Negative cloth solve.

It appears that while 2.5 allows negative frame numbers (thanks to aligorith), the cloth solve panel still only allows solves to begin from frame 1. Many studios rely on pre zero frames as a cloth pre-roll before the take starts. For clarity, action always begins on frame one. On a show containing hundreds if not thousands of shots, consistency is paramount.
I usually start around frame -50 for my solves. I had a shot where a character in a skirt began the shot sitting down. I animated her from t-pose at -100 to her seated position at frame 1 so the cloth skirt could solve into a nice arrangement for the start of the shot.

~Glenn