Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
There's a wide range of avatar enhancements that have been embraced (more or less) by fashionistas and SL photographers alike for the extra dose of realism they can add to a shot, but there's one popular augmentation that plenty of us have turned our noses up at: Prim breasts.
There's an assumption in SL that if you have any kind of breast enhancement, it's for the sake of pixel sex or fetishism. There's nothing wrong with either of those things necessarily, but they're often used as an excuse to push everything associated with them into a dark little corner of shame... Even the products we may actually like. Many of us, especially those with more voluptuous avatars, are unhappy with the shape of the default avatar's breasts-- I've regularly worn and written about replacement feet, hands, heads, bodies, and even eyelids over the years, and I've even mentioned how I often use the liquify tool in Photoshop on my avatar's breasts to make the shape a little less polygonal and a little more natural. If I'm willing to wear mesh hands to spare myself the editing time, why not prim breasts too?
Taking all this into account, I thought it was about time I take a look at what attachable "implants" can bring to the table for even a prudish fashionista/photographer like myself. Keep reading for a fair, even-handed, and NSFW look at these prim puppies!
Tangos are the latest mesh breasts from Sandi Moonites of Lolas [SLurl], one of the top names in Second Life silicone. They come with a quite few options right out of the box including some basic clothing layers, but what makes them so versatile are the appliers sold by other stores so their clothes and skins can be worn seamlessly over top. Pink Fuel [SLurl] [SL Marketplace], one of my favorite skin brands in SL, recently released their Tango appliers and naturally they were my first choice. This applier replaces the default Tango chest texture with one that matches their recent Kumi skin line, as well as offering several different nipple colours (for the true connoisseur). A skin applier isn't mandatory, but it keeps seams between your avatar and your enhancements to a minimum, and saves you from having to match your skin tone exactly with the HUD. Frankly I wish prim hands and feet had appliers too.
Texturing aside, Tangos have a much more flattering silhouette than the default SL breasts. Though personally I prefer a slightly smaller and more supported chest, there's a naturalness to the Tangos that I can also really appreciate-- they look like they have weight, not like they're just two masses stuffed against your ribcage.
As with almost anything in SL, the trick is in how you wear them. I really like the look of them scaled down because my avatar is usually much smaller-chested. Unfortunately it can be tricky to line the applied textures up properly with your skin and shape when they're scaled down, so I wore them large for the sake of my pictures (and I'll admit that I felt a little bit like an over-stacked comic-book heroine at first, but I didn't dislike it either). Although the majority of Lolas business caters to those who want bigger breasts, I'd love to see a line of more modestly sized Tangos for those who want the more realistic looking shape and weight of the Tangos breasts in a smaller package. Smaller sizes may also encourage the open-mindedness necessary for people to try them, instead of dismissing them as a fetish item.
A lot of the stores that cater to prim breast users don't do much to discourage the stereotype that prim breasts are only for a certain kind of virtual woman, but a quick search of the SL Marketplace will reveal that you don't have to do all your shopping at places like The Whore Mansion (which I promise I did not make up) if you don't want to. For example, I picked up the cute Skinny sweater shown above from Paradisis [SLURL] [SL Marketplace], and it comes with an applier as well as 2 different colours. Even though the majority of clothing for prim breasts is pretty provocative, there are plenty of tops, dresses, and ensembles available for more conservative tastes.
It boils down to this: I know plenty of women who are proud of their ample chests and consider it a part of their identity, but who hate the awkward (and ugly) look of large breasts made with Second Life's avatar sliders; likewise I know a lot of photographers who spend ages touching up the perfect breast shape in a picture from Second Life. So come on. Try them out (though the lack of a demo makes this step harder), shrink them or stretch them, bare them or cover them, just don't let the prejudice surrounding prim breasts keep you from trying something that might be exactly what you're looking for.
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.
This pretty much dates specifically back to people running around with tripple-Z sized prim boobs...
And demanding to be taken seriously. :p
There's forum and blog drama over it all from a few years back.
At the end of the day... boob enhancement is the same thing as 'male frontal enhancement' yet socially accepted in RL in many circles.
In SL though, you can almost always spot a prim bolted onto somebody... so this tends to end up looking silly. And on the 100% mesh female figures... it is often over-exaggerated.
