Modernist Fashion in SL

Yum yum a new mod fashion item to blog about. Synonamous with mod fashion is the green parka; there are several available in second life which have been blogged here; but there is always scope for variation. So, when I read the Fade to Grey blog post on a new parka I eagerly sought it out. One of the issues with the brilliant but prim heavy Aoharu parka was getting the prim items to fit the smaller vavatars of the modette. Ostensibly I think the parka was designed as a male only item and this created difficulties for the modettes who bought one. Hopefully there should be no such concerns here as the parka comes in both male and female versions. However, as I loaded up the prim hood on my version I noticed a flaw in the design that left the top of my white T-Shirt exposed. The green jacket under layer was not cut high enough to block the white T-Shirt with a blanket of green and despite extensive position with the prim hood/collar I was unable to satidfactorily position it to block out the T-Shirt and still retain all the elements of the prim attachment. I do wish female designers would bring in a range of male body shapes to try out their designs on as many prim attachments are often too small for male shapes that tend on average to be rather large. I tried a smaller shape once and felt like a dwarf and so reluctantly followed the herd and stuck with my big shape.

But, enough of the gripes and lets put forward some positive comments. The dark olive colour of the coat is perfect, the styling of the coat is good too, although it lacks the classic fish tail that gave the parka its name. The hood collar combination is also a fine piece of work, despite my fitting grumbles, but it lacks a fur trim [also a fundamental element of the parka], the sleeves, pockets and other prim work are very nice and the parka has a very mod feel to it, despite my grumbling. And, despite my grumbling I like it and was happy to buy one. However, its not a cheap item at 380L$, so you may feel inclined to look elsewhere. For the modettes out there I would say its an excellent buy and there will probably be less fitting issues than with the male version; for guys wanting to look sharp its a good option but many could opt for a freebie version if its still available ... its just a virtual guy thing. In the end you pays yer money and takes yer chance; I like it yes its far from perfect but its still a cool piece of virtual mod wear and is now hung up alongside the other coats in my mod folder.

DP Yum Yum

Wheel on Monday

I opted to log on inworld on Monday for the first time in quite a while and then had to decide where I would head to in order to find some chilled tunes. Knowing bothe the AAi and Soul Mods were closed for Mod business on a Monday I decided to try out the Twisted Wheel remembering they have quite a bulging roster of Js playing mod and soul throughout the week.

Arriving early I grabbed a pew and listened to the chit chat, occassionally joining in and chilled to some cool tunes, some not so good, while I waited for the DJ Markus Arkin to arrive and start his set.For a short while Markus ran his own club Soul Suite but now has a residency at the Twisted Wheel, he can be counted on to supply some cool soul tunes so I was happy to wait for him to turn up. Then typical of all things virtual real life made a call and I had to log off, when I relogged Markus' set was in full flow to a small but appreciable crowd. Why clubs seem emptier trhese days was a topic of conversation and we guessed its the summer sunshine drawing people away from their overheating keyboards and out into the real world. But felt confident numbers would rise with the first of the autumn chills. Obviously the coolest people are virtual clubbing with their lap tops on wi-fi sat out in the sun slurping chilled beers. Moi? I am sat by a hulking desktpo drinking tea, guess that puts me out of the circle of cool .. fortunately I'm virtual ice, hahaha.

So I began to enjoy myself to a scinterlating soul soundtrack, and strutted my dance animated stuff. We briefly chatted about the sim and who conceived, designed and buolt it. We all know the answer to that and if your stuck, check out the photo on the pillar, no it was'nt Boonie or Lupo, so... I was having a fine time when once again the boring necesseties of real life intervened and I was dragged away. When I got back the bloomin' thing had shut down, I'd forgotten I had re-installed the programme and not utilised the advanced function to over ride a few basic Second Life irritants. I had failed to do this basically because I had forgotten how to activate the advanced column. Hints welcome, cheers.

