Men's Second Style

Well-made and inexpensive. When clothes fit that description, what more do you need to say?

Usually nothing. But in the case of Simone Stern’s “Style Starts Here” collection, that’s only the beginning. Let’s begin at that beginning. This paisley shirt, for instance (as usual, do please click the photos for a more detailed version). To make such a complex pattern work on a second life garment is outrageously ambitious: muted contrasts, shading and, on top of all that, seam-matching. As in a real life shirt, it’s not possible to make the pattern continuous across seams, but some shirts’ seams will work while others won’t and, of course, the shading and wrinkles must look consistent across the parts. There is no way that this shirt should work as well as it does. But it does. For £50. Every shirt I’ll show you is £50.

Quality and price should be enough to send you over there. But there’s also variety. Let’s go from paisley to western denim. This is Casual Western in blue. It’s also available in grey. The names of both colours don’t do them justice; think baby blue and silver. As well as the pattern, which manages to be both frilly and understated, the shading and wrinkles are beautiful. You will have trouble matching the blue to most of your jeans… go for a contrasting dark colour — deep indigo or black. Actually there’s even more variety in the pieces than I’m showing here. You can buy leather outfits suitable for biking or knit cardigans you wouldn’t be seen dead in without a pipe and a book.

I’m sticking with the shirts. Here’s a simple one that illustrates the Style Starts Here trump card. As if price, quality and variety aren’t enough, these are the most flexible shirts in all of Second Life. This simple Cotton Twill shirt in black (also available in chocolate, rose, red, purple and blue) is flexible in terms of style, but all SSH shirts are flexible in terms of layering.

Every shirt in the collection comes on every possible layer. You can wear them on the undershirt layer, where they also comes with ‘underpants’ to deal with the gap that results from chosing low jeans. You’ll also find an ordinary shirt-layer version, so you can wear a t-shirt or some tatoos underneath. And finally you’ll also find the same shirt as an untucked jacket-layer version. All in one folder — and did I mention that the price is only £50?

Another solid-colour shirt is the ‘Raffee,’ available in rust, green, wine, purple, grey, navy and burnished (a bronze). I’m wearing the green; all the other colours are just as rich. Well, we might call it solid colour, but look at that shading and detail! Beautiful.

I’ll leave you with two final patterned shirts. First, the Blue on White Floral Pattern Retro shirt and finally, the Chambrey shirt with blue and grey vine patterns. Both are again superb.

At Style Starts Here, as well as many reasonably priced women’s garments, you’ll also find a few men’s jackets and combination outfits and a nice variety of trousers. Be warned, however, although her tops can be worn with any trousers, low- or high-waisted, the L$100 trousers do not share this flexibility. Instead, the trousers I bought at SSH only came as low-waisted, so shirt-layer-only tops from elsewhere leave a small but unsightly gap.

Style Starts Here, to be found at Style Starts Here (119, 131, 28), is a newish venture by Simone Stern, better known for her Simone! shops and sim.

A word about my guitars. The red flower guitar is by Orange Meili of Discord. They’ve got two guitar body shapes and a variety of colours and designs. You can buy them either to attach to your back for carrying or on your front for playing (no animations are included however). These guitars aren’t copy-able, so you might want to buy two of the same model, one to carry and one to play. At L$99 each, that’s feasible.

The paisley flying-V I’m playing is “Jimi FV” from Shu’s Guitar store. Shu Hax charges more, but the price is deceptive: you’re not only buying the guitar itself but a range of sounds and very fine animations plus a nice HUD to control them all. It’s easily worth the L$480. He’s got about 6 zillion different guitar shapes and colours, as well as basses and drums and microphones.

All the details on both are constructed from separate prim parts rather than a prim with a texture. And this is how meticulous both guitar makers are: the very strings are different thicknesses.

Photos taken at “Kosh and Joker” house of cards, Clothing (87, 24, 37).