tips

Tips for Designing Secondary Outfits for Your OCs!

Look! I have a new outfit for this week’s topic!

You know what’s more fun than designing an outfit for your OC? Designing multiple outfits for your OCs! But before we get started, if you need some other character design ideas, check out one of these blogs!

Now, back to talking about secondary outfits for your characters! If you plan on bringing your OC’s story to life, maybe in the form of a comic or animated series, chances are your character will need more than one outfit for different occasions. So how do you design alternate outfits for your OCs? Let’s talk about it!

What’s your OC’s main outfit design?

First off, you’ll want to consider your OC’s main design! There might be important aspects of their outfit that you’ll want to keep when designing their secondary outfit. You could consider aspects such as…

Does their outfit have important symbolism?
Do they have accessories with sentimental value?
Do they have accessories with other significance?
What style is their outfit?
Do they have a specific color palette in their outfit?
Does their outfit have a specific type of shape language to it?

Certain parts of a character’s design might make it into their secondary outfits so that it’s easy to recognize them! Once you know what aspects you want to keep, you can work them into their secondary outfits as well!

You might keep their color palette, or maybe they have an important necklace that they never take off. Keeping the parts of the outfit most important to the design will ensure your OC is recognizable in their secondary outfits!

What would your OC most likely wear outside their main outfit?

Next up! You’ll want to think about what kinds of outfits your OC would wear outside their main one. While you can design as many outfits as you want, it might be easier to stick to ones they’ll wear most frequently.

If your character’s main outfit is their work or school uniform, their secondary outfit might be a casual outfit that they wear outside of their job. They also might have outfits for certain types of weather or seasons. If you need some suggestions for what kind of secondary outfit to give your OC, you could try…

A work outfit
A school outfit
A travel outfit
A spring or summer outfit
An autumn or winter outfit
A comfy outfit or pajamas
A formal outfit
A casual outfit

The kind of secondary outfit you choose to design will depend on the setting of your story! If your story mainly takes place at the cafe your OC works at and their favorite hangout spot, you probably won’t need to design them a formal outfit. If your story takes place in a palace, you probably won’t be giving your royal OC jeans and a T-shirt. (Unless that’s part of their character arc!)

If you want to give your OC a work outfit, but aren’t sure what kind of job to give them, there’s an article on choosing jobs or roles for your OCs here!

Would your OC’s personality affect what their secondary outfits look like?

Another factor you’ll want to consider is your OC’s unique personality and personal preferences. There’s certain styles a character may prefer over others, and there might be styles they avoid like the plague!

A character who doesn’t like to dress up might opt for a button-down rather than a suit and tie, while a different character who loves fancy outfits might be rocking an extravagant ballgown to the party! If you need some ideas on how personality might affect different outfits, here’s a few to get you thinking!

A shy character might opt for more simple casual clothing, like a sweatshirt or hoodie
An outgoing character’s casual clothing might be more bold, with bright accessories or jewelry
An artistic character might customize their work uniform with pins or buttons
A simplistic character might opt to just wear their favorite necklace with their work uniform
A bold character might wear an eye-catching, sparkly suit to a formal event
A serious character might stick with a neat suit and tie to wear to a formal event

…And so on and so forth! You can use the secondary outfit to further demonstrate your OC’s personality. You could also use it to show off another aspect of your character’s personality that might not be seen in their main design!

If you’re not too sure about your OC’s personality and you’re unsure where to start, you might consider giving them a character trope! If you would like some character trope ideas, check out this article on the topic here!

Will your OC dress up for special occasions?

Does your OC have a specific aesthetic that could be included in their secondary outfit?

Like using a character’s personality to help design their secondary outfit, you’ll also want to consider utilizing the aesthetic or motif of their main outfit in their secondary one. If a character wears a specific aesthetic, they might try to incorporate it into all of their outfits!

Your OC’s aesthetic might affect the color palette of their secondary outfits, their accessories, choice of clothing, and other aspects of their design! If you need some ideas for how an aesthetic might impact an OC’s secondary outfits, here’s a few to help you brainstorm!

An OC with a cottagecore aesthetic might wear a flowy, floral dress as their casual outfit
An OC with a goth aesthetic might wear a goth band tee and lots of accessories as their casual outfit
An OC with a dark academia aesthetic might wear a dark-colored blazer and loafers to school
An OC with a decora aesthetic might wear colorful boots and lots of bracelets with their school outfit
An OC with a fairycore aesthetic might wear a pastel gown to a party
An OC with a mushroomcore aesthetic might wear a sweater and skirt with a mushroom print to a party

Incorporating an aesthetic into an OC’s secondary outfits can help your audience distinguish them from the other characters in your story! It can help their outfits feel unique, but also consistent.

If your OC doesn’t have an aesthetic and you’re thinking about giving them one, check out this article on choosing aesthetics for your OC’s here!

Can you give your OC some new accessories or items for their secondary outfits?

Finally, a secondary outfit can be the perfect time to show off some new accessories for your OCs! The accessories can show off other aspects of your OC’s personality that might not be as obvious from the details of their main outfit. Maybe an OC carries around their favorite book, or maybe they have a pair of headphones they’re always wearing outside of work so that nobody bothers them.

Alongside new accessories, you could keep the important ones in their secondary outfits too. If an OC is always switching out accessories, except for that one ring they never take off, your audience might notice and note it as important! If you’re not too sure what accessories would work best for your OC’s outfits, you could consider…

What does the OC value most?
What kinds of hobbies does your OC have?
Does your OC have any important tools or weapons they carry around?
What does your OC keep with them at all times?
Does your OC bring a bag when they go somewhere?
Does the OC keep useful accessories on them, like pins or hair clips?
Does the OC have any hyperfixations, or special interests?

The above questions could help give you some inspiration for what your OC might have! They might keep certain tools on them while on the job, or they might carry around things to pass the time when they travel. Their interests or fixations might shine through their accessories too, and they might wear things that represent what they love!

Another aspect of your OC’s design you could consider is their makeup look! They might change it up depending on their outfit. If you need more ideas on choosing makeup for your OCs, check out this article on the topic here!

Maybe your OC can have secondary outfits based on the seasons the story takes place in!

Design-based communities from the wonderful users of Unvale!

If you need some extra feedback on your OC designs, want to check out your fellow creators’ designs, or just want to share your own, there’s some communities perfect for you to check out! Take a look at…

The Character Designs Community, created by FUNT!
The Design Tips and Advice Community, created by VoidedEclipse!
The Fashion Fiends Community, created by GUTSNFLUFF!

Be sure to check out the awesome communities if you plan on posting your characters’ secondary designs to Unvale! It might be a great way to find new inspiration or get some extra tips on your designs!