Another great night brought to an abrupt halt by the twin inadequacies of my real life and my utterly feeble technical skills. A great set from Markus with some stomping Northern Soul, pleasant company and interesting chat, not a bad return for a tentative log on and a gamble that there'd be some cool mod entertainment somewhere on the grid. May not be a pounds shillings and pence victory but it put a smile on my face.

ciao.

New DJ on Soul Mods roster

I was late, but that seems to be standard for me now, arriving at Soul Mods on Friday and the club was hosting a new DJ so curiousity and expectation was high. The new DJ was DJDee Riddler and she played a very sharp blend of soul and funk that had the club patrons grooving.hard.

Heard some awesome Curtis Mayfield floating across the airways along with some solid Motown soul; and, was having a fine time listening to jokes and chilling to some awesome tunes. There was a decent crowd in the club despite the Football on TV, and those that were in attendance seemed to be having a great time. Conversation was varied, jokes were from the Carry On school and the music was thunderous. I was having a fine time, several good friends were in attendance and others were missing as they had other things to do. But, the crux of a good Soul Mods night is fine music and the music being played was high calibre and all of us had fun, which is the essential factor of a virtual night in. If its not fun why bother?

ciao

Modernist Fashion in SL

I spent an age scurrying around the grid looking for some desert boots, suede chukka boots, iconic mod footwear. I struggled finding the correct style as too many were the rigid construction boot style rather than the softer suede of the classic desert boots. Finally I found a pair that satisfied my demands and all was well.

But choice is king in the marketplace and the other day whilst scanning through some of the Second Life fashion blogs I noticed a write up flagging the chukka boots over at the Action Surf Store. They looked fantastic and definitely match the brief for mod footwear. Coming in a range of colours they look very sharp and well textured. Ideal for the mod dressing down his suit or just chilling in his jeans. If you don't have this style in your inventory and are looking to purchase a pair I suggest you check out the demos, well worth adding to your mod wardrobe.

While checking the desert boots another item caught my eye, for Chelsea boots. A fashion design classic the Chelsea boot is an authentic retro fashion styling and would suit most modernist wardrobes to give that nondescript suit a real retro look. The boots, like those above, come in a variety of colours and are well made sculpted items that many NeoMods, especially those with a heavy Beatles influence [not strictly mod, but its hard to separate the two in many peoples minds] may wish to add to their fashion folders.

Again, get yourself over to the sim and check out the demo shoes. There are also the occasional usable items lurking in the store that can be drafted into mod fashion in the correct circumstances. But, these two footwear items are classic retro and well deserve a place in the virtual mods wardrobe.

Oh Bollox!!!

The big problem with summer is its warm, this encourages you to chill in the afternoon sun and drink a few cold beers ... ah very relaxing. But there are penalties for this, one of which is sofasomnipathy. Okay, I made that up it doesn't exist, but falling asleep on the sofa after afternoon drinking can lead to severe misfortunes, such as missing a night at Soul Mods. Yeah, I slept through it blissfully snoring (allegedly) whilst Lupo Lexington sent out a stream of cool tunes. I have yet to catch a Lupo DJing set but I'm surmising if he is playing at the club they must be cool tunes otherwise he wouldn't be there. So, I probably missed a great night with Lupo's fan club in full swing and some cool music thrown into the mix it will have been another fun night in virtual clubland. Clubland, oh dear I'm beginning to sound like Brian Potter, are we opening the first virtual Phoenix Club?

So I have nothing to blog about having failed to attend another mod night, nobody to gently mock, nobody to hype up and no opportunity for narcissistic lyricism. Oh well, it will be fashion comments again I guess, more shoes I think ... how cool is that, yeah putting some sole back into the blog. Oh dear, I'll get me coat.

On a kind of mod related topic, ie several of us were in attendance. Had a great time at the AAi for Jellies rezz day party. Great tunes by Graz, the club was heaving and everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun. Plenty of crazy dance animation, plenty of wild gestures and lots of laughter a great night in. I was quiet throughout most of it, issues reading the type, but chilled to the tunes and joined in the chat when it was essential [like "are mods some kind of emo?" still sends a shiver down my spine]. Anyway a great night and you can catch Jellies own comments on her post over at Moonletters.

