Fashion Challenge – Men on a Low-L$ Budget
by Pixeleen Mistral on 13/03/07 at 10:32 am
If all else fails, nothing says tough like playin’ in the buff
by Tenshi Vielle, Fabulous Fashionista
Okay, okay, guys. I finally understand your lament.
After playing about an hour as a male searching for good, cheap clothing… THERE ISN’T ANY. We’re working on a basically free budget here, since men’s clothing is either $1L or $200L a pop. Take your pick. I even went to Wrong since they advertised men’s clothing and… guess what? No men’s clothing! The designer could not be reached for comment. Go figure.
The best place I found to get things at was the Freedove. That was my fallback place of choice when I was a newbie and only $5L in my pocket. I scoured the Gnubie shop – same old stuff. I got my skin there, but I’d never tried those types of skins before… I was horrified when I put it on. It looks like someone took a picture of a black man’s face and blended it together with the smudge tool in photoshop into some semblance of an African Facial Quilt.
I’m sorry, but can’t we do better with the free men’s skins?
Nylon? Toast? I know you guys have some hiding in the back of your inventory you can donate to Gnubie… come on. Guys should be able to do better than this patchwork thing I’m wearing. Oh, did I mention it comes with built in undies? Yay! Now my prim dick can just poke out of my boxers while I’m fucking some little whore at the Boardwalk as if I don’t really mean it. (sigh.)
Boots: Afantasy (Freedove) These boots are really quite well made and remind me of my own personal Old Boots from Shiny Things.
Next up, we have:
The outfit’s a little feminine looking, but if you’re masculine enough you can pull it off. Jana’s Classic Designs (Freedove)
Same, from Jana’s Classic Designs. I’m starting to become fond of her stuff; it really isn’t bad at all! Nice and clean looking.
Also, found these prim shoes from Hansen.
They’re well made but include bling, so beware!!
Of course, should any of those other options fail, you could wander around like many newbie SL men do – naked. Nothing says tough like playin’ in the buff, right?
So why the lack of men’s clothing?
“Most designers don’t spend a lot of time making big lines of mens’ wear, and one can’t really blame them because it seems that men in SL spend less on clothing and change less often. Many are content to just wear jeans and a t-shirt for weeks on end.” Jonathan Sprawl says, giving me a pretty good insight into the desert of men’s clothing… however, it still just doesn’t explain it for me.
Barnesworth wasn’t much help on the matter either:
Tenshi Vielle: I’m doing my article for the Herald on freebie hunting for men, and … it all sucks. Honest to god.
Barnesworth Anubis: torrid has some nice shirts for men.
And that was all I got out of him. He must be building or something.
I’m sick of this crap. I’m off to work on some good men’s freebies. I don’t care about profit. The men in SL have some kind of desperation going on, and it isn’t good.
xoxo
Signing off,
Tenshi Vielle
Markus
Mar 13th, 2007
I’m currently trying to build a decent man avatar, so here are a few pointers. They may not entirely apply because I’m not needing to go low budget and I haven’t been much into clothing yet, so it’s mostly about skin.
Tete-a-Pied has a very decent male newbie skin pack (1L) if you don’t mind the undies. The guy looks okay, especially for that price.
My main grief currently is male hair, because short hair needs to be fit to the skull form which is something that doesn’t work. That’s why so many guys go either bald or ponytail or gay/hardrock (I found that the hair from the sexy-male from the Library can be edited and sized down (not looking quite as fluffy).
With that in mind, Mirror-Images has a decent line of skins which are good looking and which have short hair painted on the skull (800L) and a variety of facial hair. Then there is a similar guy (Dante) from Adam-and-Eve and the one from “Gentlemen”.
And of course possibly the ultra-luxury skin for males from X2, although for my taste they are too realistic and sort of sticks out too much, like putting a photo up in-game (4000L for a set with a variety of beards and also in a skin-hair version (and a butt to die for)).
