Question about clothing design...

Ok so I am a male BUT I want to make female clothing. How could I do this? I know it might seem like a seriously stupid question to some but I genuinely don't know.

You can make an alternate body shape for your main account, or you can make a second "alt" account that is female, if you want a model to test your clothing designs on. Lots of clothing designers have one or both of those setups, so they can test clothing for the opposite gender.

I've found the people here very helpful and lots of advice has been given.

The first thing I would suggest is asking what type of editing software you have (such as Photoshop etc).

Search here for clothing tutorials, I have a few links bookmarked on my home computer that I'll point you in the direction of... Either or take a look at the post started by me yesterday (it's toward the top of the second page on this forum).

Good luck

You can send me a copy of all your designs to try out.

Changing gender is as easy as putting on a tee shirt.

You can get a female shape from you Inventory under the Library listings.

I still have female shapes, skins and hair in my inventory from doing the same thing, making women's clothes. I eventually made an alt to do all my building. She is also my model for the product photos.

Why? That would be my question. There are thousands upon thousands of clothing articles for female AVs and some of them are very good.

Male AV's, however, seem to have to choose between baggy pants and a t-shirt or something belonging into an RP sim.
I truly wish that designers would finally get around to making MORE stylish clothing for men (as well as shapes that don't make their butts look like they're wearing diapers and arms that are about a foot too short, but that's a separate complaint). And why are their shoes the size of river barges and their boots apparently stolen from a transformer?
Not all guys hate to shop

^^ what he said

One user agrees.

*waves to Brann*

Guys need more quality clothing and accessories.

We are working hard on mens stuff, I promise. But our stuff is Grunge/Neko.. Feel free to hit us with requests for certain items.. If we make it and put it up for sale we will provide you with it free of course..

There are more women than men in SL.
Women, as a whole, like to shop and will do so as a past time.
Men will buy a suit, swimming trunks, a pair of jeans, a tee shirt and a set of tattoos and be content for life.
Women's cloths have style, flare and unlimited potential; Men's clothes have a rigid and conservative style -- even the the more flamboyant ones. You will never see a man in capri's, for example.
And in a similar fashion to the last point, women have pumps, sandles, maryjanes, clogs, flats, slingbacks and more. Men have boots and shoes.

Bottom line, at least for me, it was just more fun to make women's clothes.

My favorite accessories (hat and dark glasses) were made by a semi-frequent forum poster, Eclectic Wingtips. Drop by her store if you get a chance, you will be glad you did. Seriously.

*another sigh of agreement*

You CAN find stuff for guys, you just have to search high and low, be very selective, and be prepared to spend lots of lindens on crap you'll never wear because there was no demo and after buying it you find out it actually sucks. I won't list off my laundry list of clothing failures....

Ahem...
/me flashes her girl bits

I design unisex or pretty flamboyant Men's fashions because I like too
but not every guy want to wear a pink sexy satin jump suit with corset tied back
either.
That is cool.
I had fun making it. I sold one of them last week for 40L.
That covered my upload fees for the outfit.
I don't care if I sell second one. If I sell any more that is pure profit.
I don't care how wild my clothes designs are I like making them and
I don't care if it isn't traditional clothes rl guys would wear it my
world, my imagination I get to create and wear whatever I want
including Mary Jane's for guys
Hunter Stern made some nice clothes recently not sure if he released
them on XStreet.
Look him up there. He's got really nice masculine clothes but I am not
sure if released them publicly I hope he has.
There some others forgot their names but there one of rare few designers
I have ever bought any clothes from I am not inworld or I look them up.
But one does Victorian vest and the other does really nice modern men's suits.
There few others who do nice Pirate and fantasy wear I have bought from.
One I am not too sure if I really like what I bought I have too look them up
when I am in-world.
What type of clothes are you looking for?
Feel free contact me and I see what my guy friends who shop go shop at.
I have some male friends who are majorly into good clothes and find great
designs.
If you want some specific that you can't find ask me about it, I
can't promise it turn out but I am getting better at things.
I love making things I probably do it for free if you asked me.

Hehe thanks so much for the input so far. We are in fact making male clothing too not just womens Designs. I happen to also have lots of trouble finding good quality clothing for men too.

Amnesia: Thanks for helping clothing tuts and anything else you may have to help me would be extremely useful. I use Photoshop CS2 for creating.

Does anyone know of any male top or trouser alpha kits? Or point me to some tutorials for using the templates LL has provided?

Also whaat do you think of having $L1 demo's of my outfits? Would you pay $L1 to try on an outfit or would it be better if they were free?

most of your questions really would be better answered in the texture tips forum There are many pinned tutorials and threads with links etc.

and for me, men just stretch the hell right out of everything ((

If you're learning how to design what helped me and one of my friends
get started how to design in 3d is we invested in Avpainter.
It great tool for understanding clothing and uv template because
you see the avatar in 3d in uv suit and draw on.
Check out the texture forum too here.
I have some free templates of actual pants I was given but there
also the templates that Lindens made that have actual clothing layers that you can download too from the main site if you look under the Knowledge Base tutorials or downloads.
There is lot of great free resources and if you want to pay for tutorial
psd files to get idea there those too on Xstreet.
If you need any help JefferyDean I can help to but lot of it is just
practice, practice, practice.
Men uv's have difference in the chest, back and crotch but they
are very similar to Female UV's
Also you can make textures too and upload and get idea of how it looks
on the avatar.
One of my guy friends just did really cool texture using MS Paint for shirt recently.
So there is lot of options.

I shall see if I can find Avpainter. Thanks for the tips, and anything at all you have would be helpful!

I think it'd be super if all clothes, especially the more expensive ones or those that have a lot of prims, were available as demos.

I daresay this is not currently the practice because it will reduce sales of products that look better in the ad poster than in actuality.

B.

That's because many men feel the need to stretch their shapes into something ape-like.
I haven't tried it, but I imagine they just crank the sliders on shoulders and chest without giving the rest of their shape a second thought.

I guess it's only fair; we distort our female shapes in similar ways. Fortunately, many designers accommodate Barbie

The 1L$ demo is fine. It's more for tracking than a return anyway, although a little money back is never a bad thing.

Well- the ohter day, Brann I went to a store that had the dollar demo thing... it wasn't so hot an idea to me anyway- the picture on the board and the one i tried on were the same- i guess that is good since if it hadnt been i wd have noted it- but i could have save the one linden by reading the board. Also- the designer wd have to upload twice the textures- one with and one without the DEMO imprinted on the thing.

Im too learning how to create decent clothing... However, and it's sad to say, the market is definitely rotating around females in SL (Even though i've only been "born" for a few days).

Check out this link - http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/ Absolutely fantastic site.

The reason I want to create mens clothing is because I want to wear decent clothes... if people also want to buy, the so-be-it

Shoe and hair designers do it routinely, in various ways. I wouldn't even consider buying hair unless there is a demo for it. I'd like to have that option before buying more expensive clothes, too.

usually the shoe and hair demo's have the big demo sign on them, not the whole thing done in a new demo texture (I can see what amar is saying, for every outfit that is done as a demo, one would have to upload the parts twice, once normal once with demo on it)