Modernist Fashion in SL

Suits Galore

If you are opting to dip your toes into the virtual mod scene there is no actual requirement to dress the part, indeed the amount of leather clad bikers or alien burlesque troopers that attend virtual mod clubs probably outnumbers those dressed as mods. But, sometimes its cool to dress for the part and therefore you are going to need at least one mod essential - a decent suit. Call me a fashion snob but I'm afraid that selection of free business men suits with a colourful ranee of shirt and tie combinations just will not cut it! Despite this looking like a sharp suited mod does not require the purchase of multitudes of lindens dollars, a visit to the Marketplace and select a few search options to reduce the number of items available and in the 100-500linden dollar range you can find plenty of suits that will enable you to adopt anything from a sharp early sixties look to a more flamboyant mid sixties mod fashion colourfest. Even here I would advise caution as a high price does not always equate with quality so exercise some caution. Five hundred lindens splashed out on a shoddy one piece [layer] suit might leave you with a few regrets. But, so long as the suit has a cool vibe and you're happy with it go for it. Ive bought 50l$ suits that have made me look far more mod than 1000l$ top end design garments. So buyer beware and take heed at what you wear.

In terms of mod fashion I can only points you in the direction of the hugely undervalued Kinks who sum it up far more succinctly than I ever could, err thank you Ray.

ciao

Ahhh Glorious Yuletide

Lets see, where to start? In the week leading up to Christmas I had a couple of cool virtual nights at Soul Mods with Kim and Slate on decks for Thursday and Friday respectively. Fabulous tunes kept me entertained; whilst my, and Dugi's, choice of attire kept most people amused I think. However Second Life undid me somewhat when I thought I'd changed back to a sombre suit but others saw me as a starkers avatar in socks, quick relog required. Fortunately amongst friends this just passes as another foible of the virtual fiasco that the Lindens have created. Great tunes, great people what a laugh!

Saturday was meant to be a great night out, Slate and Djunglebird's wedding but real life obstructions kept me offline. I'm sure all was wonderful and a great time was had by all. Happy times and good luck to two marvellous people behind the keyboards, hope they're happy and having fun.

The week running up to Christmas was a virtual disaster, so much time consumed by real life Christmas stuff meant I had no time to spare for logging in to Second Life. Then I ended up with a second bout of man flu that kept me in bed for a couple of days; plus, I though either my sound card or speakers were defunct as I was hearing nothing from my PC. Logging on to hear cool tunes was thus redundant so no logging on once I was out of bed; however, today I solved the sound mystery. My five year old had plugged a redundant lead into a hidden headphone socket, kids don't ya just love 'em!

Anyway, I popped into the virtual world for a quick look around today and have my fingers crossed that there'll be a cool Soul Mods on tomorrow, hope to see you all there. Sanity maintained via a cool CD : Keb Darge & Paul Weller Present Lost & Found Real R'n'B & Soul

New feature: Quadrophenia 7 -13

New feature: Quadrophenia 1 - 6

Errr its Thingy

So there I was at the AAi on a Tuesday, yeah I am that predictable, having fun listening to Claire Thingy play some awesome tunes. All the usual suspects were present: Graz Thingy, Meri and Thom Thingy, Josie Thingy, Sean Thingy indeed the entire Thingy clan, not forgetting Thingy Thingy in her sharp loafers and green Perry polo shirt! It was a great night full of great tunes by Thingy and his mates The Thingys. Awesome!

Aside from all the bizarre Thingyness, and some visitors bringing a suitcase of bling and complaining about lag [lose the leather upgrade from the old Spectrum chaps] other strange things happening were unusually absent. Graz was on his best behaviour, Sean restricted his prowling and Claire played some blinding tracks. I nipped out for a cuppa and when I returned a few people had drifted away, I didnt realise it was MY mere presence keeping them there. Despite the casualties the club was still pretty full and those who remained were quality and really enjoyed themselves. However I too was a victim of real life timings and failed to make it to the 23.00hrs deadline as I bailed out with half an hour to go. This real life stuff can be a real pain!

So having logged off I left Albion waiting in perpetual virtuality at the AAi until I relog and head off to Soul Mods, or any other event that shuffles out of the cobwebs. If you can cope with the enormous lag FREE lag that envelops the AAi I suggest you get on your scooter, broomstick of mini, but leave the leather chaps and choppers at home please, and get your bottoms wiggling down to the club for a great night out. Dugi appreciates a good wiggle so get that thing going ladies. Its fun its a laugh its all fiction and at the end of the day isnt that what a virtual night out is al about. Hope to see you there. Dont be shy we dont bite, well Sean does but only in a metaphorical rather than a literal sense so you'll be quite safe, besides unless your Scottish you wont understand him anyway! By the way I'm the one they call Grandmaster THINGY!

