The reason this happens is because your game cannot find the mesh file that is needed to go with the outfit. 

What is a mesh?

A mesh is like a wire frame 3D shape, these exist because sometimes clothing creators like to make things which are a different shape to the clothes that come with the game or any of the Expansion packs. 

So, if the mesh file isn't there, the game doesn't know what shape the outfit is supposed to be, instead it just replaces it in the catalogue with a default Maxis outfit which still has the custom content flower in the corner.

Where do I get the mesh?

All Parsimonious clothing and hairstyles which use a separate mesh file have (hopefully) that mesh file inside the download zip, so you do not need to go to a different page or site to download them, but you can also find Parsimonious made meshes as single downloads on this page. Meshes are also package files and should be treated the same as regular clothing/hairstyles etc - you can find instructions here if you are not sure how to install them. 

But the outfit didn't include a mesh?

This could mean that it DOES need a user-made mesh, but we stupidly forgot to include one. If there is a 'mesh by...' link underneath the picture preview then we've definitely made a mistake!  Please use the @ option from the menu above to contact us to let us know so we can fix it! If you leave your email address then we'll try and contact you to let you know when the file has been fixed.

OR, it can also happen when the base outfit came with an expansion pack you do not have, check the labeling on the preview photo if you have an EP missing - chances are it will need that EP, so again, your game does not have the required mesh. I'm afraid where this is the case we cannot supply a mesh file, the license agreement of The Sims 2 prevents us from making freely available such files so we could be in a lot of trouble for creating one and sending it to you, so the only solution I can suggest if you really want the outfit is to purchase a copy of that particular EP.