Tailor Archive
Thread: Interesting Development
Here's an interesting thing that I've found, at least on my server. Master level tailor items are becoming passe. People are starting to look for lower level items! This of course is good for me because I'm not a Master Tailor (2-1-3-1 at present).
I suppose it makes sense. Let's take Entertainers of all varieties for instance. A fleshwrap is what, 11k these days? (I think that's right according to Nivea) Delivery missions and tips if you actually sit at your keyboard really in the end isn't that hard to come by once you get into the swing of the game. So I've been seeing those who haven't reached novice in their elite career (Dancer or Musician or Image Designer) wearing master level items. The problem with that is, Entertainers especially dress to stand out and look good (or at least this is what they should be doing). You don't stand out if you're one of five dancers wearing fleshwraps. This goes for non-entertainers too from what I've been seeing and my business isn't spectacular, but it's very good. I keep hovering at the 1/4 million credit mark or thereabouts.
So I'm impressed with the trend, but I should have seen it coming and I think it's something unique to the Tailoring profession. I mean, who will buy a mouse droid when they already have a R2 unit? Who will buy a Scout blaster when they already have a <insert high-level weapon here>? Clothing is just different. Yeah, you have that cool infiltration suit, but the lower level stuff when combined is pretty cool too.
I think with the addition of stats you'll also see more customers that don't care much about the look, but are more interested in the bonuses.
YetiIronfist wrote:
I think with the addition of BE enhanced clothing you'll see a move away from the previously very popular items like flight suits that take up a lot of "body slots" and a move to outfits that let you wear more enhanced items.
I think with the addition of stats you'll also see more customers that don't care much about the look, but are more interested in the bonuses.
There's no doubt about this, but actually this is a bit irrelavent to this thread because combat types weren't the ones interested in master level clothing to begin with, dancers were, and dancers don't seem to be all that interested in bonuses in my experience. As once dancer said "why would I want to heal you more quickly in the cantina"?
Interesting.
As a novice tailor for aLONG time, I had kind of given up on the Cantina crowd, even though my initial focus was casualwear, since every time I've gone into cantinas everyone was asking me about the master level items. I've had good luck selling bustiers and hot pants in the bazar, and on my vendor, but going into a cantina unless you are a master has been mostly a discouraging and humbling experience. Half the sales you get feel like "pity sales" when what they really want are the fleshwraps etc. Call it snobbery or whatever, but the dancers that I've talked to often feel greatly disadvantaged when they are dancing in a nice dress or skirt, and the one next to them is in a fleshwrap or metal bikini.
Outside the cantina however is an entirely different matter. Since there is no clear "hierarchy" of clothing, people like to get a bit more creative and there are a lot more options. It's not like a doctor is going to feel foolish wearing a formal shirt or a frock and not a robe of honor for example. And when someone tells me "I need a nice looking blue shirt" and I offer them 4 or 5 different choices, more often then not they do not chose the highest level shirt. Same with boots, same with pants, same with dresses.
It would be truly an interesting, but not totally unexpected development, if the cantina crowd were forced into other areas of clothing choices in order to distinguish themselves from their peers. This would actually be cool, if true, because then there would be much more of a premium on the actual skill of the tailor rather than the title floating above their head. I will have to check this out, but then again, since I'm about to make master, maybe this is a bad thing, lol.
Jedorin - I agree completely. Very interesting that this does mirror RL. I mean, who would have thought when I was a kid (I'm a 30-something) that you would actually PAY MORE for pre-ripped jeans?? 
I think, though, as more Tailors become master-level (it's just a matter of time and sticking with it / not burning out) that people will start to see the value of the lower level items. I mean, not being a Master Tailor, I'm not sure how it works, but you have less to accessorize with at that level - does a fleshwrap allow a jacket also? At the low-to-mid levels, you have an abundant number of items to mix and match that if you go just high or master level, you won't see.
It'll be interesting to see if you one day see prices invert themselves as the fads do so...
However, in my area I haven't noticed a lack of master item sales. The only popular items that have fallen in recent weeks are cloaks and to a lesser extent Gunman's. Leotards still fly off the shelves, half to guys (for their GFs), fleshwraps have been popular second to leotards. ROHshave always ben a once in a while item. Certain bodysuits fly off still in certain colors or in general, others never sold well to begin with.
Half the cantina crowd does wear lower lvl items I notice too, mostly the male entertainers I have seen, but then their outfits often still include a number of L4 items. I actually do not see a fleshwraps or leotardsin the cantinas I stop in very often, so I wonder where people wear them. 
The skirts and bikinis/tops are all over the place tho.
Perhaps what the cantina crowd shifts away from, another crowd may pick up (i.e. combatant).
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
As once dancer said "why would I want to heal you more quickly in the cantina"?
As a musician, I thought of that too. But there is an answer: XP(if you're not capped in it). 25% faster healing equals 25% faster healing XP, or at least, it should. But that's a pretty negligible benefit, it's not like 25% more injured people are going to come through the door, is it?
I'm sort of seeing the same thing. The current hot selling look in the Theed/Kettemoor cantina is one I was hoping to promote, because I think it's very good looking: ordinary artisan-level Shorts combined with a Revealing Top. That won't help artisans, though, because it only sells well in Tailoring IV or Master colors. I still see fleshwraps and leotards, but now they're on probably fewer than one in four of the high-end dancers.