PopArt 2010

Check out this fashion show it sounds intriguing PopArt 2010 

I attended this show, an interesting experience. The runway set looked very cool, lots of I-Pods forming the construction, wild psychedelic lights and Warhol's iconic Campbell's soup cans for seats, noob soup very quirky. The whole thing began with a kind of dance show, I'm guessing scripted for the avatars to react as one, if they were manually doing it; well it was astounding. Lots of strange coloured skins and pop art motif clothing, it looked awesomely cool. The fashion show itself was billed as the avante guards interpretation of the pop art movement within the cutting edge of virtual fashion. There were some nice pop art clothes on display but to be frank I think the pop art element got lost in the quest for the avante guard, too few garments owed much to pop art at a movement of even a reinvention of it.  It was spectacular with some wondrous creations, but whether much of it was pop art is open to interpretation, anyway an interesting trip into the world of cutting edge fashion.

"Characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects, pop art is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. Pop art is aimed to employ images of popular as opposed to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy elements of any given culture, most often through the use of irony. It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques."

I took some rubbish snapshots for anyone who fancies a look and posted them up on Flickr

Its the Sixties......

The Action, on the road...........

The High Numbers rip it up live.....

Its a Battle Out There

Virtuality versus Reality

Ding ding, Round One: AAi Beatles night

I got myself all dressed up in my best Sergeant Pepper clothes, flung on my black hippyish hair flip up shades and Chelsea boots. I logged on nice and early slotted into my favourite dancing position and started enjoying the tunes. I forget but I think I was there less than thirty minutes before I was dragged away to deal with something, so important I cant even remember what it was. And to top it all I was gone so long the computer elected to shut itself down and boot me out of Second Life. Being gone so long I didn't bother rebooting and relogging I just marked it up to reality. Anyway it looked like a good night I hope it was. So that's round one lost on points I think. Time to trim the beard cut the hair, go blonde shed the Sergeant Pepper costume and adopt some skin attire as I'm in a redskins mood.

Ding ding, Round Two: Lupo at Soul Mods

Thursday night and I get myself to Soul Mods to listen to a set from the uber cool Lupo. Lupo plays an incredibly diverse range of mod, unusual cover versions or unknown Latin originals its a real treat to get to hear such tunes and everyone makes a special effort to attend. There was a big crowd at Soul Mods to hear Lupo who like a diva kept us waiting an extra thirty minutes...hahaha. Nah, he didn't he just had something going on that meant he was delayed a little - we've all been there. Lupo's absence did almost cause a fatality but luckily Choco teleported out before she experienced virtual death! On arrival Lupo kicked off with a couple of great tracks and had the floor buzzing immediately. Once again I got dragged away briefly this time and so made it back to hear Lupo plays some more great tunes: stand outs were the Redskins and a personal favourite of Dugi: Bobby's Girl. Ignore his denials he loves this tune as much as he loves Pass the Dutchie, just ask Graz. A fine night enjoyed by all and a points win for virtuality....hurray!

Ding ding, Round Three: Slate at Soul Mods

Moving on to Friday and its Slate at the decks at Soul Mods, over the last few months Slate's become a regular DJ at Soul Mods, I really enjoy his sets as his tastes in mod closely mirror my own, he's fond of throwing the odd eighties revival track into the mix, and as that's my era I especially enjoy those. I adore the new tunes that DJs introduce me too, but a bit of teenage familiarity is comforting sometimes. We had a small but enthusiastic crowd, combination of connection issues and traditional office parties but those who were there were enthusiastic, cant ask for more. I was enjoying the tunes and having fun when I attempted to google something and my browser failed to respond, so I shut it down. Not an issue as Second Life was trundling along, then I took a snapshot of my supreme coolness and boing everything froze, hmmm clicked a couple of things and worse the screen went white. I could hear but my virtual presence was a mystery to me. Then brrrrrrr blue screen crash. The count started ,,,8,9,10 knock out blow and virtuality bites the dust.

So no snaps, some fun but overall not a great week computer and real life duties took their toll on my virtual life, hope yours was better and you had fun. At least I made it for some of the time, poor Gemma's connection issues have stopped her joining in at any level, hope your back with us soon.

ciao

More Stuff for Girls

 There I was on my usual trawl through various Second Life retail outlets typing in keywords when up popped The Mod Club. I was quite happy about that another cool mod store; however my hopes were soon dashed, its a single themed item, a piece of retro fashion kitsch for a party rather than a fashion line from a retro designer. So sadly just a single item, and of course its for the girls ... because the just don't have enough stuff you know. Standard sixties monochrome, classic sixties design and the photo has sixties style hair and shades. So another mod dress hits the market while I'm trudging through a plethora of insanely dull charcoal grey business suits, ooh if only there were some wild sixties inspired suits not hippy dippy flared monstrosities but some sharp cut designer suits employing virtual extravagance within a sixties framework. So another girly post I guess its right I most be one of those virtual women dressed up as a geezer!! Best trim my arm pits then!

ciao

The Mod Squad Club at Second Life Marketplace

Real Life cash for being a Mod...cool

Paid 60s extras work in London

A TV commercial production company is looking for extras for a commercial that's shooting next week in the London area. There's a fee involved too, if that makes it more appealing.

