Yeah you all thought I'd blog some clothes first, huh? Newp! I decided to go a route that so few of you guys tend to think about sometimes... furniture for your virtual pad!
Now I know a lot of you guys usually let your lady do all the decorating (yes I'm one of those chicks them who's kind of a control freak when it comes to that) since most of you are just as interior design challenged in-world as you are IRL. Don't fret though! A few furniture stores in SL do cater to men and even offer full sets so you can just click and point the whole thing in whatever room you want it in. Even better is there's no delivery truck or back breaking in the process. ;-)
:[MudHoney]: Designs is one of those kind of furniture stores. The owner, Rayvn Hynes, makes absolutely incredible pieces with detailed textures and unique poses. Her sculpts are very well made, the fabric textures so intricate you can almost feel the weave with your fingertips, and the shadow textures are noticeable but not overpowering against your floor.
And YES she has made items specifically for you dudes:
One of them is this 'Modern Man' bedroom set. Each piece you can buy individually for anywhere from $35L to $550L (and yes the bed has a sex engine in it in case yer wondering :-P) but you can also get the whole darn set (in either Copy or Transfer versions) for $990L. Still a great deal for essentially a whole room and accessories.
And you want some goodies for your virtual Man Cave?
Got those too!
The Dart Board ($125L) & Pool Table ($150L) can be bought separately if you wish. The Card Table ($125L) comes in either green felt (pictured) or red felt with chairs to match ($95L a piece). All you need now is a big screen TV and a beer keg and you're all set to hang with your pals all night.
Rayvn does offer freebies and discounted item sales as a courtesy to her Subscribe-O-Matic Group constantly, so it's totally worth it to sign up. Her newest freebie?
This Cuddle Lounge Sofa from the Peace on Earth Hunt is soooo worth it. It has 2 pose spots (to cuddle of course), 16 different poses and the option to not only change gender but also positioning. How can you NOT get a girl with this couch? Seriously.
I know it's staying in my den, that's for sure. ;-)
Got a little MudHoney?
Showing your A:S:S
It's not quite couture or necessarily sleek, it may not be even particularly trendy, but what the work of Photos Nikolaids of A:S:S (which stands for Another Stupid Shirt Shop) is, is fun, versatile, off the wall, whimsical, sexy and above all, surprisingly affordable and incredibly wearable.
Photos may have started A:S:S as a basic t-shirt stop, but he's both expanded his inventory and grown his own skill just over the few months since I first discovered him. He does have awesome t-shirts that range from funny (and, yes, cute) basics to politically aware (see his line of free shirts for Amnesty International,) to bawdy and provocative.
Lately he's been pushing his skills into more complex designs. He still produces mostly casual clothes for men and women, but his separates are incredibly versatile and wearable and work both alone or as layers with other designers.
He's also aces at providing layers of clothing to allow you to mix and match in pretty much any combination. Shirts typically come with an undershirt, shirt and jacket layer version. Jeans and pants have both pants and underwear versions. His tank tops find their way under a lot of open shirts and jackets I wear, and his button downs fit nicely under my favorite vests.
You will occasionally find (especially in his older stuff) a minor seam glitch or misalign -- which I think he's been willing to fix in the past.
His prim collars and cuffs are modifiable and resizable which is awesome -- I've pretty much given up buying clothes from designers who make their prim attachments no modify -- not all avatars are built the same and I'd rather not have to keep adjusting my avatar because a prim collar is built so small I have to have a pencil neck to wear it.
None of that is an issue with the clothing from A:S:S, and I think that stems as much from the fact that Photos is a smart guy as it does from the fact that the vast majority of his offerings are unisex. He does have some strictly male, strictly female offerings, but most of his clothing looks good on either gender and in some cases, he's deliberately challenged what might be considered a female fashion application and made it into a statement on remaining masculine and thinking outside the box.
You won't find a lot of really complex textures that requires a massively powerful graphics card to render or (thank you, Photos,) basic colors such as white, black, red, green or blue that are uniquely his -- his reds are red and his whites white, not slightly off so no one can wear, say his red tank, with anyone else's red jacket.
