Its all in the Eyes

Taking a break from most things computer at the minute, I am winging about my eyes too much, so giving them a rest. Will blog even less frequently than at present and will probably turn up at clubs but just listen in, so I'm not straining to read text. Have fun in the virtual world.

Modernist Fashion in SL

As these are so easy to knock out, requiring little creative input and the technical ability to cut and paste and little else here is the inevitable PART THRE. The tunes today are from another mod compilation on my I-Tunes. Yeah I really do spend all day listening to music and hammering the keys. If only.......

And so to the fashion, I reckon if you dump the hood (cowl) this should provide an excellent 2Tone inspired track jacket but wow that cubist pattern certainly phases the eyes if you stare at it too long, sharp!

Sweatshirt cube

{AHC} Valenciaga - Tweed Jacket

Not really a mod item at all this more generic sixties pop but there are a lot of people who like that kind of thing who pop into the blog so this is one for all you sixties fans, the pretty fab Monkees, I'll hold my hands up I really like their tunes. Is that my mod credibilty [the little I had] fallen through the trapdoor, feck it, lol.

SL Monkees Groupie Jacket

e! Pea Trenchcoat

Cardigan in Blue

For those hugh like that PopArt '67 miltaristic style:

 

West Point Military Jacket

*O* RUDE BOY JACKET W/ BUTTONS

SHIKI-fall jacket

Well thats it for this third part I doubt there will be furher posts of this nature, given you enough hints on where to look and see whats out there. Second Life Marketplace is a cool tool but a touch labourious for the virtual mod: type MOD into the search engine and you'll see why if you've not already guessed. Anyway if you bought an item hope it pleases you, time for me to chill with some coffee and toast. Boy I work hard at this blog shite!

ciao

The Silent Dancer

Last night I ventured onto the grid and visited an old club in a new guise. The Soulsville Club unveiled a new construction for PT's rezz day, and from the chat I think its to be a permanent fixture, fingers crossed. Its a great concept, the club is housed just off the platform of a tube station, on the Northern Line. The club itself is minimalistic fitting the stark tube architecture. Old school white tile [as used for the In the City album] with various suitable graphic posters dotted about. Personally I thought it looked great and is a welcome addition to mod architecture since we have lost so many great builds over the recent past. Anyway, enough architectural waffle, lets talk tunes.

The set was a soul inspired set, lots of Motown and Northern Soul, with a diva section from Miss Diana Ross, PT was DJ, for his own rezz day - best option then you get to hear all your favourites. I enjoyed the set was fun listening to some familiar tunes and a few new ones. As ever the early start at the Soulsville means I have real life stuff to attend to so I was my usual silent dancer in the corner listening in and enjoying the tunes, singing along on occasions, the wife loves that! There was a big turnout for the event and the club was buzzing, always nice to see a club full, or even half full, and judging by the chat rifling up my screen everyone seemed to be having a great time. I left as the party was still in full swing, great tunes and a fantastic looking club. I look forward to occupying that corner a few more times, maybe I'll even join in the chat.

Soulsville UK Club

Menswear Fashion Week 2011

March 18th-25th

Check the following blogs:

http://madimage.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/menswear-fashion-week/

http://virtualfashionfeed.com/tag/menswear-fashion-week/

http://issuu.com/avenue/docs/avenue.mwfw2011exclusive

Teleport here:
Menswear Fashion Week 2011

Modernist Fashion in SL

St Patrick's Day Mod

For those of you who like to join in the festivities I grabbed a few treasure hunt freebies, some group gifts and a few old favourites plus the odd cheap item to create a kind of green NeoMod look to groove with the Oirish on their big day of booze laughs and the craic. This time of year there is so much green about its hard not to trip over it so if you want to green up for next year keep your eyes open for the freebies. Albion has a neat hat from StarChild, its Fedora Brown in Tartan and a gift at Menswear Fashion Week. He is also wearing some Role Optic shades which are part of the DIMH2 Treasure Hunt. Along with an old favourite the Meriken shirt, he is wearing a sweater from Acid and Mala Creations as part of the 49L$ Sale For Dudes, it has three colours available, and is multi-layered allowing multiple wear options. Next up is a great group gift from Gizza, the jeans from their group gift for St Paddy's day, and finally my classic Gos Dr Martin boots.

