I have to say that, being a wolfie, I'm not big into clothing. However, I understand that fashion is a huge industry in SL, with a ton of followers and a concomitant ton of blogs devoted to the concept. Now, some would say that as a non-wearer of clothes, I'm exactly the wrong person to do any sort of review of a fashion blog. This may be true. However, I think everyone deserves recognition, even niche blogs that don't cater to every visitor, so here it is: MODA Fashion SL.

Hosted by Licentious Maladay, MODA Fashion SL features a nifty in-blog promotional commercial in the upper left-hand corner. From the site: 'What are fashion models wearing? Get their fashion tips, favorite designers and hot new looks! This blog focuses on what's new in SL Fashion. We are looking for the hard to find stuff, those treasures that come by chance, the little touches that change OK into gorgeous! We are also looking for your fashion tips, so leave LOTS of comments.'

Thanks, Licentious, for the tip, and I welcome similar tips from all of you, whatever your blog's focus!

If you missed last week's sampling of menswear and fashions, you can find it here.

Again, both of the stores we looked at this week came to us highly recommended by the discerning readers of SLI - and we thank you for your suggestions! We're still looking for places to review, so if you have a favorite men's store which has clothing, accessories, shoes, skins, hair, gadgets, or anything else you can think of, let us know. If our test audience buys something, we'll write it up the store here.

If you missed last week's sampling of menswear and fashions, you can find it here.

Both of the stores we looked at this week came to us highly recommended by the discerning readers of SLI. We're still looking for places to review, so if you have a favorite men's store which has clothing, accessories, shoes, skins, hair, gadgets, or anything else you can think of, let us know. If our test audience buys something, we'll write it up the store here.

Stylish goods for the loli, bishoujo or whacky bishounen, at Tohru's shop.

One of my favorite content creators is Tohru Kanami (who also featured in Annoying Japanese Child Dinosaur) who makes attractive skins, clothing and accessories.

Kanami's high-tech store in Wakeley is clean, elegant and not hard on the eyes. On the walls, among high-tech displays are Kanami's products. Her skins, while expensive, are very well done (always, people, always try a skin demo before you decide to buy), and her eyes frequently draw favorable comments.

Reebok, in collaboration with Scarlett Johansson, recently released a new line of real-life clothing, named "Scarlett <3s RBK." The line is characterized by a heart with a lowercase cursive "s" next to it plastered on the outfits. It will be carried in high-end retail stores and the prices of the clothing are not for the faint.

In Second Life, however, Rivers Run Red is bringing the same outfits to residents for much less. For example, the track jacket that I'm wearing, pictured in Aztec Navy, retails for $90 USD, but in-world, it's only 90L! I feel so comfortable in this adorable jacket in SL, that I may have to splurge on the real thing, though.

There's plenty to choose from, including distance leggings, track jackets, racer tanks, homerun tees, and team hooded tunics. If you're running low on L, there's also a goodie bag available, with jewelry featuring the signature heart. You can check it out on the Reebok sim.

This is the fourth in our 'Adjusting to a New World' series of articles for beginners - although some intermediate and advanced Second Lifers are also finding little tidbits that they didn't know in them. In the last two columns we talked about communication. This time, we're going to talk about clothing as we move towards avatar appearance settings.

Clothing actually covers a bit more territory than just clothes. There's skin and hair there too. Subtleties, you might say. Let's take a look.

I'll admit it; I have a crush on Torrid Midnight. Well, more specifically, on Torrid's voice, of which I became aware while listening to the Secondcast podcast, as posted previously. Fortunately for me, I can get my Torrid fix by listening to The Goods, Torrid's new podcast, which covers fashion and clothing making issues in SL.

Normally, I'm not much of a fashion hound; when you run around as a big, white, fuzzy werewolf, you're pretty well covered in the area of modesty (no pun intended). But I do admit that I find the whole area of clothing fascinating. The major portion of the podcast involves interviews and candid talk with leading (and up-and-coming) designers in SL, with a section near the end of the podcast devoted to the casters' picks for favorite clothes, stores, or related products and services. It's fun to isten to the guests talk about their likes, dislikes, influences, and problems in getting their designs out and worn. If you're at all interested in making and wearing clothing in SL, please give this podcast a listen. *sigh* Torrid's dreamy...

One of the problems with long tight SL skirts is show-through.  This happens when your avatar walks and the legs show through the skirt at the calves and knees.  It can look like you are wearing jumble sale cast-offs when you've just spent $1K lindens on the latest designer offering.

I don't know why designers don't use the solution I use: undertrousers.  This is easy, takes two minutes, and solves the problem.  all you do is to make a pair of trousers to be worn under the skirt, using the same texture as the skirt.  in the case of a solid skirt which has no alpha, the most taxing thing to do is to make sure the undertrousers aren't longer than the skirt.

With an skirt texture which includes alpha, making undertrousers using the same texture should mean that you get the legs showing where you want them to show and not where you don't.

It is SUCH an easy thing to do, I simply can't understand why most of the big name clothes makers in SL don't do it.  But they don't. And the evidence shows above.

 

American Apparel, the RL clothing store, has opened a new location in SL! To do so, they've enlisted our own adorable Aimee Weber to create their building.

It's interesting, to say the least, that SL is beginning to be regarded as a viable option for advertising purposes. As Raz Schionning, director of Web services at American Apparel, says: "Everyone else has wings and devil horns and all the rest ... So it'll be curious to see if a red T-shirt makes sense." I've found that residents, above all else, value choice in their appearance, so I don't imagine that AA ought to be too concerned. The question is, however, will this drive sales up in RL?

This site has a nice selection of pictures of the newly-designed space, and of course, you may go visit the site itself in the Lerappa sim.