And well... that just leads to bad publicity.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 03:07 PM
Mind the above said...
There -IS- a problem with the shape of the default avatar's bosom.
You -can- fix it using 'avatar physics'.
- Give yourself the right size, and the right general cleavage, but make the sag nothing. Float those puppies.
Then flip on avatar physics and dial up the default gravity way high - to pull them back down. And set assorted 'motion physics' down low.
This will not work too well in clothes - unless you set the motion end of things to nothing you will bound right through a mesh top. But its good for when you wear body paint (pre-mesh clothes) or less.
As for the mesh solution... its still gotta fit your top - and at that point you're just spending l$'s for the mental security of knowing you have something under that top - which is the same as those guys who always wear their attachment but turn it trans. :)
And if you're doing nudes... you've got the skin match and attachment seam issues...
So its only really going to be of value in tops that end before the bottom of the bosom, but cover the whole of the top where the seam happens.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 03:23 PM
There isn't skeleton bones to animate the boobies as far as I know.
Posted by: Cube Republic | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 03:56 PM
Everybody wants to change the default SL head, feet, hands, and now boobies. LL needs to design a new default avi, but preferably...hire someone else to do it so they don't screw it up. I have the SLink hands and feet and they are very nice. But I would rather they were attached permanently. I feel the same about mesh breasts, I would rather the default avatar have more options and refinement for size and shape. Some people might want small and perky, some might want a heavy pair of knockers that hang to their knees. Who's anyone to judge? But kuddos go to the creators who give people all these options in SL that LL doesn't right now.
Posted by: Tracy Redangel | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 03:58 PM
Hoo whee. Technolergy am a great thing. Miss Ofeelya, you keep up these-here human-interest pieces.
I luvs me some cha-cha bingos, and if'n this am where fake-world technolergy am a-going, I can only say me one word: "Motorboat."
Posted by: Pappy Enoch | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 06:44 PM
Tracy is, of course, right. The best solution would be for the avatar to not be limited as it currently is. Alas, the closest anything has come to being done was back when Snakekiss Noir's Proposition #125 (pre-JIRA) moved to "acknowledged" status, with the comment "We agree avatar customization and quality should improve over time. Avatar mesh improvements are also mentioned in the related #1093."
I submitted the request again as JIRA entry VWR-1258 when the old feature request system was wiped; that entry has sat unresolved and unassigned for almost *five and a half years*. Mesh avatars overcome some of the stock avatar limits, but as far as I know you can't buy clothing that will work on any mesh avatar the way you can buy clothing that will work, sort of, on any stock avatar, and that puts a major crimp in the market for mesh avatars.
So, what we have is the efforts of those who make prim and mesh breast attachments--for which I, for one, am grateful. They do the best they can to overcome the limitations of the SL avatar, and for that I am grateful. Alas, since they are attachments, they have the connotations of RL breast implants.
It's been a very long time indeed since clothing for prim breast users was pretty well confined to slutwear. Any list I could give here would unintentionally slight many stores, so I will simply refer people to Maggie Bluxome's blog, http://www.maggiebluxome.com/, for a near-encyclopedic listing of clothiers and copious beautiful photography of their work.
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 07:15 PM
I would be far more willing to give Prim breasts a try, I do like the more natural shape they give, if there was a wider range of clothing options for them. And if switching to them wouldn't make any clothing that uses clothing layers but has no appliers already owned useless.
Ideally, but next to impossibly, I'd love to be able to wear my massive wardrobe I have now with them. But that's 99% clothing layer items, which you just can't wear on top of a of a prim item.
And until there is a way to make that happen I just don't see the majority of SL users going over to them. They don't want to give up something they already have, and can easily get more of, to wear something more limiting.
Posted by: Softpaw Sommer | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 10:29 PM
My problem with them is that to have them attached so they look "natural", they have to be set to some stupidly huge size ( in my opinion ). I wouldn't mind an enhancement that smoothed out the jagged mesh of the SL avatar boobs at the size I am comfortable with, but until then, I will give these, and a virtual backache, a miss.
Posted by: Connie Arida | Wednesday, December 05, 2012 at 11:33 PM
Another advantage of breast attachments and the clothing layer: painted texture clothing does not work and play well with concavities. Real cloth takes a shortcut over concavities; it's not vacuum sealed to your body, and the most visible example thereof is cleavage.