I haven’t gotten as far as clothing, but again, the sexy-male jeans from the library is nice (that’s the kind you could wear forever).
And NYTE’N'DAY has a bit of interesting and fashionable stuff on the first floor, although not much.
Nothing much for cheap there (except the Tet a Piet freebie), as I’m not looking for it, but maybe it helps anyway.
Khamon
Mar 13th, 2007
We can wear skins in Second Life now?
OneBigRiver Stork
Mar 13th, 2007
I wonder if it is really true that male avatars buy less clothing … or if it is just that the market is so screwed up that men give up?
As far as I can tell, there are about a thousand suits/tuxes. Otherwise, there is very little interesting clothing for men, whatever the price. Since everyone has a tux, of course they aren’t going to sell well: I’m not going to buy 10 tuxes. I might buy 10 sweaters though!
Also, men’s designers seem to sell all their items xfer/no copy. This seems bizarre to me: I never buy anything if I can’t put it in multiple outfits. I assume that the reason for this is because designers assume that men’s clothing is only purchased by women to give as gifts to men, so xfer is required. Personally, there are a TON of things that I would like to buy, but I’m not willing to put up with the hassle of digging through my inventory every time I want to change my outfit.
One of my friends was saying that she does not design men’s clothes because she finds them “boring.”
I have created some female avatars so that I can indulge my shopping urges.
shockwave yareach
Mar 13th, 2007
No-one should berate someone for having the same clothing on their AV for weeks at a time. One, men become used to having a favorite look and keep it until they become bored with it. And two, once they start looking for an outfit to replace their previous favorite, there aren’t many stores selling men’s clothes to choose from. So it takes time to want a new outfit and even more time to get one once you want it.
Maybe I’ll create a female alt so I can learn what it feels like to shop…
Prokofy Neva
Mar 13th, 2007
Why all this free stuff? Everybody can pay *something*.
It’s not like the outfits from Barnesworth Anubis, Simone Stern, and Forseti Svarog are hugely expensive. They are modestly priced. My God, spend a lousy $3.70 US and get dressed, people, come on, not rocket science.
There were various freebies that I picked up while new from all kinds of people, even Gwyn Llewelyn, and Neph, who had some good jeans for men. I don’t know if these freebies are still out but — now that Nylon has been GOM’d and put in the library, why even bother with freebies? They stuff in the library is far better than it used to be.
Also, we recommend the fine line called Aging Hippie from Random Unsung, a tie-dye shirt is $5, boxers $5, and the PJs are $10 I think.
Then if you want to level up in style you can go to Shai’s for jeans and jackets and also BAZ has good hair. Hair is particularly hard to fine. I don’t see BAZ stores anymore, maybe they went out of business.
I hate prim hair because the Lindens keep putting it up your ass each time you teleport.
There’s also this woman who makes flannel shirts. My God, they aren’t more than like $200, could we spend a little here people and stop it with the handouts? I have to look up her name.
shockwave yareach
Mar 13th, 2007
Prokofy: Okay. I have some lindens to spend. Let’s go shopping.
Search for Men’s Clothing. Okay, several things come up. Not that I know one place or designer from the other – you have to have nothing on your mind but your appearance to care so much about who makes what – but it’s a start.
Pick a place at random. Tuxs, tshirts, anime-stuff and all sorts of bluejeans. Not even close to the button-down professional look I’m looking for. Try again, looking more in detail at the description of the store, and we find nothing but pimp hats (the owner having decided to change his store’s direction but forgetting to update the ads). Once more and we find nothing but women’s lingere, for the same reasons as above. Look still more and we find tshirts, tuxes by the gross, more anime lookalikes and scores of urban or grunge outfits.
After an hour of not finding anything I’d be caught virtually dead in, I give up and go off to do something else. To h*ll with it – SL is supposed to be fun, and scrounging through random stores looking for something as basic as a white longsleeve isn’t fun for me.
nigradamus
Mar 13th, 2007
LOL WTF
wheres the news about Patriotic Nigras raiding the SL Herald building in SL?