So, okay where can I grab this stuff:

StarChild
Role Optic
Meriken
Acid and Mala Creations
Gizza
GOS

Great Nights, Great DJs

A couple of good nights at Soul Mods last week. Huge blow that Kim had some techy issues, as I love her heavy ska laden sets; but, lucky for us Eden stepped in and delivered a great impromptu set. The usual reprobates were there and a good time was had by all. Friday was the usual wacky weekender from Slate, with much craziness, great tunes and bizarre happenings as always.  A Northern Soul heavy set this time out Slate delivered some really fine tunes that kwept us all bouncing in virtuality and in reality, at least I was bouncing, no mean feat at my age, I'm 87 y'know [applause...haha, wonder who really believes that]. Lots of Gene Hunt activity near the end of the set as Slate handed out masks and we dipped our toes in seventies Glam. I had to leave before the end [up at 7am for real life dad stuff Saturday morning] but am certain the madness and laughs continued for a while longer.

Its marvelous that the virtual sixties influenced entertainment carries on into Saturday at the Killing Moon, and Shauna's efforts to set up the event is much appreciated. Indeed Shauna debuted as DJ there this weekend and did a great job. Strong words of encouragement from old hands like Slate and Eden helped I think, and at least there was no swearing, kicking of computers or toilets interludes like one great DJ I could mention......

A great night with some great tunes, generic sixties rather than pure mod but no less entertaining with some fine tunes thrown into the mix. I really enjoyed myself and judging by the comments flowing through chat so did everyone else. Hats off to Shauna for providing a fresh venue and getting on decks herself,,,err Dugi, hahaha. I admire anyone who does this techy DJ malarkey as its so beyond my meagre techy talents they are like ancient metal smiths of the dark ages. Weird clever geezers and geezerettes capable of strange wonderfully magical feats. Good on you all, and thanks for the tunes. Time to rest my weary eyes, ciao.

The stylists

Despite Albion's titanic ego I often get bored of blogging with myself as the central feature, Albion at club Albion buys this blah blah. And so for a couple of weeks Ive been plotting to do a splash on the stylists of the grid. So I decided I'd blog a few of you instead of me, don't be upset if you're in don't be upset if you're not, after all there's only a couple of us bothering to read this drivel, self deprecation nah its a symptom of profound Englishness.

There are some great virtual mod stylists on the grid who find some awesome mod style clothing and give the clubs a really authentic feel. Its not easy finding cool mod fashions and hats off to them for finding their items and helping the club look mod and not just another leather and tattoo fest. Therefore I have decided to slap up a few snapshots of some of my favourites. You all know them, know they dress great and unlike me have other talents too. I'm the only one trick pony around here, and that trick aint that great. So, yes I have been secretly snapping you; that sidling up to you is not to get a whiff off your deodorant its been to try and get a half decent snapshot. So, here are a few of the great dressers in the world of virtual mod.

First up is DJ and uber stylist Lupo, he always looks cool and introduced me to the fabulous Unknown Boutique. A stylist supreme rooted in the authentic mod look Lupo is one of the best dressed mods in the virtual metaverse. Next is Eden who always looks the business, having the ability to design your own clothes helps. Eden too is authentic sixties mod, with a bit of eighties revivalism tossed into the mix. Another great DJ she dresses sharp and is 100% sixties virtual icon.

Claie is next in line, she follows sixties trends and generally has vibrant dazzling colours and classic kinky boots... Another DJ she hosts the sixties night at the AAi. Gemma is the ska fashion monster she wears her skin.suede head styles or classic sixties styles at Soul Mods and often looks better than I do in stuff I've blogged she adds her own accessories to stuff and sadly still continues to look better than me, she is small and sneaky*, and stylish.

