Second Life Male Style and Fashion

Some time ago I wrote another Leatherism article featuring another designer. This is a remake of that post, featuring somehow a more classic approach to leather.

Not everyone can wear leather, you have to match a lot of things, texture and colors, to your style and aims. Somehow is one of the most actual autumn trends, being a brown suede makes it the ultimate must have for this fall. It is a much more versatile material, it doesn’t wrinkle much, not that would be fixed in SL, but above all it gives a cool look overall.

As for the leather blazers, the leather is associated now more as sportswear than outdoor wear.  The today items are coming mostly from Hoorenbeek. The creator behind this brand name has always kept quality on a very high values. The textures he is using for the clothing are definitely very well treated, the fitting between various parts is at best. The color range used gives you the possibility to match everything in his store. Even that is faux leather it looks almost real. And I would have a problem wearing real leather even inside the SL metaverse.

Wearing:

[ hoorenbeek ] Jacket – Leather – Brown

[ hoorenbeek ] Pants – Khaki

*Muism* Polo Neck Shirt/Sky

Shinny Things – Spencers – burgundy

On Saturday, October 18, an unnamed site decided that I was worth of being singled out and talked about. Now if I was a nobody, then why anyone care about my blog or style? Since that Saturday my blog hits increased by about 15 % more than usual so I would like to say thank you for sending so many new readers my way.

When I felt the need to be part of this metaverse fashion scene I was completely unaware of the drama behind it. And I just don’t mean simple, justified drama, I am talking about mean bad gossip and bitching. In fact I would need to thank to the people who made me part of their daily junk, and for what?, for adding more exposure to me.

So thanks to whoever bashed in public my classic, unmotivated safe, full of myself, always black, lack of imagination, adventureless fashion sent. I really thank you for doing that to me, in fact that just boosted my visits over 40000 visits milestone. So, if 40000 visits show me I am right but just one person is wrong that means, in democracy terms, that I needed an opposition for my ideas to work, but I still rule over what I am doing best.

Should I be mad at some senseless blog who just wanted to piggyback my steady stream of visits? Not at all. My friends know me for my calm and I really dont care about how low they are blowing or how many times I am going to get notification that my spam filter caught another not approved ping back comment.

In my humble opinion this metaverse is not a game and neither a platform for growing personal sociopathic symptoms and obsessions about the others.

I am really doing this with a wide smile on my face and I really appreciate it an enjoy it at the same time.

Since the man discovered the wheel and the fire, not at the same time of course, just because that would be push the art of war too far, we have been looking for ways to look more stylish. At the same time we want to think that metrosexual is the cutting edge look and everything what is modern has to be metrosexual as well.

I say, not quite! And why I say that is because you can achieve a stylish look not only by matching different pieces of clothing but matching accessories as well.

We like to say that fashion has a certain signature that always respects the times we are living. Glam leather jackets of the 70’s and the punk were started as a reaction against flower power and so on, we might say that the actual metro look is a reaction against the bad flannels which dressed the vast majority of the punkwear generation.

Actually this post is a reaction of too much autumn fashion items available, mainly because renovatio style is more associated with spring couture collections. And that is happening because the mens are always against the follow the leader and imitation process.

Wearing:

*Muism* Tartan Jacket/Navy

*Muism* Stripe OS/White.Grey

Armidi Limited – A001 Jeans [Regular Classic]

(Shiny Things) Spencers – black

sey Afghan stole=Paisley scarf

“As he emerges out of the shadows, the light reflects on his face, a wicked smile appears as he knows all eyes will be on him, the wind blows and catches his hair and his cape “

So here I am surprised by this style throwdown at me. I am known as a classic fashion stylist and sometimes I just found it very difficult to accept steam punk, cyberpunk or even grunge as things to do. The theme, surprising as well .

I know that sometimes SL grunge as fashion is the culmination of post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk fashion dreams.

While it’s not specifically stated that this is just a conceptual design I can’t imagine it’s anything but. Yet simply knowing it exists helps to soothe the hurt of being unable to rush out and buy my first pieces of an outfit which I am not used to think at.

So first of all a little about what dystopia is. The onslaught of socialism and political corruption at the turn of the twentieth century led several writers to express their fears and doubts about the future and progression of society. Products of such endeavors are seen in Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Each of these pieces illustrates a society on the catastrophic edge of destruction and authoritarian control. Personal freedoms are expelled from society, leaving each individual under the mercy of the government’s eccentric rules and demands. As seen at the individual level, the effects of being in such an environment are both devastating and shocking; in each respective novel, the individual is demoralized, is conditioned in both thoughts at actions to adhere to administrative goals, and loses any sort of individualism due to the constraints placed on free will. To that level the humanity seems to be on the verge of termination and extinction.

The outfit I am talking about is a complete and utterly mash-up, different pieces form a lot of designers and everything had to be matched accordingly. First thing I had to think about was the budget and how I am going to fit everything under 3000 lindens. That sounds like big troubles since I am used to spend a lot on my stuff. The budget was pretty limited so in the end i had to learn how to make eyes in order to keep it under the limit. I used some free Renderosity content so even that was free I am not going to sell any inworld.

