You don’t need a complicated legal document. In fact, those 10-page PDF contracts can scare away clients (especially startups).

For most freelance fashion clients, a simple email agreement will do.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or legal expert. Everything in this post is my experience, not legal advice. While a lot of tips here are from a lawyer I interviewed on the Fashion Designers Get Paid Podcast, I cannot be held legally responsible. Use your best judgment (and listen to that episode for more tips on contracts and protecting yourself as a freelance fashion designer)!

Free Email Contract Template for Freelance Fashion Designers

Here’s a sample email that checks all the legal boxes (and has worked for hundreds of our FAST students):

We cleared this with lawyer Andrea Sager (she specializes in contracts for creatives).

Here’s the deal – if you clearly outline the scope of work, timeline, payment terms, and confirm the agreement in writing (via email), that’s legally binding and can hold up in court in the unlikely case you don’t get paid.

What to Include In Your Email Contract

• Clear Scope of Work (what’s included, how many sketches, etc.)
• Timeline & Deliverables (including how they will receive the files)
• Payment Terms (hourly or flat fee, deposit required, final balance)
• Revisions Clause (how many, what happens if they want more)
• Extra Work Clause (extra requests = extra charges)
• Portfolio Use Clause (permission to share the work in your portfolio)
• Design Ownership Clause (i.e. “ownership of work transfers to [brand name] upon full payment”)

You will want to include a clear CTA (call to action) asking for confirmation. It can be as simple as, “Does that sound ok?” 

Then all you need is a “yes” in writing.

What About Formal Contracts As A Freelance Fashion Designer?

Email contracts are great, but as projects get larger (anything over $1k+ is a good benchmark) is when you may want to think about a formal contract.

You can consult a professional (I like UpCounsel) or pay for a template from a legit source like LegalZoom. 

Once I built my freelance career up and was charging more sizable rates ($5,000-$10,000+ projects), I paid to have a contract created. But before that, I just had a simple doc with the basic stuff that I’ve outlined here. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have held up in court (which I never got close to).

There are other tools out there that can help you with contracts, invoices, and proposals all in one spot, like Honeybook. Many of my FAST students use and like Honeybook, and I’ve hired freelancers who use it and had a good experience as the client.

(Psst! Yes, of course, we have all the freelance business templates you need like contracts, proposals, invoices, etc. inside FAST.)

Should You Get a Deposit as a Fashion Freelancer? (And if so, how much?)

At a certain price point, you do want to get a deposit. I personally do it for projects $200 and above. 50% is due at the start of the project, 50% due at completion is pretty standard and enough to protect you if anything goes wrong.

If the project is bigger ($1k and above), you can break it into 3 even payments, or for a 5 month project, you can do 5 monthly payments.

Figure out something that feels fair to both you and the client.

Just make sure you don’t start any work until the money comes through!

More Free Tips On Becoming A Freelance Fashion Designer

I have an entire podcast dedicated to freelancing in fashion called Fashion Designers Get Paid. I also wrote an entire step-by-step guide, The Ultimate Guide to Being A Freelance Fashion Designer. A lot of the content on my site is dedicated to freelancing, so dig around!