Its impossible to discuss virtual mod without mentioning Slate, he is the Kevin Cosner of the virtual mod scene. What? He built it and they came! When at Soul Mods Slate likes to dress the part and is assisted in achieving this by having the ability to make stuff, clever git. Slate is followed by his own army of Jimmy's [Ruths but cooler] sop don't mess with the king of the mods. Finally, lets not forget Kim another uber cool virtual mod whose dress sense is so sharp it'll slice your arm off. DJ and designer, along with Eden Kim runs Mod Squad Design, Kim wears so cool sixties clothes made by herself and Eden, fledgling modettes these girls are your route into mod fashion on the grid.

I could go on and on listing people but these have caught my eye with their dedication to maintain virtual mod style on the grid, there are others I could mention and probably will but am saving them up for a future blog post. So if you see me sliding up next to you its probably because I'm looking to get a sneak snapshot, or girls I could be camming up your skirt, although as is well known I mostly spend time camming myself.

ciao.

*of course she is not really sneaky, I'm English she is English we like sarcastic irony now bog off, have a nice day y'all.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Venturing away from the sombre styles and textures of the early sixties the mods of the mid-to-late sixties started to wear more flamboyant fashion and the standard suit and tie combination was replaced by more raffish alternatives. Hoping to follow this style I headed off to the Marketplace where I sifted through endless naff fashions hoping to locate those few gems of modernist fashion. Eventually I stumbled upon Gizza shirts, looking at the retro range they seemed ideal to fulfill the fashion criteria of the pop art inspired mid sixties.

However my desire for classic modernism remains undaunted and so amidst the array of colourful shirts I grabbed the monochrome white with black pin spots variety. The shirt comes in a jacket and shirt layer, with underpants layer too giving it a degree of versatility sadly lacking in many fashion items who stick rigidly to the single layer sales format. Along with the multi-layers, the shirt comes with prim cuffs and a prim collar. These items fit my avatar and required no shifting to achieve a measured look. Reasonably pricey but nevertheless great value the shirt when combined with a styling black scarf and some Armidi trousers, plus my FKNY buckled loafers produces a stunning mod look from pop art period. Less flamboyant than much of the fashion and far more subdued in colour it is a classic piece of virtual mod fashion. Think about buying one, but stay away from the spots they're mine!

Gizza Shirts at the Marketplace
Gizza Store

Modernist Fashion in SL

Discovering what an easy cop out this sticking snapshots up malarky is I have decided its time for PART TWO. So I have the Immediate collection on I-Tunes and am listening to this:

Whilst typing out this drivel. Right lets get too it, less waffle and more snapshots and links, a few here I'd buy myself but....Anyway hope its of some use to some fashion visitors and to others more madness and waffle soon, just chill amigos.

First item up is the fat pack, merely to show the full colour range, each item can be bought individually or you can dive in for a fat pack.

Class Affair - Coat

Anthony - Male Business Suit

B-Styles-Cotton-Coat

NeoMods wear leather too, check out this for your NeoMod styling:

::Schoen:: Leather Jacket (Tricolor)

*TSIX BOX 168 Track Jacket

s'LADE MEN - Sports Jacket

s'LADE MEN - Casual Blazer

Unplugged Suit jacket

So, that is this one done, quick sharp possibly very dull, but if somebody finds it of some little use its served its purpose. Besides its economy of effort I'm blogging whilst remaining ostensibly idle, perfect. Therefore, part three is obviously inevitable.

Modernist Fashion in SL

I was looking through the Marketplace [where else, I might as well set up residence in there] the other day when I saw a rather sharp looking rain coat. It was very much in the style of the thirties detective trench coat, I thought it looked kind of French. After thinking of capturing a snap and blogging it as a random fashion piece I changed my mind and bought it. Some might view it as not authentically mod and label it Albion's flasher mac; but, I stand by my original judgement and believe matched with the right clothes it has a very sixties European vibe pulsing through it.