Thats worth seeing, not this stupid shit
shockwave yareach
Mar 13th, 2007
The PN, in keeping with their stated beliefs, aren’t important and aren’t taken seriously. LULZ
rikomatic
Mar 13th, 2007
Well I, for one, would totally shop for men’s clothing more if there was a greater variety on offer. Everything is tuxedos, blue jeans and tee-shirts. Not attractive.
Maximilian Goldflake
Mar 13th, 2007
It really isn’t a big mystery why men don’t spend much on clothing in SL. It’s the same as RL, men don’t really care about clothes. Unless, of course, you are a refined gentleman like myself.
Glen Wood
Mar 13th, 2007
Hey shockwave (and others)– u want button down professional look – I did too – found the Musashi-Do Evening Revolution collection – do search for “Musashi-Do”. Or search for the same in SLExchange – that’s where I 1st found them (they have all the same at the store though).
For 550L is got 3 suit colors, 21 shirt colors and 18 flexi prim ties attachable to your collar. –The flexi ties may need a bit of adjusting I found depending on body type.
The also have expansion sets – 10 striped flexi ties – 3 more suits in lighter shades – and 12 more shirts kind of metallic – all ranging in price for 200L to 350L for the sets.
They also have suit package sets of just one suit and tie in diffrent themes – I know this because I have them all.
For the girls out there they also have a femme collection of suits too – plus some regular stuff for both girls and guys.
2 last points – the freebie stuff for guys for has some nice muscle shirts – wear them all the time – and last point – I swear I do no work or have any afflation with these guys- I just love the stuff. And the flexi ties a super cool
shockwave yareach
Mar 13th, 2007
Glen: Thanks for the pointer. I’ll check them out. But it doesn’t change the fact that when you want to find X kind of male outfit, the pickings are slim, and you have to go through many, many stores before you find something that you settle for because it kinda-sorta-resembles-what-you-want-if-you-squint. Word of mouth is a wonderful aid for business. But as a foundation to base your entire operation upon, it falls miserably short of the mark.
Rose Farina
Mar 13th, 2007
I used to have a rule every other outfit I made was a men’s outfit… why did I stop? They didn’t sell nearly so well. I still put out new guys stuff from time to time but only when I feel particulary inspired.
Ickabod Humphreys
Mar 13th, 2007
It is true, the average man in Second Life doesn’t spend much on clothing.. and doesn’t change much either. Just like in Real Life! However there are a few *cough* males out there like my*cough*self who do like to look nice and such. The truth is, as I said previously, you’re not going to find anything good in the freebie spots. Believe me, I’ve looked. And the clothing I have found, just flat out suck. Horrid looking clothing, like your male skin, looks like patchwork. They’re fit for a homeless man, that’s about it.
The truth is, if a guy wants to look good, he is going to have to give in, and actually buy Lindens…. or sell his soul and become a dancer or something, heh.
The good news is that they’re not as expensive. It really all depends on what the guy is into style wise (ie: hip hop, rock, goth, emo, prep etc).
But again good luck trying to find clothing under $5. It’s not likely that you will. Now clothing under $50? That can be done, with very little effort if you ask around.
T-shirts are on the cheap. Guys like T-shirts. Shoes aren’t that bad either. MIA ia good source for men’s wear.
Honestly I know where to get my clothing from. I like the dark scary goth look personally heh. So if you’re looking for that sort of look, feel free to ask me. I’ll show you the way.
humanoid
Mar 13th, 2007
Somebody directed me to a stored named UFOnly last December. Their gimmick is that items don’t cost more than what they paid to upload the individual components. For instance, I paid $L100 total for a nice suit and a pair of boots.
And one section of UFO features items that are all under $L25. Most of it looks like the same trendy crap that sells for $L300 to $L500 elsewhere.
Well made male prim hair is hard to find, but it does exist. As for skins, I’m no help. Somebody gave me my favorite skin.
