Tag: Fashion

Fat Shaming in Second Life, and the June and Jonathan Piggu Mesh Avatars

All my life, from childhood on, I have struggled with my weight. At the moment I am at my heaviest, and it does bother me a great deal. Losing weight is so hard; keeping it off is even harder! I need to haul my raggedy ass back to Weight Watchers…

I want to make this very clear: everybody has the right to choose the avatar that they feel best represents them! In no way do I want to tell people what to do with their own avatar appearance. You do what you want!

I do have two avatars who are fat like me; one uses the Piggu June female mesh avatar, and the other is the Piggu Jonathan male mesh avatar. I love trotting them out to events where everybody else looks like a fashion model who hasn’t eaten in a month 😉

In Second Life, there is a mesh avatar body and clothing store that is unashamedly up-front with its negative opinions about fat people (I’m not going to post a SLURL, although you can probably figure out the store from the photograph):

Fat Shaming in Second Life.png

According to this blogpost by Wagner James Au of the blog New World Notes, this was the site of a recent protest by people who were offended by this sales approach. I wish I knew about it at the time; I would have joined the protest!

Piggu 2 21 May 2018.png

My avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head and Body, Glasses, T-shirt and Shoes: Piggu June mesh avatar (L$700 from the SL Marketplace)

Hair: Sakura hair from Argrace (free group gift)

Jeans: June’s denim jeans (L$100 from the SL Marketplace)

AO: (Almost) Still AO for Fat Girls by Voir (L$350 from the SL Marketplace)

TOTAL COST OF THIS AVATAR: L$1150

And here is my Jonathan avatar:

Piggu 4 21 May 2018.png

He is wearing:

Mesh Head and Body, Glasses and Hair: Piggu Jonathan mesh avatar (L$700 from the SL Marketplace)

Shirt, Pants, Sneakers and Watch: Jonathan’s Techwear outfit (L$200 from the SL Marketplace)

AO: Fat Boy mini AO by Voir (L$300)

TOTAL COST OF THIS AVATAR: L$1200

If you wish to support the creator of the Piggu avatar system, here is her Patreon page, and a link to her store on the SL Marketplace. She also has a Facebook page.

Second Life Steals, Deals and Freebies: We Love Role-Play Freebies

Today Vanity Fair paid a visit to the current round of We Love Role-Play, a regular shopping event focused on the myriad forms of historical and fantasy roleplay in Second Life.

Most booths have a free gift which you can pick up if you join the We Love Roleplay group (which can be rather difficult to search for under Search in your SL client, because it uses that stupid <3 symbol instead of the word “love”, so just use this URI to find the group).

Vanity Fair is wearing two freebies from We Love Roleplay in these two photos, taken at the Romanum role-play sim (please click each picture to see it in a larger size):

 

The flowering wreath headdress is a gift from the F&M booth, and the Roman dress tunic is a gift from the Infinity booth. Both are free.

And the following complete outfit (top, skirt, and matching large gold leaf necklace) is a gift from the Les Encantades booth. Isn’t it gorgeous? Les Encantades makes stunningly beautiful historical and fantasy role-play costumes.

Les Encantades 18 May 2018.png

Unfortunately, I can’t give you direct SLURLs to the individual booths, but they are all arranged in a large circle so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding these glorious freebies!

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals and Freebies: Get 789 High Quality Outfits, Jewelry, Shoes and Hair for Only L$101!

This is an update to my surprisingly popular blogpost about visiting four stores in Second Life and getting 218 items for only L$100.

So, I decided to grab a spare avatar and take it to the extreme, visiting the following six stores, each of which offers a large number of group gifts, and picking up every single one:

  • Legendaire (68 group gifts; group is free to join)
  • Scandalize (86 group gifts; group costs L$100 to join)
  • Shoenique Designs (29 group gifts; group is free to join)
  • Virtue (28 group gifts; group is free to join)
  • Coco Designs (35 group gifts; group is free to join)
  • Hilly Haalan (63 group gifts; group is free to join)

And then I hopped over to the following four freebie stores which I covered in my earlier blogpost about the best freebie stores in Second Life:

  • The Free Dove (where I picked up 152 items; you need to join the Free Dove group for free to pick up the freebies)
  • Ajuda SL Brasil (where I picked up a whopping 165 items, not counting obviously older system layer/flexiprim clothing styles)
  • Free*Style Store (12 items)
  • Sexy Shoppers Freebie Warehouse (63 items; you need to join the Sexy Shoppers group for L$1 to get the freebies here)

What did I get for visiting these 10 locations?

GRAND TOTAL: 701 items of clothing, shoes, hair and jewelry for only L$101 (L$100 for the Scandalize group join fee, and L$1 for the Sexy Shoppers group join fee)!

So, let’s take a look at some of the items we picked up in our shopping binge, shall we? (Please click on each picture to see it in a larger size.)

