I want to give a big thank you to each and every one of you that has been here and is a part of the 1500 followers success on Flickr! 6 months ago, I started my journey with my fashion blog as my creative outlet during this pandemic. While styling is my jam, learning photography in Second Life was the biggest hurdle. There's a learning curve, but I was definitely up for the challenge. Going back to my first photo and comparing it with my photos now, I hope you can all see the passion that has grown in me for photography. Learning the Black Dragon viewer was no easy task. Heck, I am still learning! Everyone has been so gracious, and supportive and I read every comment you have all posted. It means a lot to me. It helps keep me going and be as creative and unique as I can be.
So today, I wanted to do something special for you. We are going to talk about Second Life Men's Fashion. Meet my good friend, Bastion, who will help take us on this journey. A few weeks ago, I went shopping with Bastion as he was doing a makeover. We went to some shops I am familiar with and some awesome new ones I have never been to like, ARCHIVEFACTION and RichB . As I went through the process with him, I realized that the world should really know more about men's virtual fashion in Second Life. Though women avi's have a lot of stores to choose from more than the men avi's do, I have to say that the craftsmanship, style, and quality go very much the same in real life: they are better made, better detailed and honestly, it makes me wanna roll a men's avatar! haha
Bastion lives in an unremarkable blue-collar town in the Midwest, USA. He has been playing Second Life on and off for about 18 years. I met Bastion earlier this year while shopping for hair at DOUX and I happened to see him wearing trinkets that I thought looked pretty neat. In fact, his whole look that day was pretty impressive. I asked him where he got the item and chatted it up. And to this day we have remained friends. I asked him to put a few looks for y'all and sat down with him to talk about his fashion journey.
How did you start playing Second Life?
I first heard about it in 2004. A friend and I were browsing a site that was popular back then for finding MMORPGs to play. Though SL isn't really an RPG, it was listed on that site. It mentioned that SL is a world that's designed and built entirely by its user base, and we thought that was a novel idea, so we decided to give it a try. My friend lost interest after a few months, but I ended up making a lot of great friends here and somehow managed to stick around all these years
How have you seen men's fashion progress in SL?
SL was around for years before they implemented any method of importing mesh from an external 3D design program like Blender or Maya etc. It was a few years before they added sculpted prims and a few more years before we got rigged mesh. In the early days, all we had were basic parametric prims and clothing layers for the system avatar. You couldn't even stack them. You had a layer for underwear, shirt, jacket, etc. and that's what you had to work with.
There weren't many designers in SL back then and it wasn't competitive like it is now. A lot of people just wore things from freebie places or would try to make their own clothes because it was a lot easier back then to do so.
When they eventually added sculpted prims to SL, that gave designers a method of creating organic shapes in an external program, and that's when you started seeing details like shadows baked into the textures.
So, with all the updates in the game, you've seen a lot of the progression of SL men's fashion. What is the coolest and wildest thing you have seen someone wear?
Oh, I remember several years back there was a store that sold complete avatars with clothing and skins and shapes and everything. The two avatars I remember in particular were Captain Jack Sparrow, and the face looked exactly like Johnny Depp with his movie makeup and everything. They had a Tupac Shakur avatar that looked totally legit too. It was really cool and really impressive for the time!
Wildest though? That would be hard to say. Everyone sports wild fashions here. Everything is larger than life here. And that's part of the appeal.
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You are a designer's dream consumer, I feel. You have such a great sense of style. Where would you like to see men's fashion go in the future of SL?
Well, I think like most guys here, I just wish there was more of it. There just aren't nearly as many clothing options for masculine male avatars as there are for women. It's a challenge to look unique.
How long does it usually take you to put a look together?
Haha... way longer than it should. I probably focus too much on small details that nobody will ever really notice. There have been times when I've spent several days trying to get my avie to look the way I want. Especially with my shapes. But when it comes to outfits, usually I can put together something passable in a couple hours, and then I might add small details like accessories, later on, bit by bit, as I come across them.