Given the variable nature of lighting and graphic settings in world, and the vast difference in rendering color and texture between individual users and their computer systems, this is actually more important than it might seem. I have two PC's and a laptop that I frequently swap between for just that reason, the same with swapping between the LL release browser and my preferred emerald browser. Photos's colors/textures hold up pretty well across systems.
You can also find a wide array of non-clothing items in the store: tattoos, jewelry and mouth toys, furniture, skyboxes (and his skyboxes are seriously awesome,) shoes, and if you are interested in the more bishouen look, he has a nice collection of skins that are either free or amazingly affordable.
Nearly everything in the store is between $25L and $125L, maybe $250L for fatpacks, and there's a lot of things for under $25L, -- there may be a few things that range upwards of $500L (Skyboxes, some larger sets) but the average cost is probably between $75-$125L. He maintains a nice discount area and has a newbie pack for av's under 30 days old.
But here's the thing...It's pretty obvious that Photos is having a blast most of the time, and when he gets in a mood, you never know what he's going to come up with or what he's going to do. If he has an idea he runs with it, and if he likes it, he puts it out for sale or, he gives it away...
Not just in his lucky chair or discount room, but through his subscribo, or tucked into some mini hunt or just says, hey, I made this, come get it for free for the next day or so. I've spent a fair amount of Lindens in his shop, but I can guarantee you that what I've gotten free or for $1L is twice as much as I've ever paid.
So, stop by and take a look. Join the group. Check out his discount room if you aren't sure and spend very little to figure it out, and look for him in the next male oriented Make Him Over Hunt" beginning on October 15th. I honestly don't think you will be disappointed on any front.
And if you see him in his shop (and he's there a lot) say hi, or at least thank you.
~~~~~~~~~
A:S:S Designs pictured top to bottom:
1. Light grey turtleneck, light grey pants, dark blazer - Monochrome separates set - currently on the "Pay What You Want" wall on the second floor of the main shop.
2. Straps Jacket black/white - $65L
Blue Low Rise Jeans - $75L
3. Simple Tank Dirty Yellow - $50L Grungy Low Rise Jeans, rolled - $75L
4. Off Shoulder sweater & tank, white/black -$60L
Starstruck Jeans - prior group gift
5. Military shirt brown - $65L
6. Slacker Shirt Green (worn w/o cuffs) - $70
Mesh detail jeans - Silver - $75
~~~~~Also Worn~~~~
Hair & Beards:
Discord Designs
Goatee - Leon $90L for color packs
Beauty Salon Cri-Cri
mHat02-treasure $170L for 4 colors
JE*REPUBLIC
Love - Black Cap/Ash Black (Lucky Chair - still available - primarily a women's clothier but some unisex items)
Bryce Designs Main Store
Frankie $200L
Zero Style
Ron - raven $200L
Eyes:
Sin Skins
Intense II Med Teal eyes (med) - $10L
Skin:
Redgrave Men:
09B Emil Deep-Tan Skin / bald hair / fullbeard $990
03B Emil Deep-Tan Skin / bald hair / 2day beard $990
Leather Pants & double belt:
Husky GFX - Cort's Brother set $700 (this is a full outfit)
Shoes:
Zanzo/Bete Noire Clothier
Classix Grey sneaks $250L
Accessories:
.:iNflict - After Earth:.
Tattoo - Beauty and Beast
D
Ryu-Sei Glasses Brown - 2009 New Year's Gift Pack
Sable Rose:
Zoe Celtic Cross Ruby $150L
Unisex Zodiac Necklace (Taurus) $150L
How to Turn the Spotlight On
The idea here is to highlight items by designers that aren't necessarily free, but to give extra exposure to designers who consistently offer free stuff to avatars. i.e. this space wont' be for pointing out where good free stuff is -- it will be a place to showcase other works by those designers in the hopes of generating them sales so they can stay in business.