The coat comes with both a jacket and shirt layer, which provides scupe for a little tinkering should you choose to. The prim cuffs and collar are a nice addition and all fit my avatar shape beautifully without the need for a touch of modifying. The texturing on the coat is very nice with no obvious flaws. Overall I am very pleased with the purchase and glad I added it to my mod wardrobe. Matching it with some brown Armidi trousers, a brown button down shirt from the Unknown Boutique and some nice brown shoes from FKNY I think it achieves a very cool French mod look, I'm certain Alan Delon* would be proud to look this sharp! Despite early doubts once the coat is worn with other classic mod styled items it becomes a very mod look in a traditionalist sixties style but also with NeoMod features. For a single item its not a cheap throw away costing just over three hundred lindens but it does provide a neat sharp look and an altwernative to the leather coat or parka that dominate the virtual mod scene. Be seen to be different on the scene if you want to catch the eye, its a truth y'know.

Ace (Face) rain mac

*who? French sixties film icon, uber cool. Google it you philistines haha

Virtual goings on....

I headed to the second sixties event at the Killing Moon on Saturday to spend some time chilling out to some tunes. The DJ for this event was Magdalena Bing and she played some great tunes, mostly generic sixties rather than mod, with the odd seventies and fifties tunes hurled into the mix. A lot of Beatles and Kinks were played along with a few other standard sixties tunes and everyone seemed to be having fun. It was the usual Moonletters suspects in attendance at the pub, which is encouraging and hopefully means that the Saturday session will continue.

Other goings on over the virtual weekend were limited, grabbing a couple of freebies and getting some clothing from the Marketplace which undoubtedly I'll waffle on about at some point. Need to speed up though I think as some stuff I buy at the Marketplace seems to vanish soon after; a few items I had locked into my favourites section have vanished so apologies if I blog something and you follow a link to a vacant page. My procrastination begs your forgiveness, right time for some breakfast. I may log on this evening I wonder if there's anything worth attending, AAi maybe?

It was a quiet night gridwise and I ended up at the Soulsville club, there were not many there but I enjoyed a nice set of sixties soul tunes from PT whilst I attended to some real life issues. So I was pretty much a non-presence at least Albion bulked out the dance floor. A shame it was not better attended as there were some cool tunes. Later I did head off to the AAi, it was also very quiet here with one of the smallest crowds I've seen there fdor quite some time. Claire was playing some fine tunes and I was settling down for the duration when I was reminded of an early morning start and therefore had to cut my visit short, pity! Anyway, that was the virtual going ons in my Second Life over the last couple of days.

This blog is nothing more than a flippant piece of fluff, devised to entertain the inhabitants of Second Life who have an interest in the virtual mod or virtual fashion scene. Therefore its merits are severely limited. However, I have noticed that it gets a fair amount of Japanese visitors so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you well, hope you are all safe and sincerely wish that you all stay that way and are able to join us back in the frivolous world of Second Life soon. And, a quick point of note Micio Braveheart a stalwart of the virtual mod scene, glad to hear you are safe and look forward to your return to the virtual world, We mods should gather at your club to celebrate. And once again stay safe our thoughts are with you all.

Friday night Fun Factory

Friday night, nothing on the telly, no babysitters so how do I fill my evening: only one course of action...Soul Mods! Friday is a fun night Slate plays great tunes, some old some more recent and his set list is lively and very entertaining; however, its the huge sense of fun he imbues into his sets that make it such a please to attend. He takes time out to create daft links, voice overs and other stuff merely to give us a laugh or put a smile on our faces. Absolutely fantastic, marry that with his excellent tune selection and it creates a marvelous atmosphere that all who attend enjoy. I left before the end but it was gone 11pm when I left, Slate is fairly flexible on that score and his gigs don't so much over run as flow on past the 11pm slot.

