Leather Jackets @ Sey

January 16th, 2008 at 11:31am Mr. Oh

One of my self-imposed rules was I would never buy anything with a skull on it. I guess such rules are made to be broken. Risey Arai signed that rule’s death warrant by creating the some of the best leather jackets on Second Life. I’m not a big leather jacket fan and until this week, I felt pretty certain that Nihil Graves’s Tiger Tank jacket was the only leather jacket I’d ever need. Well, this week I bought four leather jackets. And two of them feature skulls prominently. But, oh my, they’re worth breaking a few rules for when you look at the details.

I bought two versions of the Rider’s Jacket. The jackets are primarily black leather, but the top of the chest, back, shoulders and sleeves feature a panel of colour. Three of them are rich colours: blue, purple and red, and the other three are more muted: a drab green, grey and brown. On to these coloured panels, front and back, is printed the aforementioned skull design, somewhat faintly as if it’s wearing off. There is also writing, but it’s hard to make out. The brand name Sey is there, with bunches of numbers and then the sim location of the main store, Honmoku. The leather is nicely rippled with the attendent highlights and shadows and the coloured panel has a marbled-effect texture. In extreme close-ups, the resolution is lower than you’d like, but it only really shows on the zip running down the front of the jacket. It’s not a big problem, though, there’s a lot of other stuff to look at.

The garment is nice enough, but what makes it so special are the prim attachments, particular the collar and cuffs. On these, the attention to detail is phenomenal. Its the shiny buckles and doo-dads that will catch most people’s eyes, but spare a moment to note the leather straps: the surface facing the world is black, but the back and even the slender sides are the tan-brown of untreated leather. Similarly, the outside of the wonderfully shaped high collar is black and crinkly like the jacket, but the inside is lined with the same colour as the fabric panel.

But then there are all those buckles. As well as 6 colours for the jacket you have to decide whether you want all that hardware in silver or in gold, making twelve versions of the jacket in all.The prim collar also adds on some chains and a pull for the front zip. Oh, and some nice metalwork in the back of it as well. It’s amazing. Ah, a warning, though. One small doodad on the collar is a square with a cross-like design that has slight bling in it. This can’t be turned off by the wearer, unfortunately. Risey Arai (without knowing who I was) was happy to send me a non-bling version of the collar.

You can eliminate the worst of the bling yourself (and it’s not very pronounced to begin with) by using the Edit windoid with Edit Linked Parts ticked. Select the square doo-daad and, in the Contents tab, delete the script you find there. You may have to log out and back on for the script to stop running. There seems to be another copy of the script buried further in the doo-dad… I haven’t found it yet, but this procedure reduces the bling to nearly unnoticable. (Dang! That’s two rules broken… I actually purchased stuff with skulls and bling! Ryan’s going to take away my press pass!)

The zippered cuffs, too, are works of art. Buckles, studs and zip pull chain and tag. It’s a striking design, too. They’re long cuffs and the metalwork is further up toward the elbow than I’d have expected, leaving a long cuff of simple leather at the wrist. There’s also a double belt, unnecessary but a nice touch, especially useful with low-riding jeans. It very effectively picks up buckle and rivet motifs from other parts of the jacket and ties the whole thing together well. This was the only piece I needed to adjust, and it was easy enough to do.

But wait, there’s more! I also bought two versions of another of Sey’s leather jackets. It’s advertised simply as ‘Leather Jacket,’ not to be confused with another outfit, which I did not purchase, advertised as ‘Leather Jacket and Pants.’ Once you buy it, you see it has another name, Kilt Leather Jacket. No coloured panels on this one, but there are tinted leather versions. As well as the obvious black and brown leather, you could also buy blue, red/burgundy or a green that looks almost brassy. The hardware on these is a little more sparse and all colours of leather come with gold metalwork. You can also get the black edition with silver.

The sales poster features the brown and gold and the warmth that this version exudes makes it the right choice. The main feature of Kilt are the padded and quilted leather segments on the shoulders, collar and sleeves. Again, the shape of the ample collar is wonderful, this one is folded down and molded to fit well. It always impresses me when a prim collar conforms so precisely and seamlessly with the implications of the texture-based garment. This is, I think, the best I’ve ever seen. It also has a strap and buckle.

These sleeves also feature that long wrist section I enjoyed in the Riders’ Jacket above. There are more buckles, two on each sleeve, and on Kilt, the straps are stiff and pull away from the sleeve like real leather. The buckle and strap motif is echoed on the back with another prim attachment — a back-belt which is very effective.

The only thing that lets this piece down is the texture of the garment itself. The leather itself is fine, but the resolution isn’t high enough to completely satisfy on the zips and zip pulls. As well as the main jacket fastening with pulls at the top and bottom, there are two breast pockets. From the default camera distance, it’s all fine. But get much closer and the jaggedness of the picture of metalwork grates against the perfect lines of the prim metalwork. Again, this is a small detail. The overall effect of this jacket is still great. As I mentioned, I am no sucker for leather jackets. But I went back and bought a second version of Kilt as well.

There are other outfits at Sey as well, including more leather. I needed to quit while I still had some money left! Riders’ jackets are 300L$ per version. ‘Kilt’ leather jackets are 400L$ per version. Both come with two sizes included in the package, suitable for male and female. The main Sey shop seems to be at Honmoku (154, 59, 31), though there seem to be more accessories and things at the shop at the ‘PigSight’ branch on Aventi Island (191, 98, 22).

Photos taken at the petrol station in Fridericus (83, 92, 37).

Disclosure: Seen in World: Yes | Review Copy: No | Friends List: No

Notes: On Mr. Oh: Nora Entice - Hunter Almond by Sezmra Svarog (Nora BodySkins & Fashion). "Illusion" hair in steel by Khai Sinister (TheAbyss). Scripted colour-change "Aviator 1" sunglasses by Damanios Thetan (Collection Damani). Sparrow boots in black by Broder Kubrick (BroGear). Moss-coloured jeans by Adam Soler (Lookr). Basic grey thermal t-shirt by Starley Thereian (Moderno).

Entry Filed under: Casual, Jackets, Sportswear, Urban, sey