For non flat-chested stock female avatars, art on T-shirts is warped into a travesty of the artist's intent; text is distorted into illegibility. With prim breasts? No problem. (I made a clothing layer for a white T-shirt that read "I use prim breasts and I shop" to wear around mainstream SL clothing stores. I should get it out of inventory and wear it again--in SL you don't have to worry about the cold. :))
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 03:14 AM
@ Pussycat
What is your definition of bad publicity?
Posted by: Bouncer Criss | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 06:18 AM
i think the main porblem is the size and it cant war the original clothes you inveseted on.
only wear those stpuid ugly appliers..
can't wear the original design from the experts fashion stores.. it is a headche to apply and match the skin tone too.
also the bigger the boobs that means the smaller brain size you have.. just like in RL.
those ugly prim breast make you look lie a whore.. unless you want ot be a pole dancer or a whore to gain sex voice to gain money..in red light district.. I don't recommend any models to wear those . .ti just make you look " cheap"
and as in RL. no big breast models are as popular as the flat chased.. which from the point of view of a clothes designer in RL.. onyl the falt chested or noraml size breats carrier can wear the fashion in a HIGH end and sophisicated adn stylish way..
STill .. I will say NONONONONONONONONONONONO
no pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
dont' make all the SL resident looks like stpuid cheap ugly whore playboy mates .. even the playboy mates have a more proportaioned and well proportion look.
i just shake my head and think you must be selling ass or someone's SLAVE or you are super flat chested in RL.. if not who will wear those 2 prims bigger than your head !!
give me a break !
Posted by: mousebi | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 07:03 AM
Bought them, the Lolas tangos and im very happy with them in all ways.
Tehy are mod, can have scripts removed, can be modded in so many things and most of all, they match my old urio Sundust skin tone after some tweeking without any need to use alpha!
Will not coment on posts that try again to descriminate.
SL is what ones wants to be, period!
Posted by: ZZ Bottom | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 07:08 AM
And Melissa, I recized mine in 3 sizes, one of them is even smaller then my reg avatar shape breasts size!
Posted by: ZZ Bottom | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 07:11 AM
@mousebi Thank you for completely proving my point about the ridiculous bias we've developed against breasts.
Posted by: Iris Ophelia | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 08:33 AM
@Mousebi
"also the bigger the boobs that means the smaller brain size you have.. just like in RL."
This argument is so stupid !
I'm maybe naive but i hope that i'm not the only one to judge people just with their appearance ... RL and SL.
Posted by: Eve Kazan | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 08:55 AM
oops i wanted to say "i'm not the only one to NOT judge" ^^ sry for the mistake
Posted by: Eve Kazan | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 11:53 AM
@Mousebi
really, the last thing one has to worry about the t-rex stick insects alien "things" that pass as the current crop of models in SL is the size of their breasts.
Lolas boobies are a nice accessory. As ZZ Bottom said, they can be made to work if, for whatever reason, one fancies to don them.
The fact remains that the base LL supplied avatar is old and in urgent need of heavy TLC.
Until then, thank goodness for content creators such as Sandi Moonites, Siddean Munro and many others who can enrich our SL visual experience with their skills and creativity.
Posted by: Paola Tauber | Thursday, December 06, 2012 at 12:05 PM
Personally, I'd love to try the Tangos, but there doesn't appear to be a demo, and there's no way I'm spending nearly L$2K on anything without first trying it on.
Oh, and mousebi? I wear a 38L bra IRL, and I don't have implants... but I do have a Master's degree and some old IQ tests with results in the genius range. Unlike you, I can also properly spell, capitalize, and punctuate in English -- and oddly enough, I don't use my breasts for any of that! Hey, you know what IS a fairly reliable indicator of stupidity, though? Prejudice like yours.
Posted by: Eva | Friday, December 07, 2012 at 03:40 AM
@Mousebi
"also the bigger the boobs that means the smaller brain size you have.. just like in RL."
That ain't true, you rascal! The bigger the cha-cha bingos, the dumber I acts when I sees 'em.
That am true for most guys, real or fake, I reckons.
