Dressing Islanders?

[KittenNoir]

I just recently got kiki cause if you didn't know I love black cats and I don't like what she is wearing. Can I just give her a cute dress as a gift and she will wear it straight away? or do I have to build up the friendship first ?

 

[crimisakitty]

you can give it to her now! there's no friendship level required for gifts.

 

[Ginkgo]

Well you can't really give them any gifts right away (at friendship level 1) without having talked to them for at least a few days, that includes any type of clothing. So after racking up a few friendship points through daily conversation and reaching level 2, you will then unlock the gifting option, but I don't think that improving the friendship any further increases the likelihood of her wearing your gifts. What does increase it however, is if the clothing matches her actual preference.
Each villager has a preference in both style (e.g sporty clothing, elegant clothing) and colors, and by choosing a piece that fulfills both of these categories, you increase the chance of her wearing it more frequently. She will still switch to other clothes, like her default clothing and special ones such as those white tanks they wear when doing yoga.
You can use this tool to figure out what each of your villagers like, and also get shown which clothing fits their preferences. Here's an example of what Kiki would love:

So long story short, if you just give her any dress she might not wear it. She might even display the clothing in her house instead, but I don't know if villagers display clothes they actually wear in their house as well.

EDIT: oh, this post is... very long. :-( Sorry about that.

 

[saucySheep]

you have to wait a few days before you can gift them. after that, she'll immediately put on whatever you gave her but there's no guarantee she'll always wear it. if it's something she really likes then she'll wear it more often.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I just recently got kiki cause if you didn't know I love black cats and I don't like what she is wearing. Can I just give her a cute dress as a gift and she will wear it straight away? or do I have to build up the friendship first ?

You could give her clothes as soon as that option is available (after talking to her for a few days straight), but if it is not one of her "preferred items" she might not wear it at all (besides trying it on when you give it to her), and it will forever be displayed in her house. I would recommend waiting until you are very good or best friends with Kiki before giving her a non-preferred item because she will be more likely to wear it if your friendship level with her is high, regardless of the color and style.

So for now, make sure you give her a "preferred" piece of clothing (that is her favorite color and style) so she will wear it often. Once you become better friends with her, then you can gift her whatever and she'll most likely wear it!

 

[Sharksheep]

Don't forget to preview the clothing at Harv to see if it looks good on her model. Cats look good in most of the clothing unlike eagles

 

[Nunnafinga]

Here's a couple of outfits I've given to Kiki.She does indeed like simple,brown and/or beige items.I gave her the denim overall pants and it changed into an overall dress when she put it on.

 

[eseamir]

I've been considering this too!! I love kiki but some of her default clothing is Awful

 

[Serabee]

As others have said, they'll wear gifted outfits- but not all the time. Each villager basically has a "wardrobe" they'll pull from. But, the more cute clothing you give her, the more she'll have to choose from, and the less likely she is to wear her original clothing! Unfortunately, she doesn't have the fashion hobby, which would mean she'd change clothing much more often.

I've been considering this too!! I love kiki but some of her default clothing is Awful

To be clear, as far as I can tell, they won't change things like their workout gear or raingear. They'll change their basic outfit but I have yet to see villagers stop using their default "specialty" outfits.

 

[eseamir]

As others have said, they'll wear gifted outfits- but not all the time. Each villager basically has a "wardrobe" they'll pull from. But, the more cute clothing you give her, the more she'll have to choose from, and the less likely she is to wear her original clothing! Unfortunately, she doesn't have the fashion hobby, which would mean she'd change clothing much more often.


To be clear, as far as I can tell, they won't change things like their workout gear or raingear. They'll change their basic outfit but I have yet to see villagers stop using their default "specialty" outfits.

I don't mind her workout clothes too much (let's be real, no one really looks good in activewear on this game haha) but that spotted shirt she wears as her default outfit drives me crazy

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I gifted all of my villagers except Canberra (take a hint and leave already!) a holiday sweater. They all claimed to love it and wore it immediately. Over the past couple of days, I've noticed a few of my villagers wearing it and a few not, with some not wearing it one day, but wearing it another. Ankha must really love it, because she's worn it whenever I've seen her. xD

 

[meggiewes]

To be clear, as far as I can tell, they won't change things like their workout gear or raingear. They'll change their basic outfit but I have yet to see villagers stop using their default "specialty" outfits.

I've found that they are more likely to use sporty clothing you give them for workout clothing. When I had Bianca she would switch back and forth from a purple tank top to her purple dance jacket. Audie currently uses a white dance jacket for her exercise.

 

[J087]

I learned something new today from reading all the replies!

Im not sure about sport clothes though. Hope they can be changed aswell 'cuz, lets face it, Audie's green training jacket looks horrible.

 

[O w O]

I don't think it's been suggested yet but you could also mail her a letter with clothing attached. She won't receive it until the following day but then she would have the option of wearing it before you build up enough friendship points to give her gifts directly.

 

[Pintuition]

I learned something new today from reading all the replies!

Im not sure about sport clothes though. Hope they can be changed aswell 'cuz, lets face it, Audie's green training jacket looks horrible.

I find if you gift them a lot of clothes they wear all of them less. They will still wear their original clothes sometimes and clothes gifted before they came to your island (if you bought them or traded online). I find that hanging custom designs in Ables decreases the frequency they wear their own clothes overall so you could try that too. All of the villagers will have athletic outfits they wear when working out so unfortunately she'll probably still wear the jacket sometimes!

 

[Emmsey]

I love dressing the islanders I've got to say when they end up owning or wearing something freakish I'm terrified. I was initially terrified to gift Raymond anything through fear of ruining him but after he made a flea plucked from Beau his pet I loosened up a little. I'm always fascinated by the outfits they seem to choose and my islanders have been gifted A LOT of clothes if they are long term residents. All my islanders have the aloha shirts as standard wear and I've also gifted a bunch of holiday sweaters but besides Raymond I haven't seen any one else in it.

Having sheep is the most challenging of all islanders, they are so fluuuuuffy! Everything ends up looking all stretched on them. They didnt suit the holiday sweater at all so I gifted Dom the Christmas Tree Dress. Just looks like an awesome top to show off his buffness!! LOL

 

[JKDOS]

you can give it to her now! there's no friendship level required for gifts.

When I get new villagers in, the gift option doesn't show up for a few days.

 

[Galaxite]

Yeah you have to build up your friendship with them!