"You can't fake proper clothes, as no race that I'm aware of has a look that imitates clothing." Nowhere in the text does it state you have to imitate a race. As you listed in your post, the very first option the feature provides is the ability to change your appearance - coloration, hair length and sex being merely examples of what you can change. You can imitate a Yuan-ti Pureblood or a Tiefling, which have scales and horns, respectively. You would not imitate such races by simply changing your coloration or body painting, your body would actually turn into scales and horns (cont...)

As such, it makes sense that you would also be able to only partially change - for example, imitate only the horns of a tiefling, but remain as a changeling otherwise. So if you are able to imitate horns, scales and others, why would you not be able to imitate leather around your feet? (i.e. boots) Or silk around your body? (i.e. clothing)

@Tirafesi While true...for clothing to look right, it generally has to be disconnected from your skin so it moves, wrinkles, and 'feels right.' I agree with BlueMoon on this one, in that the Shapechanger Feature could let you, with DM permission, shift your skin to look sort-of like clothing...but it's still your skin. It won't be as convincing of a disguise as an actual disguise--especially not if someone touches you. But it's far better than nothing. Also 'silk' is not part of a living creature, neither is leather. Horn and Scales are.

While I can only speak to what I'd do as a DM...my ruling would be "You can shift your skin to be like pretty much anything you'd find that could be part of a living creature." So you could grow a mantle of fur in the right shape to look like a fur coat. You can pattern your skin to look like clothing (but it won't feel like fabric if someone touches it). But you couldn't create a flowing silk gown around you because 1: That's not your skin anymore and 2: silk is not part of a living creature's body.

@guildsbounty "But you couldn't create a flowing silk gown around you". Why not? It would behave much the same way as long hair does. If a changeling has the ability to turn their skin into scales, grow horns or turn their fingers into claws, why would they not be able to turn their skin into something like dress? (which in the limit, is just a bunch of "hair strings" stuck together

@Tirafesi again, this just how I'd run it. But silk as we use it in clothing is not part of a natural creature. It takes a lot of after-the-fact processing to turn raw silk into fabric, give it that nice glossy sheen, and turn it into something that can be woven. In the same way, there is a lot of chemical treatment and processing that goes into turning 'hide' into 'leather.' No natural creature produces refined silk, just like no natural creature is made of finished leather.

@Tirafesi Also, Changelings are not able to magically animate their hair. Changelings are not able to style their hair without touching it. Weaving extruded hair into clothing would have to be something the Changeling did manually. If they were able to manipulate the form of their hair precisely enough to make fabric out of it while growing it, then there's no reason a Changeling couldn't use such an ability offensively.

@Tirafesi And, finally, if I as a DM allow my Changeling to form a detached silk dress around themselves out of their body...then the logical next step is "Okay, I mass produce silk and sell it for a profit, then weave it into silk rope whenever I need to climb something." In short, it sharply deviates from the theme of the Changeling's abilities.

@guildsbounty I understand your reasoning, but the feature does not state that you can only change your appearance into that of a "natural creature". The feature states "As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice.". And that's it. The only limitations that apply are that you can not change size, and you can not change your arrangement of limbs. (and you can't imitate a specific person without seeing them - because obviously you wouldn't know how they look like if you've never seen them before)

@guildsbounty "Okay, I mass produce silk and sell it for a profit" - it's part of your body, something like your skin. You would not be able to detach it without suffering damage, and once it is no longer part of you, your body part would return to normal - much like a severed limb.

@Tirafesi You were describing it like hair...which you could totally cut off.

@guildsbounty It was merely an example of how our own human bodies already have features that resemble clothing somehow, or that behave in a "right way" when subjected to a gust of wind. The point is, I believe a Changeling would be able to give these same proprieties of "freedom" to their body parts.

Which, again...I would permit you to make something that look like clothing, but is basically just re-dyed skin

Supposing we run with your idea...

What's to stop the Shapeshifter from, say, extruding 30' of hair braided as a rope whenever they needed to climb something? Or growing Keratin armor over their entire body? Or, for that matter, bone swords from their arms?

The whole point of this feature, thematically, is that it allows a Changeling to change their body to look like someone else's body.

If you alter it to allow the changeling to create Equipment for themselves (like clothing) then that is a very sharp deviation away from the intended design

Also....I'm pretty sure that if the game designers intended for you to be able to make clothing as part of the shapeshifting, they'd have said so.

Just pointing out, again, the feature states you change your appearance and that you cannot change your statistics. Equipment is part of a creature's statistics, thus you cannot make equipment

hair is extremely strong...

braid it together, you can totally make a rope out of it

You can change how things look and not how they act

And clothing is equipment

it's listed in the Adventuring Gear equipment table

I have prefaced literally everything I have said to you with "This is how I would run it as a DM"

Because the rules say "Your clothing and equipment aren't changed by this trait" and that's all that feature has to say about clothing.

My personal interpretation of this is "If you cannot change your clothing or equipment, that includes creating clothing or equipment where none existed previously."

The functional theme of the Shapechanger trait, by my reading, is that it is intended to allow you to alter your body to look like someone else. The specific exclusion about clothing tells me that if you want clothing, you must procure it. Not just "okay, I take my armor off and grow a fancy dress gown."

The feature states you can not change your clothing or equipment (i.e. whatever you are wearing). This, of course, makes sense. You have control over your body and that's it. Of course you would not be able to influence how other items look. But regarding your body, you can change it into whatever you want, as long as you don't break those limitations of size and limb arrangement

Now, if my player suggested using the Shapechanger trait in such a way to, basically, body-paint themselves in order to create a pseudo-disguise...then I would personally allow that. It's a clever use of the ability to 'alter your coloration.' It would hold up to casual inspection...but would not be as useful as someone who spent actual money and effort on an actual disguise or outfit.

On the other hand, if my player said "I want to use my ability to alter my own body to grow things that are not normally part of a living creature's body" then I would say no.

I rather strongly disagree with you on that. "Your clothing and equipment aren't changed by this trait." "Aren't Changed" rather implies "Cannot add to"

However, feel free to show your DM this debate, and if you can convince your DM that they should let you do this...then sure, have fun. You're not one of my players so you don't answer to me. DM's are free to ignore RAW and RAI if they so choose.

Though...if you do choose to show this to your DM....I mean, all three answers you have so far are saying "No." So, probably not a strong place to make an argument from.

Anyway, I'm off...have a nice day

You could not imitate actual armor, which moves in real-time and responds to the environment, unlike your skin; or rather, in a very different way from how your skin does that

Ultimately I definitely thing this is a "Ask Your GM" scenario

I quite like your answer, however, let's thinkg about the scenario where the character turns into the elephant race (forgot the name)

They can't? Different limb arrangement

there is a QA that I read where it's assumed that this would work (as an elephant's nose - don't know the term in english - is not considered a limb)

What is or is not a limb is probably just semantics (arguing over definitions) so, again, I'd say to ask your GM