Miss Iris, I hopes you make this a reg'lar feature of New Fake World Notes. It am the best dang thing since the Alphaville Herald got quiet. Keep up the good work! Ain't nuffin a-saggin' around NWN these days!
Posted by: Pappy Enoch | Saturday, December 08, 2012 at 07:17 PM
Having bought nearly every prim breast on the SL market, I have to say, the Tangos are the most realistic. They don't come with all the fetish-y scripts, but they DO look wonderful, especially when the skin you use (Spanked has some loverly ones) is carefully matched and has appliers.
Posted by: Soultrain0217 Res-e-Dent! | Sunday, December 09, 2012 at 11:35 PM
Oh the sillyness... Some answers...
I use lola tango's , and also own their prim breasts, but I'm still new to that community. I must say sometimes I do feel a little alone there, but things seem to be changing , as one can tell by this great post -beautiful photo by the way!
I time travel rp, so I only wear retro looks anyways, which limits me even without wearing mesh or prim breasts, as skirts need to be a certain length, a certain level of modesty in everyday wear is a must and then it has to match the era... As my avatar has always been on the heavier chested side, (and it's not a very fashionable thing in the era I play at, quite the opposite...) I decided one day after lengthy concideration to give a more natural look a try hence prim breasts. Not becuase I wanted to look like I had huge fake bolt-ons (not judging-happy for anynoe who wants that look-each to their own) but quite on the contrary , because I wanted to create a more natural look. And I definitly haven't regretted it. I'm very thankful more and more designers are taking an interest to especially the mesh tangos. I do believe , until LL comes up with a better standard avatar, they are the way forward for many. They 're much easier to use then the lola prim ones and have a beautiful shape. I wear mine at a large , yet not unrealistic size, a tad smaller than my larger standard avatar size ones, and so I'm on the band wagon- I wouldnt mind mesh breasts that are a smaller more natural side, also because it would interest more SLers and maybe get more quality designers to create appliers.
I do critize the lack of quality modest tango clothes , though there are some great ones out there! I'd love to see more designers offering appliers, especially for more everyday and modest wear. but then again I'd like that in general :D.
P.S.: soemthing another desinger is offering which I LOOOVE is curvy mesh tops (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/16590) would love to see more of those...oh and while we're at it, I need a coat-anyone :D lol
Posted by: Lolle | Monday, December 10, 2012 at 09:09 AM
"[Lolas! Tango breasts] come with a quite few options right out of the box including some basic clothing layers, but what makes them so versatile are the appliers sold by other stores so their clothes and skins can be worn seamlessly over top."
One thing needs to be made extremely clear here, and I regret not having made this comment much sooner: Lolas breasts are *not* unique in that respect. The SL industry of third-party clothiers supporting prim breasts began years ago with Bart Seymour's development of breasts with a "clothing layer" that could be painted with a texture. Other breast makers adopted this technique, and as a result, making breast attachment-friendly clothing could be done by a third party. Most importantly, one outfit could be made to work with the vast majority of brands of breast attachments. This made it possible for people to make clothing for the whole market of breast attachment users rather than a single brand, and also meant breast makers could stick with breasts rather than having to split their time between breasts and clothes.
Go to https://www.maggiebluxome.com/ and hover over "clothing" at the top of the page. You will see *dozens* of makers of breast attachment-friendly clothing, the vast majority of which support multiple brands of breast attachments. At the moment there are at least a dozen breast attachment makers in SL.
Breast attachment-supporting clothiers are doing their best to get out appliers for Lolas! Tangos. This is extra work; from what I've seen in the Tango documentation and that of clothing made for them, there is a more complex interaction than there has been in the past. In the past, you only had to wear the applier. For Tangos, you have to wear the applier, go to the breast menu and select either the outer clothing ("top") layer or the lingerie ("bra") layer, and then click on a button that appears when you wear the applier. Tango appliers won't work with other breast attachments, and vice versa. This worries me, because the new influx of clothiers seems to only be concerned with Tangos. (I should add that Tangos are also not unique among breast attachments in having both an outerwear layer and a lingerie layer.)
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Monday, December 24, 2012 at 10:28 PM
You may want to consider a sale on the breasts.
Profit by volume.
Posted by: Cam Duncan | Tuesday, February 05, 2013 at 10:55 AM