Ghen
Mar 13th, 2007
Tenshi, in my opinion the same issue (lack of men’s fashion) leads to an immediate problem, and then a problem as a player continues to play. Most of this I suspect is a chicken or the egg issue though, between the designers and the mentality of the people who have male AVs.
The first issue is that there’s not as broad a set of resources for new players to afford initially. With female AVs, with about 20L you can at least look fairly presentable, hitting up places like Free Dove (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gallii/102/81/33/), or Sarah Nerd’s place (http://slurl.com/secondlife/NineInchNerds/126/112/24/), to name a few places.; while there aren’t a ton of freebies out there, there’s at least diversity so everyone doesn’t look too much alike. With male AVs, the resources tend to be a lot more limited. There’s probably half as many free skins floating around, and the newbie hair is probably half as well (not to mention, in my horribly biased opinion, it tends to look a bit off). What exacerbates this is the fact that it seems like people who play male AVs tend to care about their “look” much later than female AVs. Perhaps they’ll buy clothing to make them fit whatever style they want, but once that’s accomplished, they’re done for a while, before they see enough other Male AVs that look good, that they feel the urge to cross on over, so to speak.
The second issue is there’s a lack of men’s fashion overall. A lot of this is because people with male AVs tend to be more comfortable getting one set look, and recycling it for long periods of time, buying a few other stock looks out of situational purposes (Tuxedo comes to mind). God help us if they favor the shirtless look; that’s one less article of clothing to worry about. Because of this, I’m not shocked that there’s not a strong desire for designers to make men’s clothing.
I’m curious to see the long term effects of this. Most people who are established in SL tend not to want to hang out with players who look new. If people who play male AVs tend to have a lag time on changing their look, I wonder if this in some way ends up disenfranchising the new player. Be interesting to see if there’s a way to trend this.
As for looking for male fashion, I tend to use blogs. Sure, it’s a bit lazy, but considering the lack of designers you can find reliably, I find it to work for me. http://www.second-man.com/ serves me very well. Are there any other men’s fashion blogs out there?
—-
Markus, I’d try the Free Dove as mentioned earlier in my post, they have some free stuff, including skins there. As for hair, ETD http://slurl.com/secondlife/ETD%20Isle/220/222/25/ does a solid newbie male hair (AV must be 60(?) days or younger) for ridiculously cheap. I believe gurl 6 http://slurl.com/secondlife/GuRLyWood/110/111/22/ also does hair using a voucher system.
As for clothes, you can get away with blue jeans, black laced boots, and the black leather pants that are available in the initial inventory for a while; just mix up your shirts/jackets from various places, and combine them with some of the freebie shoes from other places when you want a different look, when you start out. I’d love to find a decent pair of tennis shoes though.
Nacon
Mar 13th, 2007
Tenshi said: “I’m sick of this crap. I’m off to work on some good men’s freebies. I don’t care about profit. The men in SL have some kind of desperation going on, and it isn’t good.”
No shit, cause too many designers are female and they tend to stick with female fashion more than guys, often has an ego going on with themselves.
Frankie Antonioni
Mar 13th, 2007
I have found lots of clotes for free, or for 1 ld.The white tuxedo I sometimes wear cost me 1 ld, right now I am wearing a black suit for free. I have to wear it while I’m a security guard. I don’t buy any clothes that are over 1 ld, because I’m am trying to save up some money to buy some land. I can’t however find a pimp hat for free, or for 1 ld.
So far I have saved up 2834 ld. So I will have to save up about 3300 ld, to buy land.
Sterling Whitcroft
Mar 13th, 2007
I like ‘Complete Man’ at Grignano <170,242,27>.
Excellent designs. Most items are L$20. A small shop with a collection of wonderful clothes, shirts, pants, shoes, and the ever popular “Mr. Pickle” boxers!
