this is how i exported the mesh, and how i added the group to a new dynamic group when i clothified it in Poser.  i made sure to give the dynamic group another name, so i didn't destroy the old one, which i managed to do once.  things like that are why a pretty simple process that should be make and UV map  flat cutouts > sim pieces around figure > drape > finish off > import > clothify > package takes me much longer than it should.

oh!  i see!  yes, that would pretty much kill it for creation for me, i think .  it's hard to say without understanding the mesh it makes better.  the thing is, wide skirts and trains with a topology like a cone can have really bad problems.  i learned that the hard way on my first piece.  i actually don't think it's posted here.  i messed up pretty thoroughly.  like mega bad.  i had to take it back into Blender and subdiv and smooth it.  now when i want (big) circular skirts and trains, i give them a grid topology rather than a radial one.  that isnt' to say that's the correct answer, just whew that first big wide circular train i made was just really awful. i just didn't think enough about the topology.

with the method i'm using, which is derived from Adorana's using C4D, the cloth works as much like the real cloth would as i can make it.  meaning, if i cut it small, and give it what i at least think is a stretchy material (i really wish it just had a stretch property) with an overall smoothness but ability to crumple and wrinkle, then it will act like lycra and fit pretty tightly.  there are cotton, silk, denim and rubber presets, and i try to work from those.  again, i think i have a lot to learn.

so it's not shrink wrapped to anything, per se, and i don't have to sculpt to create, say, a gathered skirt.  i just actually take a plane, make it cloth, gather it, then sew it into a skirt.  how closely it follows the body depends on the kind of fabric i make it and how small i cut it.  silk follows every curve, pretty much, while even cotton is much less specific.  if i make something rubber, it won't show much detail at all.  and it all kind of helps, because from the beginning, it works as cloth.  there are definite differences in Blender and Poser cloth, but judging the effects of, say, edge loop placement and poly density can happen while i'm still modeling rather than after i'm all done.

does that make sense?  i'm still trying to imagine exactly what you're doing, so i'm not sure if it would address the issue you're talking about or not. 

nice gallery!  i like the Anime girl's outfit.  and the Star Wars ships are impressive.  i've seen some good stuff on the 3D Coat site last i looked, but it feel just a bit short of the ZBrush gallery, imho.  not quite as real, not quite as natural looking. but very, very close, so i can't tell whether i'm seeing just the difference between the very best CG people in the world and the next to very best CG people in the world or not.  or even a difference in renderers, which isn't so relevant to me.

on the wrinkles: well it would really depend.  i just simmed that t-shirt i just made, and i can still see remnants of those slight wrinkles i put in there.  but i'm less worried about tiny wrinkles and more interested in serious wrinkles like in togas and such that might be easier to sculpt than sim.  well, for me at least, building a properly bunched and gathered greek style that has wrinkles like a Renaissance or Pre-Raphaelite painting hasn't worked out so well.  and i've seen a Zbrush tutorial for making such wrinkles, as well as frequent wrinkles like that in their galleries.

just to clarify, i'm not saying the material method wouldn't work, or would necessarily make problems. i'm just saying, it's easy to avoid confusion and therefore avoid any potential problems by just using vertex groups in the first place.  i've used materials myself a lot.it makes sense when you already have a material, right?  but there's no need to make materials that don't need to be there just to add structure to the piece, either.  i mean, it would be kind of confusing to any texture maker to see a seams material.  and i can make a single line of vertices into a vertex group, which i can't as a material.