What are your favorite places to shop and what events do you go to that you can't miss?
Well, places as you could probably tell from the photo shoot, ARCHIVEFACTION, and Dope+Mercy have recently become favorites of mine. TANAKA and VRSION have a lot of killer Urban Wear. I definitely check out all the men's events too. That's where I discovered a lot of my favorite stores. Man Cave, The Mens Department, Men Only. I usually check out Tokyo Zero and the Cyber Fair too.
In This Post:
First Look
Pants: BOUNDARYUSAGE Pants Chain by ARCHIVEFACTION
Shoes: BOUNDARYUSAGE Derbies by ARCHIVEFACTION
Harness: CENSORED Corset Harness Black by ARCHIVEFACTION
Mask & Cigarette: CENSORED Mask & Cigarette Black02 by ARCHIVEFACTION
Necklace: Pentagram Necklace 01 Ash by ARCHIVEFACTION
Choker: Spikes Chocker Ash by ARCHIVEFACTION
Earrings: Bapho Earrings Swallow Pixie S by Badwolf
Earrings: Leeder Earrings M by RichB.
Ring: Mythical Beast Ring by RealEvil Industries
Gauged: Swallow Gauged S Ears by Swallow
Armband: Snap Armbands by RichB.
Bandaid: Metal Bandaid by DOPE+MERCY
Hairbase: Kened Hairbase by Volkstone
Eyes L: Futuristic Vibes - Animated Mesh - Circle Of Re:Life L by Gloom
Eyes R: Malik Eyes by avarosa
Lighter: I'm A God - Lighter / PLAIN / Black&Silver / Anim by Lavish
Leash Holder: Wrist Leash Holder unrigged L Hold2 by Messy
Skin: Ren Skin Ruddy Normal by Not Found
Pose: #6 Male Stool Pose Pack by Roseraie
Second Look
Sweater: [WAZ] Tactical Sweater (BASE) by Wazzer Works
Sweater Color HUD: [WAZ] Tactical Sweater Applier (Black) [Texture HUD] by Wazzer Works
Pants: KNV64 Male Pants FATPACK by VRSION
Shoes: SPEED-X Sneakers "Black" by CRIMEN
Headphones: Headphones by Cerberus Crossing [The Warehouse Sale] FREE
Mask: Matsumuto Hibana Mask FATPACK by Neo Kitsch
Gloves: Killer Gloves The DeadBoy
Collar: Cermet Collar - Caution by Random Matter
Leash Holder: Cyber Gears Leash Holder by Crowded Room
Bag: Messenger Bag by Tanaka
Eyes: Malik Eyes by avarosa
Hat: Baseball cap GB by Gabriel
Face Tattoo: Face Tattoo #18 by RichB.
Tattoo: Ultron Tattoo Tone 2 Nebur Cyborg
Pose: Katana Pose 2 by Panthar, Inc.
Third Look
Crown: Paper McCrown IV - 39 Nerd UNCOMMON by ::Static:: [Gatcha]
Hoodie: Froggy Hoodie by DOPE+MERCY
Shorts: Froggy Shorts White by DOPE+MERCY
Plant: Cannabis Plant - Black by Hangry
Socks: KAI. socks WNNC by KAI
Hair: Jace Hair - Lelutka Size by Modulus
Shoes: Sporty Platforms Fatpack Destroyed by Semller
Pizza: [La Baguette] Slice of pizza by La Baguette
Facial Hair: Vito V4 by Volkstone
Band Aid: "Scar 5" by avarosa
Freckles: Face Freckles 70% by Toxica Tattoo
Braces: Braces (add) 3.1 by LeLUTKA
Skin: - Jake Tone 1 by Stray Dog
Body: Legacy (m) (1.2) by Legacy
Head: lel EvoX EON 3.1 by LeLUTKA
Thank you so much, Bastion for doing this project with me and for being so supportive, always.
And to all my good friends that continue to support me throughout my journey, much love to you all. XOXO
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