Men's Second Style

I love New Year’s Eve.  In some ways, it reminds me of my senior prom.  It’s an opportunity to get all glammed up, go out to a fabulous party, and play for an evening at being grown-up, or maybe at being rich.  Or both.

And a great beauty of SL is that you don’t have to be rich to play at being rich.  For the equivalent of the cost of a mocha latte or two, you can outfit your SL self in stunning style, with attire and accessories that would be the envy of even the hottest flavor-of-the-moment supermodel.  Not that supermodels care all that much, anyway; wearing beautiful clothing is just a job to them.

It’s become something of an annual tradition for me to feature formalwear from Styles of edo.  I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising—edo Tone’s formals are among the best I’ve seen, and they’re always some of my favorites.  I’ve chosen a few designs from his 2009 collection that I think are especially noteworthy.  Hopefully you’ll think so, too.

My first (and, I must confess, my favorite) ensemble is based around edo’s beautiful new Frock Coat.  The vendor indicates that this is in the “British style,” and the design certainly does seem very Pride and Prejudice (the original, without zombies), or perhaps Brideshead Revisited.  The long, straight sides make for a very formal silhouette, and they’re nicely flexi, which always makes me happy–surely the ladies don’t deserve to have all the fun.

This design isn’t without its challenges—more extreme poses may result in the flexiprim edges poking unnaturally out of or through your torso.  Ah, the price of fashion!  Although the flexi attachment is moddable, I was unable to size it down small enough to fit my avie (admittedly on the small side) without resorting to Edit Linked Parts.  However, the task wasn’t too tedious.  Both short and long versions are included, for two subtly different looks.  The buttons ranged down the front are prim, not painted into the texture, so they have some depth and shine.  The suit set includes two different shirts, one designed to be worn with the sculpted wingtip collar and ascot, the other with its own painted collar and necktie.  On the jacket layer, you can choose from the outer coat, vest, or jacket/vest combination.  This kind of attention to flexibility is much appreciated.  The pants have their own sculpted cuffs.  As a final elegant accent, you also get an unscripted prim pocket watch a prim pocket watch, scripted to keep SL time, in gleaming silver (not shown here).  As always, edo’s fabric textures are delightful—rich and sumptuous, with an almost velvety feel to the shading.  So attired, any of us can rival even the dashing Mr. Darcy for the attentions of anyone who catches our fancy.  L$1200 for the set.

With the Frock Coat suit, I’m wearing the Apollon dress shoes.  These and other Styles of edo shoes are creative collaborations between edo and Chrissy Ambrose.  edo says, “[Chrissy Ambrose of] Virtual Impressions made shoes for my brand, but they are my original designs.  She makes shoes according to my image.”  However they came to be, they are quite beautiful:  elegantly sculpted, handsomely textured in shiny fine-grain leather, with skinny dress laces.  They’re scripted for easy resize.  L$700 a pair.

As for the accessories—ah, the accessories!  This is one of those serendipitous things I love so much about SL.  I was running around the other evening, looking for something, I forget what, and apparently my landmark or the Pick I found was outdated.  I teleported and arrived high up in nothing, so of course I went into immediate freefall.  Being in a mood, I decided to let events play out and see where I landed.  I fell splat into the courtyard of a fairly attractive outdoor shopping mall and thought, What the hell, I’ll browse around for a few minutes.  I ended up in a satellite shop of Rozoregalia, and when everything had rezzed I could have sworn I heard choirs of angels singing from Heaven.  Okay, maybe that was only in my head, but still.  I think maybe I went a little crazy, but I sincerely believe that the cause is just.  You deserve no less from me.

For starters, the hat.  The Rosenkavalier Hat, like the rest of Yumi Pausch’s jewelry and accessories, is nothing if not dramatic.  The classic top hat, wonderfully textured in what looks like charcoal felted wool, is taken to a whole new place by…accents seems too small a word…by baroque ornamentation in the form of shining silver chains and a single outsize diamond.  The effect is subtle, but look closely and you’ll see that there’s a transparent but shaded prim tucked under the brim that creates the illusion of a shadow falling mysteriously over the eyes.  You can wear the hat alone or with the included, integrated hairstyle, and you can also wear the hair without the hat.  Kudos again for flexibility!  This is especially welcome as it’s such a fantastic style on its own merit.  Hat and hat/hair combo are scripted for automatic resize; the script announces a time estimate up-front for the resize operation, which is handy as it can take several seconds.  The hairstyle alone isn’t scripted for resize, but it is conventionally moddable.  L$400.

The Rosenkavalier Pinbrooch coordinates beautifully with the metalwork on the hat, for a sense of stylistic coherence, but the floral motif is all its own.  The large central gemstone is scripted to change color at a touch, so you can match or contrast with your clothing or another accessory, as you prefer.  Here I’ve chosen the smoky black stone, to go with my monochromatic ensemble.  This piece is No Modify and not scripted for resize, but small, medium and large sizes are included.  Both chest- and spine-attach versions are thoughtfully provided, to reduce the likelihood of conflict with another attachment.  L$300.

