Sawk, take off your...? (pokémon with clothes/accessories)

I've always just assumed that it is either something they are born with or in the case of Pokemon like Jynx, something that appears when they evolve. My reasoning behind this is, all of the clothing is the same for a certain Pokemon. I think if it were made by the parent Pokemon, it would differ from Pokemon to Pokemon. Accessories though such as Farfetch's leek are probably found after birth since it would inevitably have to be replaced over time due to it eventually rotting.

I've thought a bit about this issue. I think a distinction can be made here between:

1. The pokemon who wear almost distinctively human-like clothing e.g. Jynx, Sawk, Throh etc (and are themselves human-like); and

2. The pokemon who use accessories which aren't as "human" as human clothing, e.g. bone (cubone and marowak), leek (farfetch'd), pendulum (hypno) etc.

Type 2 seems easier to explain. These pokemon find their accessories in their habitat. For example, we know cubone isn't born with the skull it wears. Similarly, it's plausible to assume farfetch'd simply "acquires" a leek from its habitat. A real world analogue of these would be the hermit crab, which uses shells left by other sea creatures as mobile homes; or the dolphins who occasionally wear sponges on their snouts. Pokemon "accessories" are just a bit more sophisticated, that's all.

As for pokemon who wear distinctively human clothing, I think it's reasonable to assume that they weave these from their surroundings as well. Throh's pokedex entries give credence to this hypothesis:

When it tightens its belt, it becomes stronger. Wild Throh use vines to weave their own belts. (Black pokedex)

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When it encounters a foe bigger than itself, it wants to throw it. It changes belts as it gets stronger. (B&W2 pokedex)

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But if this is true, then shouldn't the clothing and accessories differ from individual pokemon to individual pokemon (since they used whatever material they have in their habitat to make them)? Why do all farfetch'd appear to be carrying the same exact leek? Or why do all Jinx's wear the same clothing? I think there is indeed variance from pokemon to pokemon, but it's not shown in the game or anime for simplicity's sake. It's very plausible to think every cubone's bone/skull and every farfetch'd's leek is different.

One last question about this issue is how these pokemon learn to weave their clothing or use their accessory. I think the answer is instinct. Pokemon are not merely "animals", and it's plausible that their instincts are more sophisticated than shell-acquiring crabs or sponge-wearing dolphins. A fighting pokemon like throh, for example, would know how to put together material in its environment to weave its belt/clothing, while psychic types like Jynx presumably uses magic to achieve that end.

Also, since pokemon predates human beings, maybe people in the pokemon world picked up some practices from the pokemon, as opposed to the other way around. It's obvious that the alphabet was modeled around unowns and not the other way around. So maybe people learnt to were martial arts clothing from Throh/Sawk, hypnosis induction from hypno and magic robe from jynx.

It may seem farfetch'd (har har), but it's the only way I can think of to explain the prevalence of "human" practices among pokemon.

You forgot Leavanny!

Anyway, I think it is awesome how you can have accessories and clothes! It's about time and I think this will be appealing to the girls, making Pokemon a tad more popular.

I imagine those 'clothes' and 'accessories' to be part of each respective Pokemon. Like, they could be kinda their actual body and can't really be removed? Perhaps the clothing is really the Pokemon's own skin and they were born with those accessories. Who knows? No one's ever tried to remove a piece of clothing off a Pokemon before, at least not to my knowledge. The Pokedex's descriptions kinda prove my hypothesis wrong though, such as Sewaddle's...but if it were, won't each Pokemon have different shapes, sizes and colours of clothing and accessories? That's the question there.

I think it's a mix between being born with them and finding them in the wild. The more unnatural things, such as the clothing that Jynx, Sawk, Throh, and so forth wear simply come with them when they evolve and just kind of... appear out of nowhere/appear on them when they first pop out of an egg or so forth. I'm not really sure how to explain it. But Pokemon aren't the only type of monsters that have this phenomenon. Digimon have them as well; when some of them digivolve they end up having clothing on them that they didn't have before. So I just kind of think it's the same thing for Pokemon but just more permanent since once they evolve they stay evolved.

