Baby It's Cold Outside

Stay warm in this cozy coat from GizzA and stylish pants from [Sleepy Eddy]

Glasses: Kumaki Glasses Style - K_gs dub 1.00 at The Mens Dept.

Coat: GizzA - Padded Coat Male in Blue.

Pants: [Sleepy Eddy] - Corduroy Bush Pants in Off White at The Mens Dept.

Boots: [Gos] - Desert Boots in Blue Tartan

Sleepless

Sometimes, I just like to plug a random word into Second Life Search and see what turns up. The word in my mind today was "sleepless" and it yielded some surprisingly good results.

I narrowed the results to Places, and the first place I landed was in the middle of the TonkTastic store, in the heart of the Sleepless sim. I've known of TonkTastic for a long time (the now-defunct landmark I have for it dates back to 2008) but the shop had somewhat fallen off my radar. The richly detailed "Legend" flight jacket and the rigged mesh Gumboots that I landed in front of made me glad that TonkTastic is back on my agenda.

I resisted the lure of the boots (though many Lindens will undoubtedly be spent here soon) and selected the next promising location in the Search results.

Which was somebody's house. Not wanting to be caught trespassing, I hurried on, but not before peeking in the open windows. The inhabitants may be low on furnishings but they are high on mushy family photos, which made me smile.

The next hit I clicked on was Sleepless Nights, and the view I saw when I landed would make staying awake worthwhile.

This looks like art. It's actually a shop. I followed the line of falling down power lines to the Fiction & Chaos store which boasts a selection of women's and men's clothes and hair in the punk/neko/goth/rave styles. Wandering through it, I happened on the main store of House of Usher and admired the carefully crafted gothic furniture that would be at home in any remote and foggy palace.

The last destination I selected was a sim called SleeplessMUSIC. It also happens to be the main store of Connors Clothing.

I had heard of Connors but it's not very familiar to me, so I lingered briefly, checking out the casual styles for men and women and made another note to spend some more time (and money) here later.

At this point, I ran out of sleepless locations and time to visit them. I headed back home, pleased with my discovery of some new and new-again places and secure in the knowledge that shopping is the cure for insomnia.

Wrapping Paper: Hedo's Giordan

Gay men haven't earned the reputation of being fashionable by hiding in the safe shadows of any closet. As we've come out, we've brought the fab with us, using scarves, bags, and accessories to add flair to our outfits, rather than sticking to the safe and expected three-piece suit. In Second Life, however, gay men sometimes forget to seek out the individuality offered by a forum where we can wear wings and actually fly. Instead, we seek out a "three-piece suit" of a different type (and with just one piece): the jock strap.

I'm not saying that jock straps aren't sexy. They certainly are, which is why they've all but become the uniform of club-going gay men in SL. What I am saying is that clothing is like the wrapping paper that keeps our presents covered so that anticipation can build until that sweet day when we can rip the covering off and see what sweet gifts have been concealed inside. Revealing that gift is incredibly exciting when you've spent some time wondering about the specifics of its shape, size, and power. It's the joy of this anticipation that we want to bring to you with our Wrapping Paper series. Join us as we show you how adding clothing instead of taking it off to the bare jock strap minimum can make you sexier and more desirable than you ever imagined.

Our first installment of Wrapping Paper focuses on the sexy Hedo Fashion design, Giordan:

Don't blend in, stand out with straps, buckles, leather and feathers.

There's a brand new dance, but I don't know its name

Tonight, I'm bringing you a post about SL fashion. Merrick has done some lovely posts on the topic (which you should really read). I'm posting about a lovely piece of clothing I got from Lapointe & Bastchild.

To be completely honest, I love L&B's clothing. Their boots. Their accessories. Their jackets. Their... everything. Me blogging about Paul and Bastchild's new piece of work is likely to get a little saccharine, as I'm such a fanboy. The piece I got yesterday and am sharing with you now is called 'Drift', and it's from their Swear line of urban styles. While everybody knows them for the lovely gothic dresses they do, for the ankle boots, for the men's suits with names like Vampyre and such--the Swear line is an effort for them into a more casual, more everyday sort of appearance. Here is a shot of the whole thing:

The leather jacket is quilted in texture--and is a hugely adaptable sculpted prim, which you can stretch top to bottom, or side to side, or front to back--as are all the other parts of the jacket. The whole outfit is in one package--jeans, boots, jacket, and T-shirt.

