my REALLY STUPID advice for making designs (modern day designs for ch) is just.. basing it off of normal clothing. sure, you can adjust it and make it have some cool details on some parts, same for hair

just try to not make it too complicated. for someone like me, who hates doing fancy reference sheets for character designs i have despite having way too many of them, its easier to keep them simple yet not TOO simple (unless it fits the character) so that its easier to remember. simple, but unique yeh?

i mostly just make up concept designs for characters on mspaint or in my sketchbook... then, to make sure they're simple yet unique enough, i actually try recreating them on ponytown most of the time to see how limited yet still "unique" they can look like

for historical countryhumans, the clothing is almost always inspired by things their leaders back then (or just citizens) wore. it depends on the context, but their base outfit will almost always be their most influental past leader's outfit