Fingers crossed see you tonight at Soul Mods, no beers no sofa, I will remain strong.

Modernist Fashion in SL

One of the easiest pieces of mod clothing to acquire within Second Life is the classic revivalist monochrome 2 Tone black and white coloured items. There are several pairs of checkered trousers across the grid and this particular pair from Zoobong are a wonderful example of sixties styling matched with a classic modernist design. The trousers texture includes a neat belt on the hipsters which has been emphasised with a cool black/white ying/yang prim buckle. Hipster styling, classic colours sharp texturing and excellent design have created a fine pair of mod trousers, check them and buy yourself a pair.

Worn with the trousers are some old freebie shoes from Kalins which are scripted for size and colour, so worn in a monochrome black and white the beautifully match the sharp hipster trousers. The casual slip on style and the colour lend itself to a more dressed down look than a formalisation of the trousers and so the best option in this instance is a T-Shirt to be worn with the trousers but a sharp cut shirt and tie would suit equally as well. However, keeping to the chilled theme I opted for a classic white T-Shirt emblazoned with an iconic mod graphic of one of the foundation mod bands of the sixties - The Who.

The T-Shirt is one of several classic mod graphic based T-Shirts I bought from Arteeshirt Garden. This image has been replicated on a myriad of modernist items both in the virtual world and the Real World, the band in their hippest mod clothing posing somewhat artfully with a target background. Iconic modernist pop art which looks fantastic when textured and applied to a well created T-Shirt. The ying/yang buckle can also be clearly seen in the accompanying snap. Not an authentic mod style item it does however marry well with the checkered trousers [due to its shared monochrome look] to beautifully accentuate the contrast in colour and give more life to the textured items. A sharp chilled retro mod look, find the items and mix and match to create a cool retro look of your own,

Zoobong
Kalins
Arteeshirt Garden

ciao.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Besides the obvious free items; the cool thing about virtual treasure hunts is they often take you into stores you may never have heard of or just dont think are worth looking into. So when I decided to follow a few clues for the GO 4 GOAL Treasure Hunt I found some cool items including a rather nice shirt tie blazer combination with links to the host nation, very nice. Then I saw they also had a cool blazer with an English three lions emblem and thought it had slight modernist potential and even though its really a girld design [hence the mini-skirt that comes with it] I grabbed one.

Sports Blazers, of this styling: brass buttoned, double breasted seem very unmodlike too old fashioned, stuffy and middle class. But in the eighties revival they were often worn as the revivalists began to define their own style that moved slightly away from the rigid definitions of sixties modernists; therefore, they definitely have a place in the NeoMod fashion style of Second Life. The pack comes with to jacket layers, one with the Three Lions pocket badge, and the other with the St George flag. The shirt layer comes with a nice shirt/tie combination that can be worn with other suits and jackets. As its aimed at women there is also the aforemention skirt so you modettes are well catered for here. The seperate shirt and jacket layers give the item flexibilty as the jacket can be worn with other items, polo shirt for example, as can the shirt. I particularly like items that possess the potential to mix and match, versatility in styling is a huge design bonus. The texturing and cut of the items is very good and for your money you get a very well made, flexible piece of clothing that has several application within your mod brief.

Worn here with my classic Unknown Boutique white jeans and [unseen] FKNY loafers the jacket and shirt/tie look sharp and very NeoMod so I uege you to get yourself to the London Girl store, yes thats right London GIRL store and grab some clothing with iconic English mod insignia.

London Girl

Modernist Fashion in SL

Wandering the grid in pursuit of the odd freebie or six I stumbled upon this pair of ice chilled loafer style shoes; as a general rule I would outlaw white shoes but these worn with some classic white mod jeans would definitely look sharp enough to find a place in the canon of virtual mod fashion. I suggest you check them out and groove in style.

