Are you sure it was the clothing articles? Like you in your new game, I haven't had any such issues. Maybe some of your rules caused spoilage? Fresh food for instance, needs at least obedience and, according to the in-game text, moderate (so 2?) devotion in order not to cause spoilage. Not having 3 rules will also cause spoilage IIRC, and a bunch of other reasons as to why a slave might become spoiled
The issues people are referring to is that it is extremely difficult to beat all but a few enemies. The reason for this is that the slaves are high quality.
So in order for you to succeed, you need proper equipment, proper special techniques for your preferred weapons, potions, and, preferably also at least a couple of the special artifacts. After you've got that pre-battle stuff done, you need to properly buff and debuff in order not to get destroyed by the tougher enemies. It's not impossible, but I am debating whether or not it's actually worth it, considering the RNG might still F you real bad and you also might end up wounded etc.
EDIT:
qwertyu12359
I can't unequip anything from the "hands" slot. I can replace the items with something else, but not unequip. Is this a bug from your version or another?
Maybe it's just my game ^^