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[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

Please help me out here; what is the most efficient method to keep my dwarves clothed, while also ridding the unwanted tattered rags from littering my halls? I'd like to atom smash them to free some speed up, but I haven't really been able to effectively get them put into a pile separated from other stuff. I have my normal stockpiles set to refuse "unsuable" items, with my trash heap able to receive them but not usable items. They don't seem to bring clothes to the trash heap, though; they just leave everything laying on the ground.

In addition to the stockpile conundrum, I'm not sure what exactly my dwarves wear to be happy; not the quality or material type, the actual clothing. Would they prefer shirts or robes, or both? Trousers or skirts? Capes? And how would I go about creating these items in a timely manner and in enough quantity so that I don't have to really worry about it?

[Misturr Crow]

A good way to rid yourself of tattered clothing would probably be to designate them to be dumped into your garbage/atom-smashing zone. Dwarves need one upper body article, one lower body article, and footwear all non-tattered so as not to get bad thoughts related to their clothes (they stack, too)
Preferences are more up to the individual dwarf, but for mass-producing clothing for your dwarves I would suggest a good stockpile of usable material and three separate workshops, one for each article area, (assuming you have a high population) otherwise just one clothier with a task on repeat or using your jobs list. Boring, but effective.
Not sure how quickly they wear out, but you shouldn't have to do this more often than once every two-three years in my experiences. Getting the spare cloths & leathers from caravans should really be enough for most purposes.

[Imp]

For happiness you need something that covers both the top and bottom of the body, as well as the feet.  As far as I know, without modding this requires three clothing items.  Dwarves will also eagerly don all the rest of the clothing items if you also make those, and will get some armor benefit from them if circumstances require.

I've just changed how I handle clothing in my forts, but it seems to be working well.  As year 2 approaches, I start one (or more if there's a lot of dwarves) clothing workshop with make robe, tunic, socks, gloves, and cap on repeat, and without a stockpile that will accept any of those items, so they stay in the workshop until the dwarves are ready to get new clothing.

When I see clothing lying around, I dump it, which does get the job assigned and then the items finish rotting in the trash.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Use custom stockpiles:

The fresh clothing stockpile is set to take only from the clothing workshops, which can only give to that pile.

The old clothing stockpile takes clothing (but not other types of items) from anywhere else (it is a finished goods stockpile, not a refuse pile). You can manually designate either some or all of these to be dumped into the atom smasher as you see fit.

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

(it is a finished goods stockpile, not a refuse pile).

This could be why they are not doing what I want. The usuable/unusable option is for Armor and Weapon/Trap Component stocks. I thought clothing would be in Armor.

[Urist Da Vinci]

(it is a finished goods stockpile, not a refuse pile).

This could be why they are not doing what I want. The usuable/unusable option is for Armor and Weapon/Trap Component stocks. I thought clothing would be in Armor.

That setting is only for "dwarves can't use greatswords" and "dwarves can't use human-sized armor", IIRC.

[XXSockXX]

Actually I get a huge clothing supply from the goblins, so I mostly have to produce what they don't bring. It takes about 2-3 years for worn clothing to go XX. After a few years my fortress is mostly wearing troll fur.
In the very beginning it is a good idea to overproduce, to make sure there is enough clothing for the first children to grow up. I usually have a finished goods stockpile that accepts only non-artifact clothing to keep an eye on the supply.

I make my dwarfs wear robes, trousers and shoes (all these are necessary), gloves for protection plus mittens, socks, hoods and cloaks (I want my military to have these, so I need to produce enough for all dwarfs to make sure my soldiers actually get them).
The thing about shirts, tunics, coats and such is, if you don't produce these or don't produce enough for everybody, a dwarf who has one of these will wear the item until it rots away and get a bad thought out of it. So it's better to never start producing something you don't want your dwarfs to wear. I also immediately dump goblin clothes that I cannot produce, like loincloths, to prevent this.

Litter is not dumped immediately if it is still owned by a dwarf who has claimed a new item. It takes a while before the dwarf loses ownership. He will never lose ownership of items in his rooms, so wait with giving them cabinets until your clothing industry is stable.
The only way to really get rid of scattered clothing is DFhack's cleanowned. I run "cleanowned scattered X" every 3 years or so.

