How important are "signature" clothes to you?

[miseryhunting]

I came to a revelation while getting dressed this morning.
My comic has two girls as main characters and I realized I was wearing what one of them is usually wearing. Then I realized I had replica of her jacket as well in my closet and also, that both my characters wear really simple clothes. So simple, in fact, that if you wanted to cosplay them, you needed 5 bucks and a Primark.

I didn't really spend time to think about my choice of clothes, but even I know that when designing characters, it's best to give them a memorable outfit. Or so I thought?

So what has your experience been in designing your characters signature look and how much do you value this in the comics you read? Do you find simple clothes might make the characters unappealing or easy to forget?

[AnnaLandin]

I feel like there is value in considering what your characters are wearing and why - it's part of their personality and context in the setting - but sometimes "simple" is what fits the character and situation.

Sometimes your character IS the type to wear jeans and a t-shirt, and that's fine; you just have to put more effort into a.) making sure the rest of their design is visually interesting, and b.) make them memorable through what they say and what they do in the story.

[joannekwan]

Clothes are a good clue-in to a character's personality or beliefs, but they shouldn't be the whole character. Clothes don't make the man!

And I can see how it's harder to design a memorable outfit when you're dealing with contemporary everyday people, but people usually gravitate towards certain styles or color palettes.

[Mane]

Clothes can become an essential part of the character design even if they don't serve any practical purpose like armor or something like that. Think of Goku and his orange gi. Or even better, the Scooby Doo gang and they're outfits. Even though I know they've been shown with different clothes too, I'm 90% sure most imagined them in their classic 70's clothes. Though usually these signature clothes we're the result of wanting to simplify the drawing/animation process it turned out to be good way of making the character memorable.

As for me, rather than signature clothes, I try to go with a signature style. Whenever we change the day or scene, I try to have my characters in different clothes.

[Ringarune]

I guess it really depends. In my comic my characters change their clothes a lot, but they each have their own style. One wears rather sporty and simple clothes while the other wears fancier outfits. Those clothing choices help at least a little to distinguish their personalities I think.

[Pandastrophic]

You can definitely use the characters outfits to show their personality, I like giving my characters all their own style of clothing it makes things much more fun designing new clothes for characters and also makes it easier since my characters change clothes everyday in comic time.
Here's an example:

Better view of this here
Also even if the characters wear simple clothing they can still add a little something to show personality, maybe a character who's more confident is ok with showing more skin, character who often gets cold would wear more layers.

[Zanreo]

For me, my characters are personifications and their clothes are part of their design in what they represent, so along with "what a character like this would wear" I often throw in little shoutouts to iconic characters/series/symbols, ect. from that game company, even if just by color scheme. So I'd say they're important for my designs. I very occasionally draw them in other outfits and in that case I go for a "general style"

[Reraser]

Just me personally, I have more fun with stuff that is iconic. The way I express characters, I like tying their outfit strictly to their personality, even if it can get into nonsensical territory. If forced to choose between either cycling out real outfits or creating Jojo's Bizarre Adventure-level nonsense wardrobes, I would choose the latter because I care more about the iconography.

And I am personally just more attached to a signature outfit/really interesting core set of aesthetics! Like many, I love Breaking Bad, but Gus Fring always immediately stood out to me as a character because he wore really sharp, interestingly colored suits. He had a costume of sorts. I found that I connected with that, even though I could have absolutely no expectations that anyone would wear something extravagantly iconic.

In that same vein, albeit a much less eh... well-maintained series, the show Supernatural- the angel character Castiel always has the same outfit, for Reasons. And I found it cool. Something more significant than just Colored Boy Jacket.

