Modernist Fashion in SL

A while back I bought a trio of cheap shirt from Aqua, they may have been in an end of season sale I forget. At the time I thought they looked pretty cool and for thirty lindens were a real bargain. Neat collar sharp thin tie nice colours well textured ideal sixties look. Anyway as so often they were bought thrown into the mods folder in my inventory and promptly forgotten.

Then as often happens I was at Soul Mods and dressed down when Lupo came in looking sharp as.... Now, although I don't Albion has a definite issue with vanity, I know you think I do too but err nope not much anyway; lets get back on track people. Anyway Lupo was looking good and it was just the push to get Albion looking a tad cooler. I saw the Aqua shirts and put one on then fumbled about looking for something to match up. Opted for a very loud gold Meriken jacket and some shiny pants from Beck and Carter, plus my favourites the classic FKNY Loafers in brown. I thought it was an excellent look and then thought I probably find matching Meriken jackets for the other two shirts if I rifled through my inventory enough. Sifting through the racks of folders I found two perfect jackets and also a couple of pairs of ideal Meriken trousers that would beautifully accompany each of the jackets. Yes colour co-ordinated to the max. I'm pretty certain most of this stuff is still available I bought most of these items at reduced rates, check them out or better still shuffle through your own inventory and mix and match some new stuff with some old to give yourself a nice sharp look. Or better still grab your own Lupo and copy his look...it works for me.

Ah that's a bugger they were so cheap as they were in the stores closing down sale, oh well at least I got them, so that's good. You could possibly tint your own modifiable white shirts. Also bare in mind I'm a profoundly idle sod so its possible these landmark SURLS may be incorrect as they are old purchases and unlike proper bloggers I have failed to rigorously check them, hey look on it as a gamble an adventure have fun!

Meriken
Beck and Carter
FKNY

Bits of this and Bits of that......

Despite my miserable posting performance and the fact I have missed a lot of Soul Mods nights out whilst sat in my chair; there have been a few cool things occuring in my somewhat limited Second Life.

First off, Shauna gave me a really groovy cap that matched my Hoorenbeek suit and Muism sweater perfectly, put a twenties spin on my modernist look but I thought it looked great and wore it whilst I grooved at Soul Mods a while back. Shauna is producing a lot of sharp designs at her store so I suggest you retro girls head over to Moonletters and check out all the stores as its a great place for retro clothing stores. For girls obviously, us blokes are as a rule too tight to splash our lindens on clothes,,,surely not! Looking at the sharp dressers at Soul Mods you think not but sadly they are generally the exception.

I bought myself another military mod outfit in my pursuit of the 1967 look, not sure if its quite right but I'll probably blog more on it at some point. Anyway, it looks kinda cool just need to find some trousers to set it in its sixties retro context. Also bought a wildly pink suit from Shiki, to show its not just Graz who does pink y'know. I'll blog more on this later too just thought I would mention it as an excuse for fiddling with throwing up a couple of snapshots.

Other madcap adventures followed reading Jellie's post over at the Moonletters blog which I saw as a challenge, okay I admit I cheated, whilst I went for a cuppa and watched TV I weighed down the page up key to gain height whilst I chilled, I felt it was only fair after Albion crunched his head on a floating platform, I realised how dull climbing to over 100,000m on your own can be and thirdly my finger dtarted to forget what its role in life was beyond depressing that key. And to be fair, there is really nothing up there, try it yourself, go on go on....

Albion chasing the moon, but eventually you leave all this behind and the sky is just full of stars, the guy who hit over a million meters must have gone crazy. Orbitting myself might get me to that hieght but as for flying there, werr I leave that to jellie, 103,000m give or take is probably my limit. If however you fancy it yoursef, feel free to fly high and send me a TP when you get there. Chilled in space, starring Albion Spitteler. Not much to do with virtual modernism, altho Mods in Space has a kind of freaky B Film ring to it, flying scooter anyone. Besides it gives me an excuse to post two awesome tracks, one is from the mid sixties pop art mod genre the other is mod suspect but a fantastic tune so what the feck. Have you guessed them yet, no? I cant hide my disappointment.

ciao

Lets not forget...

we all have real life issues going on. All the sods wish our dear friend Lupo the best and offer our condolences.

