Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
We've all got at least one. One little virtual fashion/avatar customization pet peeve that gnaws at us when we see it in the wild. Maybe it's feet that aren't tinted to match the avatar's skin properly, maybe it's poorly fitted clothes cutting into the body, maybe it's even something as broad as flexi-prims or sculpties... But which ones are the worst?
When I thought about fashion faux pas in Second Life, my mind leapt right to my review of the new mesh avatars in the Second Life library. When you think about it, they seem absolutely designed to lead new players into faux pas territory the instant they try to experiment with their look. I'm sympathetic to those players, because in many cases they've never played something that demands as much skill from them in terms of customizing their avatar well as Second Life does. There are so many factors to consider, so many unique systems and specialized products to wrap your head around, it's understandable when even experienced SL fashion mavens fumble with their look.
But, like I said, we all have at least one.
I'll share my biggest virtual fashion pet peeves next week, but for now here what I want to know: What avatar style missteps absolutely drive you up the wall? Share in the comments below, and next week I'll collect the most popular responses to pinpoint the most loathed fashion faux-pas in Second Life.
TweetIris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, 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.
Pissed off pouty mouth with 15 million facal piercings.
Posted by: Selena Anansi | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 12:37 PM
Faux pas? Those wide, wide gaps between the thighs, the overly pouty/frowned lips with the severely small chins. The pants with the insanely tight calf to ankle area and the saggy crotch that makes it look like a dirty diaper that has been worn for about a month. The overly massive T&A in mesh (and even not in mesh)..I could go on and on.
Posted by: Anarya Elderslie | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 12:44 PM
thigh gaps and the baggy butt pants and skinnny calves ...sad thing is people are trying this look in real life...scarey
Posted by: Sweet Valentine | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 02:01 PM
I'm no fashion plate. I pretty much ignore technical glitches.
The only thing that really bothers me is when somebody dresses in a way calculated to offend, and then pretends to be upset when anybody expresses offense. That's just visual trolling for the lulz.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 02:09 PM
oh god, that list is long:
That flexi keeps being used, especially the "haute" couture. I mean it is fun to see movement and wax poetic about the olden days, but come on.
But mostly, the uniform look of blogs (expect sl.feeds as it is a curated feed for a hipper demographic), because everyone is either a toad or hyper-glamazon. I did morph my old av's odd, old lips for the modern skin industry (super big lips) when I revived her. Honestly, I want the fashion industry to create a young, modern fashion-forward brand (to which I may in fact start if there is time in my schedule) because the couture fashion industry lives on extremes, the brand has a more mature aesthetic or it is more art than fashion (not that fashion can't be art). While the mature aesthetic can be styled to be younger, I look too young to wear Celoe. I also noticed that skins that the hyper-glamazons tend to pick are faces that have a more mature look, so everything on the feeds look so schizophrenic. While I am not trying to bump my blog but a few of my newer posts, try to encapture that modern New Yorker/editorial look I am trying to cultivate on my old av.
Posted by: Kitty Revolver | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 02:09 PM
Proportions.
I can handle any look a person goes for, just about - even if its way away from appealing to me.
But if you're proportions are not done well, its the thing I notice and cannot stop noticing.
THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS INTENTIONAL DISTORTION.
Artistic design often distorts bodies - but does so for specific effect. In this way Picasso understood proportion better than most SL avatars. Because you cannot distort well, until you understand what you are distorting away from - so that your distortion can convey something.
And if you have the eye for it, you can spot the difference.
I don't like the frowns and fish mouths, I don't like blond avatars, I don't care for male avatars, and especially the 'long black hair and biker outfit' look... and I'm not a fan of a number of looks.
- But those are what people go for, and my distaste for those looks is personal aesthetics. I can appreciate a well done avatar on those looks even if its not a look I care for.
But if the proportions are bad... then I'm just not going to be able to get past that without moving my camera so that you're not in view when I talk to you...
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 03:34 PM
Its amazing to me that in a world about imagination, that people get slammed for their choice of avatar.
If you can't handle the way people make their avs look, just get a sim and never leave it and only allow those you find acceptable. Problem solved.
Proportion and fashion choices don't really mean anything in SL-it's just a way to apply non virtual constructs to a virtual world. Stop. Get over yourselves or even better, get out of SL.
