You can't please everyone, but who should you try to please most?

I'm going through a professional mini crisis. Things must be bad when I type a blogpost from my difficult phone touchscreen.  I really just need to get this out and to hear from my colleagues and teachers.

The first rule if styling that I learned was to forget all my personal likes and dislikes.  Dressing someone is totally about that person; their needs, personality and preference. With fashion design it is somewhat similar, but you get to create the identity of your client.  Luckily for me, I fall right into my target market, so I can use my personal opinions to make judgements and decisions.

Now with Carnival it's different. Your target audience is very wide in terms of what their tastes are. Costumes must be designed in a way that pleases a whole plethora of personal styles and comfort issues. They must also fall within a specific budget,  look original though not too much, and be simple to reproduce. What did I get myself into?

I built a prototype that reflected the theme in a somewhat literal, yet very sexy, trendy and fashionable way. As I have been reminded time and time again, Carnival is not fashion, so my design had to be changed drastically.

I defended my work strongly, having an explanation for every decision,  every bead, every gem- but the band leaders wouldn't have it. Remembering to please the client first,  I caved and transformed the entire thing to resemble a more mainstream design.

Still, they were not satisfied.  They fought me on the colour and the shape;  the only two elements that were true to my personal aesthetic. I felt frustrated.  Less and less this work looks like mine. Despite begging them to trust me, I decided to again put the client first. I did not sleep, thinking of ways to give them what they want without compromising my vision. Eventually I decided, hey, business is business. They're paying me to give them what THEY like so let me just  give it to them.

I made further changes and I'm not pleased with the turnout.  Not am I practically absent in it, I plainly do not like it. I cannot stand behind it nor justify why I put what where. I am yet to reveal the re-design to them. I hope they appreciate the effort and find what they wanted all along in it. I however do not feel that sense of accomplishment that you get when you give birth to the ideas that incubated in your mind.

So I ask you, who really is the one to please? The feeling I have right now tells me I should have stuck to my guns and stood behind my work, but I think it's an equally shitty feeling to invest so much time and money into a client project and not be paid for it.  Tell me, what would you do in this situation?

A Few Days Later

I had a heart-to-heart with a fellow costume designer who gave me phenomenal support and advice. He said to step back and look at the costume; as difficult as it might be, with eyes that are not mine. Think about the comments I have been getting and welcome them as truth. He said to make changes little by little. I took his advice and went in with a pair of scissors. The costume is way past my vision for it, but strangely enough I think I see myself in it again. Only when I was willing to divert from the path I laid down for myself have I been able to see the goal ahead. Now excitedly I am making more changes and really liking where this is going!