Maria LaVeaux
Mar 13th, 2007
I have to Agree, Women have it all over Men in SL when it comes to Fashions, Freebie, or Not. But then, it’s the same in RL. Womens Fashion options Outnumber the mens by a Massive Margin. The demands On, and the demands By Women, for a huge variety of fashion choices is the reason. Two men showing up at a social function in the same cut of suit is nothing, simply beneath consideration. For wome, it’s a Huge source of discomfort, and Embarassment. Mens fashions tend to be Far less flamboyant of design (Lest they be accused of sexual preference Not thier own Lol) Women, on the other hand are judged to a Very large degree on how they look. Colour, Variety, and many intangibles all have to be considered. In the animal world, the males put on colourful displays while the Females remain Drab, in Humans, the trend is opposite.
I would Like Myself to see something more interesting than Jeans, and a T-Shirt with an Off colour saying stenciled on it adorning the Men of SL, But what you see in SL is going to reflect the Real world even if anything is Possible in SL. MALE is simply Not the preferred Medium for Fashion Artists.
Maria.
Espresso Saarinen
Mar 14th, 2007
where the possibilities really narrow is if one wants non-macho/skul&bonz but yet mod men’s clothes. almost nothing at the hip end that is not deathly or hopelessly macho.
Simone
Mar 14th, 2007
This article made me scratch my head in wonder. I thought for sure that there’s been a bug or something that had raised the prices on my menswear. I mean, didn’t I just release a menswear line of jeans, suits, casual jackets, slacks with belts, dress casual, fantasy wear (PRINCE CHARMING FOR GOD’S SAKE!) and most all of it is UNDER 200L? I’m sure I did… ;D Come on, give the designers some credit. We’re trying to meet the need.
Jesseaitui Petion
Mar 14th, 2007
Maybe people should buy $L to afford things…. not all of it is expensive, neither is a few hundred L.
Also, not sure who you hang around with but i constantly run into male avis who have no problem dropping some $L on a nice article of clothing.
Iris Seale
Mar 14th, 2007
I think the point of this article, like the female-version before it, was more of a challenge than anything else. Tenshi’s idea was, I believe, that with a budget of L$50 or less, one can find good overall looks (skin included)for thier AV.
Nicholaz Beresford
Mar 14th, 2007
Nyte’n'day has a few nice discount items for men (upper floor), especially the evening shirts for $45. Together with their jeans ($100) or a self tinted version of the Sexy Male in the library and the free skin from Tete a Piet, you get a very decent guy next door look.
Charity Colville
Mar 14th, 2007
It isn’t just clothing here fellas…its HAIR. There are so few decent hairstyles in SL for men that they all end up looking like freaks or cookie-cutter with the same 5 or 6 nice hairstyles. As owner of a formal ballroom (Phat Cat’s) I see some pretty well dressed men, and no, not all of them are in the same tux. We give out a free tux and gown that we were fortunate enough to get the top designers in SL involved in. Nonna Hedges did a gorgeous free gown for us and Eros Designs did a signature tux for us that is AWESOME! Tons of detail and you do not end up looking like the average Joe. Come grab one
Markus
Mar 14th, 2007
>> It isn’t just clothing here fellas…its HAIR. <<
That’s been my biggest problem as well (see my first post here). I now (yesterday) decided to go with a skin that has hair (the one from Mirror Images). It looks cool, male without having to go for the options of being bald, teenage or freaky and I have yet to see another person wearing it.
FD Spark
Mar 14th, 2007
My alt found entire outfit including men’s wide prim hat,realistic long jacket and pants and few other numerous outfits for under 10L in shop(I can’t remember name or sign in right now to check sorry) in Midnight city.
Tenshi Vielle
Mar 14th, 2007
Honestly, Simmy, I didn’t check your shop. Sorry. I still love you though.
However, my rant was more about the shitty FREEBIES men get – or the lack thereof. Women have a much easier time looking decent than the men do for lack of L$. Sure, bitch all you want that “it doesn’t cost that much to trade a few USD for L$” but some of us don’t want to feed LL, or we just don’t want to put real-life cash into the game. That’s just how I personally feel.
