Beloved Brand BareRose Delivers Wide Array of SL Fashion in Everyone's Reach (NWN Readers' Choice, Top SL Brand)

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

• Brand name: BareRose
• [SL Marketplace]
• [SLURL]
• Website:BareRose Database
• Estimated average item price: L$150
• Brand owner: June Dion

BareRose (or B@R for short) has been a huge part of the fashion world of SL for longer than most of us can remember. It started out humbly as a cosplay-oriented shop (and some people still dismiss it for that), but these days you can find just about anything there-- casual wear, formal wear, latex catsuits, furniture, and even some of the most lovingly crafted ethnic-inspired clothing available in SL, like the mesh Ao Dai I'm wearing above. June Dion's an incredibly prolific and creative designer who has managed to cater to a broader audience than almost any other SL brand. She doesn't ignore the men of SL either, making both male and female versions for probably more than a third of her releases... And, as if that isn't enough, she frequently bundles all the colour variations of her outfits together for ridiculously low prices, making BareRose a great place to build a diverse virtual wardrobe on a budget. It's no secret that I've worshipped at the B@R altar since my newbie days, and I'll probably continue to as long as I'm in SL.

We're blogging the top 20 brands in our Readers' Choice list. Stay tuned for the rest soon!

Tweet

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

What Bare Rose realizes that many more pricey places fail to grasp is that you can sell 10 items for $150L faster than you can sell 1 item for 300L.

Good quality at a low price means everyone becomes an impulse buyer.

[Vaki]

YES THAT. Bare Rose's items are reasonably priced and beautifully made. I get more wear out of my B@R suits than many other suits I paid a lot more for. I love, love, love B@R.

[Deoridhe]

Bare Rose does the best mini-hunts, too. Always for a single outfit in pieces (male and female versions) with a cute storyline, usually something along the lines of "love will help you save the world", relatively easy finds so you're not spending an hour looking for the next step, and very photographic sets for the story. I often end up doing photoshoots through the "plot" of the hunt simply as a matter of course.

[Sjöfn Stoneshield]

I this outfit is an example of making woman look childish and foolish.
Lolita fashion does not belong in a equal world

[Iris Ophelia]

@Sjöfn Uh, the ao dai has nothing to do with lolita. It's a traditional Vietnamese costume for women, a bit like the kimono is to Japan, or the cheongsam to China. You can read more about ao dai here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ao_dai

If your complaint is not with the ao dai and more with how I personally styled it then I'd like to point out that judging other peoples' tastes based solely on your own also doesn't belong in an equal world.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

I have to limit my visits to B@R - simply so I get enough time to get some wear out of my last purchases first!

[Sonney]

Now someone needs to tell June about standard-sizing cuz her mesh is only available in something like XL. But then her no-copy-only approach wouldn't work anymore. Right now she is in need to rethink her business-model else the brand will become a victim of the mesh-revolution.

[Iris Ophelia]

I suspect June is at a point with her brand that as long as she keeps producing new content she'll do fine, especially with the mesh deformer just around the corner.