Does clothing or shoe availability affect your doll purchasing decisions?

Early in my BJD collecting (2006), I decided to not buy a Dollshe Afghan because there was some discussion about her needing larger shoes than the usual SD girl size. A couple of years later, I bought one, and found out she wasn't that difficult to shoe, although by then I had more shoes and such to accommodate other dolls, so, it became a moot point.

However, over the past decade, I've resisted buying or have sold some dolls because I'm just not interested in hunting down shoes and clothes to fit -- Venitu and the newer Dollshe body sculpts being notable examples.

 

I mean I could make their clothing but I don’t have the ability to make them shoes, and actually, crafting those is more expensive to me, considering the amount of time and effort also the money of getting all the equipments and what piecing everything together. I’d say I am intend to do it during holidays, but unfortunately I don’t get that much time.

I have few dolls which doesn’t fit into regular sizing and I made clothes for them, luckily, I’d manage to get shoes for them, or else I would either sale them or leave them in the case forever…x I still have got a spare head which doesn’t fit with any of the bodies that I own, which is due to that its not a common size and I thought I would be able to get it a body that fits into a common range where I could get outfits for him; I was totally wrong, the head circumference is much smaller than others while the neck circumference is regular 1/3 size dolls’. It’s like a warning sign telling me don’t even try to do this again, unless I have the ability to a)craft it a body or b)diy everything.

 

As of now i am only interested in shelling characters, which means to me that the most important part of a doll is the accurate-ness of it's face and body ! So i will always prefer a good matching body with no clothes available than the other way around. So i don't think i'd have a problem with them going around naked for a while - it's actually pretty accurate personality wise...
I also like the idea of doing crafts for the dolls, especially as they have very specific clothing styles that i'm not sure i could find without commissioning somebody, which is not where i'd like to put my budget. I haven't sewn in uh, fifteen years (shhh 2008 was 5 years ago) but i'd like to get back to it, and i had a lot of fun making clothing for Barbie at that time !

 

I am simultaneously 'Won't buy if I can't find something good' AND 'don't mind them being nude/bald for a bit'. I think it's probably due to money. Like, as long as I can afford the DOLL now, I can wait to get the clothes. But if there's barely anything readily available to start with, I'm hesitant to get the doll at all.

 

I'm a crafty nut, so I make almost all my dolls' clothes and sometimes buy shoes. But most of my bigger dolls are medieval and I make their shoes.

 

Mentally I'm in the camp of 'if there isn't enough on the market to buy for them I won't get it', but I've gotten two dolls without looking too much into whether things would fit them. Thankfully they're at sizes where there's a good variety of options, but I think that shows that if I really like a sculpt, I'll buy it and figure things out later. I'd prefer if my dolls didn't have to go naked or shoeless for too long, though, so now that I'm more acquainted with things I'll definitely be checking measurements first and if I can get custom items, if necessary, going forward.

 

I don't care. I prefer making clothes/shoes/wigs/eyes by myself even if they are not perfect. For me the whole point is to stylize the doll by my own hands.

 

I used to love the struggle. Cross comparing different doll sizes and figuring out what fit and what didn't. Nowadays I'm enjoying the bliss that is tinies that fit in playline/other abundantly available clothes/shoes.

 

I tried REALLY hard to get into odd-sized dolls but shopping for clothing became such a hassle that I've mainly moved to dolls that are easy to shop for, like slim msd. It's so nice being able to shop and know that the clothes will fit and there is a lot more of a selection with clothes. On the other hand, I have two Harucasting Ippo and they are HARD to shop for but I still adore them and their odd size

 

In terms of clothes, I don't mind much as I sew my own - I do appreciate if I can swap different pieces between dolls, though.

The *shoes* though... It's not as much picking a sculpt over its foot measurements, but I do hesitate over odd sizes as I don't make my own footwear and want them to be able to wear nicely fitting (and somewhat affordable and available) shoes. That is one thing I wish companies co-ordinated: the feet. I guess I wouldn't leave a doll unbought over that if I really wanted them, but I would probably look into hybridizing bodies or foot parts if it's completely hopeless to find something.

