What is the Outfits folder?
In Second Life, the Outfits folder (located in your Inventory) stores links to items like clothing, shape, skin, and attachments for quick avatar changes. You can create, rename, and organize outfits by dragging items into new, custom-named folders. Recent viewer updates often prevent nested subfolders directly within the main "Outfits" folder, requiring users to manage nested, organized folder structures within their general inventory instead.
What is this article about?
The Outfits folder can quickly become quite large with many outfits, each of which include links to the same items like body, head, shape, skin, and some attachments always worn. This article describes an alternate way to organize outfits so they are easy to find, manage, and wear.
What is this alternate method of organizing outfit folders?
To organize outfit folders outside the system Outfits folder, create and populate folders in your general inventory:
1. Create a top-level folder in your Inventory. Let's call it "** Outfits **"
2. Create a subfolder in the "** Outfits **" folder. Let's call it "Base".
3. Create links in the "Base" folder for all items your outfits will share. For example, my Base folder contains links to the body, shape, eyes, head, skin, eyebrows, body morphs, physics, kisser, spanker, AO, and BOMs I use in all my outfits.
3b. One way to easily populate the Base folder with your shared outfit items is to copy all the items from an existing system Outfits folder, paste them into the Base folder, and delete the outfit specific items like clothing and attachments not shared across all outfits.
4. Create a subfolder in the "** Outfits **" folder with the name of some outfit. Let's say it is named "Red Bikini".
5. Create links in the "Red Bikini" folder for all the items in that outfit that are not already in the Base folder. For example, create links for the bikini top, the bikini bottom, the hair you wish to wear with this outfit, shoes if worn, sunglasses, vagina and vagina HUD if worn with the bikini, jewelry, fingernails, tattoos, etc
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each outfit you wish to manage in your "** Outfits **" folder
7. Wearing an outfit in the "** Outfits **" folder is a two step process:
1. Right click the "Base" folder and select "Replace Current Outfit"
2. Right click the outfit folder you wish to wear and select "Add To Current Outfit"
8. To change outfits managed in the "** Outfits **" folder either repeat step 7 above for a different outfit or:
1. Right click the outfit folder you are wearing and select "Remove From Current Outfit"
2. Right click the outfit folder you wish to wear and select "Add To Current Outfit"
9. To update all of the outfits in your "** Outfits **" folder with a new base head, body, shape, skin, or any shared item in the Base folder, simply replace that link with a link to the new item
If, as you add outfits in this manner, you discover that an item in the Base folder does not belong in one or more of your outfits then you will need to copy and paste that item into all outfits where it belongs and delete that item from the Base folder. The Base folder can only contain items that are shared by all outfits managed in this way.
You can create multiple Base folders, each for a different type of body, shape, skin, or look. For example, I have a Base folder for my regular sized avatar and another Base folder for my petite sized avatar. You can have a base folder for your Neko and another for your Goth. Or use a single smaller Base folder for all.
Why would I want to do this?
Maybe you don't want to do this. The system Outfits folder is the easiest way to manage outfits. When you create a new outfit with the Appearance icon it automatically populates a folder in the system Outfits folder with all items worn or attached for that outfit. However, many many system Outfits folders can induce lag and slow you down. In addition, it becomes difficult to locate outfits as you have to scroll through so many. And the duplication of so many items in every outfit folder in the system Outfits folder grows your inventory unnecessarily. It is also tedious to add or remove an item from all system Outfits.
Using a general Inventory folder to manage outfits allows you to create subfolders to further organize and make things easy to find. For example, I put all my bikini outfits in a subfolder named "Bikinis" under my "** Outfits **" folder.
It becomes easier to update all outfits with a simple change to the Base folder. If you want to add an item to all outfits in the system Outfits folder then you have to copy a link to that item into each outfit folder, potentially very tedious.
[ UPDATE 04/13/2026 ] A kind reader points out that moving
outfits from the system Outfits folder to a general inventory folder means those
outfits will not appear in the Outfit Gallery. This is true, the Outfit
Gallery only displays outfits in the system Outfits folder. If the Outfit Gallery is a valuable feature that you wish to use then follow the above procedure but instead of using general inventory folders for your outfits, place them in the system Outfits folder. The Base folder(s) can go there as well. The method of using Replace with a Base folder then Add with an outfit folder works just as well inside the system Outfits folder. Note that you may encounter some limitations on the use of subfolders, e.g. a "Bikinis" folder, in the system Outfits folder. This is a trade-off you may need to consider, subfolders versus Outfit Gallery.
Outfit Folder Images
Outfit folders, whether in the system Outfits folder or in the general inventory, can contain an image to help remind you what that outfit looks like. It is easy to create these outfit images and quite helpful.
It is possible to create an image for an outfit folder in the general inventory. This presents the option of using the general inventory for outfit folders and unrestricted subfolders while adding an image to each outfit folder. It's not a Gallery, you do not see a display of all outfits with images as in the Outfit Gallery, but the saved image for each outfit folder displays when you mouse over that folder in your inventory. This is the method I use but it is a matter of personal preference.
Whichever way you choose to organize your outfit folders, setting an image for each outfit is very helpful. To set an image for an outfit folder, first wear that outfit (Replace with the Base folder and Add with the outfit folder). Position your avatar centered in the screen with all or part of the outfit you wish displayed in the image. Right click the outfit folder and select "Image". At the bottom of the Image window that pops up click on the "Use snapshot tool" camera icon and click "Save".
What should I do?
If you only have a few outfits then continue to use the system Outfits folder and ignore this Blog post.
In my case, I decided to use both the system Outfits folder and three Base folders with outfits for each. The outfits I wear most often I manage in the system Outfits folder but I try to keep that folder small enough to locate outfits easily. I moved all my other outfits to my Petite Base, my LaraX Base, or my Lara Base. In the Base outfits folders I created subfolders to organize further, placing all my bikini outfits in a subfolder, all my cyber outfits in a Cyber subfolder, all my skate outfits in a Skater subfolder, and so on.
I would say this method of using a Base folder with small outfit folders is not a replacement for the system Outfits folder but can be convenient when used in conjunction with the system Outfits folder. It offers some benefits such as easy update to all outfit folders, organization in subfolders, and reduction of inventory duplication. The main drawback of the Base folder method is it requires two steps to wear an outfit - Replace and Add, whereas the system Outfit folders only require one step - Replace.
