buying clothes for non-playables, is there a better way?

[Berg]

I use Christianlov's clothing rack. You can summon townies, purchase whichever type of clothing you want - except outerwear ...

Oh, I'm sorry! I absolutely read it as underwear and really wanted to know what version you had, since I'd rather be able to change outerwear than underwear. Guess one sees what one wishes to see... Reading comprehension FTW! 

[notveryawesome]

If you have Open For Business, you can have your sims "suggest outfit for..." when you sell clothing as part of a community lot business (I haven't found a way to get the clothing rack for a home business, for some reason).

It was easy to do after Pets, and until Bon Voyage. All you had to do was make a collection that contained the clothing rack on a community lot, and set that collection to be available on Residential and Community lots.

Post-BV, you're back to the "use the changeLotZoning cheat to add them before moving Sims into the lot" trick.

Not necessarily. I have an old hack that still works in my game that places all of the community lot items (up to the OFB EP) into the regular buy catalogue, not a collection. It's called jaxad0127_ResiBusi. I'm fairly certain that it's still available from MTS2.

[nocomment]

jennydee - I don't know if Christianluv's rack adds to the family wardrobe.  I don't think it does, but I'm not sure.

I can answer your other question.  Sims do not have to be playable or controlled.  They don't even have to be on the lot.  The rack gives you the phone book list.  You chose a sim and it teleports the sim onto your lot if needed. 

Edited to add - Here is the hack notveryawesome mentioned. 

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=138575

I'm excited to hear that this still works.  Changing townie's clothes with a business is the most fun way, I think.  However, it is very, very slow.  If you want to change their formals, PJs, etc., use Fat D's clothing controller.  The sim still won't swish into their new outfit after they buy (they only do this for everyday).  They will be wearing it the next time they visit the lot, and you will be able to see which sims you have already sold to.

[Swiftgold]

I recently moved all my downtownies into the townie pool (since I didn't have any, and don't play downtown much) and changed their looks and clothes by using the clothing tool in one house to buy a ton of clothes. Then I used a teleporter (dizzy's "any bush a teleporter" I think) to drag them all over, and then dizzy's hack that allows you to change the appearance of anyone to choose their clothes and change their faces. Then I deleted them with the same teleporter bush to get rid of them. There's a SimPe plugin that removes the clothes from the family's wardrobe so it doesn't all stick around.

For bonus fun I used a randomizer to assign whether each townie was rich, middle-class or poor so my royals couldn't just marry the first townie they met and call it good

[jennydeenyc]

Thanks Swiftgold, but that's basically a couple of options that aren't really addressing what I need. I need something to get townies/downtownies new duds on the lot of the family I'm currently playing, without having to exit to another lot. Also, I checked out that SimPE plugin, and while I see it will remove clothes from the household closet, it doesn't appear to allow me to be selective, therefore after using it I'd have to re-get any outfits I'd previously purchased that nobody in the house is currently wearing. Normally this would be fine, but having installed Seasons, I find I'm giving my sims a few Everyday outfits to choose from, so I can change their clothes according to the season - my male sims were both wearing outfits with sweaters as Everyday so I gave them some short-sleeved options for Spring & Summer, but I'll want them back in their warmer outfits come Fall.

Anyone have a link to Christianlov's hacked rack? Having some problems locating it. If it works on non-household sims that'll at least solve the issue of my having to move townies in to change their Everyday threads.

[zoebme]

Anyone have a link to Christianlov's hacked rack? Having some problems locating it. If it works on non-household sims that'll at least solve the issue of my having to move townies in to change their Everyday threads.

You can find it at the Sims2 Graveyard: http://sims2graveyard.com/download.html. It's called christianlov_SimBoutique_ClothingRack. I use it as well and it works fine for me. 

[jennydeenyc]

Thanks. Picked that up as well as the SimPE Wardrobe Cleaner wizard. Here's what I found...

After using the Wardrobe Cleaner & re-entering the game, I used the SimBoutique rack to summon a townie (who I had already re-dressed, this was just for testing purposes). I didn't buy any new clothing for her, but did go into the Plan Outfit...Everyday option, just to see what showed up. Later, I went to re-buy my family's patriarch's cold weather Everyday outfit, but even though I purchased 2 new Everyday outfits, I could not plan his outfit until I re-bought the clothes he was already wearing. Until I re-purchased the clothes he was wearing, the plan outfit dialogs were empty, just as they were with townies I had attempted to re-dress using the FFS Clothing Tool without moving them into the household. I also found that the clothes in the summoned townie's closet were indeed added to my Adult female's wardrobe choices in Plan Outfit, which I guess means that if I keep bringing townies over to give them new duds, I'll have to run the Wardrobe Cleaner wizard every few days or so to keep the family closet from clogging up again. Remembering to re-buy outfits my sims are already wearing in order to allow them to plan new outfits is also a bit of a pain.

[Lord Darcy]

Christianlov posted updated version of Sim Boutique Clothingrack.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=284411

What has been changed -

1. Now outwears are supported.
2. Package size has been reduced to be about 300KB.
3. There is some change in the english menu names.
4. Now it will cost $0.

[ingeli]

Oooh, he updated, thats great !
The mod mentioned by Notveryawesome is from Dizzy. It makes it possible to customize any sim present on the lot, including the winter clothes, with the help of a mirror. I have had this mod for the longest time not realizing how great it is.. so simple. And works for NPC:s. You just need to buy the clothes you want to use first, (for example with Pescados clothing tool, or something similar) then summon the NPC, then click on a mirror, works like a charm!
Dizzy's mods are now here:
http://www.nectere.net/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=4e5659d35589f1f2860e2144ab328a3e&topic=1140.0
Download the BV-dump file, there is a lot of hacks in there, you want:
change-appeareance-anyone

[Zazazu]

Christianlov posted updated version of Sim Boutique Clothingrack.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=284411

Hehe. I wondered how long his hiatus was going to last.

[Swiftgold]

Thanks Swiftgold, but that's basically a couple of options that aren't really addressing what I need. I need something to get townies/downtownies new duds on the lot of the family I'm currently playing, without having to exit to another lot. Also, I checked out that SimPE plugin, and while I see it will remove clothes from the household closet, it doesn't appear to allow me to be selective, therefore after using it I'd have to re-get any outfits I'd previously purchased that nobody in the house is currently wearing. Normally this would be fine, but having installed Seasons, I find I'm giving my sims a few Everyday outfits to choose from, so I can change their clothes according to the season - my male sims were both wearing outfits with sweaters as Everyday so I gave them some short-sleeved options for Spring & Summer, but I'll want them back in their warmer outfits come Fall.

Anyone have a link to Christianlov's hacked rack? Having some problems locating it. If it works on non-household sims that'll at least solve the issue of my having to move townies in to change their Everyday threads.

Ahh, okay. My sims usually wear one thing per life stage, heh. But since the clothing rack is updated, that is probably easier (and what I was using for a while before it was abandoned. Yay for returning creators!).

[ChibyMethos]

I've been using the old version of Christianlov's clothing rack and Jaxol0127's nonpcrevert.

[twink]

A new Christaina's clothing rack just came out  http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=284411 The new one even includes winter clothes.

Twink

[Zazazu]

Yeah. That was already linked to on this page.