Quote - well that makes sense as those are the two areas my conforming efforts come to a sceaming horrific end

 

 

Yup, and the reason is because when there are only a couple of thin rows of polygons on the source figure (ie: Alyson) ... there isn't much to compare to, and most likely the polygons in your clothing don't overlap exactly. So you will have areas in the hip of the pants that are, instead, assigned to the right/left buttocks (as in the Victorias) or right/left thighs (in the case of Alyson 2) ... and ... pants no workie right.

Same with the chest .. in some figures there is a thin band of polygons that go around the collar area, before it joins to the neck. Same thing ... not much to compare to.  So those areas can sometimes get assigned to collars or neck, and not chest.

Your modeling software MIGHT allow you to import the autogrouped OBJ and edit the groups (I know Modo does for sure).

 

Hope this helps understand what's going on!