Part of the fun of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is assuming a new life as a character within the game and bringing a unique style to that character's appearance and home. Players have always been able to customize almost everything about themselves, their homes and their towns in the Animal Crossing series. In New Horizons, players are able to create and share custom designs for themselves and others through the Custom Design Portal. These are usually added to clothing, though players can also now create custom paths and custom photo collages too. Thanks to this tool, the creative possibilities are virtually limitless.
There is already a vast creative economy within the game, with players creating and sharing everything from superhero costume designs to Disney princess dresses to ugly Christmas sweaters, and it is unlikely players will slow down any time soon. Whether a player is just getting started with custom clothing or has been creating works of art for the community for a while, here are some custom clothing design ideas and tips for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Focus on Styles You Love in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The number one tip for designing custom clothing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is for the player to make items they love. Designing custom clothing takes time and energy and can often be a thankless task, so it is important the player likes what they design.
This is especially true when players choose to recreate costumes from famous movies, shows, and video games. If the player does not enjoy watching or playing those other properties, they will likely not enjoy working within that style. Chances are if the player enjoys something and wants to wear clothing inspired by that thing in Animal Crossing, other Animal Crossing fans share that interest.
Get Inspired in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Most of the custom clothing items available from members of the Animal Crossing community comes from somewhere else. Players have recreated iconic looks like the Hamburglar's striped shirt and red tie or Jedi-style robes. Players who want to design custom clothing are encouraged to get inspired. As with island design, it's important to start from a theme.
Players can use almost anything for inspiration. The trend lately seems to revolve around recreations of beloved characters' costumes, but players can also get inspired by the clothing their villagers and other NPCs wear in the game, current fashion trends and brand styles, Internet memes, holidays, or seasons and even food.
Players can use Nookipedia, a huge fanmade database, to search custom clothing options and find inspiration from their fellow fans. They can also use this database to find out what hasn't been done yet and address that gap.
Create a Clothing Series or Collection in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Because there are a wide variety of possible clothing styles, players might have fun designing a series of outfits rather than just a single piece. For example, rather than creating one Hogwarts school uniform, players may want to make a dress and suit version for each Hogwarts house. This can allow the player's character to wear whatever they are in the mood for, give other players in the community options to choose from, and allow the player to design items that might fit a villager's personality so they could wear the item around town.
Past clothing collections by members of the Animal Crossing community have included an Anime series, a Hot-Topic-inspired collection, and a forest-style, cottagecore series.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for the Nintendo Switch.