(Musicians wear almost anything. No, really. I give up on trying to spot patterns, the data are too random.)
I've recommended this science fiction novel to other SWG tailors, andI'll recommend it again: Connie Willis, Bellwhether. The lead character is a think-tank researcher who's trying to figure out how fads, especially clothing fads, get started. Eventually, she figures it out, more or less by accident: people are like sheep. No, really. Sheep naturally follow not the alpha-male sheep, but special sheep called bellwhethers. A bellwhether is a sheep that is just slightly more experimental than the other sheep, but no so much that they seem weird. (She then discovers the horrifying truth about where such people come from, among humans, but I won't spoil that part.)
In my experience, it's true, in-game and in real life. There are certain people who are natural trend-setters. Whatever those people are wearing, everybody wants to wear. If you can find one of those people and become their personal tailor, you'll be the one setting trends for the entire server.
I've been noticing this for a while. I had a no-show order that had a good mix of high level and low level stuff inbright colors and threw it on the vendor. Onedancer bought all the low-level items a few hours later, and now I'm getting more and more orders for some interesting mixes with a lot of demand for artisan level things (mostly wrinkled pants and short sleeve shirts) in bright colors.
I really do think we obssess more about the level of the clothing than the customers. They don't care what tier it's in, they just care what it looks like.
I've been Tailoring pretty much since Shadowfire opened its doors, so I've been in a good position to watch the fads come and go. I'll list what I've seen in terms of women's trends here (men's clothing is much less fad-dependant, though it shifts slowly over time):
1.) Light Bustier and Fashionably Pleated Skirt, with Lekku Wraps for Twi'leks. This is the first big trend on almost every server, in my experience, because it's the first really attractive "evening wear" outfit that can be made by relatively low-skilled Tailors, and the skirt can be traded for Hotpants to good effect. Almost every server will see this trend while the entertainers wait for the first Tailors to hit Master.
2.) Fleshwraps. This trend hits as soon as the first Master Tailor arrives and will tend to last for a few weeks, due to the fact that the availability of the fleshwraps is (at least at first) tightly bottlenecked. Once more than just one or two Tailors hit the Master Box and these become easy to come by, they start to fall out of favor.
3.) "Safari Wear" - Pocketed Shorts, Sports Wraps, Spec-Ops Dusters, Sports Bustiers, Small Bustiers, Paramilitary Camos (usually in very non-camo colors), etc. This seems to be something of the "anti-fleshwrap" trend that non-entertainers develop in response to seeing way too many fleshwraps. This trend hits fast since by this point a lot of people can make the required items, they don't take any special resources, and they aren't especially expensive. There's enough variety in the trend, though, that it has decent longevity...
4.) Master Pieces. Actually two trends in one that seem to occur more or less simultaneously, one for partial piece Master Items (Metal Bikini, Low-Cut Top, etc.) and the other for assorted bodysuits (esp. Trader's Flightsuit and Tactical Skinsuit). This trend seems to occur as people get enough income that they're looking to "trade up" from the safari items, so they look for other Master Items no one else is wearing.
5.) Dresses. At some point, the women decide the only way to stand out from the paramilitary crowd and maximum skin showing dancers is to go ultra-feminine. Enter the dresses and gowns. Exquisite Gowns, Grand Ball Gowns, Patterned Slip Dresses, and Luxurious Gowns in particular, though during this trend you may even see some Doctor's Dresses and the like moving. This trend has a very long lifespan because once people see how good these dresses look when worn, they're very much inclined to get their own, even if it's no longer trendy to do so.
6.) Casual. The final stage. At this point many people are looking for something new, but they've exhausted almost every other option, so they turn to some of the less flashy items. Jackets, skirts, pants, shorts, even plain shirts. They may mix and match them with the more expensive items - especially the "Master Tops", dusters/cloaks, and fancy lekku accessories - but the main focus of this trend is just finding something attractive that no one else is wearing.
Beyond this, there aren't many more real trends that I've observed. There are flavors of the week - today, everyone seems to want a Muscle Shirt and a pair of newly colored Pocketed Shorts - but they're very specific and short-lived, and usually based either on someone relately well-known wearing that item or a well-known Tailor deciding to (over)stock said item at below-market price.
Keep in mind that you, as a Tailor, have a great capacity to influence trends. If you want to wean customers off of an overdone item, simply increase the price and decrease the selection. At the same time, decrease the price of a similar but less popular item and increase the selection. People will buy it. Other people will see it and want to buy it. As long as your selection holds out, you will create your own mini-trend.
You can also influence trends heavily by the personalized service you give customers. For example, if you have a customer ask for a Grand Ball Gown (which you feel has been done to death), you can try suggesting instead an Exquisite Gown. Tell them that everyone's got a Ball Gown, and the Exquisite Gown is much nicer anyway. They are likely (especially in the case of Dancers) to repeat this to their friends, especially those that like their new dress, and before you know it Grand Ball Gowns are out of favor.
A Dancer friend asked me to add this nugget of wisdom: "The way you know a trend is dying is when the AFK Macro Entertainers start wearing it."