How Extensive is Your Dolly Wardrobe?

My dolls have vastly, VASTLY more clothes than I do. And I don't mean "all of them together", each of them has. Which is partly because I have very little clothes for myself on purpose...I am a two pants, two pullovers, etc. type of person
However, I'd argue that after some time in the hobby (15 years for me), and a certain amount of dolls (16 BJDs that can wear clothes, 10 Blythe) that just can't be avoided.
Even if each of my BJDs only had ONE pair of pants, that still makes for 16 pair of pants!

Anyway, I do have "main" outfits for each of them, that are usually very specific. Like full cowboy garb for my Iplehouse Rebecca. Those are not shared between them, it's like what they'd constantly wear in a cartoon
I also have some more outfits that are usually doll-exclusive (like a winter garb for them, or anything else that is very specific to their character and their style/story). Next to that I have things that they can share to a certain degree, like basics (simple shirts, pants and co.). I also keep buying things when anything is released that is just perfect for one of them, so even if a doll already has a bunch of outfits I won't stop.
Since they are often very specific though, and it often comes down to me actually having to commission their stupid outfits, I thankfully cannot be tempted easily.

So I do like to buy clothes, and I do have a good bunch of them, but it's nowhere near excessive. It's an appropriate amount considering how long I've been collecting and how many dolls I have

 

My doll wardrobe is probably kind of horrifying... I have a bit under 20 1/3 scale dolls currently with some other outliers, and I'm not really happy unless every doll has a full wardrobe. I make most everything myself, though I also enjoy occasionally collecting second hand clothes and shoes or treating myself to something that is really perfect for someone.
A full doll wardrobe for me really only needs to entail enough variety that I can actually use it but keep them fresh. Two shoe options, a few different outfits and weather appropriate options, a coat or sweater, etc. Realistically some dolls will wear the same outfit for a year even when I have options and others I might change every two months.
Some of my old cherished characters have massive person-like wardrobes. At one point... My doll Kam had a collection of like 12 or 15 hats. Hats! (I've since divided them amongst some other characters and probably sold others I don't remember).
My dolls in addition have a mostly communal stash of jewelry, accessories, shoes and wigs. Meaning there is overlap in who uses what because it's all part time anyway.
I honestly think the level of clothing and everything I have for them is a bit weird and what really shows that these dolls are the absolute center of my life. It's a bit of a lifestyle commitment! I realized in the last few years that sometimes less is more, so I've been working on condensing but some dolls keep their huge wardrobes because I just think it's kinda neat.

 

I spent all my funds on dolls instead of doll clothes so the situation is between Very Bad and Not Good.
No one is naked at least

 

I'm new in the hobby, so there's a lot of clothes sharing until I have the time to whip out my sewing machine. No one is naked, but one of my SD10 girls is currently wearing Isao's fullset shirt...she's second in the sewing queue after my poor underwear-less MSD-F-05

 

I enjoy shopping for doll clothes and accessories more than I enjoy shopping for dolls, so....um....yeahhh......

I have a spreadsheet to keep track of what each doll owns (number, not individual pieces). I require each doll to have 10 tops, 3 bottoms, a jacket/coat, underwear, socks, 3 accessories and 2 pairs of shoes that are not shared between any of them. There are a few pieces that are shared, but don't count in any individual doll's wardrobe. After they have their minimum requirements, it becomes whatever I find that I'd like for them. Lumi is my spoiled brat, and currently he has 16 tops, 10 pairs of pants, 12 jackets/cardigans, 4 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of underwear, a pair of socks...and...um....65 accessories (jewelry, hats, scarves, belts, etc).....

 

All their clothing together takes more space than my own, but I guess that's not that surprising since I don't personally have that many clothes, and I do have 17 dolls (that would wear clothing to begin with). Counting by pieces the first few dolls of mine have each way more than I do, but then I learned to sew well enough to go "yeah, I could just sew that myself" whenever looking at doll clothes, so I pretty much stopped buying any more even though I rarely actually end up replicating any of those things I previously would have bought. And in general, I don't get around to sewing anything to completion that often, so the newer dolls have been lucky if they even have one full outfit for themselves...

 

I need to get a new container to hold all the doll clothes i have it can barely close LOL
I can't help it, there's so many cute clothes out there...