Now back in the virtual world Lupo had to cut his brilliant set short after some personal issues arose. Slate took over and was doing great right up until I crashed so I'm guessing everyone continued to have fun, whilst sparing a thought for Lupo.

I hate my computer, its typical i miss lots of Soul Mods events and thejn when I finally make it online the bloomin' thing crashes. Never mind Second Life I'm thinking of inventing terminal life for this poxy PC, curse you PC World for replacing my defunct faulty PC with this pile of poo. Ahhhh vent over, so lets see what shall I witter on about. Not much to say really, set cut short at Soul Mods followed  by my crash, and that's about it. Hardly worthy of a blog post but I note I have been a bit tardy of late with the posting so felt compelled to put one up. I was feel slightly '67 mod yesterday so went with a mish mash of items to affect that kind of pop art dandyism sported by the Small Faces and Who amongst others, plenty of ruffles on show.

 The jacket is an old favourite from Meriken, the shirt and ruffles are from the SF Design lord lace in black, the shoes were FREE from Kalin, [I am aware you cant see them but what the feck] and the stripey trousers are new from ,,,hmmmmI forget where but will update this post next time I log on and get the details. Anyway not much of a colour splash just greys and blacks but it still has a very '67 feel at least I think so, style over substance every time, but only in Second Life obviously. Typing this Saturday morning after missing another night at Soul Mods, I miss so much not sure I'm entitled to call myself a sod anymore anyway hope you all had fun at the Slate extravaganza!

Modernist Fashion in SL

One of the great stores in Second Life is Style Extrem, Upper Man and Happy End who stock many items worthy of inclusion in a revivalist, casualist, indie NeoMod wardrobe. I have several items from here, and one of the best features of the store is its weekly FREE gift. Free clothing is always nice, and should always be appreciated but when its FREE cool and mod our gratitude should enter the realms of monstrosity. My latest cool freebie is an excellent track jacket very casuals or indie and thus an ideal NeoMod item.  Worn with a classic pair of Hoorenbeek trainers and my favourite Unknown Boutique white jeans it helps create a very sharp casuals look. I have also received several cool sweaters, shirts and other jackets. All this can be yours if you join the group and teleport over to the store and grab the selected freebies as they are announced. Be sharp, be mod be free!!!!

Style Extrem, Upper Man and HappyEnd - Mainstore

Virtual London Fashion Week 14-18 June 2011

No guarentee its mod, or cool. But the poster looked sharp its based in swinging virtual London so what the feck I'll give it a plug. Fills up some space, if you attend hope you enjoy, I'm a couple of days late but nobody here cares anyway, chill.

Virtual London Fashion Week

Check the blog

Modernist Fashion in SL

Well there I was wondering what drivel I could scribble this morning and decided my mind was blank and therefore I would cop out and basically shove up a lot of links to items I'm too careful with my lindens to snap up. However if I had an unlimited supply there'd be a kerching all over the place. I have also tried to put up a lot of cheap items. Its easier to find virtual mod items for several hundred lindens but getting something for less than fifty is a tough trickier.

King : Lies - Black

Onix Couture Sweater/with sculpted prim cuffs and collar

Turtleneck Sweater [ Border ] for male

BalAni's Mountain Henley

Men's Blue Sweater

Turtleneck Sweater [ Indigo ] for male

Arie; retro sweater

Black Irish Pullover 

nM The Prep Cashmere Sweater Fatpack 10L

Men's Black Sweater

Black Couture Sweater 1.2/with prim Collar; white under Shirt

Lazy blogging rules.
ciao

Mens Stuff Fashion Hunt

Hunting prizes seems to be an endless activity in the virtual world, with hunts organised for fashion items on a regular basis. Some are themed for specific genre others are based around the stores on a sim and they are generally heavily biased towards items for the girls. However a while back a few hunts started targeted directed at men, the prizes all being for men. One such hunt is the Mens Stuff Hunt currently running until the 3rd of July 2011. Whilst these hunts are stuffed to the brim with items to find, spending hours scouring various stores to locate the gift item its not often that there are items suitable for the aspiring virtual mod. I had a brief potter about and located the odd one or tow items. So, if you're bored and fancy a look why not participate, join the group find the Blue T-Shirt symbol click on it and away you go.