The ad for a 'well respected brand' is set in an early 60s jazz club, so the request is for people who look the part to appear in the background of the ad - early mods, beatniks, you know the kind of thing. All applicants must be over 25, and deadline for application is midday Thursday 9th December.

Full details over the page...

Where: London (venue TBC but within the M25)
When: Wednesday and Thursday (15th & 16th) next week. Potential wardrobe fitting on Friday the 10th.
Who: Cool cats! People who have their own look and style that could hark back to that era – they would like you to wear your own clothes if they suit the era.
Fee will be £100 per shoot date.

For authenticity they require people not to have visible tattoos or piercings you couldn’t/wouldn’t take out.

Interested? Email lucy@rattlingstick.com with your name, number, body and shoe sizes, availability and photos of hair styles and outfits (options are definitely a bonus). You need to be able to make your own way to and from the shoot.

The Beatles: Lennon celebration

They were never really mod; but they were the swinging sixties so get over to the AAi today [07-12-2010] and let the mocker and Claire entertain you. There's going to be some awesome tunes, I mean who can doubt it, its the Beatles for fecks sake.

AAi

Note to our Top DJs

Having entered the digital age I bought my third downloaded album today, it was either that or fork out £100 [yeas pounds shillings and pence not lindens] for a hard copy...digital for me. Anyway, I had forgotten how awesome these guys sounded, I remember the political spats they had with Weller and Billy Bragg, they were lefty, they were skins but my god were they soulful too, if tinged with a razors edge. Yes, I bought the Redskins album, Neither Washington or Moscow, and am now stomping along to it on I-Tunes. Hope some of the cool DJs who so entertain us are inspired enough to slip in the odd Redskins track during their sets.

What a Week

Foolishly I opted to update my Phoenix viewer and ... yes you guessed it wont load and so now my Phoenix launch is fecked so I am scrabbling around attempting to rectify the situation and avoid being reliant on the hideous Viewer 2, bollox I knew I should have blanked the update information and just plodded on, more fool me. How I miss my reliable user friendly Emerald!

Real life gripped me this week which meant I was a no show at Soul Mods Thursday, but at least all the important people turned up..boo hoo, I'll get me coat. Then Friday the car got shunted so I was scurrying around sorting out real life things, but thankfully found time to sit back and chill in a virtual world free of insurance, school runs blah blah. There was an excellent crowd present at the club Friday and Slate delivered a fine set, to everyone there, so familiar and some new. Plenty of laughs as can be expected from a Soul Mods crowd and some suitably stylish avies present, great music fun people and sharp looking avies, its mod my man none of your fecking rock m'laddo. I had a great time, Lupo had a cool photo of himself, that guy is cooler in real life than in virtuality if only I was too, hahaha; with Georgie Fame king of the UK keyboards very sharp. A great time I enjoyed myself immensely and Slate kept the tunes going long after eleven and after I logged off I'm sure they kept the party going like only sharp mods can!

Whilst we are talking real life Sean informed me that the scooter centre link I posted sells dodgy machines. As I only use the site for scooter porn [I think Ive invented a new phrase] its perfectly harmless but anyone thinking of spending actual pounds shillings and pence, please be careful I do not recommend any sites to purchasers I'm merely flagging up some nice imagery or tunes so be careful when splashing your cash.

Back to virtuality I logged in today to grab a few bargain suits from Hoorenbeek and then thought I would take myself back to Soul Mods and remain there until I logged on again, pssst don't tell Dugi he'll be charging me rent. Anyway I was quite surprised on my arrival to find a sharp dressed cool dancer enjoy the tunes. She was enjoying the cool soul stream that was flooding the club and just enjoying the memories it rekindled. Its kind of funny to think of Soul Mods having a life outside of the Thursday and Friday night gigs but its enjoyed throughout the day by wanders and others, I find that kind of cool, Anyway we briefly chatted and enjoyed the tunes, I forgot what I'd logged on for but it was cool I had fun listening to the stream, this virtual life is sweet, whilst I watched my ten year old nephew on the One Show via I-Player. My Hoorenbeek suit looking cool but not as sharp as the lone modette dancer who looked very cool indeed!

After the stresses of the last few days I need to hear something mellow, heard this on the radio and its sound, whilst the chorus is awesome its cinematic babeee so sing out loud:

Modernist Fashion in SL

Hoorenbeek Bargains ... THIS WEEKEND ONLY

A couple of suits up for grabs from one of Second Life's premier male fashion houses, lots of variations not examined it in too much detail wanted to post before the sale was over.

Grab them quick before they rocket up in price.

Hoorenbeek