 

I also am a bit surprised that so many of us have such big wardrobes for them! I think that's awesome though

 

When I got these dolls, I wanted to dress them and redress them the way you'd want to do so with fashion dolls. Because I am a weirdo and must keep sealed boxes sealed, I never did that with Barbie (other OT fashion dolls). When I got my first hybrid doll of these kind (2003-2004), I sewed for her almost once a week if not more often. So, she did at some point have many clothes to choose from. Then, as I got pickier but not better at sewing (as well as older and lazier with age!), I slowed down quite a lot! Most of my more "recent" BJD don't even have a proper single set of clothes. DX Although, my second most recent resin doll is from more than ten years now and the newest one is probably a year and change. I haven't made enough for anyone anymore, and I can't say it bothers me (not bothered literally at all!). I dislike that I am picky about things, but I dislike it more that sewing has become a literal chore for me, when I kind of used to enjoy it back when I was still youthful (I'm an old-fart, I know it no excuse!). Lol!

Some of my dolls have a not too shabby amount of shoddily-handmade clothes, others have barely a crappy pair of pants and possibly no shirt/top to speak of. (:

 

That long middle shelf is double-stacked boxes of dolls clothes and shoes. There are a few more boxes on other shelves in that room too.

Each of my dolls... probably have more clothes than I do, if averaged out and taking the shared items into account, but it's hard to assess as I'm a costumer, away from my dolll hobby, so I've got rails of costumes dating back 30 odd years (many of whihc I also wore as everyday clothes (my winter coat, for example, is a late 14th Century styale garment that I've also worn for historical events) so it depends whether they are included or not.

Having said that, I have a plan that each of my dolls ill have a specific core wardrobe, and I'm nowhere near achieving that (well, that's an assumption, I've never pulled everything out and made the lists for each of them, I'm too disorganised), but I tend to get sidetracked by getting inspired by a fabric and sewing somethign for one of them, or buying an outfit that catches my eye... etc.

Teddy

 

Well, I do like having a variety... it's not getting over my head yet, but obviously as time goes on I'll also sew more and the previous sewings don't go anywhere I'm in the perpetual "well they have clothes to wear but do they really have their own casual and formal and fantasy and another casual outfit?" I also feel every photoshoot calls for new clothes so... yeah. I need to get more boxes.

 

I'm a doll owner who does not have many outfits for my crew.

I've discovered, to my great horror, that I approach buying BJD clothes the same way as I buy clothes for myself: it sometimes feels like crawling over broken glass, and if I'm not in the mood to crawl over broken glass, nothing is going to make me do it. And when I'm in the mood, I get overwhelmed easily: trawling through shops and staring at so many clothes is just so tedious, I just want to get it over with as quickly as possible, and if I can't, I find myself getting frustrated and just give up. (And don't get me started on the headache that is finding clothes that can fit my dolls properly.) I actually kind of hate this: I don't find buying other BJD stuff such as eyes, shoes and props, nearly as agonizing as buying BJD clothes!

I think this is partly because I have a pretty strong vision for what my dolls' fashion is, I can visualize their outfits and styles in my head perfectly well. This is good and bad. Good because I know what I want when I see it, and have no hesitation in buying it. Bad because nothing short of that perfect gut feeling will work, and I'm probably rejecting potential pieces too quickly out of hand.

Some clothing styles are easier to shop for than others too. Casual and modern clothing is tedium central, separates make my head spin, I don't know what goes well together anyway. I do better when shopping for full casual outfit sets -- at least I don't have to figure out how to mix and match separates to get something coherent. (I can barely do it when dressing myself.) On the other hand, I don't think I can own too many kimono/hakama outfits for my dolls, haha - somehow, this is a lot easier for me to buy!

I'm actually quite happy with my crew having a small wardrobe. I'd rather expand it slowly and buy clothes only when I'm in the mood, if it means I avoid frustration. I don't mind that my dolls stay in the same outfits for weeks, even months at a time -- because those are outfits that were bought/made specifically to fit each doll's fashion scheme. Seeing my dolls in clothes so appropriate for their characters gives me a lot of pleasure, I don't care that they have only one set of it! I'm also learning how to sew, so I can make clothes for my dolls that exactly fit my vision and their styling. Trying to fit my own vision into other people's tailoring can be so troublesome.

Ugh, I'm both amused and annoyed that I buy clothes for my BJDs with an equal mix of enjoyment and pissing-and-moaning - same ways as I buy clothes for myself. I kinda wish this wasn't the case, but it is what it is, lol!

