All Formal Wear skins and meshes are categorized for use with Hot Date and should be installed into either the Maxis/The Sims/Expansion3/SkinsBuy folder for Hot Date ONLY (no additional expansions) or Maxis/The Sims/Expansion Shared/SkinsBuy (if you have isntalled any expansion packs beyond Hot Date).  To the best of my knowledge, you MUST have Hot Date installed for these skins to work.

THE NEW HEAD MESHES AND HEAD SKINS AVAILABLE ON THE FORMAL WEAR PAGES SHOULD BE INSTALLED AS NORMAL HEAD MESHES AND SKINS (into GameData/Skins, NOT any of the Expansion files).

This project began when two desires collided:  one, to find a better use for the more complex "regalia" skins I had made for some of my Sims, and two, when I got sick and tired of having nothing but modern formalwear available, especially for my male Sims.  This is also part of an ongoing project to have period-suitable outfits for all the clothing types my thematic Sims might have, although the other types are more likely to be generic, not character-specific (and I plan to give the High Fashion skins a miss, since I have no desire at present to install SuperStar).  All the outfits will have been tested to make sure they work both when they're purchased and when they're used (although I still occasionally run across the problem of the game thinking a character is skinny when they are fit, and need to use an outside program like Sim Enhancer to make sure they have the desired outfit and body type in their purchased skin).  They also work just fine with C&C Enterprise's "clothes pile" wardrobe, which not only allows you to use any surface, including the floor, to hold your "dresser," but lets you get new sleepwear, formals, swimsuits, etc. without the need to go downtown to make the purchase and the change.  Quite handy.  I hope to eventually have complete outfits for every character I make; some will be formalwear-assigned versions of existing regalia, others will be new; most will probably be based on the existing basic body mesh.  Yavanna, Aulë, Oromë, and Glorfindel are currently in the works.  Onward....

Manwë Formal
Varda Formal

These two were the obvious place to begin.  Manwë's outfit is nothing more than a complete, single-mesh, single-skin formalwear version of his regalia outfit, without the scepter (can't hold hands with your spouse/date when they're full of a hunk of carved sapphire).  Varda's is a variation of her basic gown and regal accessories with a new dress skin and the addition of a short decorative cape with shoulder pins and a joining chain of stars.

Ulmo Formal

This was bit more work that the previous two, as I was trying to achieve a more formal "court" look.  It's based on the basic Ulmo body mesh, with a number of additions -- three-quarter length sleeves, a new belt, a shoulder cloak reminiscent of certain Scottish folkwear, and a new body skin.  I was happy with the result, especially the way the new skin works with the shell "crown," highlighting it just enough to give the spines better definition.

Círdan Formal

Since I was starting with folks in the Elder Days, I chose to use the Young Círdan head, but the outfit will work for either.  This was a deliberate mixture of the original mesh for older Círdan, parts of Eärendil's "mariner" outfit, and parts of Ulmo's formalwear, with a few extra touches to make it distinctly his.  Rather strangely, I'm finding the outfits for the men more interesting to make than those for the women, since there are more potential variations to use with men  that can work in this particular fantasy/historical setting, and which are possible to render in Sim meshes and skins.  But who knows what the imagination might come up with next...?