So what did I find, I liked the Alphamale prize, the preppy sweater which had a revivalist feel to it, I also liked the trousers from another prize, the Brocade Tiger cargo shorts looked good for my Style Council Long Hot Summer romp, plus the Philo shades looked awesome contemporarydesign but so sharp I'd add them The Duh shoes look cool plus I'm sure there'll be a few other pieces out there just need to filter through the items to find them. Have fun.

Albion Spitteler's Newsround

The sun is shining at last and yes I have taken this sunshine opportunity to sit on my @rse and type inane comments into a blog that has a readership of about half a dozen weary souls. But its a laugh! Anyway as I have nothing really specific that I could drag out for more than a ten word paragraph I have opted to lump all the little pieces together in this seventies style update, borrowing from my childhood this is my first ...and last, virtual mod newsround.

First up I was pleased to read Shauna' piece of on Moonletters concerning New Brighton, one of the coolest sims on the grid. All virtual mods should visit this place at least once for that essential mod snapshot with the pier. C'mon we've all done it, some of us more than once, don't blush. Its a fantastic build and the pier looks great complete with a promenade to parade along. I am still waiting that group call for a mod scooter rally along the prom, who knows maybe this week is the week. Shauna's piece however illustrates the difficulties of hosting a sim and the gargantuan costs involved, thought provoking as ever and perhaps the sim is still insecure. A great place to visit one that should definite be on your list. Blogged before but as I mistakenly mentioned that it has vanished this seems an opportune moment to recant such a statement and remind everyone that its still out there. There are more details at the New Brighton website, check it out.

Other stuff I have been up to, I went along to the Hangout club again on Monday which was cool; although Janis is unavailable for these sets due to real life commitments we had a great substitute who played a great blend of soul and sixties standards although how or why the Boyzone track got in there eludes me. I enjoy the tunes at the Hangout and was able to join everyone else on the dance floor this time as the dazzling particle lights were turned off, one [of several] drawbacks of the keratoconus is that my eyes struggle in bright light and so I have been hiding myself away up in the gloomy lounge, its also why I don't participate much in chat as its easier just to listen and keep my eyes averted from the screen. This means I miss out on a lot of laughs and get lost as I often have no idea how conversations have developed and they can be confusing as you read them never mind dropping in and out. But the music is great and at this stage I can read enough to have a laugh and join in occasionally.

Talking of laughs, blogged earlier Graz our favourite mocker held a rock 'n' roll night at the Killing Moon at the weekend and as he is such a good bloke several sods turned up dressed as rockers in our best fifties freebies, err well mine were. Keep it to yourself but I quite enjoy the odd classic fifties tune, unlike in my youth where my tastes were rigidly mod I now accept my rather catholic tastes and just enjoy tunes regardless of their origin. It was a fun night and everyone got involved and dressed for the theme, so many quiffs in one room however cannot be healthy, at one point I thought there was going to be an environmental disaster there was so much oil floating about. Albion succumbed and put on his best Elvis wig, said ahuh a lot, and donned some very cheap threads and free shoes and become a closet ted for the evening. As expected with Graz at the helm it was funny with great music and even the ignominy of dressing like a rocker wasn't to bad, surrounded by friends. Look forward to the next one.

Whilst I am discussing themed nights out in the virtual world I'll throw in a little fashion information. Recently I attended a Blues Brothers tribute and to blend in mix and matched various items to give me that Blues Brothers look. And yet whilst I was snapping the trainers at Hoorenbeek I idly wandered around the store and saw they had a complete outfit that is ideal Blues Brothers material. I believe its labelled Angus but surely Jake would be better. As its Hoorenbeek its unlikely to be cheap but if you're unafraid of splashing the lindens I think you'd struggle to find a better outfit. Even competing against specific Blues Brothers outfits I think this one is a tricky one to surpass. It has all the elements of a great costume, the shades, the hat, the suit and even the loose tie and shirt.  Definitely worth a punt if you like costume parties or just like being a Blues Brother, go on treat yourself.


