New Shoes @ Perfect Tomorrow and Shiny Things
You only have to glance once at the Linden template maps for textures to understand why it is that shoes, like skins, tend to be more expensive than shirts, jackets, trousers or even whole suits. A few names have become legendary for their mastery of the challenging art form of the humble shoe. Today we’ll look at the work of two designers. The first one is the legendary Fallingwater Cellardoor of Shiny Things, who has recently released a wonderful new line of shoes called Murphys. The second is someone you are far less likely to have heard of.
It’s a new name in shoe design, though it hasn’t exactly risen overnight. Perfect Tomorrow so far has only one basic design for men although it’s available in a huge variety of colours. When I first visited the shop a month or so ago, there were no demos available, though copies of the sculpted prim numbers were out on display. That has changed now and when I contacted Perfect Tomorrow about this review, I encountered a one-person band who had just overhauled the sizing of the whole product range completely and was now working through the customer list, sending each person updated versions of the shoes that they’d bought. The new versions are worth writing home about.
Here’s the bad news: I think you’re going to want to buy both designers’ shoes. Let me tell you why.
In some ways, the Perfect Tomorrow shoes resemble a cross between Shiny Things’s new Murphys and the Flared Oxfords which have been out for a while. Like Flared Oxfords, the Perfect Tomorrow boots are slight exaggerations of roundness and chunkiness. Both have a slightly humorous, tongue-in-cheek feel. 
Where the Flared Oxfords seem to be designed with a retro 70s disco craze undertone to them, however, Perfect Tomorrow aims more for comtemporary, comfortable and casual.
In this way, they are closer to the new Murphys, which also show their stitching. Murphys come in eight colours and with different sizes, costing L$300 per colour (shown: Murphy in red and in green). Buy them at Shiny Things headquarters in Shiny Falls (173, 181, 37).
Perfect Tomorrows are available in 10 different solid colours, these models seem to be called ‘Tars.’ They also come in a range of 9 colours on black ‘Bowls’ or 9 colours on white ‘Bowls 2.’ A single colour will cost you L$285, and they only come in one size. They all have colour-changable laces (shown: ‘Bowling 4 Goths’ Perfect Tomorrow in red and black; Soup Bowl 2 Perfect Tomorrow in ‘yellow’ and white). The Perfect Tomorrow shop can be found at Collins (106, 160, 28).
The Perfect Tomorrows seem all about fun and energy, the Murphys exude sophistication and maturity. Wear Murphys when you’re applying for a job, wear Perfect Tomorrows when you’re auditioning for a gig.
They’re both truly great shoes.
Stop the Press: Perfect Tomorrow boots are now also available in a ‘low’ version.
Very nice job with the suede textures, laces and colors, but they seem a bit too chunky and almost comical if you want realistic looking shoes. If you like exaggerated, these are great. If you want realistic suede, you may want to try Hoorenbeck.
Perhaps I didn’t make it clear in what I wrote, Lief Ihnen. There are in fact two different brands being reviewed here. Yes, one is chunky and fun but the other is more serious and realistic… that was the whole point of the review.
The “Hoorenbeck” of which he speaks is at JT World VI (125, 27, 22). The shoes are realistic with a slickly polished sheen. There are no lace-ups available, but the sculptie Davit boots in particular show great stitching and attention to detail. Hoorenbeck doesn’t provide demo versions to try on, but there are sample shoes rezzed for you to zoom in on, and if you buy, you receive three sizes. Hoorenbeck shoes are only a little more expensive than Shiny Things and Perfect Tomorrows: loafers at L$360 and boots at L$420.
And if we’re mentioning other realistic shoes, we mustn’t omit the amazing Eponymous Trenchmouth’s Jeepers Creepers Shoe Shop, or JCS, which is at Tean (240, 87, 24).
I still love my “Carl Perkins” from Jeepers Creepers. They are by far the best I have seen in SL so far, and they work great with the trenchcoat from casa del Shay.
OK, after re-reading the blog post for the – uhmm – 5th tme last night, I finally went and bought me a light brown pair of the Murphies. They’re damn good.