[Sutremaine]

Lately I've taken to dividing clothes like this:

#1: not linked to anything, and binless. Next to the clothier's or leatherworker's. Takes all clothing of -quality- or above. Is a feeder stockpile for a minecart, which dumps all items onto a single tile. This allows me to directly select worn items for trade by searching for items with 'x' in the name. It could be linked to the workshops though, to stop untraded worn goods from being moved from the depot.
#2: not linked to anything, and binned. Takes all clothing of base quality. Is also set to be a refuse pile, with all options blocked. This makes the clothes go away without any further effort on my or the dwarves' part.

I also immediately dump goblin clothes that I cannot produce, like loincloths, to prevent this.

I don't think the exact item matters, only the body part it covers.

[Carp McDwarfEater]

For happiness you need something that covers both the top and bottom of the body, as well as the feet.  As far as I know, without modding this requires three clothing items.  Dwarves will also eagerly don all the rest of the clothing items if you also make those, and will get some armor benefit from them if circumstances require.

I've just changed how I handle clothing in my forts, but it seems to be working well.  As year 2 approaches, I start one (or more if there's a lot of dwarves) clothing workshop with make robe, tunic, socks, gloves, and cap on repeat, and without a stockpile that will accept any of those items, so they stay in the workshop until the dwarves are ready to get new clothing.

When I see clothing lying around, I dump it, which does get the job assigned and then the items finish rotting in the trash.

Doesn't a robe cover both the top and bottom? I think you could just make shoes and robes and your dwarves would be fine.

[Findulidas]

The real problem is that loads of clothes everywhere drains fps. Thats why I sometimes collect all the trash clothes and autodump them with dfhack and atom smash when the lag reaches annoying levels.

[Sutremaine]

Robes have a large LB step, but they're still classed as upper body coverings because of their location in item_armor.txt. In much the same fashion, capes count as upper body coverings despite not generally covering the chest IRL.

[flameaway]

There are some schools of thought that consider managing nudity the first step on the path to hell...

As soon as Adam put on pants the whole damn world got moved to a ghetto.

...it's right there in your Bible.

<snickers>

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

For happiness you need something that covers both the top and bottom of the body, as well as the feet.  As far as I know, without modding this requires three clothing items.  Dwarves will also eagerly don all the rest of the clothing items if you also make those, and will get some armor benefit from them if circumstances require.

I've just changed how I handle clothing in my forts, but it seems to be working well.  As year 2 approaches, I start one (or more if there's a lot of dwarves) clothing workshop with make robe, tunic, socks, gloves, and cap on repeat, and without a stockpile that will accept any of those items, so they stay in the workshop until the dwarves are ready to get new clothing.

When I see clothing lying around, I dump it, which does get the job assigned and then the items finish rotting in the trash.

Doesn't a robe cover both the top and bottom? I think you could just make shoes and robes and your dwarves would be fine.

According to the game on which part a robe is worn on, it is only upper body. That doesn't mean it doesn't count as lower body, too, but I wouldn't count on it.

The real problem is that loads of clothes everywhere drains fps. Thats why I sometimes collect all the trash clothes and autodump them with dfhack and atom smash when the lag reaches annoying levels.

This is exactly why I want them in my garbage pile; it's a huge atom smasher.

[nbp]

I put a single quantum stockpile of clothes directly adjacent to the trading depot.  Each time the caravan comes, I use dfhack's "sort-item wear", and then use a macro to grab a couple hundred of the most worn items, and trade them to the depot for everything they've got that looks worthwhile.  Sometimes, that's just a couple of barrels of sunshine.

Meanwhile, my farms, dyers, weaver, and clothier are pretty much constantly cranking new clothes out.  In this fort, I've been doing socks, shoes, trousers, robes, capes, caps, hoods, gloves and mittens.  Not every fort has the same options.  In my last fort, I think I could do vests, which I was doing instead of robes.  All you need are one foot item (so you don't need both socks and shoes, but if both are available, both will be worn), a lower body item (which is pretty much just trousers, unless you wanna have them in goblinite loinclothes), and an upper body item (which could be a dress, robe, vest, or shirt, but won't, I believe, be more than one of these).  A cloak is nice because it actually provides a fair bit of protection from minor damage, in case of a accidental dropped item, kobold thief, or whatever.  Caps, hoods, gloves and mittens are just gravy.

[Gukag]

Put everyone in the army, militia squads giving everyone a crossbow (except for miners and wood cutters o course) and enough leather armor (or metal if you have the resources for it) to keep clothes requirement (chest, legs, boots, helmets if feeling generous). After all the needless clothes rott away (often causing bad thoughts), you never have to worry about clothes again.