Well I think that waffle should suffice you can all go back to CBBs now.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Returning to an old chestnut here, trainers. Flipping around the grid I stumbled upon an urban street wear store, immediately bringing up some shades to protect myself from the glare of unreconstructed bling I decided to take a peek. And, was very pleased to discover a range of Adidas trainers for sale, priced at 290L each or a very reasonable 690L for the fat pack they are a nice option if your looking for something more mid scale than the brilliant but expensive SoReal or the mega store Hoorenbeek, much as I adore Hoorenbeek trainers sometimes its good to support smaller creators. So, if you're thinking you need to get more casual in your mod styling and are looking for a good, reasonably priced, range of Adidas check out the URBATIK *Urban store* and pick up a pair or more wisely grab the fat pack as I am sorely tempted too. Damn this new austerity covenant I made with myself. Anyway if your looking for a stylish slice of footwear grab a pair of these, judging from the product images they look a great buy.

URBATIK *Urban store*

Hoorenbeek are so fantastically crafting that its hard to blog against them so for those who seek reassurance from a grand virtual brand here are the Hoorenbeek options. But you'll pay 520L a pair for these trainers almost twice the price of the above so why not give them a go. Much as I love top end virtual fashion brands I am beginning to think the pricing of items is getting rather extreme. Or maybe that's the skinflint in me beginning to seep out.

So whilst the Hoorenbeek brand is rightfully highly thought of in these fiscal times I am tempted to try the cheaper option, I can get the fat pack for a little more than the price of a single pair of trainers. But, as ever you take your choice flip the lindens and get into the groove. Whatever option you select you'll acquire an excellent addition to your wardrobe.

Hoorenbeek trainers

QUESTION: Why do Hoorenbeek trainers feature so often in the blog.
ANSWER: Simplicity itself, because they're bloody good, despite the cost.

Modernist Fashion in SL

During my rooting through the over inflated inventory I found a great FREE shirt I picked up from SF Design, I thought it looked great with the black Meriken Napoleon jacket and the vibrant Armidi trousers. So I figured a green paisley would look even better, heading off to the Marketplace I did a quick search and found that SF Design had four versions of the shirt available. They come in an open shirt and closed shirt option, plus an underwear layer and prim kipper ties, very late sixties early seventies styling but can fit the mod criteria, especially the Carnaby Street styles of the midsixties. At a sharp hundred lindens its a reasonable purchase for anyone seeking to add a bit of classic sixties paisley to their mod inventory.

As it gets harder to find new mod items I have reverted to trawling through my inventory to find half forgotten items that are acceptable as mod stylings. Its amazing what stuff you can find in an inventory bulging with over 50k of items.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Enjoying my Carnaby moment I went delving into my virtual wardrobe to pull out an old favourite that met the pop art Carnaby mod criteria. A nice piece of crafting from Meriken, the "Napoleon" jacket comes with a sharp prim collar, hem and sleeve cuffs. All needed slight adjustments to fit Albion's Hyperion Studio Endymion shape. Its a simplistic design without too many frills but still very sharp and eye catching. The subdued black and subtle tones allow for a splash of colour elsewhere. Therefore, its well suited to the dazzling range of trousers supplied by Armidi. Both the flame orange and vibrant green are able to lift the dull black of the jacket and are a nice match. Worn with a cool mod graphic T-Shirt the Meriken jacket fills the pop art mod niche beautifully. Nice trainers/shoes from J's add to the look whilst the classic Strike bowling shoes [unseen] look as cool as ever.

Alles Klaar

were you Paul Weller in a previous life, perchance?

The T-Shirts from  Action (The Jam) and Juice (the target) help the look achieve a stylish indie Britpop NeonMod style that looks cool and marries sixties fashion classicism with the more gritty indie look of the nineties. The Carnaby Street look popularised in the media is for several the mod look of the sixties, reinforced by the Austin Powers franchise, whilst not classic mod [as seen in Quadrophenia et al] its still a legitimate mod look as its what many sixties mod fashionistas developed as their style and so its suits my NeoMod fashion etiquette sublimely. As mod fashion moved into the brighter pop art period the classicism of the look may have been lost but other fashion possibilities were uncovered, and this is replicated in Second Life. Modernist fashion encompasses much more than drab grey and brown suits, with white shirts and ties; explore the fashion possibilities whilst remaining in the modernist culture and further fashion options become apparent. After all its not real life and we can afford to be far more daring with an avatar than you can with the frail ego of a forty seven year old.

