I know this is probably something simple.. but I've tried all what I know.. which isn't much.. to stop this material from looking like plastic. I tried to cut down the highlight.. and a couple of the other ones in the material room, but it doesn't seem to change it one bit. I've even used a slight grey colour instead of white.

Can someone tell me where I am going wrong.  :)

Usual stuff....   AppleMac and Poser 7

You need to make the specular color completely black, first off. Then, add a Weave node to the BUMP channel, and play with the settings until you get the weave sized properly to your prop.

Finally, DO NOT use the default lights that Poser starts with. Using the default lights results in ugly renders 99% of the time, even when everything else is properly set up. There are a few great light sets in FreeStuff that you should try until you are comfortable setting up lighting yourself. Here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=61269
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=61968
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=60977
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=60668

Here is a picture of a robe , diffuse color white 0.8 , specular dark gray 0.1

lights 2 , 3 no shadows and 40% intensity

light 1 60% intensity

all lights white or slight gray, the default colors mess up colors.

this gives a little sheen in highlighted areas. Too much light makes things harder.

rendered to get the attached picture. 

an image file attached to the texture helps a lot , or the weave node

edited for picture arrachment

Thank you so much... this will give me something to go on with.. 

Bless you both.  :)

Try this http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2804108

For the clothe color change the first value of the blender node, if you think it's too sjiny, reduce the specular value.