So, it was another great night although the new fad for gesture quotes leaves me a little confused, especially when there are dozens being fired off simultaneously I lose track of who is saying what. Ah I guess I'm just too slow to keep up. One quick reminder that Saturday now has a viable sixties/mod venue at the Killing Moon, its well worth supporting this event as there are too few venues playing what I like to call our kind of music*. To read more on tonight's event read this

*Bollox, I have morphed into David Jascobs

Modernist Fashion in SL

Tonight Mathew I'm going to be...

After looking around the Marketplace somewhat forlornly, finding a fair amount but nothing I actually wanted to buy, I saw this great riding jacket that reminded me of early promotional shots of the Kinks. Mods in hunting pink, seemed a cool sixties image so I grabbed one. Its not an exact replica as the Kinks jackets were tailored and more fashionable whilst the Second Life option is very much a riding jacket. However matched with some funky trousers and the classic mod bowling shoes I think its produced a decent homage to the Kinks early style. Marrying a plain white shirt/tie undershirt layer with the jacket gives it a clean sharp look that suits the modernist needs quite well. I'll be wearing it at Soul Mods tonight, how long until the first Tally Ho!

E. Watkins - Red Riding Jacket

Great Tunes, in my Real and Virtual Life

This popped through the letterbox today, best four quid I've spent in a long time. Almost sixty tracks, some familiar [have to expect that with compilations] but most are new and join my I-Tunes canon. So as my fingers nimbly dance, I wish, OK lets be more honest: as my digit clods over the the keys I'm listening to some damn fine soul. And, talking damn fine soul that leads me nicely into Thursday at Soul Mods where Lupo was making a welcome return to the DJ booth, he has so much going on musically in real life that his visits are less frequent but no less warmly appreciated.

Lupo themed his set so the Hammond organ featured prominently in the tracks he played which kept the crowd very happy, Sadly, for me, I had to exit an hour in so I missed an hour of great tunes but such is life.

However, the hour I did spend at the club was great. There were some great tunes getting an airing, some classic originals others European covers of standards. There was a great cover of "Dancing in the Street" by a Spanish band whose name I've forgotten [blame early onset....] which reminded Slate of a travesty...the dreadful cover of this track by Bowie and Jagger. Now just because it was all for charideee let us not be fooled into thinking it was anything other than abysmal! Those long flapping coats, ugly dancing and the butchering of an upbeat soul classic...terrible. The consensus in Soul Mods was that each and every copy of this '45 should be demolished. Other interesting topics were the new wibbly wobbly boobs function in Phoenix, I saw no bouncing and believe me I looked,,,forensically. Great night shared with the lovely Stella, and her sister Stella, lovely Belgium emigre family but very unimaginative with the names, I was going to introduce a third daughter,,,but time eluded me and she remained in the fridge. So another night cut short I'm convinced that tonight Slate will entertain us royally, who knows what madness he has planned.

Modernist Fashion in Sl

I often wake up early and bored, put the kettle on and click on my I-Tunes to idle away an hour or so listening to some cool Mod tunes, presently this is playing off a neat sixties compilation:

Tunes established I then have to decide how I'll fill in a bit of time sat at the computer screen; sometimes, I head off to the Second Life Marketplace as I've done this morning. Often during these trawls through the fashion morass I see items that I would not buy but perhaps have a degree of mod fashion potential, but I never list them as I dont purchase them. Therefore, this morning I figured I'd kill several birds with a single stone: I'd put up a lengthy post without actually having to type much at all. Also, I will highlight a few mod items that normally would not get blogged and also I'm not required to spend any lindens. So I have basically grabbed the snapshot of the item from its page at the marketplace and then added the link to the item below it. I neither recommend nor do I advise against purchase so the choice is yours I'm merely acting as a conduit into your lindens wallet, and all for free....are you listening designers, hahaha.

Last Eden Parka

One item thats very popular amongst mods, and especially Mod revivalists of the eighties is the leatrher trench coat, inspired by the Ace Face Sting [c'mon don't laugh] in the iconic film Quadrophenia. Anyway here is a selection of trench coats of variable merit and price. Seek and ye shall find.