Criteria is this:
1. Designers consistently offer quality free items. These can be via
group gifts, lucky boards or chairs, MM Boards, items in their
stores, because they participate in hunts. (Being part of the DSN
network does not count unless they also offer in-world free stuff.)
2. The free items are not creator logo driven.
3. The free items change periodically -- offering up even a generous
starter pack that never changes isn't enough to be spotlighted unless
they offer free or "dollarbie" type promotions.
Posting requirements are:
1. Full credit (as much as is possible) of everything you have on
(skin, hair, clothes, shoes, jewlery) and prices or
price ranges.
2. Slurl links somewhere in the post to the store(s) of the
highlighted designer.
3. Posters here must contribute at least one post a month to the Free Finds For Men Blog. If you are interested in posting to either blog, contact Raeyn Sirnah in world or at raeyn.sirnah@gmail.com
Say hello to Guen!
Fall's jumping up in front of us and people -- including a good many of your freebie guides here at Designer Spotlight -- are going to have other obligations. We're constantly looking for contributors and Guenevere DeCuir stepped up to the plate to give us a hand.
Guen's a friend and coworker and great person all around. She's got an eye for style and a wicked sense of humor and a been in SL for a couple of years now. She's got a hefty SL Resume; She's a jewelery and tattoo designer and owns the shop [.:coLLisions:.]. You can find her around the grid DJing at Sanctuary Rock, Lounge of Dreams, or other venues as her schedule allows.
Guen maintains a blog for .:coLLisions:. and another at Crimson Flow, her personal SL blog. She also contributes to the blog for Sanctuary Rock, one of SL's oldest rock music and dance spots.
She's got some hunts in her pocket and already has her eye on men's goodies for this year's Jewlery Faire, but she finds herself tripping over freebies in places that most of us guys aren't likely to visit on our own.
So, say hi to Guen and make her feel welcome.
Gear Up for Steampunk
The Steampunk Hunt runs through the 20th. There's not as many clothing items for men, but clothes aren't everything and you never know when you might need a flying Hansom cab or a coal barge...alternative transportation is all the rage now anyway.
Steampunk items tend to be a little on the high side of prims but the detail is also incredible -- precise pieces, really interesting textures and a level of realism that is hard to accomplish without layering the prims. But I find myself wanting to put these things out anyway, just because they are so cool looking.
Hopefully the pictures will tell you what you need to know. This is the first batch, through about stop 30 or so. (For the ladies who read, there is plenty of goodies for you too, from Victorian clothing to your own steampunky accessories.) You are looking for a rotating wooden gear at each stop.
Most of these shots were taken with an assist from [Atomic Owl's] changeable steampunk scene, which is a gift along the way. (Click pictures for larger.)
A few shops have dropped or aren't displaying signage even though they are listed. The hunt organizers are doing their best to keep up with it so be patient. It's a circular hunt so you can skip if you need to. There is a hunt group and if you run into problems, contact the organizers, Perryn Peterson and Kashya Bellic not the store owners.
Your first stop on the hunt is the [+DV8+] mainstore. They offer up this Outlander Mask in leather and brass. Read the resizing instructions before you size it -- recall my earlier comment about the textures most steampunk designers use so make sure "stretch textures" is checked off in your edit box.
I coupled it with the [#4 Peterman, Ltd.] Engineer/Pilot ensemble. It's a fawn-colored leather set with brass details and comes in a tucked and untucked version of the jacket so you can wear it with or without the apron. The add copy touts it as unisex, so, ladies, don't hesitate to grab it.
Next is [#5 Capalini Fine Furnishings] who provides you with a handy wingback and side table to take a break on for tea when you get weary on the hunt and a very cool Globe Clock so you'll know when it's time to get going again -- even if you are exploring the mysteries of Egypt on your hunt. The chair has three sits and the clock has a kind of mesmerizing animation to it and is a really beautiful piece of work.
And in case you meet anyone really interesting on your journey and need to smuggle them past the port master, [#6 Rusty Rhode] has this clever (and large) trunk in which to hide your clandestine passenger. Or barring a passenger, it's big enough to double as a travel bed. Sleeping quarters and clothing and equipment storage all in one!
