Men's Second Style

Well, I had some more formalwear items lined up to share with you over the holiday season.  Unfortunately, timing didn’t work out in our favor there, the holiday season now being over and all.  If we’re lucky, I may well get back to some of those designs in the near future.

In the meantime, though, I feel like doing something a little bit different.  I’ve had some winter gear piling up in my inventory over the last few weeks, and now seems like as good a time as any to break it out, even though for the last few days it’s been 75-80 degrees F where I live in RL.  Hey, it’s technically winter, after all; I’ll just pretend that it actually feels like it outside.

Those of you who’ve been keeping score at home already know that I’m a total sucker for coats, sweaters and other cozy winter wear.  I think part of it is psychological—the fun of bundling up, the beauty of snowy weather, the romanticized association with the Christmas season.  Maybe that comes from growing up (formative years, anyway) in the cold, brittle winters of Kansas City…the Kansas side of the river, in case you were wondering.

But cold-weather wardrobes can also be striking, beautiful, even sexy.  Talented SL designers can use sculpts and other tricks of the trade to create the illusion of real garments, made from real fabric, with familiar lines and silhouettes.  And that’s not just impressive—for me, it’s a lot of fun.  I hope it is for you, too.

Although it’s been a while since I featured any of Shinichi Mathy’s designs here—so long, in fact, that it surprises me—he’s one of the double handful of designers who come immediately to my mind when I think of people who are creating items of consistently high quality over time.  His SHIKI Coats for men are handsome, stylish and cozy-looking—all good things, and pretty much all I need in winter wear.  The texture work on the jacket-layer garment base is beautifully done, but it’s the sculpted collar (at left), cuffs and belted coat bottom that define the coat’s shape and profile.  All are smoothly, naturally shaped and textured, and they blend well into both your avatar’s own shape and the jacket-layer piece.  The coat bottom’s shape has a nice flare that works quite well over your avie’s butt.  I have a version of my shape with butt size set to zero, for just such occasions, but I didn’t need it here.  It works reasonably well even in a lot of modeling poses, which was a nice surprise—modeling poses often strain the realism of body shape and attachment placement.  Choose your coat in Brown (shown here), Indigo or Midnight Blue for L$320 each.  If you’d prefer the coat in Red, join the SHIKI group and pick up the men’s group gift for October.  Group gifts can be found in the red “members only” hallway.

A good coat cries out for a sweet scarf.  Shinichi’s SHIKI Scarves come in a wide variety of colors and patterns, so you shouldn’t have any trouble matching or coordinating with your favorite coats and sweaters.  As with so many things in SL, artistry must make up for the absence of physical reality if things are going to “look right.”  In particular, scarves simply must be properly shaped if they are to look like they have real fall, drape and flow and aren’t just stuck rigidly onto your avatar.  Shinichi’s scarves are available carefully sculpted for both men and women (both versions are included with each purchase), with subtly flexi yarn ties at either end.  Each scarf is provided in three different styles (one, two, three) and pre-set for two different attachment points, chest and spine.  This makes it easier to wear with other garments—such as coats, interestingly enough—that may take up an attachment points with one of their own components.  L$180 each, L$380 for five-packs, or L$600 for the deluxe fatpack of everything.  Find, browse and take home coats, scarves and other designs Shinichi Mathy at SHIKI Designs (Shiki 91, 153, 22).

Winter is winter, virtual or otherwise, and sometimes my ears get cold.  (You can lose a lot of body heat through the top of your head.  It’s true!)  Here I’ve chosen Sway Dench’s Aviator Winter Hat—its vibe is fun and casual, but it’s still toasty warm.  Sway has used sculpties to create the hat’s natural curves, and the fur and fabric textures are realistic and appealing.  Fitting and wearing prim hats with prim hair is nothing if not an interesting challenge, but this style doesn’t have to fit tight and close to look right, which makes for more fun than tedium.  Resize scripting makes the task even easier.  Shown here in Orange Plaid, just for fun, but available in a boatload of other colors—I especially like these hats in Brown.  Priced at L$250 each, which includes hats in both plaid fabric and solid leather in your chosen color, or L$1880 for the pack of everything.  Available at Sway’s Creations (Sways Creations 120, 183, 21).