Look #1:

Mesh Head: Giselle Bento head by Altamura (no longer available for free; this was an Altamura gift from last Christmas at the eBENTO event, and you had to join the Altamura group for L$50 to get it)

Mesh Body: Jenny Bento body by Altamura (no longer available for free; this was a gift last Christmas from the Women Only Hunt)

Blouse: cream embroidered peasant blouse by Petite Mort (free from Ajuda SL Brasil)

Jeans: Thalia jeans from the Baby Monkey capsule wardrobe (free from the Free*Style Store )

Shoes: Classic black pumps by Marquesse (free at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil; this shoe comes in four colours; note that the Altamura Jenny mesh avatar body has Slink-compatible feet)

Hair: Portia hair by Firelight (free from Ajuda SL Brasil)

Look #2:

Mesh Head: same as in Look #1

Mesh Body: same as in Look #1

Dress: Artsy dress by Luxe Paris (free from The Free Dove)

Hair: Rima hair by Fabia (free from Ajuda SL Brasil)

Shoes: same as in Look #1

Look #3:

Mesh Head: same as in Look #1

Mesh Body: same as in Look #1

Dress: Virtue Free Dove dress (group gift from Virtue; no longer available at the Free Dove)

Hair: Amy hair by Fabia (free from The Free Dove)

Shoes (not shown): same as in Look #1, but in the white version

Look #4:

Mesh Head: same as in Look #1

Mesh Body: same as in Look #1

Blouse: FDH 8 blouse (group gift from Virtue)

Skirt: white pencil skirt from Marquesse (free from The Free Dove)

Hair: Rachel hair by CHARME (free from The Free Dove)

Shoes: same as in Look #1, but in the white version

Look #5:

Mesh Head: same as in Look #1

Mesh Body: same as in Look #1

Top and Skirt: Velure set from Scandalize (free group gift; group costs L$100 to join)

Hair: Leslie hair by Firelight (free from Ajuda SL Brasil)

Shoes (not shown): same as in Look #1

And there you have it! Now go shopping 😉 …

UPDATE 11:44 a.m.: A commenter on a cross-post of this blogpost to the Your Second Life group on Facebook told me about another store where you join the group for free, with oodles of freebies! The store is called !Soul, and here is the SLURL.

Soul Gifts 17 May 2018.png

Thank you for the tip, Susan Giroso! There are 88 group gifts here at this location!

That brings the new grand total to SEVEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-NINE items for only L$101! 

Here’s a look at one of the outfits from !Soul, the Delicate Satin Mesh Dress in a floral pattern, with matching boots (there are seven different patterns available for this outfit).

Second Life Steals, Deals and Freebies: A Newbie Avatar Makeover in Half an Hour, for Only Two Linden Dollars!

Every so often, for fun, I like to create a brand new avatar from scratch, then give myself exactly half an hour to try and see just how well I can give her a makeover. I try to transform her from a starter newbie to a look that is as stylish and non-newbie as possible, taking advantage of any gifts and offers for avatars under 30 days.

I refer to the Under 30 Days list of gifts and offers from the FabFree blog, and let me tell you, there are not nearly as many freebies for newbies as there were in the old days! It’s actually rather sad. Good thing there are all kinds of other steals and deals on the grid!

Today I took the starter Elizabeth avatar, as shown here:

Newbie Ellizabeth 16 May 2018

(*sigh* Those bulbous system avatar ankles…)

And I challenged myself to give her not just one, but two looks: one for daytime, and the other for evening.

Here is the day look (please click on the pictures to see them in a larger size):

My avatar is wearing:

Mesh Head and Mesh Eyes: Kenna mesh head from Genesis Lab (group gift; limited time free group join)

Mesh Body: eBody Classic avatar body (L$1 at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil or directly from the eBody store; note that the dollarbie version of this mesh body has only “thick” alpha sections on the HUD, not the finer alpha sections on the full-price version, which means that you have to be somewhat careful what you wear on it)

Hair: Melek fitted mesh hair by Sentinus (free from the Free Dove)

Sweater: Turtleneck Sweater by Coco Designs (free group gift; group is free to join)

Jeans: black Margot jeans by EccentriciXi (free gift for avatars under 30 days; use the provided SLURL to locate the black cubes and click on them to get a very nice starter wardrobe for your avatar!)

Shoes: Classic black pumps by Marquesse (free at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil; this shoe comes in four colours; note that the eBody Classic mesh avatar body has Slink-compatible feet)

AO Standing Pose: Female Basic Mocap AO by Vista Animations (L$1; located at the back of the female AO section of the store)

And here is my newbie avatar’s evening look. I took advantage of the free L$500 gift card offer from Kastle Rock Couture to outfit her (you can find the offer at this SLURL, you just click the box on the ground; this offer is only for newbies under 30 days old; please click on the pictures below to see them in a larger size):

My avatar is wearing the same mesh head, eyes, body and AO as before, with these additions…

Choker: Nina Choker by RxK (free from Ajuda SL Brasil; I tried to pick a skin tone for the eBody Classic mesh body to match the Genesis Kenna head as best I could, but there was still a slight seam visible, so the choker covers that)

Gown: pink Monarch strapless gown by Kastle Rock Couture (currently on sale for L$99 in the Kastle Rock Sale Room, which leaves me with another L$401 on the gift certificate to spend on more outfits!)

Shoes: Classic white pumps by Marquesse (free at the freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil; this shoe comes in four colours; note that the eBody Classic mesh avatar body has Slink-compatible feet)

Hair: I decided to keep the Elizabeth starter avatar updo hairstyle (some things just cannot be improved upon!)

And there you have it! The total cost of both outfits was L$2—L$1 for the eBody mesh avatar body and another L$1 for the AO.