 

This! Shopping for doll clothes and accessories stresses me out! I think for me, however, a major reason is that I don't have characters for my dolls and I simply cannot conjure up what clothes they "would like". I have a very clear sense of style when it comes to my own wardrobe, but it wouldn't be any fun to dress all my dolls how I dress myself..!

I'm also happy with only having a few pieces for each doll, though I'm hoping to pick up sewing when I'm done with all my faceups!

 

Some of my dolls, okay two have a limited wardrobe due to size or fact they are only here out of sentiment. While others are sharing or in the case of Parker, my Irrealdoll Nur she was supposed to be a travel doll, but soon as she could travel we couldn't due to Covid. Her face up took a while. Anyway in photos you can see I am lucky enough to have a whole room. Bonus room in basement was son's room some 17 years ago. I have been in this hobby for almost 16 now. Anyway they all definitely have more then me, but they look great.

The BJD Room

 

Not nearly as extensive as I’d like it to be, haha. I’ve always been someone who’d rather have one doll with 20 outfits than 20 dolls with one outfit each, but I’m really only interested in fantasy clothes for 1/4 scale male dolls so my options are few and far between. I currently have 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 1 pair of shorts, 1 tunic, several head accessories, and a hooded scarf for my doll. Luckily he’s got hooves so I don’t need to worry about shoes. I’d like to add a cloak and some cold weather clothes soon, because I like to keep him dressed for the season, but who knows if I’ll actually get around to making them in time. He’ll definitely get a nice scarf in time for autumn, though!

 

It’s really easy to hoard clothes for tinies, and I only have yosd and smaller, so their wardrobe is pretty extensive. I tend to keep a doll in the same outfit once I find what fits their character but if I get something new I will swap a couple around. I really need to sell some that I don’t use anymore but I’m not hurting for storage space so I just ignore the evidence of my past consumerism

 

Man, I badly want some interchangeable clothes for my BJD’s…but despite having 9 of them, not one has a completed outfit

All of my dolls are high fantasy characters and exist in a fae world, so it’s really hard to find things that I feel suit their specific aesthetics well enough.

And looking for clothes is so hard for me. Like some of the others have said on here, I get super overwhelmed and don’t know where to even start, much less how to decide on something. A few times I’ve tried finding just some pieces of outfits that I could then take into the direction I see their aesthetics being in, but I’m not very skilled at seeing how one piece can be incorporated into an outfit, and that makes it very hard too :/

For the most part I’ve decided their fantasy clothes will probably have to be handmade by me, which I don’t mind doing! Except my sewing machine is down right now so that’s not possible LOL

They will however all have 80’s outfits, so that’s going to be a lot more doable as far as finding things. But like I said before, all the sifting and sorting through options is a pain in the butt…

HOWEVER, I shall prevail! Eventually!

 

I began this hobby back in 2006, with an eye towards the creativity of it all and a strong desire to explore my life-long love of fashion. I collected fairly slowly…consistently adding about 3 dolls per year (but yeah, do the math!) Once all my layaways finally arrive by the end of this year, that will make 55 dolls. And since each character was designed with a specific fashion style in mind, that will equal 55 full wardrobes of 3-5 full outfits (or more) per doll! This equals 2 full-sized dressers filled with nothing but doll clothes, in addition to various decorative boxes and small trunks placed decoratively and strategically throughout my home. Myself? I dress simply with an eye towards comfort at this stage in my life. But my dolls? It’s all about my love of fashion for them.

I’ve bought a few things for them over the years whenever I’ve seen something I’ve loved that would suit their characters. But I’d say 95% I’ve made myself. For me, sewing for them became as essential as doing their faceup, wig and eyes. I simply didn’t consider them complete without a wardrobe in their particular fashion style. It was such a fun exploration of fashion for me! How did I do it? I joined in on the monthly sewing projects in the workshop area here on DoA. Someone else ran them all those years ago, and I was happy to join in every month. With my slowly growing collection of characters, I could always find a willing fashion victim to suit whatever theme was specific for that month. And when the original project creator left, I stepped in to keep the threads going and just continued joining in.

And exactly how dedicated am I to the idea of fashion for my crew? Well, I even have a separate collection of amazingly artistic hats just for my SD girls, all made by a very talented Etsy artisan. My 7 SD girls have a collection of 31 hats by this particular hatmaker. Each one is an absolute work of art, and “the girls” and I just can’t resist them! That’s dedication to fashion, y’all!