Men's Second Style

So, I’ve been dreaming of a summer vacation.  And not just any summer vacation–the perfect one, the one you never want to come home from.  It’s unlikely that I’ll manage to pull off anything quite like my dream in RL, but I figure, why let that stop me in SL?  And so, as you see, the beach hut in Bora Bora.  But then there’s the eternal question: what to wear?

I wanted something different, interesting, and even beautiful.  I mean, of course there’s always swimwear, shorts, linen pants and the like…but I was looking for something that would really get me outside my box.  Then I found AnaLee Balut’s Kikoi for men.  A little research  (which can be a beautiful thing) taught me that a kikoi is a sarong-like garment worn by men in Eastern Africa.  (Women wear a similar garment called a kanga.)  AnaLee’s Kikoi is an all-prim garment, with sculpted waistband and filmy, flexi fabric lengths, accented with decorative beadwork.  In the past, I’ve turned to kilts and long coats to satisfy my wish for moving, flowing clothing (the ladies get by far most of the nods there), but this is beautifully casual and sexy in ways kilts and coats simply can’t touch.  No “modesty” pants are included, but I found that none were needed, although I did drop my butt size down to zero for safety’s sake.  Because the flexi fabric makes use of alpha-channel transparency, you’ll notice the occasional odd occlusion rendering artifact–the nature of the beast, and nothing you haven’t seen before.  The boldly patterned style shown here is called Earth, but a handful of others are available in different colors and patterns.  L$189 each at ALB Dream Fashion (A’ksha Dunes 185, 74, 51).

Frankly, I think the Kikoi looks great without a shirt, but I’ve been itching for an opportunity to show off the Wet Look Tank, by JohnnyD Posthorn.  I was honestly a little dubious of this at first, in spite of how good it looked in the vendor artwork–I’ve seen semi-transparent garments before, but this one was supposed to look not just sheer but wet.  How good could it look?  I mean, really?  I crossed my fingers and took a chance.  Suffice it to say that I was not disappointed.  (I should have known that JohnnyD wouldn’t let me down.  Shame on me for doubting.)  The shirt really does look like wet fabric that’s slowly drying out, with natural-looking damp patterns front and back that let your skin’s definition show through realistically.  It also looks believably skin-tight, which in this case is a definite plus.  The shirt comes in white only, but it’s tintable, so you can color it to your liking, as I’ve done here.  Unfortunately it isn’t copiable, so you won’t be able to easily save your favorite shades to wear again.  L$150 at Juice (Rughster Bay 216, 62, 32); the 3 Metal Bracelet I’m wearing here is included as a freebie.

These days, I never go anywhere without appropriate UV protection for my eyes.  For my beach holiday, I chose Rohal Schnyder’s Titan sunglasses.  I’m a great admirer of Rohal’s tight, all-prim construction, and I love the sleek-yet-retro styling, not to mention the ultra-slick animation that plays when you flip the glasses up to the top of your head or back down to the normal position on your nose.  Like all of Rohal’s eyewear, these glasses are heavily customizable via touch menu or HUD, your choice: you can change the frame and lens colors, lens transparency and shading gradient, and other settings.  Mouth-attach and nose-attach glasses are included.  This may seem on the surface like a small thing, but it’s a great convenience for those of us who regularly wear facelights or other head attachments that we’d rather not displace.  L$429 at ROLE Optic (Concetta 122, 92, 301).

Now I think I’m pretty much ready for the perfect, endless summer.  Really, all I need now is a cocktail.  Hmm, I wonder if I can get surfside service right to my stretch of beach?  Let’s hope so.