Essentially, I want an easy way to :

1. save custom apparel to buy later when I have the money
2. indicate to the artist that if it sells out, there is a potential buyer interested in a reprint.

I would like to see a button I can press on a custom apparel in the shop, which will save that particular custom item to my own private wishlist. This creates a panel on the side with all of my wishlisted items, which I can remove items from or purchase them directly from the panel. Additionally, artists would have a panel that shows how many players have wishlisted said item, but not the names. That way, artists can better gauge if its worth it to reprint the item immediately based on how many people have wishlisted it.

Now, I know that this can be accomplished either on the forums or via private messages, but I feel like an onsite way that doesn't require interaction would be great for players who don't really want to talk with others too much, either artists or buyers. There's certainly a bunch of apparel I'd like to buy in the future, but I really don't want to message ALL of the artists to let them know I'm interested. Especially because I'm very likely to forget!

There is a con in that wishlisting an item does not necessarily guarantee the person will purchase the item, so its not a catch-all solution that will ensure the artist never wastes reprints. As such, I would advise a hover-over warning to artists that wishlisting is better treated as an interest check and not a down payment.

I love it. Wishlists please.

In Early Access, there was also the idea floating around of a ‘preorder’ system where buyers could pay to help fund a reprint of an apparel. They could also pay to fund its first printing. Not sure if you were interested in something like that, but it came to mind as soon as I read your suggestion.