I recently started creating outfits and I am not sure how this works, I am trying to make a belly dancing outfit. The top was easily done because I only need to apply a texture to the shirt whil editing appearance but the issue is with the skirt, because I need a skirt shape that looks like belly dancing costumes, do I need to make my own mesh in a 3D program? Or are there readily made skirts that can be textured on the viewer if I buy them? And is it necessary to have a 3D software to do that?
Thanks in advance 
well if you really want to use mesh, you have 2 options :
--- do it yourself using a 3d software like blender (its free) for example. But using such software requieres some knowledge you cant learn in only one hour and far from this...
-- you may find some meshes templates already made on the mp, (type mesh templates in the search, or look in the building component section there is subsection for meshes) and search for the full perms one, its you want to do business with your items.
That said you need to be aware about some lil things :
-- texturing a mesh is really not same as texturing a layer or a prim.. its pretty a brain teaser if you cant use a 3d software where you can do your texture too. and if you do it with gimp or photoshop it requieres a lot of skills and patience. on top, if you want to texture it in blender youll need the dae files from the mesh. Something that usually mesh creators doesnt sell with the template.
- mesh template sellers have usually really restrictive terms and conditions... read them carefully before buying bec then you will avoid some surprise, like you are forced to sell your item the price the mesh template creator will tell... etc...btw, i strongly advice you to always try the demo before purchasing too.
-- ive never seen any silks or belly dance skirt as meshes.. but well, maybe they are some now, idk. For me it make sense that silks are not meshes, bec meshes are usually not really flexible and if they are they looks more like chewing gum texture than fabric ones when they need to be flexible... so well.. maybe you should give a look at what you can do with prims.. there are some already made silks skirt with prims, nicely done, and that you can buy as full perm and texture them your own. you can even do yours if you have some experience at torturing prims, bec silks skirt are not really hard to build. There are also some tools like the beadrezz machine for example, that will assembly the skirts part for you, the way you want and all parts will be yours..
Well its up to you anyway.
i hope this will help you and i wish you good luck 