Style for Him

Modernist Fashion in SL

Its the colour of this suit that immediately grabs the attention, the deeper vibrant purple with a sharp sheen to it that draws the observers eye towards it. In the virtual world vibrant colours are a key fashion component subtle pastels appear to wash out in the pixelated world of low graphics computers and strong bold colour seems to work better, at least on my screen! This suit texturing ticks the colour box straight away, the deep resonant purple beautifully offsetting the white shirt with tie combination.

As for the shirt and tie combination, the white shirt is crisp and the prim collar and tie unit looks wonderfully sixties, slimline tie with a neat pin tucked into a neat white waistcoat, an exceptionally sharp look. The prim work continues in the shirt cuffs, and very long knee to ankle prim work on the trousers giving the a tad more flare than I like, I much prefer the tight prim cuffs of Armadi but nevertheless the look okay in the wider context of the suit. The suit design is similar to a couple of other suits I possess, a nice sharp cut with clean lines well executed and textured with light and shade to give a smart textured fabric look to the graphic. There is a substantial amount of prim work within the suit some superfluous but all well executed and the suit comes with a host of variables making it very versatile even if many of the variations are unsuitable for a sixties styling. However in its basic form the suit does very well as a piece of retro sixties tailoring; its not a cheap suit and its possible to get similar [butt without all the various combinations] for considerably less Lindens. But, this said, I think the colour is so good the work to create it very sharp that it is very deserving of a place in my modernist wardrobe filed alongside my stunning blue suit from Lois Allen Designs Discount Outlet both have a startling dramatic colour tone and catch the attention ... the fashion goal of all mods - virtual or otherwise!

T & P Associates

Ahhhh back again ...

Its been several weeks since I was last at Soul Mods and it was good to be back, a quiet start but the club slowly filled despite the crashes and this mysterious thing called a Real Life social life ... bizarre. Kim was on decks again and was playing some awesome tunes that had us all chatting away with lots of yells of appreciation. There were a couple of new faces, new to me anyway, and it was excellent to see them enjoying the music and the banter. About half way through Kim's set there was a raft of crashes including Kim herself and we lost the stream. Dugi slapped on the radio stream whilst Kim worked hard to regain the stream and get the music working. Her hard work was rewarded and the stream sprung into life with more blinding tunes. Again, I cut my visit short of the full set as I ease myself back into the virtual world but what a fun night with some great people in attendance.

No virtuality tonight as its the football on TV, yes even I succumb to the charms of Real Life sometimes.

Modernist Fashion in SL

All this football on TV and its effect on the virtual world has had me scurrying around looking for suitably mod football items. The obvious route is to draw your influences from the casuals fashion styling and so a neat track top was an immediate priority on my list, and I was again lucky on XStreet and found this fine England track top made  by Graphic Macarthur who currently has no store as this item is his first and only design but he mentioned in an IM that he planned to open a store when he had created sufficient items with which to stock it. Okay the St George, Three Lions graphics may not appeal to your sense of nationality but it should be appreciated for it mod sensibilities. As a first design I was mightily impressed with the texturing, the graphical quality of the design, sharp and simple - a classic piece of modernist fashion. And, I was delighted to file it in my Mod Casuals folder alongside my Fila and other casuals inspired fashion items. There are some fine football items out there at the moment some lend themselves to the mod look easier than others, and some nationalities sit within the mod culture easier than others. Be bold take a look and grab something suitably iconic, personally I think its a struggle to better this. You may well equal it but better it, I'm unconvinced. Its been matched with the classical mod white jeans from the Unknown Boutique and also another iconic mod fashion piece a Fred Perry polo shirt from FS Design . Slap on your shades and pose at will, its coming home!