B11 Men's long coat

Black Leather Trench Coat

MarcoD'AvanteTrenchcoat

As well as a coat every virtual mod is going to need a jacket or two maybe these appeal and can fill that hole in your mod wardrobe.

(NO) Brown Blazer

:: SD :: Old Army Jacket Green / khaki

*MZ* Grey and Dark Elegant jackets

*Zanzo* Cambridge blazer

And as the tunes wind down I think I'll leave this post and leave you to decide if there is anything here worth purchasing, I just dont have the funds to buy everything, despite all evidence to the contrary. Enjoy your linden splashing...I need a coffee refill.

ciao

Modernist Fashion in SL

Mix and Match

I like multi-layered clothing so much as it provides an opportunity to combine various fashion items from different designs to create a look of your own. Single layer full outfit textured item, ie, a sweater textured with both a shirt and tie, leave me cold as there is no scope for such an item; it is what it is and the opportunity to vary it isd non-existent. So I had a play around with some multi-layered shirts from Meriken whilst in the Moonletters photo studio*  the other day. Using the undershirt/underpants layer for the Meriken shirt allowed me the freedom to use other items from different ranges to achieve the desired look. Mix and Match is the way forward, as Ib often see a shirt that I think would look great with a suit only to didcover it only comes in a jacket layer rendering it impossible to wear with a suit. I'm no designer its another technical task way beyond my talents but I imagine its not too odious a task to create items on jacket/shirt/undershirt and underpants layers to give the item full versatilty and a use beyond its basic fashion function. So get with the programme and open yoyur designs to real life, I mean its not like real life items are restricted to a single use so why should virtual ones suffer such a fate. Get with it.

Here I used a range of Meriken shirts, on the underwear layer, in tandem with ties from the Hasendow suits on the shirt layer and matched to a range of trousers from Armidi, the shoes are almost free a 20L$ splash over at DUH! I colour co-ordinated the clothes but mixing the colours would work well, I also opted not to wear a jacket as this showed the shirt/tie combination more clearly but after I had finished snapping I threw a black Meriken jacket on over the shirt/tie to complete my mix and match. The addition of a shirt on the underpants layer also means it can be worn with the low slung trousers, that dominate Second Life design, without having to resort to a jacket to cover up the exposed underbelly [the one failing of the fabulous Unknown Boutique shirts, which I think are fantastic and look sublime but do possess this irritaing weak link].

I also swapped shoes to cill outside Kim and Edens store, wearing my Jeepers Creepers Strike bowling shoes, classic mod footwear.

Meriken
Armidi
Hasendow

Whats on at Moonletters

Saturday was the debut night of the mod sixties nights that are planned for the Killing Moon pub over at the Moonletters sim. Eden opened up this new venue with a sharp mod based set with a good sprinkling of sixties classics, the Doors to keep the girls lusty haha. There was an excellent turn out for the opening night and I'm sure Shauna can see it was worthwhile opening up the pub to DJ nights. Weekends can be somewhat barren for the virtual mod in Second Life; so, the opening was much appreciated by those virtual groovers seeking to escape the morass of disco, eighties and thrash metal rock sets that seem to dominate the search engine inworld.

Albion had a great time, and was out modded in the fashion stakes by the utlra groovy NeoMod style of Icabod Gealach. He was wearing some sharp NeoMod threads and had a very cool Akeyo dance animation, I forgot to tap him up for a landmark for the sharp jacket so if anyone can get it pass it on, cheers. Luckily I copped the landmark for his grooving moves and immediately set off for the store the following day to grab a few silky moves of my own. So if you want a few smooth of your own get yourself over to the Akeyo Animations store.

Relogging in a few days after the Killing Moon gig I decided to take a tour of the sim so I jumped on one of the sims rotating cars and was given a little tour of the sim whilst idly chatting to Dugi in IMs. Its amazing what follies you can uncover whilst killing a few minutes.

Akeyo Animations Store

Further details on the Killing Moon opening night can be found here