Choosing an outfit for your OCs!

Outfits might be one of the most important parts of character design! The outfit your OC wears is often one of the first things people will notice about your character. Their fit can give clues about your OC’s personality, occupation, and more! So what kind of clothes should you give them? There’s lots of ways you can go about outfit design, let’s take a look!

Picking a Setting

One thing you can consider when choosing an outfit is the setting of your OC. While not always, the setting of your story can often affect your character. It wouldn’t make the most sense for a character to be wearing ski gear in the desert…unless that’s a part of their story! Setting isn’t limited to location alone though, it can also include the culture, time period, and season, alongside other things. Here are some things to consider about the setting of your character when picking an outfit:

• What genre is the story?
• What time period is your OC in?
• What’s the weather like in their area?
• Does their culture impact the way they dress?

The setting can tell your audience about the world surrounding your OC, without you having to say anything at all! It can influence various aspects of your character’s design, and inspire how you go about their attire! It’s pretty simple too! Try thinking about what the weather is like around your OC. Colder areas call for thicker clothing to keep warm, and hotter areas need lighter clothing so that the wearer doesn’t overheat! The time period is important to think about as well, as different time periods have unique styles unlike the times after or before. You can try incorporating design choices you would see in your OC’s time period!

Based on the previous questions, you can get a general idea of the style of clothing your OC might wear. Does your character live in a tundra where it’s always snowing? Give them a warm sweater, a big jacket, or maybe some snow boots! Do they live in medieval times? Try researching what people wore in that time period! Is the genre of your story sci-fi filled with space travel and aliens? Give your OC some cool space armor! Considering the setting of your OCs when choosing outfits can really bring a story to life, and make it feel more authentic!

Choosing their Jobs or Roles

Similar to the setting, your OC’s job, class, or role can play a key part in their outfit as well! This can be anything from office jobs to wizardry! The way your OC dresses can say a lot about what they do or where they work, if you choose to incorporate it into their design. Something more mystical and flowy could suggest they have some sort of magic role, or something more rugged and tattered could suggest they have a sort of fighter or rogue role! 

Different jobs or classes often have a certain style to them! Sometimes it’s to maintain a more professional look, like with business suits. Other times it’s to protect the wearer, like with armor or goggles. A uniform can even help people identify what kind of skills or abilities your character has! Here’s some roles and job ideas to help you brainstorm!

• A Baker
• A Knight
• A Business Person
• A Mage
• A Royal

Thinking about the role your OC plays or the job they have could help you pick what kind of clothes they wear. If your OC has a more realistic job, you could look at the world around you for inspiration! Some jobs don’t have a set uniform, but they might have a dress code instead! This allows a little more freedom for the workers’ outfits, while still remaining professional and identifiable. Others do have a set uniform that all the workers have to wear, such as a specific shirt with the logo on it. What kinds of uniforms or work attire do you see in places around you? You could observe those for inspiration! Maybe you have an OC who works in a cafe. Do you have a favorite local cafe? Try paying attention to the clothes the workers wear, and you could use that as inspiration! Basing your OC’s uniform off of what you might see in real life can make your story feel more lifelike!

Think about their Personality

Another factor to consider is the style and personality of your character. Everyone has a personal style, whether it be casual T-shirts or elegant dresses. Your OC’s personality can often play a big part in their style as well! Here’s some questions to consider about your OC’s style!

• Is your OC outgoing, or shy?
• Do they have a lot of self confidence?
• Are there people they look up to or people they’re trying to impress?
• Are there things or media they like?

A person’s, or in our case OC’s, outfit can say a lot about their personality! A confident or attention-seeking character might wear more flashy, form-fitting clothing that puts them into the spotlight. A more shy or less confident character might wear more baggy, loose clothing or more dull colors that leave them unnoticed. OCs might incorporate their favorite things into their style too! Sometimes people like to represent the fandoms they’re a part of with some kind of mercy they wear! For example…Maybe they have a shirt with the logo of their favorite OC website…

Deciding on Motifs

At a loss for inspiration? Try incorporating a motif! But what IS a motif? A motif is basically a “theme” for something. Motifs can be found everywhere, but for our purposes we’ll use them for outfits! Motifs can be fun for your character’s design, and help piece together a look that feels cohesive. You can use whatever you want as a motif! Want an OC based on your favorite cupcake? You could give them a poofy dress with lots of ruffles to mimic a cupcake’s shape, and add little sprinkle details! There’s plenty of things to use as a motif for your character, here’s some ideas to get your creativity flowing!

• A food motif
• A plant motif
• A weather or nature motif
• A sky or astronomy motif
• An aquatic motif
• A technology motif
• A monster or animal motif

You can incorporate a motif into your OC’s outfit as much as you want! It can be as obvious, or as subtle, as you want it to be. You can let the motif inspire the shape of the clothes, accessories, and anything in between! A motif can also be a helpful way for the audience to distinguish characters from one another, and give them hints as to what a character’s like! You could give a character a motif based around something cute to make them look more innocent, or something more scary to make your OC seem more menacing. You could even use that to your advantage to trick the audience, and give your OC a motif that makes them seem like something they’re not!

Checking out Accessories

While you can stop at just regular clothes, you can also spice things up with some accessories! Accessories are a great way to give your OC’s outfits some extra personality, and help them feel less plain. This can be anything from the glasses they wear, a cute pin, or maybe a bag they carry. All of the above tips can apply here too! You can use accessories to give the audience more subtle hints about your character. Maybe an office worker OC wears a pair of octopus shaped earrings alongside their work clothes to hint at their more fun personality, or maybe an OC has lots of jewelry based around the motif you picked for them! 

Accessories don’t have to be just for decoration either, they can be more functional or have more sentimental value as well! It could be used to hide a secret item or weapon, it might be a gift from a loved one, or it could have some sort of magic power! Sometimes, an accessory isn’t always what it seems. An OC could have a seemingly normal necklace, that’s actually a locket with a photo of a past lover inside! A different OC could have a ring with a secret compartment under the jewel that hides a classified note they have to deliver!

Here are some examples of different kinds of accessories you can use!

• Necklaces, bracelets, rings
• Hair pins, bows, hats, masks
• Buttons, brooches, ties
• Bags, purses, belts

An accessory can be great for motifs, and could also be a fun way to subtly foreshadow, or blatantly tease, something that happens in the future! Something that will surprise your audience when they go back and realize that the evidence was there all along, or bring things full circle. Maybe an OC wears a necklace with a wolf charm on it, and later it’s revealed they were secretly a werewolf the whole time! A different OC might carry a special key on their belt, and it’s not revealed until the end of the story what the key unlocks. Mixing and matching the accessories you use for your character can be incredibly fun!

Choosing an outfit design for your OC might seem intimidating at first, but it doesn’t have to be! Thinking about personality, jobs, motifs, and other things can help inspire the perfect outfit for your character!

Examples from Unvale!

Here are some amazing examples from some of the wonderful creators of Unvale!

• Gimble’s OC Tolkien! His extravagant outfit shows off his equally extravagant personality, and it’s pretty easy to guess that he’s a wizard from his hat and coat!
• Stove’s OC Ursa! You can easily see the astronomy motif throughout their outfit, with star shapes along the edges of the clothes, and even a constellation belt!
• Odd’s OC Angelica! The brightness of her dress and the details on it seem to show her more attention-seeking personality, and hint at her past role as a singer, model, and actress!

Now that you have some tips for choosing outfits for your OCs, what will you pick? There’s an unlimited amount of possibilities! But the most important thing to remember: is to have fun with it! In the end, it’s your OC, and you can go about how you choose their outfit however you want!