The grand total is 2925L.

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Wearing:

Skin: Dernier Cri – Cole – Cream – Dark eyes – 900L
Cape and other pieces: Avid – Midnight – Wine red – 780L
Pants: Refuge – Leather Pants – 125L
Tanktop: Muism 20% transparency Tank top/Black – 250L
Hair: Detour – Writer II – Black Hair 200L
Tattoo: Nardya Rousselot – War Eagle – 420L
Boots: TheAbyss – Combat Boots – 250L
Eyes: Eye – Living Silver by me.

Pale Janus is one of the big names of the male fashion industry but somehow he is no that grid wide known. My surprise while i was trying to pick an eee-pc configuration which will run bet on linux, I found out that Pale wrote a guide on his blog about how to add our preferred linux flavor to such a laptop. I was surprised to see that Pale Heretic, which was the name of the blog, was the same actively known in SL.

This suit is what I may call it industrial styled. It has the spirit of a lost future, it has the spirit of an ancient dystopic world explorer. You can feel the spirit of an old machine going up through it’s texture, it’s belt and it’s almost military looking stripes. The suit is called “twisted” and I just like it. From the day I heard about Pale Heretic for the 1st time and saw some pictures of Pale products i felt in love with them.

His products have the special feeling of very high quality real life products, sophistication is the name. His pieces of clothing have the special property of allowing you to dream about something within the texture, within the elements arrangement, they always got a special message within.

Wearing:

PALEHERETIC Twisted Suit by Pale Janus

Storm Schmooz Men’s Black gloss

This is more styled neko image. In my searches over the grid I am finding out a permanent revamping of the old neko grunge looks. I said it before, I don’t understand why neko outfits look grungy, or too emo even, I don’t understand the desire to look dirty, or beaten or with scars all over body. I think the grungy neko look is a result of a bad understanding of what neko style really means. I know Thalia will hate me over cute and cuddly, but but for whoever owned or owns a kitty you will see in the 1st second the clean and very relexed overall lifestyle. But to get “mainstream neko” you take the neko clean style out of what a cute neko should look like, you toss it in couple of years of role playing add some emo elements and you are finding out that neko has gone long way from what maybe it was supposed to be.

And I am sure this is not the result of an overwhelming creativity inside the mind of neko outfits creators. I am sure that, like all other elements inside the meta verse we are living in they are people who tend to bring grungy, scary, dirty looks outside of their minds inside this SL meta verse. I found out over my SL experiences that you cannot stop the wearing. You cannot stop people minds from thinking that some SL elements should go up in age, should deteriorate, should rust and crumble. Is this from the urge to bring up to life a world described at best by  Philip K. Dick an entire fake reality with constructions crumbling away.

Otherwise why should we be fans of a fashion style which hit 1st life mainstream fashion 16 years ago. 1992 was the all grunge year. Ok, we might say that the music influenced fashion over those times. But I am asking you: are we that old, are we that stuck in some teen feelings over bands like Nirvana and plaid, flannel shirts, stonewashed blue jeans, and dark colors?

Anyway, I might get some replies that grunge wasn’t about fashion at all, but more like a anti-fashion movement. But I am telling you, you are not right since Marc Jacobs  created a grunge collection for Perry Ellis more than 10 years ago.

Without further deep thoughts I am giving you a styled, in my opinion, almost neko look. I have a special feeling for the ring I am wearing, made by a fellow blogger who turned out to be a good jewelry designer, Ryker Beck. Also I want your attention to the piercings I am wearing. The piercings are one of the best looking available, made by a talented and a very special over an year old friend or so Reann Frost and her Puncture store.

Wearing:

{Gisaci} Cambridge Cuffed Shirt – Egyria Red by Hudsen Armidi of Armidi

*Muism* 20% transparency Tank top/Black by Icemocolo Voom of Muism

[Detour] Flood Jeans 07 by Keri Clip of Detour

Puncture – Insatiable set by Reeann Frost

..:: Genesis ::.. Spooktacular Ring by Ryker Beck

Continuing my classic posts trend I am featuring today a complete new suit from Savvy Avvy. Even if you can wear it in more traditional business style options, with a tie and a buttoned shirt I choose to feature the relaxed style of a unbuttoned shirt collar. In regards of the suit quality there is no doubt, Mathfew Alonzo knows very well how to draw suits, how to add the necessary shadows. The stripes are straight the overall look is extremely clean and organised, in a word, it is my new preferred suit. The material feels light with a very low gloss on it. The jacket is sporting 2 buttons, more than enough in the actual 1st life business styles.

I highly recommend this suit for business meetings, but after all you still need a well planned script and a glow delivery of that script. Pop culture shouted over time “it is all in the image” but this suit contributes also to a positive feeling.

Wearing:

[savvy avvy] Business class mens suit set by Mathfew Alonzo

[Shiny Things] Spencers black by Fallingwater Cellardoor