186: Route 66 photo shoot (Deadwool)

I've never understood the relationship that SL clothing designers have with SL fashion bloggers. Somehow it's gone off the rails, at least as near as I can tell. (I've never worked at it.) It's like customers competing to see who can design the best advertisements to sell the most product FOR FREE ... in order to keep the job you do for free, you have to learn Photoshop and a bunch of other computer programs on your own dime. You obligate yourself to produce blog posts on a grueling schedule and constantly have to buy props and poses and filters and whatnot. Hours and hours and HOURS every week on Facebook and Flickr and all kinds of social media platforms. Writing copy and making notes on the SLURL for where the eyelashes came from.  If you're really, really lucky, you'll get an arrangement with a good designer for a bunch of free clothes and stuff that would cost you approximately what it might cost to get yourself a six-pack of beer or a good hamburger to buy for yourself. And yet there are thousands of fashion bloggers who are prepared to work the equivalent of a full-time job to promote a virtual blouse or pair of Capris that only brings in pocket change per copy to the designer and bugger-all to the blogger.

  Don't get me wrong, there are fashion bloggers out there who do amazing work. Astonishingly beautiful images with meaning and power that are well worth looking at, even if I'm never going to buy a pair of virtual Capri pants. You know who they are, the ones at the top; I think they must do it for the love of exercising their creative skills, because it's sure not paying off financially. I've never heard of anyone promoting themselves this kind of job in real life based on a Second Life portfolio, but I suppose it could happen. In the meantime it must be a hellish job to monetize even the most marketable blog stats; 99% of your advertisers will automatically come from SL, and that means you're always self-referential.

  In the past, I've grumbled about how it works, mostly because there seems to be a lot of bullying involved lower down in the hierarchy of blogging and I find it unpleasant. Perhaps I've mellowed. If the people who are doing this blog are having fun and there of their own free will, who am I to argue? So I don't want to change anyone's mind about how fashion blogging should work. I do want to give it a try, though, it looks like fun.

  So here's my fashion blogging manifesto and we'll see if anyone likes the idea. (1) I buy all the items myself, so I can say anything I want to. That being said, I don't see much point in talking about stuff I don't like. (2) It takes me more than a couple of pictures to tell a story in the way that I want (in the same way that you've already realized that I talk too much LOL). (3) I don't feel compelled to do it a lot. (4) Please, do not offer to give me clothes or suggest that I do a piece on your clothes or anything like that. If this works, it will only work because I want to talk about you without prompting.

  The inspiration for the shoot was that my husband Alex Thaub, retired international supermodel, and I bought a skybox from Bartlett & Nielsen that looks like the last gas station on Route 66, because we both liked the design. It sort of called out for a photo shoot, and we thought it called for business suits, and in both our wardrobes that means Deadwool (helmed by Masa Plympton). I can't remember the last time I was as impressed with a designer's work as I was when I got their Dandy business suit; simply put it looked like a real suit that a real person would wear, and it was wrinkled where it would be if a real person was wearing it. All their stuff is at a similar high level of quality and they are the kind of clothes that you find yourself wearing in all kinds of situations. Highly recommended; needless to say, I've never spoken to Masa Plympton about it, so this is my fan letter. ;-)

Alex is wearing:
Skin: David, from Redgrave
Goatee: Aeros
Suit: Deadwool
Shoes: Mesh wingtips from Phunk

Rusty (with glasses) is wearing:
Skin: Cruz, from Redgrave
Beard: Holt Beard from MUSCHI
Hair: NO_CRY from no.match (with an undercut hairbase from Deadwool)
Suit: The Dandy, from Deadwool
Shoes: Klaus, from Deadwool

135: L'Homme Magazine, May 2015 edition

Another fine edition of l'Homme Magazine, under the hand of editor-in-chief Hikaru Enimo. I like where this magazine is going. I'm in familiar territory when the advertisements are indistinguishable from, and equally important as, the editorial; page after page of "Oh, that's NICE," "Oh, I wouldn't wear THAT," and "OMG where can I buy it?" Lots and lots of great men's clothes, skins, accessories and household objects. Intelligent design (so nice to find the information you want on the same page!). Well worth your time -- find it here.
   This edition has three featured design houses: Gizza (Giz Seom and her partner Auster Elan are on the cover), Samurai Skin and Gabriel, plus lots of other material from, among other things, my new current favourite Deadwool (I've been constantly rocking their business suit), Taketomi and UW.ST. I'm not familiar with 7 Deadly S(K)ins but, wow, best name for a skin house EVER.
   Enjoy!

109: A blogger's work is never done

Everyone who writes knows that you don't write only when you feel like it -- when you're on deadline, sometimes you have to just sit in front of the keyboard and get your job done. But when you're doing something that is in the beginning stages, drafting it out, sometimes everything just grinds to a halt. Then you walk around your office or slump in a chair until inspiration strikes. 

   The Deadwool suit (called The Dandy) I'm wearing has been all over the SL blogosphere in the last few days; everyone likes it and it's easy to see why. The design is great, kind of a cross between a 60s Mod and Quentin Tarentino's Reservoir Dogs. And speaking as someone who's had to wear a suit for long hours, yes, that's how your suit wrinkles and that's where it wrinkles;

this is a beautifully observed piece of work. It comes in two pieces, jacket and slacks, and with a HUD for the tie and pocket square colours, etc.
   In the days before I discovered this suit, I'd been thinking about getting a suit for "everyday" (or, in the inventory scheme I talked about a while back, "004 Business Suit"). Then this one was front and centre in about six men's fashion

blogs I follow, and I knew I had to check out the store. I was very pleasantly surprised. Often, I find that purveyors of men's clothing in SL try to be all things to all men, selling a range from business suits to jockstraps, penises to eyelashes. Nothing against this, and it makes their stores convenient, but it's not likely that a designer will have the same level of natural affinity for that range of products.

   This designer, however, has a tiny store -- and I mean a tiny store, I think it would fit on a 1024 lot. It's two rooms. One has 15 or 20 items of clothing; the suit, two pairs of shoes, a couple of jackets, and the other room has what seems to be role-play clothing for an Old West sim. Somehow I find this comforting; it makes me think that this is a designer who designs only what he's

good at. And I had the interesting and somewhat unusual response that I bought half the store. I like the way these pieces work together; the glasses I'm wearing here are from the same store and were L$75 from a gacha. And the shoes are this designer's take on black Doc Marten oxfords, which I wear in real life and have so far in SL been disappointed not to find made to suit me.
   Here's your SLURL for Deadwood; you may see me there, because my boyfriend Alex likes the suit too, and I keep thinking about this interesting 3/4 length shearling coat, in light brown ... And here's a link to the Marketplace store.