Here is a closeup of the detail on the right sleeve- the zippers, the buckles, the little pockets. This is one outfit that really rewards attention!





Here is the torso in closer detail, so you can get a good look at how the jacket hangs, and at the tiny details that Bastchild does so well. And last, but not least--















here are the prims for the ankle cuffs and the shoes that are part of the outfit.

Amazing work, as always- and for a limited time, this whole outfit's just L$499! So get on over to Lapointe & Bastchild's shop and pick yourself up the whole outfit, which I do recommend strongly- there are plenty of uses for the various parts of it as a complementary look with much of the clothing I own- and probably for you, as well! And for those of you with lady friends, let them know about this too- they did the same boots with a stiletto heel, a midriff-length shirt, and a jacket that will fit on a woman's form--all for the same price.

A Toast to CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture

It's not often that one stumbles across a shop with the versatility of CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture. From stunning couture gowns to elegant suits, Enzo Champagne's designs have graced runways across Second Life. However, CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture isn't just high society apparel. In fact, the CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture satellite stores, including one located at Romanum, contain clusters of costumes and outfits that are sure to spice up your wardrobe.

CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture's REBEL in red

CHAMPAGNE! Sparkling Couture's REBEL in red demonstrates how Enzo has captured a sexy, tough guy feel, while staying true to the line's texture and quality standards. The outfit comes complete with bracelets and headband and is available in black, blue, brown and red.

Freebie Friday!

Hello folks, Nath here again. Merrick and I were talking about forthcoming columns and it occurred to us that, what with the stereotyped perception of gay men being clothes horses, it might be useful to help our readers find good clothing. There's a lot of bad freebies out there, it bears note- some of the worst being what we're handed by Linden Lab when we first rez.

Yes, we all have these outfits. No, nobody really likes them.

But because of how advertisment and promotions work in SL, there are several ways to get nicer freebies than these, with very little effort. Several clothing designers have a section of clothing they deliberately offer for free, to let you see what you think of their offerings. Others have lucky chairs, midnight mania boards- all ways to get more avatars into their shops to look around, and while some shops treat their freebie boards/chairs as a place to offer something substandard for free, there're plenty of shops who offer nice things for free on their lucky chairs- simply things that are a bit dated, or no longer selling as they once did.

However, on this Freebie Friday, we're going to focus on another means by which designers give away their goods for free: the hunt. In a hunt, one person gets several vendors together (sometimes more than a hundred), and gets them each to donate an item. They place the item and the LM for the next shop in the hunt in an Easter egg, which is then hidden in the shop. A lot of hunts will have a web page where hints or updates about the status of the hidden prize can be posted- as well as SLURLs so you can go to a specific shop if you want. Some bloggers put together a page where photographs of the items they've found can be shared, too.

This week, we're going to talk about the Jack or Jill hunt. This hunt is organized by Depraved Nation. It started with 50 shops in it, and the male path (this is a hunt with a gift for the ladies, and a separate gift for the men) currently has 48 vendors. There are a lot of very talented folks offering things for the hunters- including a full shape and skin! The 'easter egg' you're looking for is a small gray disc with a male symbol (♂) on it, and there are hints at http://depravednation.com/jack-or-jill for the various locations in the hunt.

Everything in this picture is from the hunt:

What, doesn't everyone put on a mohawk to go skiing?

Skin & shape: Michael, from Ispachi
Hair: Destroyer w/ Razored Hairbase, from Raw House
Sunglasses: Sofian Mesh, from Kumaki Glasses Style
Jacket: Down Jacket, from Gabriel
Shirt: Drape Shirt (brown), from Gabriel
Scarf: Scarf Be Men, from *** Just You Jewels ***
Pants: Solemn Jeans, from Travisty
Belt: Belt-Duality *MESH*, from [ JP ]:dsg.
Shoes: Fulham Riding Boots, from LOORDES OF LONDON

The hunt starts at Razorblade Jacket's shop, and continues through several others- Gabriel, Nikita Fride, Ispachi, to name some of my favorites. You can get to Razorblade Jacket to start the hunt by clicking on this SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Depraved%20Nation/140/157/70 There are a wide variety of designers in the hunt, and quite a lot of terrific gifts they're sharing with the hunters. If you're looking for a new skin, new shape, new eyes, or winter clothes- and especially if you're looking for free ones- I really recommend participating in this hunt!