A question to consumers!

I remember a thread recently called 'a plea to designers' and in it were a lot of different things that people want when they purchase an outfit.

So, lets say I am putting together a hypothetical outfit. I decide I want to have prim cuffs, and to offer 3 lengths of skirt with all the requisite glitch pants and skirt bases included. I also want to put in some flexi pantleg bottoms, and a pair of shoes. And the top is in 2 different styles (one a little more revealing than the other). So far I have about 18 things in the package lol...but wait! A LOT of people want the pants and tops on all the layers...omg thats...ok I'm not gonna add it up but now I have a box with like...ok I'll add it up. Ok I guesstimate: about 30 things in the box. Do you really want to buy an outfit with 30 things in the box to sort thru and figure out? What would this do to people's inventories lol...

One solution I thought of is to include ONE glitch pants and ONE skirt base and let people adjust them themselves on sliders for length.

Another of course is not to include so many parts to an outfit...

What do you want?

I tend to never wear tops of pants on the underwear layers unless i have to. Having thee top on both the shirt and jacket layer is a good thing though I think.

I dont mind a folder of things I have to sort through as i tend to dothis ayway. never wear complete outfits and will folder up the pants, top and dress seperatey anyway.

I thin options are good. Although it can be a bit overwhelming for a cnsumer I think it is a better option than say getting only a jacket layer when you wanna wear a jacket over the top

my concern is that people would click on buy and see a whole page of stuff come up and go OMG 'cancel' lol...

If it is set to a nie price and i see a whole page of items (not lms and junk) I go YAY

I've never canceled a clothing purchase because there were too many layers in the box. Never. I have walked away from things that came in too few layers though.

I don't know what the outfit looks like, but here is an interesting option I saw in a shop recently that I thought was a really clever idea.

I stumbled on a large display that turned out to be a build your own dress system. The dress itself was white, but any neutral solid color would work. There were several options for the top and skirt (short/long, lowcut/demure, tops with a bit of color and plain, etc). There were also matching bows and sashes in a variety of colors, and there might have been pants too. You purchased the items individually, but they were all designed to work together in a system, like the outfit you describe.

The boxes just had a picture of the item, but across the top of the display was an ad with a variety of models wearing different combinations of the component parts. I thought it was clever bc/ the buyer gets to purchase only what they want, and something that they feel is uniquely their style, and the creator could price the individual items very reasonably, rather than charging a bundle for the entire, complex outfit.

As I said, I don't know if this would work with the outfit your planning (and it takes more prims to set it up this way), but it might be something to consider.

OMG i LOVEEEEEE the sound of this!!!!!!

LM LM LM *lookscute * pllleeeaasee

I just logged out, but I will dig it up and send it tomorrow.

if you do have a bunch of options maybe include a texture of you modeling the different options so that ppl know what all the stuff in the box does and what goes with what.
however if the glitchpants are no mod i will not buy it no matter what.

(remember this is a hypothetical outfit)

but I never sell stuff no mod.

One thought I had was this:

I make a hot pink with green flowered hypothetical outfit! I include the top (which is of course the most highly detailed part) in all the layers, and include all the prim parts, and slap in a hot pink and green flowered texture I made to use on the skirt base, glitch pants part. and say make yer own darn skirts and pants! (obviously this would be only a base texture and not include any of the detailing that is on the top or the flexi parts, as it is meant for stuff you really don't see much of anyway). That's an option but some people might not want to do that part themselves (and of course someone could steal the hot pink and green flowered texture but again it is only a base texture).

Well I'm hoping I get some more ideas from this thread, have a few already, keep em coming!

OMG I drank too much coffee

oh my I love this idea and it would work perfectly for the shirt I just made...
(as you will see in a moment this shirt has a *cough* few options... this is a great idea, I totally need to think about this one) ty ty ty

talking about layers and options... OMG... here is my math for a shirt in 8 color options...

(this is what I WAS gonna go with)

top and bottom halves on jacket layer X 8
top and bottom on jacket with built in pants X 8
top and bottom on jacket with built in panties X 8
top half on shirt layer X 8
top half on undershirt layer X 8
bottom half on pants layer without pants X 8
bottom half on pants layer with built in pants X 8
bottom half on pants layer with built in panties X 8
bottom half on underpants layer X 8
bottom half on underpants layer with built in panties X 8

so far for the shirt it is 80 pieces of clothing (yes you read that right)
now... I also have this shirt so it exposes left breast, right breast and bothso now... multiple the jackets by 3 more times each (one time for each open version)
and the shirts and undershirts by 3 more times each (one time for each open version)

That would be (if my math is right) a total of.... 208 pieces of clothing for the entire color pack
(this is why I was asking about layers the other day) heh.... well... I cut it back to less options, but still plenty of options
still has the open versions, just now the jacket version doesn't have the built in pants and panties, the only parts that have that is pants and underwear

I would have to go in world and see what exactly I decided upon (still ended up being a ton of pieces)

so ... when folks think about the time that goes into making something, see how many pieces and options there are.. then figure how long it takes to put the item on, change texture then rename it

(and if you are like me and forget to set the permissions first, you end up having to set perms on all those pieces of clothing)

ugh.. it is a tedious slow process (I love the photoshop work, but the putting them together and all that is borrrring)

I have a feeling if you did it that way, you would not sell any, except maybe folks who want the texture

people buy clothes because they either can not, or do not want to make them (or sometimes it just really catches their eye)

If I were to visit a store that did that, I would wonder why they even sell stuff, if they just want me to make my own hehe
(that would also lead me to wondering if they did indeed make the other stuff)

bed time, night night

Personally I shop where the designers DO make a unique texture for the glitch pants. Having a neat seam at the bottom of my cycling shorts means a lot to me. Yeah, I'm really picky

Just my two pennies worth on the layers thing...I very rarely use the undershirt layer for tops or jackets. In fact, I normally just delete the layers of clothing that are undershirt or underpants (so long as there are shirt and pants copies of course).

