Men's Second Style

I don’t have freckles in real life.  I was a redheaded kid–there’s some Irish in me–but that kind of faded toward brown as I got older.  If I get a lot of sun, my hair lightens toward blond rather than red.  I guess the Irish wasn’t dominant enough.  My complexion, though, was and still is very fair, but without freckles.  I guess it isn’t as bad as Woody Allen (“I don’t burn, I stroke”), but I’m told my pediatrician warned my mom against letting me get too much sun (“Don’t you dare bring that kid in here with a bad sunburn!”).  And this was back when it was still “suntan lotion,” not “sunscreen,” so that kind of says something.  I always wished my red hair had “stuck,” and for whatever reason I kinda wished I had freckles to go along with it, too.  Although it hasn’t been a consuming passion, I’m always on the lookout for a good skin with good freckles.  You may recall that I really liked sachi’s recent “Justin”–my only personal reservation was that the musculature was a little too ripped to suit my own tastes.  I so like the facial features and coloring that I wear it a lot anyway.  Rack Brautigan’s new male skins at Imagen include “Gael,” a freckled skin with toned but not ripped musculature.  Although there’s likely no such thing as “the perfect skin” for anyone, and my own preferences may not match yours or those of anyone else, for me ”Gael” does take that one step closer toward fitting my own personal ideal. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ll find a boatload of freebies and dollarbies out on the bridge at Garbage Prototype’s shopping district, Starlust ‘A La Mode.  There are clothing, skins, hair and eyes by Garbage and other Starlust designers.  This weekend only!

Being classy on Second Life in a predominantly hip-hop environment is not easy.  I’ve been on the game for well over one year and from the first day to the day I wrote this I can honestly say certain scenes on SL have and will never change.  Every group, every clique, every organization has a particular style they represent.  In the hip-hop community it’s usually as follows:

1 pair of Nike Uptown styled sneakers (tennis shoes for those of you in the south)
1 pair of baggy jeans
1 sports jersey
1 excessively over-primmed platinum chain and matching earrings
And last but not least, 1 oversized baseball cap representing the local team Read the rest of this entry »

This post is Part II of my coverage of Menlosophy, designs by Amanda Bolero and ziamela Loon.  You can read Part I here.

One of the more traditional Menlosophy designs is undoubtedly the Chess shirt.  When I say “traditional,” I don’t mean it as a slam–it’s not code for “conventional” or even ”old-fashioned”–and I mention it at all only because I’ve said so much in this context about getting outside the box.  This shirt may still have one sleeve inside the box, but it’s such a handsome design, in such a challenging fabric print, that I can’t help but love it.  The cut is flattering, and the tight check print is potentially problematic but done so well that it looks better than it has any right to do.  Sculpted collar and cuffs are pretty much de rigeur for dressy shirts these days, and many casual shirts as well.  Here the collar is casual but smart, with sharply creased edges and crisp points.  The cuffs are equally casual but softer, rounder, and they looked comfortably turned-up.  L$150. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve heard it.  So have I.  People complain not just about the relative dearth of menswear designs in SL (in comparison to the vast selection available for women, and although I suffer no shortage of fine items to feature here I think this is still generally true), but about the “sameness” we often see as well.  (Sometimes it seems like everyone with Photoshop and a Wacom tablet has a shop selling jeans, tees and polos.)  They want something interesting, fresh, original–”outside the box.”  Hey, I’ve been known to join in that chorus myself.  I’m a big fan of contemporary casual clothing, too, but within that fairly broad category it seems like there should be more room for exploration.

With their new collection at Menlosophy, design partners Amanda Bolero and ziamela Loon push the envelope and stretch the boundaries more than just a bit.  Sure, much of the collection qualifies as “contemporary casual”–what’s not to love?–but few of any of the designs are simple or ordinary.  One of my favorite pieces is the Velvet jacket, shown here in Verde.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official–swaffette has gone a little bit mad.

In the best way possible, I mean.  Her new Performance Suit, released earlier this month, may just be the most impressively flexible suit I’ve ever worn.  Dozens of pieces provide for what seems like tons of mix-and-match wear options.  I tried to count up the possibilities, but I gave up when I lost track and had to start over.  Twice.  I kid you not.

swaffette’s creation is a classic English three-piece suit, in an attractive slim cut, with two-button jacket.  This simple description doesn’t begin to convey the extensive planning and effort that have clearly gone into such a generous “single garment” offering.  If that doesn’t signify some kind of madness, I don’t know what does.  But you be the judge. Read the rest of this entry »

Its back. Yup, for our 20th Blogger Style Throwdown I’m up against Ranger Theas, a friend of my partner Luna Jubilee. Ranger used to blog on her site for a while, but decided to take a break from SL. He recently told us that he’d decided to come back to SL for a bit (supposedly a woman lured him back, but you didn’t hear it from me). To celebrate his return, I invited him to a throwdown that will hopefully get him back into the blogging grind.

Ranger managed to select the “look of the day” theme, which made its first appearance with Nic and Dahlia last winter. This time the theme was taken a bit more literally as “what would you wear out today?” with 2500L to explore our respective styles.

Read the rest of this entry »

My apologies if you’ve tried to leave a comment recently and found you couldn’t.  Somehow a WordPress setting got changed to require login to leave a comment, which didn’t help much as we haven’t enabled self-registration.  That should be fixed now, so comment away.  In fact, somebody leave one just so I’ll know for sure it’s working!

Thanks to reader BoyNamed Xue, who dropped me a notecard inworld to inquire politely wtf was up with the comments. 

So, I was out on an insane shopping spree with Kith on Monday.  I won’t bore you with details of the whole crazy excursion, but I will say that we had a lot of fun, and that my L$ balance is still reeling in shock.  Ouch!  But it hurts so good.

Although you’ll undoubtedly be seeing further fallout from that shopping trip in days to come, I kinda couldn’t wait to bring one set of items to your attention.  I don’t do a lot of posts focused on a single item these days–my ambitions somehow get set way up high, and the posts get all complicated, and then they take a long time to put together.  I have fun, which is selfishly important to me, but it can drag things out.  Friends have encouraged me to mix things up and Fear Not the One-Off, so today I have just one thing for you.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.  Okay, cue the Radio Announcer Guy voice… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a Guest Style Consultant feature, so I’d say it’s about time.  Roland Zepp shares his personal style, advice and suggestions in his own blog, Roland Zepp’s Fashion Sense.  He was kind enough to agree to appear here, and it was a great opportunity for us to meet “in person” at last!  — Ryan

I’ve gone through a lot of looks in my time here.  Starting with the newbie/freebie and working up to writing about fashion and participating in the fashion world as a model and photographer, I’ve discovered a lot of styles, designs, and designers.

It’s hard to nail down exactly what my look is.  At heart, I’m a minimalist kinda guy.  Less is more in my book.  It may not seem like it when you see all my various contests and looks and all, but when I’m just hanging out on the grid, I like to keep it pretty basic.  I don’t wear a lot of extra crap in RL and I don’t see any reason to do it here.

= | = | =| = | =| = | =| = | =| = | = | = Read the rest of this entry »