If I wanted to spend a few hundred L$ on male clothing, I’m not clueless. I know where to go.
Anyway, I’m off to work on my promised freebie men’s clothing. Keep your eye on the Fashion Consolidated group for the releases.
Nicholaz Beresford
Mar 14th, 2007
Ahh, and Sterling pointed out ‘Complete Man’ above. Besides their $20 line of clothing, I found there’s a nice freebie pack for men available inthe store as well.
YHelloThar
Mar 14th, 2007
“The PN, in keeping with their stated beliefs, aren’t important and aren’t taken seriously.”
O RLY?
LOL O NOES HES GOING TO NOT TAKE US SERIOUSLY WE BETTER BEHAVE
Avatar Federal
Mar 14th, 2007
Of course to get really cheap clothing, you could just make it yourself.
It’s a bit of a challenge but you can feel proud that, you made your own outfit not some designer made thing.
That way you can get what you know you want, plus it’s free.
Urizenus
Mar 14th, 2007
Are there people who just sell clothing textures? You know, like rl fabric retailers? That could be handy, since it is not always obvious what sorts of textures will look good on avi clothing.
Nacon
Mar 14th, 2007
“Of course to get really cheap clothing, you could just make it yourself.
It’s a bit of a challenge but you can feel proud that, you made your own outfit not some designer made thing.
That way you can get what you know you want, plus it’s free.”
That’s the spirit! …by the way, it’s not as free if you have to pay 10 L$ to upload.
Avatar Federal
Mar 14th, 2007
Well you could use the cheap freebie textures for the cheapo look….
Avatar Federal
Mar 14th, 2007
Also thinking of it, someone should be thinking about doing real male clothing…. Not just tuxes but something nice…
*Logs in
Brace
Mar 14th, 2007
ok I’m gonna check the NCI freebies and see what we got for the guys besides my wierdo “collection”.
I’ll check the skins and hair offerings there too. and letcha know whats what
(That’s New Citizens Inc btw)
Angel
Mar 14th, 2007
“It isn’t just clothing here fellas…its HAIR. ”
Hmm, maybe not, as far as the big names go… Pizazz and Naughty both have a great range of styles. EDT has a few as does HCT (Here Comes Trouble) but HCT hair has huge bald patches on the back from a distance eep.
There are many other minor players in hair, some good some not so good.
For suits Zen is great, high quality and stylish.
My gripe would be skin, you always seem to end up with huge eyebrows or a clone skin with super defined abs. The skin makers should realise that not everyone wishes to look like a Gay body builder.
No, the problem to me isn’t that there are so few mens clothes, my time in SL has shown this to be false, but that there are no decent style magazines that guys can pick up and read and actually learn how to look good.
For any aspiring fashion editors out there… please start one, time to educate the guys on good style.
Nicholaz Beresford
Mar 14th, 2007
>> No, the problem to me isn’t that there are so few mens clothes, my time in SL has shown this to be false … <<<
Well, after visiting the Freebies Dungeon I’d say this guy is right. There’s no shortage on clothing, and as with female freebies, there’s a lot of crap to be sorted out, but enough good stuff still to be found. All kinds of pants, shoes, shirts, tees, jackets, tuxes … and all available in one place
I haven’t checked the skins and the hair may continue to be a problem, but there certainly is no lack of good free clothes.
Nicholaz Beresford
Mar 14th, 2007
Ghen ssid: >> I’d love to find a decent pair of tennis shoes though… <<
I even found a good pair of those in a Freebies Dungeon pack. If you read this, IM me and I’ll drop you a copy.
Ander
Mar 14th, 2007
“I even went to Wrong since they advertised men’s clothing and… guess what? No men’s clothing! ”
I find about 70-90 percent of stores that advertise mens clothing are either gone when you TP there or have no mens clothing. Fashionably speaking SL is a woman’s world.