Even as a builder, I wouldn't be keen on having to make my own glitch pants. Although having a basic copy of the texture would be handy for making prim accessories like hairbands and stuff.

One of my favourite stores is Dutch Touch and I think the way she packages up her stuff is perfect. Lots of layers and almost all of her outfits can be mixed and matched really easily so they're great value for money.

Just DO NOT include a pose stand!

/me walks away, tossing pose stands from side to side

I think people would be more likely to go, "Wow! So much stuff for just $___L?" and snap it up. Personally I'd just feel like I was getting more value for money and would probably be more inclined to buy.

I never have a problem with multiple layer versions of clothes, but must admit that I rarely wear the underwear layers of outer wear. Panties don't flare, and wearing prim attachments to mimic the flare? Sorry, but no, I'm not too fond of those.

What I usually do, is sort the pieces of my outfits into worn and not worn sub folders. The not-worn folders I occasionally draw from to assemble new outfits from several others thrown together, it's not too hard to find otherwise too long or too short skirts/dresses, a variety of tops and whatever else I need there.

I *do* like lots of layers, so I can mix&match outfits.

In particular, I hate it when blouses/tops are only on the Jacket layer, as it means I can't wear a jacket or anything on top (I am in the UK so for most of the year it seems strange not to be wearing a cardigan or jacket!).

I also hate low-rise trousers (pants), so have been known to wear a belt (on the jacket layer) to fill the gap - which, of course, I can't do if the shirt is on the jacket layer...

So personally I definitely prefer underwear+shirt versions of long blouses.

My suggestion would be not to box up the whole outfit together - keep the top, trousers, shoes etc separate, and offer them near to each other (like someone else suggested) with example mix & match photos, and offer each colour separately.

I guess if you end up offering a Fatpack (as well) with 80 items (or whatever) people will think they're getting good value.

You could also throw in a kitchen sink!!!

If you include many layers for everything and many options for how it can be worn, definitely include a picture showing it being worn different ways and maybe even a notecard with a bit of explanation of which layers go with which (I received such a notecard with a very very versatile outfit from a store once and loved it). Also, be sure to name each piece very accurately so that I can easily tell what part of the outfit it is.

Many women want Copy option, but a few of us prefer Transfer. However, on outfits like this, if the option is Transfer, then you need to be sure to include enough copies/layers so that true outfit folders can be created without needing to copy anything. For example, if there are 3 skirt lengths, I will want 3 folders and will therefore need to somehow have the required layers of the top and pants to be able to do that.

I have seen a few shops that gave you the option of getting Copy or Transfer -- see this post:
/327/ac/274749/9.html#post2101704

One place I know of that has this is Callie Cline: http://slurl.com/secondlife/caLLiefornia/178/86/27
If it drops you outside the store, go into the first room on the left after you enter.

Personally I prefer my clothing layers to be copy, no transfer, so I can make my own little outfits in seperate folders to suit my likes
Those shoes are often a problem for this as most seem to be no copy which means I can't just use 'replace outfit' without having to find the shoes in another folder somewhere.

Multiple layers are a good thing!! I am more likely to purchase an outfit if it comes in multiple layers.

As an aside - I do not like prim cuff attachments on the bottom of pants and rarely wear them. If I cannot modify the flare on the bottom of the pants legs, I usually do not purchase the pants...

I too have increased the amount of items a customer will get with each purchase and had the same concerns. I would suggest boxing your items seperatly. So maybe 2 boxes, 1 is the standard outfit that is modifiable and 2 is all the other stuff you were on about.

So when a customer goes to purchase they see 2 objects (the boxes described above) a LM and a Notecard explaining whats in each box. Once they purchase they can read the notecard and then make a concious decision as to whether they wanna unpack the box containing 30 variations into their inventory.

I have to disagree with this. These days, if I cannot see the individual pieces in the buy box, so that I can see the exact layers available and the Copy/Mod/Transfer permissions, I will not buy it. That being said, you could include a box of some of the extra pieces, but leave all of the main components unboxed so the buyer can see them.

Wow, I LOVE prim cuffs...I've all but stopped buying pants which don't include them. The maximum length on pants is still too short, especially for heels, and the prims make up for that. They also camouflage that weird skin-colored 'filling' you can see on the underside of default pants when they're worn without the cuffs.

I agree prim cuffs look great if done well. However i do see somedone really badly. My favourite are my Last Call jeans. They use sculpty prims to get a bit of wrinkle and ruffle to look just right