Continuing the rummage through my engorged inventory I discovered other Armidi outfits, including a wonderful NeoMod styled leather jacket that Albion wears with the Armidi green trousers and Strike bowling shoes. Another neat mod visage following more nineties NeoMod design than classic early sixties mod, but nevertheless easily achievable and worth taking on if you're looking to expand your virtual fashion profile.

Was kind of fun rooting through old purchases to see if any would fit the mod style, and talking of fun Soul Mods regular Josie sent me a YouTube link of a great tune, with plenty of old scooter action, and I have been listening to it quite a lot. Check it I'm sure there's plenty of Soul Mods sods who appreciate this kind of tune. So 1..2..3...hit it!!!!

Absolutely top tune, have fun amigos

Modernist Fashion in SL

The Good!

Carnaby Street inspired styling using the "Prince Charming" dress uniform jacket from SF Design's Royal Wedding outfit, with the crazy Union Jack trousers from PXDTOXIC and the red trainers from a fatpack from J's, the new and old merged to create a sharp mid sixties look that grew out of the mod movement. Perhaps a little too bright for many it can be shaded by opting for less pop art trousers but the overall look of military fashion is very mid sixties, possibly derived from the flag fabric jackets of The Who. Anyway its an easily achievable mod style look ideal for the virtual NeoMod looking to catch the eye. Variation are obvious just find the one that suits.

Odd white shades from Cheerno, and my old favourite GL Menace hair style which has served well as a classic mod cut. Not for everyone but in my mind totally mid-sixties mod.

The Bad!

I have seen these suits crop up a few times as I forlornly tap the keys into the Second Life search option, so the suits are listed as Mod suits; but for me they bare no resemblance to anything mod I am aware of. Its because of my extreme negativity towards the suit that I have not blogged it, but as I'm having a jokey post and this fits the second label. Double breasted wide lapels its just so unmod I find myself cringing that anyone could view it as a classic mod suit. Basically its a faux mod suit based on the mid sixties hippy swing of the Austin Powers films, no harm in that but seems a touch disingenious to label it mod. It fits the mid sixties vibe but it can hardly be classed as mod, designers and creators put a lot of effort into their creations so its unpleasant to be critical, hence my bypassing of these item, I still feel bad slagging it; but if you type mod clothing into search this will come up, however there are far better mod suit options available. If its authentic sixties mod you are looking for, sorry but this isn't it.

The Ugly!

Due to the effort put in by designers it would be totally unfair to call any of their designs ugly, although there are several of them out there I'm sure you have seen a few of your own ugly designs. But I thought I would drag out a snap from years ago when I attended a party dressed in the worst possible taste, freebie skins shape etc.......now that's ugly! Its unlikely you'll see many avatars looking like this in the beautiful world of Second Life... However despite gaining a few pounds, needing extra support and having uncool shades I reckon Albion still looks cooler than Dugi!!!

Whatever mod fashion you choose, have fun: whether its classic, NeoMod or more mid sixties psychedelic its out there just difficult to find. Have fun finding it!

As quick aside I saw a link to a nice mod Mod website whilst I was ranting on Twitter so might be worth a quick peek. Enjoy!

Modernist Fashion in SL

A trip to the Marketplace

Another item that is not strictly mod but the iconography used the, George Cross, all very English yells Britpop circa '90 and thus has a great NeoMod feel. Worn with a suitable pair of jeans and a low profile shirt these nicely sculpted boots give a sharp dash of modernist graphics to your look. They are well made, beautifully textured and look very good on the dancefloor. Perhaps a little small for some but a little tweaking soon solves that tiny issue. Not one for the modernist fashion purist, of which there are several, but for the indie inspired NeoMod they are a great buy for a hundred lindens over at the Marketplace.

Stuffie's- England Sneakers

Another cool item available at the Marketplace is the Fenix 194 unisex hoodie, as with several other hoodies I merely drop the scultped hood to create a decent casuals style top, ideal for the NeoMod looking to flash his stanley whilst spending very few lindens. And as this item is free, well one linden but surely thats not shattering the bank, even if you decide its rubbish you have lost almost nothing.

