Im guessing you plan on changing outfits thru out the game...
I would build the model , animate and save it. Then build your clothes model around the chacter model and and again animate it according to the chacter model.. If built properly you can just assign the vertices to the bones for your chacter.
Now delete the chacter and save the clothes as a new name. Repeat as many times a nessecary. least thats what I would do...