Character Design Tip: Fashion Style

[onyisart]

Are you working on a slice of life and your character's wardrobe seems to be lackluster? Basic? Dull? Boring?

Then gather your characters and

GO SHOPPING

Yeah, that's right, go shopping for your character like you would for yourself. I thought about this a long time ago because I didn't feel like being a fashion designer and push my brain to come up with stuff.

So I began going on sites like Shein, H&M, Forever 21, Hot Topic, Ralph Lauren, and etc to find clothes my characters might wear. With this, you can build a wardrobe for your character if you want.

Or

Make a Pinterest board and name it "xxx closet" or whatever you want really and find outfits they might wear there.

(An actual pin from Pinterest - one outfit BAM!)

The creator of Sailor Moon referenced high fashion for her designs in her manga! So if she can do it, so can you!

I love clothes in comics. I love it when characters are in outfits I can't afford . Idk why I just really love fashion in art.

Just something I thought I'd share if you're struggling.

[artemficta]

Pinterest is usually my go to for dressing characters, I have so many boards for different clothing types XD "Shopping" for characters is a great idea though.

[Lunar-Turtle]

It's easy, my boy is going straight for the biker style, lol

[onyisart]

All he would need is a leather jacket and boots! lol

[CommanderMarty]

I usually just give my characters what I take would look the coolest. (I do try to keep my clothing realistic though)

[VibrantFox]

110% this! Back when I was working retail in a mall department store I used to snap photos of some of the display outfits on the mannequins to use as inspiration then kinda homebrewed a bunch of them together into new outfits. Pinterest and other clothing store websites are also good for little moodboards and whatnot.

Even when it comes to fantasy stories I like to explore gear/clothing items in rpg/jrpg games that offer character customization or if I'm feeling adventurous try to find ways to turn modern day clothes to fit medieval/fantasy settings.

It's easy to say clothing/fashion isn't your thing but with enough motivation and willingness/ability to experiment you can get a lot of good stuff

[jordansearose]

I use Pinterest for outfit inspiration, but for some reason I've never thought of it like this. You just made my life a billion times easier, thank you.

[Kiweevil]

Anyone know the legalities of this? My comic takes place in the future features a character who is obsessed with "vintage" (late 2000's, early 2010's) clothing. I'd love to draw her with a wardrobe of legitimate clothes and brand names, but I'm a little scared to show anything exact.

[VibrantFox]

If you've got the time and patience coming up with knock-off logos/brands can work fairly well and if you don't want to risk making something identical to a specific brands piece you can take certain details you like and spin it into something else so that it's similar to what you want but not an exact copy

If you consider big name games like Splatoon or Animal Crossing where there's a ton of clothing options, some of which are very reminiscent or actual brands, you can look closely and see what they kept the same versus what they changes. Not to mention one of Splatoon's big boons is the fat that it's got it's own fictional "language/alphabet" that the designers were able to play with and make their own logos/brands/designs and so on

[onyisart]

Most people play with the names so instead of
Tommy Hilfiger it would be Tommie Hilfiger or Tammy Hilfigger. Something like that. Something people can recognize but not exact. Like instead of Starbucks someone would do Startbucks.

And adjust the logo to be recognizable. If you're in the US and watched the show iCarly they spoofed apple with a pear. So it was recognizable still

[MrOwl]

Tommy Hilfiger it would be Tommie Hilfiger or Tammy Hilfigger.

How about (River) Thames Hill Finger? Thank you for the tip, and another tip: create a moodboard.

[ealmcgowan]

YouTube fashion shows and clothing aggregators are good as well. I also like searching for old photos of people on the street (like Paris in the 60s).

[ScarletDemon]

Honestly, I use places like Wish or any of those like extremely cheap like obvious knock-off websites because usually, you can find anything and everything there, just type like a few words into the bar and you can find something.