[WakaXO]

I think it really depends on the characters and the story setting. In my own comic the characters casual clothing wasn't too important to make unique, as its set in modern day Canada, I just pick from the trends I see around me (though I did pick certain styles for certain characters). But for my costumed/vigilante characters, I had to put special thought into the design of the costumes. In most cases I appreciate when special attention is given to characters outfits, showing off a characters personally/style through their clothing is such a simple trick that really works. (show don't tell )
Or in the case of a fantasy/ historical setting making the clothing unique or accurate becomes a most, its something that if done right could attract readers just because of the rad clothing. XD

[jennula]

I think I'm doing the same thing as @Ringarune, my characters have their distinct clothes styles and colors on their clothes that they enjoy wearing, but can probably change their casual clothes every now and then. Also, they have their "battle suits" that uses about the same color schemes and are supposed to distinguish them a bit more. But yeah, maybe that's the closest to their signature outfits for me =) And I usually try to stick to a shilouette and color scheme of the character regardless of what they wear.

[punkarsenic]

I think signature clothing is important in the way it can be used A: to differentiate, and B: to symbolise. Like, if one character is wearing smth with a design or logo - something no other character is wearing - it makes it easier for the reader to identify and remember that character.
Then, that clothing can be useful in things like colour - colours such as yellow and red stand out more, so if you give your main character a yellow garment, focus is on them. And then, you can single out the colour of their garment, only using it in things that you want to link back to that character - suddenly, there's another character wearing yellow, what's the connection? The reader will subconsciously make these links, making your job easier.

[miseryhunting]

Thank you for the awesome replies, guys! I guess few of those thinks DID come naturally - one of the characters is a much too careless, positive person and her wardrobe is mostly light, worn clothes. The other one is serious and pessimistic and likes wearing mostly black/grey longsleeves She will have a signature scarf too, but I think what worried me really was that I thought I might be too limited. I AM in the habit of drawing only clothes I like wearing, which sucks if I want to draw a more eccentric/unusual character.

[MissMagicGirl]

In my comic: https://tapastic.com/series/magicadvisor The characters switches clothes but always has the same style, silluett, patterns and colors. Like my main character:

So she is the same and has her signature style but still switches clothes

[bsawyer]

I've found with my series Zounds, Alack, and By My Troth that signature clothes work really well. Partly that's because of the simpler black and white art style, but also because most of my characters pop in and out on occassion rather than appearing on every page, so making their look as specific as possible makes it easier for readers to keep track of them. Also, because my series is based on Shakespeare plays, I like to try and make them the archetypal version of those characters, so Hamlet is as Hamletty as he can be.

I find with female characters in period costume that clothes usually end up defining a character's appearance to a much greater degree than with modern dress, because they're all wearing corsets and floor-length dresses. By contrast, my men are mostly in tights, so their body shape tends to lead the design.

[purrlpankras]

When making clothes for my characters I didn't want to fall into that 'they NEVER change their clothes category' So I gave them
a fashion sense of their own instead. I kinda enjoy changing their outfits too.

[R.n.P]

You're lucky since you can easily dress like your characters, my character clothing are mostly uniform so I can't see myself getting them real life especially when they look like this
And these clothing are not only a uniform to them, it is basically a must for me to draw them fighting only in these particular clothing if not I will jumble some things up and end up messing up their consistency in a battle
THE LAST SAMURAI

[KSlinger]

For me the main purpose of clothing is to give signals. I wouldn't have enjoyed GoT nearly so much if I wasn't able to spot members of a certain cult/country/family from the way they dressed and the shades they wore. I want that colour-coded simplicity for West too. I do like the idea of creating unique items for certain people, though-- Jed's coat, for example, is unique in that world-- but I dunno if I could manage making everyone's outfits signature like that. These things take time to draw!

Also more and more I'm realising that when I watch series like One Piece, GoT, Over The Garden Wall, Adventure Time, I'm silently comparing those projects to my own work, forgetting that there are TEAMS of people working on various aspects of the stories. A bunch of people making decisions on colour, a bunch more designing the clothes and characters, a ton more painting the backgrounds. One person alone can only be called upon to do so much work and tbh I'd rather focus on getting through the story and completing it than getting caught up trying to incorporate more complexity into elements that need only be very simple.