Its a neatly textured item that evokes sharp memories of track tops, Lois jeans and adidas trainers, floppy fringes foreign beer in bottles, and trips to the football. For a single linden do not anticipate a wealth of sculpting, its a straightforward textured jacket layer but I think its a nice addition. It fits my memories of the casuals brief and fits neatly in the wider NeoMod fashion stable that is the staple fashion fodder of this rather pitiful blog.

FENIX-194, Track Jacket

One of my current favourites bought at the Marketplace are the wonderfully versatile Adjunct- Armando jeans. I have been wearing these a lot lately either with loafers and a jacket for a sharp classicists mod look, or with more NeoMod items, such as the above sneakers, to shape a sharp indie Britpop inspired look. They are a marvelous addition to your NeoMod wardrobe, or indie freak cupboard, go on treat yourself to a pair.

The jeans are low slung, not always ideal for the mod look but acceptable and really well textured. They come complete with prim cuffs as seems standard on most jeans or trousers now, there is also a scultpie belt which I have yet to use but looks nice enough in the promo images I have seen. The 185 linden price tag may seem steep but over the years the virtual economy has changed and whilst there are still some fantastic FREE options out there the dollar speaks loudly in Second Life nowadays and if you want a quality item there is usually a price to be paid. But as these jeans can be worn in so many different ways to help create several different looks and are a well cradfted creation the price seems reasonable to me, as ever we all make our own call on price, I think they are great check them and perhaps buy them!

Adjunct - Armando Jeans

Modernist Fashion in SL

Things are becoming somewhat desperate in my pursuit of new mod clothes in the virtual world. I seem to be regurgitating the same items with the addition of a different shirt or perhaps a different sweater but essentially its the same items. One factor is undoubtedly cost I have stopped forking out a couple of thousand lindens a month or clothes and tried to be more selective in my purchases. I occassionally feck it up and buy stuff I dont need to for several hundred lindens: such as a new modifiable shape that I tweaked severely and then on reflection realised I was attempting to modify it to look like my original shape, quick waste of 700 lindens there folks. However as I quite enjoy myself by blurbing away on this little virtual modphile blog I do look out for new pieces of mod paraphernalia just to keep the old thing ticking over, that and updates of my rather quaint virtual social life. But, finding those new mod items is getting tougher and tougher and so in a desperate measure I enrolled Albion into an elite corp of fashion hunters. Once inducted he underwent a severe bout of intensive training to emerge as an uber fashion hunter. Yes I am pleased to reveal him as I think the world's first virtual mod commando.

His mission is to enter the leather clad, denim soaked soft rock hell that is Second Life male fashion, to use his uzis of cool to blast away the dross of Bon Jovi inspied fashion faux pas and forge a path of mod fashion rightousness. He shall pentrate the den of the freebie T-Shirt with the naff sex pun slogan, reap havoc amidst the heavy metal bandwagon and spray the mob of bling laden wannabe rappers with the bible according to mod. All shall hail the soul and ska inspired tunes, they shall forake their ugly fashion errors and follow the path to true fashion cool, they shall bow at the feet of Lupo's cool; hail the throne of King Slate; kowtwo before the club icon of Soul Mods, learn at the feet of Moonletters and crave to be Albion ... yes I have seen it written by the mof astrologists, Second Life shall be a haven of mod hope. And then I woke up......

Mod commando's seeking out shite fashion and blasting it away!

Yeah decided to go a tad mental today and enter the realm of the crazies anything for a laugh, the trousers and beret of Albions Mod Commando are available at the Marletplace, they were not cheap but what is nowadays in the virtual world. But, they made me laugh and despite the silliness the fact remains finding good male mod items is getting harder and harder. The guns some old Uzis from Breach I had in my inventory. Be vigilant, the mod commando's are on the march, hahaha.

Mod Commando Beret
Mod Commando Trousers

Or check the store inworld: PXDTOXIC

And using the rather tenuous mod commando link I sieze the opportunity to raid YouTube and load up one of the most awesome tunes ever!!