in maya a cloth is subject to gravity´s rule. when starting animation the cloth drops down in (-Y). therefor you have to pin the cloth to something static with something like a nail. you will use locators to hold your garment in the end. place your locators exactly onto the vertices by pressing the V-key. use every 3rd or 4th or whatever vertex.

1)
create a garment.

2)
use the vertices from your garment geometry (as a nail) and constrain them to locators. ->

select a vertex - shiftselect the locator - go Constraints > Transform.


do so for all of your locators. now you have your basic setup. play with the settings in the attribute editor for your garment.

kind regards