Posted by: thenittygritty | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 03:39 PM
The double whammy of mesh clothes that are not textured on the inside and poorly designed alphas resulting in transparent gaps in the avatar body!
Posted by: Shug Maitland | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 04:03 PM
I'm a notorious crankypants so don't get me started.
Bling!
People still wearing invisiprim shoes.
Invisiprim shoes...with Bling.
Badly or non-tinted feet...and why are they not wearing slink feet!
IPR (invisible pony riders) in general
Phat azz
Lola/Tango
Mesh heads
Not wearing a modern skin. I know people who still wear 2008/2009 vintage ones...and it's not just Desmond Shang!
Lookalike hair, meaning hair that looks too much like styles a creator has previously done, or like some other creators hairstyle.
Boxes in Boxes.
Gacha only items.
"O HAI" "bestie" "bishes" "kthxbai" "hawt"
An avatar that looks like a 12 year old girl wearing a 22 year old's clothing.
Skins without good redheaded brows.
Hair without a good dark red.
8 foot tall SL Models who make ME look short, and who look like someone kicked their KittyCat and stole their candy.
The lack of tasteful daytime dresses, dressy ensembles. Yes I go to coldlogic but some of their hemlines could stand to be a bit longer.
Kitten heels. We need a Slink Kitten Heel foot. Yes, I know, I'm probably the only one who wants a Kitten Heel foot in addition to the other ones.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 04:46 PM
What's Your Most Hated Virtual Fashion Faux Pas?
I almost wanted to answer this question, but then I started reading the answers. The more I read, the more I just wanted to keep it to myself.
Criticizing the way others look is very low class. It NEVER makes people envy or respect you.
It just makes you uglier than any glitch or clothing choice ever could.
Posted by: A.J. | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 06:53 PM
I agree entirely with A.J., I'd much rather criticize people's behavior than I would their fashion choices.
...Dres
Posted by: Dresden Ceriano | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 07:46 PM
What? Fashion criticism comes with being a fashionista. What is a makeover but a form of fashion criticism. What do people watch award show red carpet shows for...to criticize the fashion! Besides, Fashion, like behavior, is learned, and one can have strong opinions on it. That isn't a bad thing. One can also say things about certain items of fashion without being personal about it. Do you think I would go directly up to someone wearing Bling and say "Bling is tacky and you shouldn't wear it."? No. I might say that if I was asked my opinion, like Iris has done with the readers here, but not unsolicited.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 08:47 PM
I understand where CronoCloud is coming from and appreciate the viewpoint.
I look at fashion blogs and appreciate people who take the time to bring their style and new products to light, then I take what I like and leave the rest.
I remember learning in SL and all through the process I felt like I looked great until someone pointed out that I didn't and it hurt my feelings. Everyone feels they look great just like they are in SL and why can't we just leave it at that?
Pretending to be a fashionista is fine as long as you don't buy into the fantasy that it's something that anyone else needs, except those who are selling their products.
When you feel that you've reached the point that you're good enough to criticize, it might be time to check the sliders on your head size.
Posted by: A.J. | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 04:41 AM
oldbies that still look like 2006 (99% of SLU)
oldbies that look like 2006(99% of SLU) who still don't have a AO, so not only do they look like a noob, but they stand like one also.
99.9% of what people wear on mainland, either they are noobs who don't know where to shop, or they are oldbies holding onto the past (without a AO)
Posted by: 2014 | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 06:33 AM
WHY DO ALL THE MESH MAKERS , CEPTING THE LIQID MESH , think we, who are size m or L have giant boobs , how about a size mesh with a normal hip to bust , in a size not S XS XXS ,
Posted by: HALEY Salomon | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 08:01 AM
Obviously, ALl that still not use Always Alm on!
Ok it is not about the topic, but i do hate to know there are so many that can not see the world as they should.
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 08:49 AM
And 2014, for sure you don't go to mainland a lot.
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 08:51 AM
And finally to answer the topic, all that users still wear cause they don«t have alm on:
Invisible prims.
lack of face lights, if you always use Alm on and shadows you would know that the world is a lot darker and face lights are essential to enhance the avatar face details without changing a sky setting made to enhance the shadows and so on, so those who use a sky wind light made to enhance the details of avatars, should know that with alm on and shadows, those sky wind lights are not the ones that will showe the best of the shadows and materials effects.
