Clothing

Clothing is a general category of objects that characters, particularly the player character, can wear. This notion of clothing encompasses not just garments (like hats, shirts, coats, dresses, pants, skirts, socks, shoes, gloves, etc.) but also other adornments (such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches, wristwatches, hairbands, wigs, etc.).

(Note: One might say that someone "wears" a tattoo, but tattooes are better handled in IF as body parts rather than articles of clothing.)

Verb Checklist

• DISROBE
• DISROBE character
• DOFF clothing
• DON clothing
• GET clothing FROM character
• GET DRESSED
• GET NAKED
• PUT clothing ON
• PUT ON clothing
• REMOVE clothing (FROM character)
• STRIP or STRIP DOWN or STRIP OFF
• STRIP character or STRIP DOWN character or STRIP OFF character
• STRIP clothing or STRIP DOWN clothing or STRIP OFF clothing
• TAKE clothing FROM character
• TAKE clothing OFF
• TAKE OFF clothing
• WEAR clothing

Finding Clothing

The most common place to find new clothing, by far, is in a bedroom, particularly inside a closet, a dresser, or wardrobe (sometimes called an armoire). Also check out laundry rooms, lockers, hotel/motel rooms, ship cabins, and suitcases. Sometimes you will have to buy something special from a clothing store.

Other places to look:

• Offices and coat check rooms might have coats.
• Desk drawers might have small items, like rings.
• Wastebaskets might contain a discarded glove.
• Spacesuits are sometimes found in airlocks.
• Entryways and back porches might have coats, boots, and other outerwear.
• Attics might have very old clothing that's still useful.
• Non-player characters might be willing to give or loan you any small items that they're currently wearing, if they can be persuaded to part with them.
• Dead characters should be searched, and sometimes stripped as well, if the PC isn't too squeamish.
• Good jewelry is also treasure, and therefore often locked up in vaults, trunks, jewelry boxes, wall safes, etc.

Using Clothing

• Survival. Wearing the right item at the right time can save your life.
  • Warm items might protect you from freezing weather.
  • Armor might protect you against some types of physical damage.
  • Gloves might let you grab something hot or electrically charged.
  • Parachutes might help you survive a long fall.
  • Condoms might protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

• Travel.
  • Boots might help you walk through muddy areas or climb a mountainous area.
  • Ice skates might help you walk across ice, such as a frozen lake.
  • Spacesuits let you brave the void of outer space.
  • Scuba gear lets you brave underwater depths.
  • Swimsuits might be required before you can swim.
  • Lab coats, ID badges, wigs, etc. might help you impersonate someone and thus gain access to somewhere they could go, such as a high security laboratory or the ladies' room.
  • Removing shoes may help you get into Japanese restaurants and tea rooms.

• Nudity.
  • Being naked is often appropriate for baths, showers, and sex.
  • Wearing clothing, however, is often required whenever venturing to public spaces.

• Pockets
  • Pockets sometimes conceal useful items. Always open and look in your pockets.
  • Pockets sometimes act as a player's holdall.

• Climbing
  • Whenever the PC needs both hands free for climbing, and there's no handy dumbwaiter to send your possessions on ahead, try wearing what you have that's wearable. Put non-clothing items inside what's you're wearing or try to attach them to your clothing somehow. Anything you can't wear or hold via your clothing will have to be left behind.

Coding

The basic model of clothing in most IF authoring systems is very simple:

• Either something is wearable or it isn't.
• Any creature can wear anything that's wearable.
• A wearable thing can be worn by only one creature at a time.

It's also notable that clothing usually ignores any carrying capacity that the player might have. There's usually no built-in limit on how many items a player can wear.

The basic model of clothing does not handle functionality like:

• A clothing item's size: does the item fit?
• Preventing a character from wearing mutually exclusive items simultaneously, like two hats.
• The warmth of a garment.
• The cleanliness of a garment.
• Whether clothing items go together and look good.
• The suitability of one's outfit for the current occassion or gender.
• The effectiveness of footwear for different types of terrain.
• The "layer" of a garment: Is the garment underwear or outerwear?
• What regions of the body does the garment conceal?

Authors who want clothing to be more functional will have to design and code that functionality themselves, unless someone else has written a clothing extension in their chosen authoring system that provides it for them.

Code Compare: Clothing
ADRIFT 4:	Object is wearable
Hugo:	The clothing attribute
Inform 6:	The clothing attribute
Inform 7:	The wearable property
TADS 2:	The clothingItem class
TADS 3:	The Wearable class

See also

• Fashion.
• Past raif_topics: Game_Mechanics: part 2#Body parts & clothing.