TIllery Woodhen
Mar 14th, 2007
Clothing, I’m good on. I have a lot of what I want and a friend (Marcus Steeplechase) who is a really good designer.
My issue is the skin and hair. The skin I have is as close as i’ve gotten to what I want. It has the body hair that i want, but head and beard? I’m aiming for as close as I can get to what I look like RL. In RL, I have a full beard (as in actually covering the cheeks) and a buzz. I have yet to find both. Any one have ANY idea where I can get close to this?
And just as an aside, for the designers, please give us an option of buy only one skin, not all of them. I had to pay 5000L for the skin I have now. I got eight versions of it. How many do I use? Two. Tops. Really not worth 5000L.
Jes
Mar 15th, 2007
” but some of us don’t want to feed LL, or we just don’t want to put real-life cash into the game”
Too bad then, in order to make nice things people are putting their RL time into the game.
*Shrug*
Aki Kauristaki
Mar 15th, 2007
Men’s hair is indeed a big problem and I hope we will see more designs soon.
As for beard, I found facial hair in two places but you won’t want to go there and spend money. Too many prims, too bad the final result.
For body hair, the only decent place I found in whole SL is the Body Hair Shop with very good and different styles.
Tornwave Corinthian
Mar 15th, 2007
Face it. If you’re a guy, you are going to have to spend some Lindens, or you’re going to look like you haven’t put effort into it. I’ve found some good stuff that’s not AS expensive as the top-quality. But if you want s good skin/shape, youre going to have to spend the L$. Clothes can be so tricky, as there are certain styles that are done to death, while your particular look might not have a top designer on top of it. Hair, never been a problem for my avie, as he is a long-hair. But the styles I have seen for most of the shorter dos, well, I doubt I’d ever even try the demos.
My avie looks great, but I have spent some serious time, effort, energy, and money to get him that way. He’s got all the toys, nice clothes, a great skin, and I get alot of compliments on him:) If that sounds like what you want, then you’ll end up having to shop, and spend. However if you’re fine with the t-shirt and jeans, good on ya. SL doesnt have a set of rules that anyone needs to follow(except the TOS, lol), make your own and be happy with them:)
Sera Galbraith
Mar 15th, 2007
One thing I’ve found with men’s clothing is that in real life it tends to be built around structure rather than color and fit. That is, the cut of a man’s suit is as important as the fabric and the color. A lot of men’s clothing depends on it’s -shape- to be interesting, and that’s where SL’s innate avatar limitations come into play. A skin-tight t-shirt? No problem. A well-cut suit that hangs nicely and has a well-executed collar and lapel? Much more difficult. Trousers that might look like something a businessman might wear? Equally difficult. You can fake n’ bake a good crease in a trouser leg but it still only looks halfway decent. (And Musashi-Do’s variety is quite good – best I’ve seen yet.)
Whereas women have a huge variety of options — tight, shiny, soft, fluffy, colorful…You name it, a girl can wear it. The avi’s themselves look better because women -are- softer, more round and to be honest just better framed than men. Also, in my experience, guys who design their own shapes have no idea how to do proportions. If I had a $L1 for every time I saw some tiny headed muscle freak walking past, I’d be richer than Anshe.
As far as I know the situation is improving as the fashionistas get into the male market, but that’ll take a while to trickle down to the freebies. I think it’s only been in the last 6-8 months that freebies have actually gotten really good. It’s natural that the male market lags behind. It’ll get there eventually.
(But god. Hair is a must! Hurry up, hair people. Male hair is just horrific.)
Ayla Holt
Mar 16th, 2007
OK Guys………….
I just read this and I understand your pain. But I make good mens wear. I have everything from thongs to tuxes.
And you want free ??? Every MONDAY for the last 35 Mondays I have given away a free newly designed mens outfit or set FREE ALL DAY. Last week it was a complete pinstriped suit with a tintable shirt and tintable flex tie.