I’m not sure there’s anything quite as dashing as a gentleman in tails.  Men like Cary Grant and George Clooney dress up so handsomely and effortlessly that it makes the rest of us (well, me) seethe, at least just a little bit.  edo’s Tux with Tails gives us (okay, me) something of an advantage.  The short-cropped jacket allows the snowy white vest to shine as if with its own inner light, and the crisp white shirt is set off by the dove-grey bowtie nestled under the wingtip collar.  Here again, jacket and vest can be worn alone or together, so you have the freedom to “dress down” somewhat as the evening progresses.  The beautifully textured flexi tails are moddable, but also provided in small, medium and large “starting” sizes.  As helpful as this is, I still found it challenging to fit even the small tails to my (yes, I know) fairly small avie.  I could only get the tails so small via simple stretch, so I had to use Edit Linked Parts to resize, reshape and reposition the individual pieces.  It wasn’t difficult, but it was kind of annoying.  I suppose that’s what I get for keeping my avie so small.  I did try some larger shapes I have in my inventory, and the tails were easier to fit and ultimately looked better, so I suspect most guys won’t have the problems I had.  I did notice some minor oddness on some of the tails’ prim edges, some slight haze or shine where complete transparency might have worked better.  I meant to play with this some more, to see what I could figure out, but I ended up running out of time.  You can just make out the prim edge in the close-up picture, so hopefully you can see what I noticed and decide for yourself.  Still, this is a beautiful tuxedo.  L$1000.

Here the shoes are Ares, again by Chrissy Ambrose.  Their smoothly sculpted shape is reminiscent of Apollon, but the toes are slightly squared off rather than pointed, and the upper’s leather texture is set off by a daring snakeskin inset.  Elegant but adventurous.  L$500 a pair.

The Rosenkavalier Bracelet comes in two different styles.  Each warms my heart in a different way.  Both start with sculpted, velvety cuffs in deepest black (handy for subtly coordinating with black formalwear), and both are richly decorated with bright silver chains and dangling fleur-de-lis ornaments.  “Aigis” is dominated by a bold, even mind-boggling diamond in a floral-motif setting, the gemstone subtly animated with a gauzy, swirling interior.

Instead of a gem, “Rose” features a few roses handsomely wrought in what looks like black silk fabric.  Both styles are included for both left and right wrists, and all are scripted for easy, automatic resizing.  L$400.

Other tuxedos in edo’s line may be less elaborately constructed, but they’re no less attractive for it.  One of my favorites is “Tuxedo 5, Coordinated 11”.  (The Tuxedo number refers to the suit’s style; the Coordinated number refers to other included items, such as shirt and vest.  You’ll find each tux style available in several different coordinated sets.)  This ensemble continues my monochromatic theme with its velvety black jacket and pants and its vest in pearly white, with hints of silver.  The shirt features edo’s trademark necktie of two simple crossed tabs, pinned at the center, and the vest is emblazoned with an elaborate embroidered crest.  Beautiful front-to-back shading makes the vest a piece worth showing off on its own.  L$900.

Perfect for a costume ball, Yumi’s Rosenkavalier Eyepatch adds a touch of elegant mystery to your already refined persona.  Okay, so it won’t really conceal your identity, but how much does that really matter when you look this good?  Gleaming silver, silky roses and delicate lace combine in a tiny, perfect storm of textural contrast and decadence.  Two styles are included, one finished in black lace, the other in white.  Both can be worn over your left or right eye, depending on your mood.  Resize scripting makes fitting easier, although you’ll still want to take a few minutes to fine-tune both size and placement, to make sure it looks as natural as possible—the chains should appear to loop naturally over, around and behind the ear and across the forehead.  It’s a bit of a challenge, but well worth the extra effort to get it just right.  L$400.

I also very much like this combination, called “Tuxedo 3, Coordinated 12”.  Look at the shine of the satin lapels and trim on the front slash pocket—just very nicely done.  The bejeweled tie clasp is an especially fine touch.  But I must confess that I’m most particularly taken with the Paisley Brown vest, for its rich, chocolatey color and the almost organic swirls of the tapestry-like fabric design.  L$800.

The shoes I chose to go with that beautiful vest are called Eros.  This was amusing to me personally, because I fell kind of in love with some shoes rather like these in a shop window in Paris in late October.  I fell rather less in love with the price tag.  695?  Yikes!  And then it struck me—that price is in euro.  Hey, that’s REAL money!  Move along, move along, nothing to see here.  Oh, but I did covet them so…almost as much as another pair I saw the next week in Barcelona.  Ah, but back to the shoes, albeit virtual ones, that I can actually afford.  Here again we see Chrissy’s clean, classic base shoe shape (pointed toes this time), but the profusion of buckles, decorative rather than functional, is nothing less than an extravagance.  These struck me as the perfect complement to the simpler tux above, with its almost baroque vest.  L$550.

All shoes are shown in classic Black, but are also available in other leather colors.

And so, let the revelry begin!

Formal clothing by edo Tone and shoes by Chrissy Ambrose are available at Styles of edo (Tyche 150, 127, 55).  Permissions are generally Modify/Copy/No Transfer, but a section of the shop does display transferable items for gift-giving, so make sure you are buying items with the permissions you prefer.

Rosenkavalier jewelry and accessories by Yumi Pausch can be found at Rozoregalia (Hanjin 69, 95, 992).