Posted by: zzpearlbottom | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 08:57 AM
tyrannosaur arms. That's about it. But, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm bothered by it, but instead just puzzled how a very tall avi could have such stumpy little arms.
I'm not really fussed about people's avatars. Okay one caveat to that...people who run around in world with their over-sized genitalia hanging out O.o
Posted by: Tracy RedAngel | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 09:48 AM
7, sometimes 9 foot tall avatars making people with realistic heights look like weird short people.
If they were a minority it wouldn't be a problem but with a room full of them and the room is huge too where any arguments that you are normal just get laughed at
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 09:53 AM
My biggest bugaboos are implant lines and stretched textures over implants. If you go to the trouble to wear a bust, butt and hands/feet, match your things up decently or at least photoshop your lines and stretched areas in your 'fashion shoots'. Especially if you blog. This point always just gets to me and seems so sloppy regardless of any otherwise good styling.
Most things I don't like in SL fashion are similar to RL fashion, just a difference in personal preferences and I can appreciate a well-done styling even if the fashions do not suit my tastes at all. I like "pretty" so intentionally slightly off scale, odd or ugly is often not pleasing to me until it's way out there off the scale and then I magically like it again.
The funniest thing though, is seeing someone attempt to pull off a complex styling when they aren't quite sure how it all works together correctly so some items are wildly incongruous by accident.
I am guilty of some of the things mentioned in comments above though too (and don't care) because I have cute invisiprim shoes that I'm still attached to and I still like to watch flexi things swish.
I don't tell my opinion on other people's style unless asked or in an article or by invitation to comment like this post though. I think that is the correct way to do it.
Posted by: Fauve Aeon | Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 07:19 PM
cant really say about other peoples faux pas
but mine is trying to stuff my S size avatar body into a XS dress just by breathing in hard. just so I dont look fatter than I actual am
and then obviously the blame is on the mesh dressmaker when it don't happen and bits of skin start falling out in the most embarrassing ways
a mesh dressmaker who have no idea of the reality. Who seems to be the only person in the whole history of fashion ever evah!! to not know that can always stuff a actual size 14 body into a size 10 dress. Which is how it should be and always was and always will be
(:
Posted by: irihapeti | Friday, June 20, 2014 at 12:17 AM
Most bizarre are the frown moon faces, with the sad pouty lips. A ridiculous thigh gap. Giraffe's necks, plus a huge head, what makes them look like a 14 years old who found mom's secret wardrobe. Mesh heads, some even on 'Full Bright', which finally eliminate individuality for good. The army of boyish guys with the sagging pants and rings plugged into their earlobe. Doms with the stereotypical black leather rocker style. Hulks with the tiny head even. And the female counterpart, compensating something with a complete lack of curves. But in general I'm most annoyed by boring people imitating real life haute couture down to the last detail, as if that makes them more feminine and emancipated.
It's all good though. Most the time I can tell right away with what kind of personality am I dealing with, without even studying profiles. Just proof that SL is not a game, but a parody.
Posted by: Trin Trevellion | Saturday, June 21, 2014 at 05:18 PM
This probably isn't considered a fashion faux pas but it really bugs me when I see a new resident wearing a skin from 06 or worse. I so want to search out where that Shy Caramel is coming from and kill it. Whoever is giving (or worse yet, selling) that and other old stuff to new residents should be seriously ashamed of themselves.
Posted by: Galilla | Saturday, June 21, 2014 at 11:02 PM
Haley: I'm with you on the mesh boob sizes. Trying to find the perfect size for my preferred sort of shape in SL is shorter, athletic (a healthy amount of muscle and fat, but not obese) and smaller-boobed. Finding a dress that hugs the smaller bust but still fits around the hips (and everything else)…. Heh. Good luck with that.
Galilla: That skin, and also bling. Particle sparkles can be done well, but the laser-emitting full-bright jewelry that's still out there in spades… That can go. (Ladies, your thong does not need to throw out sparks…)
I'm not a fashionista. I wear ridiculous things. It's fun! But nobody needs to accessorize with seizures-in-waiting.
Posted by: Cicadetta Stillwater | Monday, June 23, 2014 at 01:58 PM