England Jacket

Modernist Fashion in SL

Inked or Not

As you wander the grid you will noticed several iconic codes of male avatar creation; iconic things that define the majority of male avatars in Second Life. Number one they tend to be huge, some really huge [but even these can be dwarfed by the Glamourzonians]; secondly they wear a lot of denim and leather; freebie T-Shirts are almost compulsory and also they must be inked to the extreme. Yes tattoos are everywhere in the virtual world, the girls have them and so do the guys, blink and you'll find yourself in a tattooed morass of rock fantasy. However, tattooed beef-blokes are not really archetypal mod fashion gurus, but in the world of the NeoMod and the absorption of skinhead suedehead fashion philosophy perhaps there is a role for the mod tattooist. However I'm unconvinced the black ink really suits the mod image but coloured tattoos well maybe they can have a role ... occasionally. The advantage of virtual tattoos is that they are like those you get with the stick of chewing gum, they are instantly disposable.

I grabbed this multi-layered ensemble from XStreet which is a good source of easily found fashion items, type in your item then wade through the ubiquitous morass of naff gear to find items that you want ... cool! Whilst I like these I would have preferred even greater variation, with options for single duo or multiple combinations of the ink; and I would not have included the football tattoos this seem pointless - I mean who has a tattoo for two different teams Derby [the Ram on the back] and West Ham [on the arms] quite bizarre. However the iconic English British tattoos look fantastic a great piece of work, wonder if he does custom pieces?

Matched with my standard Liam skinhead faded jeans and a belted Union Jack flag from Patriotic Series flag store; the tattoos added to the skinhead hooligan style that some NeoMods could be striving for. Hair is obviously optional.

England Tattoos

Back in a Blaze of GREY!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yes, definitely a triumphnant return. I had it all planned a monochrome giant, Selected my checkered hipsters with ying/yang buckle; neat freebie shoes from Kalin and a super cool Ali T-Shirt, yeah no doubt I was hip to the beat a divine creation as always ... obviously. Tp'd into the AAi saw the mods and moddettes and was greeted with resounding cheers ... well i heard cheers but what I actually read was "Hi Albi ... you're all grey excprt for a floating buckle". Second Life triumphs again. Well since you missed it I looked bloomin' marvelous, honest would I lie to you?

Anyway enough of my mock narcism, a great place to return the AAi had the usual suspects in residence: top hosts Dugi and Aston, top Lupo stalker Josie, top DJ Kim, top ska girl Gemma, top Club Owner Meri oh and Sean was there too. Only jesting yes top handbag wearer Sean was in residence, no longer 100% Jock but as many of his bretheran multi-national in a four yearly cycle, hey gotta feel part of the competition somehow. The big CHEESE Lupo Lexington also popped in to send his girly fans CRACKERS. I often wondered what the cheese and crackers gig was, now its been sussed.

Wow I looked good!

As ever Kim played a pretty eclectic mod set that was full of class and had the crowd in full moonstomp mode. Its easy to forget how good the virtual DJ entertainment in Second L;ife can be and my forced hiatus only sharpened my appreciation of some great tunes in great company. Short and sharp had to cut my first proper visit inworld off before the end of the night but greatly looking forward to getting back to Soul Mods Thursday and some of the other virtual mod gigs I stumble across. Thanks all had a great night, plenty of banter and great music who could ask for more ... Ally's Army revival maybe, but I think thats beyond even a virtual world of infinite possibilities.

cheers!

Download Right Now

I have a link at the right for daily 45 downloads from Chicago's finest now you can download an entire set of mod tunes just click the link for an hour or so of :mod bliss:

MOD Chicago set

Look into my Eyes

So whats with the big hiatus and withdrawal from Second Life; simple really my Real Life eyes were on the blink and the optician prescribed new glasses with a vastly higher prescripted lense than I was used too. As my brain had been compensating for my failing eyes I encountered a degree of worse vision with the new glasses as my brain and eyes sorted out their respective roles. Due to the teething problems with the new glasses I was advised not to put too much strain on them, in short not to spend hours sat at the PC! However, sufficient time has elapsed and I think next week I should be ready to return to the virtual mod world. The flyers I recieved in my e-mail inbox suggest I have missed some awesome nights I just hope they continue when I log in,

As I have missed so much good music whilst absent from Second Life I have ordered the latest Bamboos album to cheer myself up.

ciao