I found Utilizator's blog for the 2.0 avatar (linked to the right) with suggestions for clothing options from other designers. I spent some time buying things and checking them out. Bear in mind that none of this stuff was designed to work with this mesh avatar, so the results are mixed to say the least.
The DECO mesh jeans for her were recommended as one of the best options. With the legs hidden (the 2.0 Avatar has a hud that will hid legs, feet, upper body, arms. hands) the jeans look fairly good. Please ignore that I didn't remove my boots in this picture, they stick through the jeans but obviously you could take them off.
Unfortunately because the jeans do not match the avatar precisely, and because the HUD hides all of the legs, rather than just the important part (as a good alpha layer would), you can see there's a gap and no body to be seen just below it. I find this disturbing, to be honest. I know nothing's ever perfect in SL but not seeing all of me is weird.
I bought a bunch of things from Simplicity. These are advertised as fitting the 2.0 Avatar perfectly. This is sort of true and sort of not true -- the maker has gone to a bit of trouble to include textures that allow you to adapt the item for your avatar, but it doesn't always work that well, and it's kind of a pain to accomplish. But when it works, the above pictures show you want you get.
The problem is that you have to rez a copy of your avatar in-world, then drag copies of the correct alpha texture (not the alpha layer itself, but the texture used to create it) onto the body. This allows the texture to hide only that part of the body you want to hide for this clothing. Then you have to wear that version of the body with the clothing. I renamed my alternate version bodies and moved them to the clothing folders before altering them so I could keep track of everything; once altered you can't change the name.
But I found that sometimes the alpha-textured body makes the clothing vanish where it sticks out. Sometimes this happens when I put on the outfit, sometimes after I've teleported. Removing the body and rewearing it (IE, putting on the alpha textured body after wearing the dress) made it work again.
The good news is that Simplicity's stuff is cheap, so it's worth experimenting with. I bought a siamese furry skin from them that I haven't experimented with yet, and a set of shimipan (striped panties) that were just textures to apply to the default panties that come with the avatar. Once I'd made copies, renamed them, rezzed them in world, and applied the textures, I had panties that I could use at any time -- but it seems silly to force the customer to do all that work.
The technique that Simplicity uses to add alpha textures to a copy of the avatar 2.0 body would likely work with lots of mesh clothing that normally comes with an alpha layer -- but most sellers don't provide you with the actual textures, of course. I bought a couple of other things that mostly work with the default body, but overall I'm not very impressed with the options for adapting normal clothing to the 2.0 Avatar. I don't think I'll be working very hard to find more almost-but-not-quite adaptable clothing.
The flip side is that the clothing built for the avatar works better than any clothing in SL, because it's designed for a specific size and shape. A mesh skirt can be very short and very tight and never have part of your body bleed through it. I like that aspect of the avatar 2.0 a lot, and if more clothing appears for it I'll be even happier.
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