[#7 Atomic Owl] is the next stop on your journey and gives you the very cool scene backdrop you are seeing in these pictures. It's built like a small 10x10 shed, with interiors fixed in place and the changeable part is the view out the window which can be altered by touch. It doesn't make a bad little workshop, although the stool has no sit, but that's easily fixed and it is big enough to hold both the trunk and the chair and table from prior finds.
To keep in touch with your fellow travelers, [#9 Cleanslate Emporium] has a telegraph output ticker (complete with vintage sign). It might not be quite as efficient as your cell and text messaging but you never know when you might lose your cell phone, (not to mention the roaming charges are likely to be hell on your wallet.)
[#13, To-A-T] wants to make sure you travel in style, prepared for any event or social gathering with this Industrial topper, complete with it's own steam release at the top in case you feel your temper rising discussing the various fluxes and applications of your latest tesla coil creation with a colleague).
The topper goes remarkably well with [#24 NachtMusik's] brown leather work suit. The suit itself comes with more formal tails to wear as well in case you absolutely must attend a ball or a lecture by a prominent engineer. Being a thermodynamic genius does not excuse you from all social obligations, professor.
Lest anyone mistake you for anything other than a pre-eminant Steampunk Officianado, [#27 Troubled Rebel] has this simple yet unmistakable badge of Steampunkability in their gem centered gear necklace in gold -- or brass. That should quiet any doubting Thomas's among your acquaintances. Hmmph.
Since most social appointments occur at night, [#19 Yellow Jester] has these NightVision Spectacles to assist in navigating all those dark corners and narrow byways. They come with or without visible beams of light.
To minimize the time you have to spend traveling between your workshop and the university or local pub, [#18 Munro Imaginary Motors] has designed this Flying Hansom Cab for you (and a couple of your friends) so that you can be on time and carpool.... flypool... cab pool...in style and comfort.
After your soiree or lecture, you deserve a well-earned cuppa and [#20 The Home Store] has the most modern of appliances ready to brew it perfectly, Katey's Whistling Tea Kettle in copper and brass, pressure gauge letting you know exactly when your water is ready for your cup.
So settle back in your wingback chair and enjoy the mini lightning of [#33 Rasetsukoku's] Nevarian Tesla Rose, while you sail home in your coal barge from [#21 SteamMonks].
What? Everyone needs a coal barge! How else will you transport coal for your wonderful steam-driven machines?
More later....
Happy Birthday
[Originally posted by
In celebration of Aemilia's (owner of Philotic Energy) b'day, there is a $50L goodie box at PE containing 8 mochachino coloured hairdos, 4 girls, 4 guys. A couple of the girls hair also looks good on men...bonus! There is a unisex collar and a couple of bags also in the goodie box.
(pictured from left to right)
PE hair: Pace, Rae, Edna & Harrison.
House of Ruin eyes: (Free) Felid carnival, Android, Spectrum Tropicana & Shadow Circus.
Aussie Ink tatts: (Lucky Chair) Koi, Skull, I am god & Bad Kitty.
Atomic Skin: Past gift in VIP hunt.
Reaction: Razor Shorts (not free). (reastion is now closed-updated 01/30/10)
Looking for some new peepers? Maybe something a little more unusual? The amazing Ruina Kessel of the House of Ruin has loads of freebie eyes set up in her mainstore. These are unique and gorgeous. On each of the eye vendor boards is a freebie eye, located up the top, on the right. Just buy it for $0L. There is also a 50% sale on the Cylon v.2 eyes.
If you can't afford the goodie box at Philotic Energy, there are some $1L hairs also available.(left to right)
Boyd Shabang $1L cheapie wall (includes 96 colours).
Colby $1L tester (18 in each colour pack).
Faris $1L cheapie wall (includes 96 colours).
Eyes: Poetic Colors - golden forest (past freebie)
Tee: Reaction - Ace dark. (not free)
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