 

Yes. The only thing holding me back from getting a Zuzu Delf before Luts came out with the Zuzu26 body was that the standard Zuzu is incredibly hard to dress! Maybe someday I’ll learn to sew, but it is not this day.

 

Shoes are the big consideration for me. I have basic sewing skills and I enjoy seeing for my dolls (though I have spent way too much time pulling MSD sized stretch fabric sleeves out of my machine's feed plate grrrrr) but shoemaking is beyond me.
Luckily nearly all of my dolls are Volks or Dollmore which have a lot of company-made shoes available, and the Volks ones are very standard in terms of clothing size.
That said, I have just ordered a 73cm Loongsoul boy, so he's going to be fun to shoe and clothe...what have I gotten myself into...

 

Personally, no. However…

I feel like the worst part are the shoes. Clothes you can atleast resize and modify, or even make yourself, but I feel like a pair of good doll shoes seems incredibly difficult to make…

Someone that makes doll shoes often might have a different opinion on this, but a proper pair of doll shoes with an outer sole (3d printed? Cast?) with lace, canvas or pleather etc would be tricky.

 

In general lack of clothing or shoes wouldn't be a deterrent. I try to buy only dolls that I like the sculpting of the body of a lot - in fact, most of my dolls the body sculpting is so cool I'd be a little sad to cover it up! What would give me pause is if a sculpt would be hard to find eyes or a wig for. All of this is to say, I'm usually fine with my dolls hanging out naked as long as I can find a wig and eyes for them!

 

Most of my dolls are MSD and of comparable size, so I can share clothing. I have a HUGE collection of outfits, both full outfits as well as separates. So it doesn’t make sense for me to start collecting another size. Of course there are size differences within the ‘MSD’ realm, and also I include my 16-inch Tonner dolls in the pool of dolls that can share clothing. I’ve found that I’ve had to purchase different sizes of MSD shoes, that’s where the main variance lies IME. And also wigs, I have a collection in 6-7 and 7-8. But unless a doll has huge boobs I can usually fit almost everyone with my outfit collection. I just love getting handmade outfits and separates from Etsy, but I’ve also purchased directly from doll companies (currently waiting for a package of separates and shoes from Dollmore, they just had their clothing sale)

Also I knit for my dolls and often purchase separates to complete an outfit design I’m working on. All their jewelry is made by me.

so yeah I’m not excluding that one day in the future I will get a SD sized lovely; there’s one at Resinsoul that caught my eye, and also a Supia I’m just absolutely head over heels forrrrrr i promised myself I would order her once I get my dream job haha!

 

Ooh, this is a good question. I have three dolls total now, and I am having a hard time finding clothes for two of them. My first doll, which is a DDs is the easiest to shop for. The majority of clothing you can find out there are for either Dollfies or Smart Doll. My other two are Angel Philia dolls, which are a bit more complicated to shop for. Counterintuitive to how the AP girls are designed, I actually prefer a more modest look. Finding modest looking clothing and finding the right size has proven challenging for me. Right now, both of my AP girls are dressed in left over clothing I had from my Dollfie so they wouldn't be sitting around naked. I'm not too worried though. There will be something out there to find! New clothing creators pop up every once in a while and who knows, maybe one will be an AP clothing creator. I have also toyed with the idea of sewing myself, so we will see where that leads.

 

Eh, I can sew, so I'm not that fussed about clothes and wigs. It's convenient if I can find what I want off the rack at a price I can swing, but if not, I can eventually make it if I really want to. I'm also planning on buying an eyes mold since I also dabble with resin. Shoes are the hard part, but I'm wanting to push myself to get decent at those, too. Especially since I don't want to dump a bunch of money on pleather shoes just for them to fall apart in a few years as the pleather degrades. I'd rather use real leather since it'll last my life time if well cared for and is biodegradable if it does need to get thrown out for some reason.

 

.