Villagers giving gifted clothing back

[Kattea]

I've heard villagers wearing gifted clothing can ask if you like what they're wearing and give it back to you if you respond a certain way, thereby removing it from their wardrobe completely. I saw this in a thread somewhere and was surprised, as I always thought the clothing reset mechanic in the game was notoriously awful. Can someone confirm that this is true, and if so whether you need a certain friendship level?

 

[Rosch]

My experience is a little different. I'm best friends with Rolf for a long time. One day, he approached me and sold me a suspender outfit.

The said outfit was gifted by the person who originally had him before I adopted him. I had a suspicion so I wore it and checked if it is the same color. I haven't seen him wear it since.

 

[saramew]

I've only experienced the opposite where I said something didn't look good and they took it off, but wore it again later lol.

Still have a cowboy shirt on Genji.

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I think I've experienced this with Agnes. I had only gifted her a pink Collarless Coat and sometime in late October or November, there was a week where I had noticed she went back to wearing her default clothing, and eventually, she "returned" the pink Collarless Coat to me--or at least, that's what I think she did. I then re-gifted the coat to her because she looked adorable in it and it was autumn. XD

Keep in mind that this is just anecdotal and a hypothesis based on what I observed. I had Agnes on my island until late November (I received two framed photos from her, so my friendship level was her was either very high or maxed out), and that was the only clothing item that I had ever gifted to her.

 

[Angelbearpuppy]

I like to give my villiagers clothing to match the season's. On my old island before I reset, I would sometimes get older outfits back that I had given them before. I think they only have so many clothing spots and once they are full they must devoid a item to make room for the new one. At least that is my experience

 

[AssassinVicz]

I really have to opposite effect.

Raymond somehow got gifted an Astro dress. I don’t know how he got it since I didn’t give it him as a choice so, it might have been a deliver a gift to him.

He for some reason, wouldn’t let it go. I gave him another outfit and the next day that dress was back on. I gave him his original shirt again and he was again, wearing it the next day. I reported it to Isabelle to see if that would reset it. Same story, he was wearing it again.

I then gave up, seeing as if he wanted that dress so badly that I hated, he could just have it. Before finding out the dress is somehow in my own inventory. I’m hoping it’s the one he had but, I’m not holding my breath.

But yeah villagers can give outfits back. Clay left recently in my town and decided to leave his fishing vest behind. So it’s luck dependant

 

[zumhaus]

I believe I've figured out what causes villagers to give back gifted clothing!
The main thing is they don't easily give back what you personally gave them, but they definitely will to another player character.
That's why adopted villagers from other islands occasionally shed their previous island's clothing, because it's to a new player!

I've had this happen with two separate circumstances:
1. Moved Pudge from my second island to my first temporarily, while I reset my second. In that time he approached me and gave me a shirt I had gifted him as the other island rep. He didn't wear it again after that.
2. My heavily-gifted starter uchi and lazy occasionally give my secondary character articles of gifted clothing from my main character. It is consistent, though, and it always is something random removed from their inventory.

In the case of villagers giving each other gifts, I'm not 100% sure on what causes them to remove it, but my leading guess is they'll eventually approach you. The same Pudge from earlier was gifted a bright blue workout top by another villager, and one day he randomly presented it to me.
In that situation, I'd just suggest bombarding them with their default outfit until their wardrobe 'resets'. Haven't tried it myself but I've heard about the method multiple times!

But for player-gifted clothing, my advice is to use a different character than the one who originally gifted the item. It takes a while of regular gameplay, but it should eventually work!

TL;DR: They may not give clothing back to the same player that gifted them the item in the first place.

Edit: Re: Moving out and recycling bin. They leave copies of their clothing behind but they still wear it at their new island. It's happened many times.

 

[Romaki]

I don't know about all that, but apparently villagers have like 28 clothing slots and will remove the oldest item first if you reach 29. Maybe it's 24, I just heard it on an ACNH stream-

 

[zumhaus]

I don't know about all that, but apparently villagers have like 28 clothing slots and will remove the oldest item first if you reach 29. Maybe it's 24, I just heard it on an ACNH stream-

That's why I've heard about the 'gift them their default clothing X amount of times' method, villagers likely don't have bottomless voids of clothing!
Sorry about that speculative word-dump; I'm enthusiastic about sharing what I've observed over many months of gameplay!