My whole island is based around my mens store. Hell, my island is even named after it. MIA “Men In Action”. Try it out sometime.
I also give away a free mens outfit at free dove.
Cutting Edge accessories and Kick ass boots are now connected to my store. I am not the designers for those stores but they have great mens merchandise and good prices.
Also we do free give-a-ways all the time on the island. We have free men and womens hair at the Body Basics shop there. (It comes with an attached hat … if you want one without hat it will cost you 100 lindens which is cheap for hair).
Stop complaining and come check out MIA. At least come on Mondays and get your free outfit.
And for the guy who complained about things being transfer and no copy I find this insane. Why would you need extra copies in your inventory? Isn’t your inventory messed up enough? Would you have the same blue shirt in 5 different places in your closet at home? I make my stuff (except free stuff) all transfer. You can pass it to your alt. or give it to a friend. Buy it as a gift.
There really is no way to please everyone but I am working on it.
Ayla Holt (Owner MIA)
Brace
Mar 16th, 2007
I feel your pain Ayla.
I can’t speak about FREE – even tho that’s the topic here – but you guys just really do NOT know how to shop.
Thats the main prollem. There’s been menswear malls, islands and all kinda places set up JUST FOR YOU. Hell of a ton more places in the last six months to a year than EVER before in SL.
Hair for men: Men in Action, Calico Creations, Panache, ETD, Zaige Designs… I mean DAYUM.
Grab yer GFs or yer GFs gay BF and learn you up on how to find stuff. Its OUT THERE – go git it!
___________________________
One BIG reason why menswear gets the short end of the stick: As Sera pointed out above, there’s the whole av proportion and mesh issues to deal with.
ABD as a designer, you’ve got to have MAD skillz in the hand drawing and/or photosourcing department.
Mens clothing has more buttons, zippers, collars etc than womens clothing does. Its a damn sight easier to whip up a cute sundress, than it is to configure even a casual outfit for guys.
And why go thru all that drama in the first place when the guys just sit on their asses and bitch and moan and dunno how the hell to shop to come buy that cool outfit you spent three days making for them????
I’m just sayin, like.
Contact my protege Ambergris Baphomet. She has a folder full of menswear LMs she can give ya.
Yeah all the wonderful menswear designers who USED to vend at her menswear-only mall until it went out of bizness – cuz yall caint shop.
You gotta hit it from ALL sides:
a)New Products forums – clothing & accessories, hair and body, skins etc.
b)Forum special attractions section. New stores announcements. Find out who’s flogging menswear.
c)In game classifieds, search, events: sales anyone??
d) hell – browse snapzilla and see what the guys are wearing. ask em where they got they gear if you like it.
e)Browse designers profiles picks. Get out there and try on them demo do’s. TALK to the designers. Most of em love to get suggestions on styles and stuff guys would like to BUY.
f)Join the fashion groups in SL and ASK about menswear in IMs.
g)Walk up to that guy with the fantastic hair and find out where he got it from.
h)Try on them butch women’s hair styles. There’s a TON of em out there – I wear those well – so does my male avie. Think OUT OF THE BOX
i)Check out those texture-only men’s hairstyles too. Robin Sojourner Wood much?
and so on and so on…..
Forget FREE omfg.
The trickle down is trickling down as mentioned above, and the male freebs WILL get up to par – IF you guys get out there and support those who are creating those fabu clothes, skins, hair, shoes etc: just for YOU.
Brace
Mar 16th, 2007
Oh and I forgot one other thing:
FASHION BLOGS!!!!! Bookmark the heck out of em and keep on top of whats goin on
here’s one I’ll toss out for ya:
SL Men.com
Tenshi Vielle
Mar 16th, 2007
Yes, well, let me “learn you” the point.
This was about free stuff. As for the people that create men’s clothing… maybe you should consider advertising more, or getting on in the Fashion Consolidated group and announcing there.
Either way, I don’t see the men’s clothiers (besides Shai) doing any major advertising. Probably why guys don’t know to go there.