On the other hand, there are things such as the leaves on a Sewaddle, the leeks of a Farfetch'd a so forth. They may or may not come with the item, but at the same time it is also found in the wild. For example, Leavanny makes the little leaf clothing that sewaddle wears (as seen in the Pokemon anime actually). Oshawott if it tried hard enough can find a replacement for its shell if it's lost it and the same goes for Farfetch'd and any other Pokemon that have such an item. Dwebble is also another example; if this wasn't the games (and perhaps more the anime) it would have to find its home in the wild rather than just coming out of its egg with one on. And if it did come out of its egg with one on I'm assuming that eventually it would find a new one anyways whether because it grew out of it or simply because it wants to.

Someone said before that the latter is much easier to explain than the former. Which is certainly the case because it's easier to explain how a Farfetch'd got its leek than how a Sawk got its clothing.

Disregarding on how Pokemon like Timburr are born holding wooden planks, Cubone are born wearing skulls and wielding bones and Farfetch'd are born holding leeks in the games, I'd say that Pokemon without external items are born without those items, and either the parents provide the appropriate items or the newborns find them themselves. This can be seen with Brock making an Oval Stone for Happiny in the anime and Flabebe finding a flower to live in as soon as it's born.

I like the arguments made by the other posters in this thread. I think the plausibility of either of the two explanations (being born with it or finding it in the wild) depends on how literally you interpret the anime and games. If you interpret the anime/games literally to mean that every accessory/clothing of the pokemon are exactly the same, then the "finding it in the wild" hypothesis doesn't cut the mustard. There is simply no way to explain how every Throh/Sawk wears the exact same robe- down to the fiber- and yet each of them made their own robes from whatever they could acquire from nature.

If on the other hand, you want to take the literal portrayal in the games or anime with a grain of salt (understanding the lack of variance as a manner of simplification)- like I do- then the "being born with it" hypothesis seems more unnatural, counter-intuitive and complex.

Then again, it's pokemon. Running counter to our intuition is what it does.

There are different kinds, ones that were born with it, ones that will find their uhh... attire(?) when they were born, ones that will eventually gain them by growing/evolving.

Jynx's 'dress', Sawk's 'robe' are body parts, like a cat's fur, a turtle's shell, armadillo's armor.
For Dwebble's case, they are just like real life bivalves, which they'll eventually find a shell of their own upon arriving to their world.

I've always wondered if Pokemon like Hariyama, jynx, gothorita, gardevoir
will look like if they don't have there clothing. Not anything bad though.
I think Pokemon are better without accessories and clothing.

I want to say that it's flesh, but it sounds nasty... Apparently their clothing is made out of natural material? It's strange that every single outfit of a species are exactly the same. I'd say Slyveon's bows are actually flesh. They don't even look like they were made from another material, they match its fur color perfectly.

I rknow there are Pokémon with clothing-like anatomy on them, but I never had thought about them being able to be removed. One example I can think of is Sylveon's bows, or Hitmonchan's boxing gloves. Or what about Timbur's log? There are many examples I could think of, but those are the notable ones I can think of for now.

I've always avoided Pokemon like this. Machoke and Machamp always bothered me the most because they were the most humanoid Pokemon possible. What lies underneath, no one shall ever know. And I certainly hope they won't ever find out.

But, because these Pokemon were introduced with clothes, means that we cannot think of any other way to project them as such. Whether you think of them flesh or not is certainly up to you. But I honestly cannot bear to use any of these Pokemon in such a manner as using them on my team. It just doesn't feel... right.

I really have no clue. Either the pokemon are born with these accessories (do eggs act like pokeballs or something?) or Pokemon mom and dads are really good at sewing, forging, cutting down trees, and everything else.

For things like Hitmonchan and Sawk, I believe the pokemon in the wild make cloth for one another. For things like Sylveon, I believe the bows are actually a part of the pokemon.

Why, then, do the games show these pokemon hatching/evolving with the clothes already on? The same reason why Kangaskhan hatches out of an egg already with a baby, or a Slowpoke auto-acquires a shellder when it evolves... simplicity. I wonder whether Gamefreak ever thought out an explanation...

I think the clothes are part of themselves, though it's not exactly "skin" per se.

I have no clue about Pokemon accessories, to be honest, maybe they just have an inclination to find stuff in the nature and keep them or something.

Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers said:

like Sylveon's bows

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Gross.

This is all I can say on the matter, especially when I think about Jynx; Do you really want the alternative? I'm not joking this time.