.

I don't mean to brag, but I'm going to: we didn't pin a single thing at our photoshoot.

Our adjustable sizing was one of the main reasons for this. The waist tabs let a piece fit a range of bodies without one single clamp, pin, or tuck. But even the styles without that feature just... sat nicely. And the few things that weren't picture-perfect? We left them exactly as they were.

Here's why that matters to me. When a piece is pinned in the photo, you're seeing a version of it that doesn't exist once it's on your body at home. You order what looks like a perfect fit, and then it shows up sitting completely differently, and that gut-drop moment of "wait, this isn't what I saw" is the worst. I never want that for you. It’s also false advertising. Now of course what you see on the model and how you wear it at home might differ as everyone does have different bodies, heights, torso lengths, etc. But we are not faking the fit with pins, clamps or anything of the sort. We really put in the work with the designs and every little fit edit to make the pieces fit the widest range of bodies possible.

So when you look at a Triplicity listing, the photos and the videos are what you actually get. No pins, no clamps, no surprises waiting in the recycled paper bag with your item inside. What you see is what shows up at your door. We mean it!

That will not be a Triplicity girl's fate.

Shop the collection here. 

Xoxo, Arianna

A few questions I get

Do clothing brands really pin clothes on models?
Yes, very commonly. Pinning or clamping the back of a garment is a standard e-commerce trick to make it look like it fits perfectly in the photo.

Why do clothes look different online than in person?
Often because they were pinned, clamped, or styled to sit a certain way just for the photo. When the piece arrives, it fits like the real garment, not the pinned version you saw.

Does Triplicity pin its clothes in photos?
No. We shoot everything unpinned, so what you see in the listing is exactly how the piece fits in real life.