Men's Second Style

I have a terrible confession to make.  Are you ready?  Please don’t make me say this more than once, it’s bad enough as it is.  Okay, here goes:  Stuff gets lost in my inventory sometimes.

There, I said it.  Wow, I feel about a thousand times better already!  Confession really is good for the soul.

Does this ever happen to you?  It’s not just me, right?  Tell me it’s not.  Maybe “lost” is too strong a word, though.  It’s really more about organization, or rather lack thereof, and therefore the possibility or impossibility of actually finding things, and less about items somehow going *poof*.  Unfortunately, what this sometimes means is that interesting things I’ve acquired but not yet featured here end up falling by the virtual wayside.

The only solution I’ve found to this problem (other than religious sorting and filing of stuff on a daily basis, which isn’t always possible) is the semi-occasional three-hour inventory assault.  I did one of these the other day, and as usual the result was re-discovery of some stuff that came in a while back but never made it any further than being filed in the “Recent Arrivals” folder…or, more insidiously, in a mysteriously located and hard-to-spot subfolder of said top-level folder.  The upshot is, I found some interesting stuff I had forgotten about and, in the process of trying things on, a good-looking outfit started to come together.  When that happens, you go with it!  A few accessories and a hairstyle later, I was ready to go.

The main clothing items here are all by Caine Lewinter.  I quite like the Urban Safari Shirt (L$185), with its handsome fabric texture and soft detailing that looks comfortably worn.  The texture and detail work reminds me of elements I admire in Truth Hawks’ and Menno Ophelia’s clothing designs.  The highlights and shading remind me somewhat of watercolor, and for my money this makes for especially beautiful clothing.  The result is definitely stylized rather than 100% realistic, but I’m not sure that total realism is always a necessary goal.  I like this approach a lot; you’ll know best what you like and what works for you.  I’m wearing the Urban Safari Shirt here in a rich, chocolatey brown, but you can also choose from a handful of other colors.  It’s provided on multiple garment layers, so you can wear it tucked in or untucked.

You’ll find the same “watercolor wash” technique used on the Mr. Wayne denims (L$135).  Detailing includes wrinkles and folds that are soft and gentle rather than sharp and crisp.  The jeans are nicely faded, and the back pockets have wear marks and fading that suggest it might be time to thin your wallet out a little.  Look closely and you’ll see hints of contrasting-color stitchwork used to attach the patch pockets.  Sculpted cuffs make for a clean line all the way to the ankle.  There are a lot of jeans out there, of course–they’re something of a commodity, I suppose, and the beauty of this is that you’ll find something for every taste.  If you’re in the market for something new, these are simple and straightforward but well done.  I’m wearing them in a charcoal grey tone, but they’re also available in a few other colors.

When I first tried on the Dodgers casual shoes (L$425), I wasn’t sure what I thought of them, so I put them away.  (This may be at least partly responsible for their temporary “disappearance.”)  When I tried them on again recently, I thought, Oh, hey, I like these!  Now, it’s unusual (although not completely unheard-of) for me to go back and forth like that.  I’ve given this some thought and I’ve decided that the “culprit” here is not my own flakiness, but rather the stylized fabric artwork I mentioned and admired previously.  I like it for the clothing items, and I like it for these shoes too, but I think maybe I just didn’t “get it” the first time around.  Maybe I was in a mood or something.  I do remember thinking that the shoes were supposed to be leather, when actually it seems clear, from a closer look at the fabric texture, that they’re intended to be canvas.  That’s what it looks like to me, anyway, although again the artwork is somewhat stylized, so maybe it can be either/or/whichever you prefer.  In any event, these are stubby, almost biscuit-toed lace-up shoes with a very casual feel.  The brown/olive color combo here is called ”Prague,” but others are available.  One note: against a background with transparency (like, say, the floor of my photo studio), you may notice the bit of invisiprim used in the shoes.  You won’t see this against the ground or prims that use textures with no transparency.

Shirt, denims and shoes are all by Caine Lewinter, and all available at Novocaine (Novocaine 103, 82, 24).  The currently limited selection of men’s clothing is upstairs (I noticed just one other jacket), while the shoes can be found downstairs, near the entrance.

On to the accessories!  The Kunstkammer Star Belt (L$200) by Nuala Shippe has a fantastic, glossy leather texture, and as a bonus it was a snap for me to size and fit it properly.  Your experience may be different, of course, but I’m usually fussing with fitting and placement for at least a few minutes.  Not so this time.  Each belt is actually a set that includes three different attachments: a man’s belt, a very differently shaped woman’s belt, and the buckle only.  The buckle-only version might come in handy for wear with pants that already include their own belt artwork, or with an open jacket that otherwise covers the belt line.  The buckle is chunky and substantial without looking like it would be guaranteed to set off the airport metal detector, and it’s scripted for automatic color change of the background behind the sculpted decorative silver stars–just touch to cycle through the choices.  I lost track, but it seems like there were 15 or 16 colors, with natural earth tones predominating.  It would be nice to be able to choose the desired color directly from a menu, rather than cycling through the colors, but that’s a minor quibble.  Available in Brown and Black at Kunstkammer Architectural and Metaphysical Salvage (Emmelia 241, 139, 67).

A casual outfit calls for casual jewelry, and the simpler the better.  Rosie Barthelmess’ new Metal Wrist Wraps (L$150 for the set of two) come in a variety of metal, leather and other finishes.  I’m wearing them here in Zinc, and each bracelet of cool grey metal is accented in warmer copper tones.  The loosely coiled, overlapping metal band really does wrap around your wrist rather than simply encircling it.  Rosie’s Stone Bead Choker (L$150) isn’t an exact match but pairs very well with the Wrist Wraps.  The colors of the small stone beads, technically mineral rather than organic, are still very much of the earth.

Rosie’s jewelry designs can be found at Sable Rose Jewelry (Filataponic 209, 198, 50).  Look around while you’re there for her monthly freebies!

I am a whore for good hair.  It’s just true.  I’ll often take home two or three styles at once, just because, although (outside of Hair Fair) I think my personal best is five.  The style I’m wearing here is “Glide,” by rika Oyen, and the day I bought this one I got I think three others, so be on the lookout.  This style has a very natural, very casual look and feel, and it makes excelent use of sculpties in the impressively realistic hair in back, which is just beginning to kink and curl a little, like mine does in RL when it grows out.  rika’s hairstyles are scripted for automatic size change, and this works very well.  However, they’re no mod, which among other things means no tinting.  Honestly, these days I’m about 50/50 on resize scripting for hair.  If it’s provided simply as a fitting convenience, but permissions still allow manual adjustment, that’s the best of both worlds.  When the hairstyle is no mod, though, I can’t easily tweak individual prim strands or tint the hair to be, let’s say, more red, and that makes me sad.  The color here is called Red, and since the style is no mod, this is as red as it’s going to get.  It works great here, but someday I’m going to wish I could get it just a little redder.  Be sure to try on demos before buying, and make sure you like rika’s colors as-is–don’t plan to tint them yourself to a preferrred tone.  This style and others by rika are priced at L$250 each and available at ARGRACE (shin zushi 149, 161, 25).