Anyone know how this is accomplished? I found a couple cryptic tuts but they are 5+ years old and I'm using a very different version of maya.

How what is accomplished? Could you please be a bit more specific?

How do you build a clothing item in maya and conform it to figures in poser. i've found some vague general help for conforming figures but still can't figure it out. Like this for example:

http://4colorgrafix.net/blog/2008/01/13/10-tips-for-making-poser-clothes/

10 tips for making poser clothing, but i can't find a step-by-step guide for conforming clothing for V4 anywhere. which seems odd since thousands of merchants are doing it lol. I made clothes for V2 back in the day but it's been way too long.

Creating clothing for Poser is the same for which ever modelling software you use.

You build a clothing model around your figure of choice in your modelling software,

Export the clothing from the modelling software to a format that Poser can read - .obj, 3ds, fbx etc

Open Poser and Import the clothing model.

Use either the Poser set up room or the fitting room (depending on your version of Poser) to rig your clothing.

...

Modelling In Maya - would be very specific tutorials on using Maya.

Then you can use tutorials on setting up Conforming Clothing in Poser.

There are many videos on youtube showing the different steps of rigging in Poser.

Or search for written tutorials on creating clothing for poser.

or you could purchase tutorials - Lyrra Madril has one on creating clothing in the store here and Little Fox has one at RDNA (Daz) - Content Paradise or the store here have video tutorials you can buy.

Which version of Maya are you using and which version of Poser? What figure do you want to create conforming clothing for? Are you having a specific issue with Maya or Poser?