OMG! We&ve been Blogged!

Eddi and Jago over at the "Sex Aficionado" blog have done a review of our "Marcello" shape. although this is one of our older shapes, it continues to be a favorite of our customers. Hop on over and check it out!

Hot Boots

They're called "Catbash boots" and I suppose they're intended as some sort of Neko paraphernalia, but you certainly don't have to be Neko to wear or appreciate them. the level of detail is pretty astounding if you ask me. the scripted bandana around the right ankle is a great touch, but IMO it would have been great if the colors available weren't all similar. Still at about L$480 they're a great value - not only because they look spectacular, but because 5 sizes are included. That's pretty awesome in my book.

Bad Hair Day

Recently I've been seeing an interesting new hairstyle floating around the clubs. Admittedly it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it evoked the 80's for me and looked cute on the AVI's I saw sporting it. The style is called "Silvio 2" and it's available from a content creator whose shop is fairly famous for its (ladies') creations. I won't name any names here, but hopefully someone attached to the store / hair will see this and fix the damn thing. Look at this hair...

As if shopping for good hair / skin / clothing as a guy in SL is not bad enough, try doing it as a blonde some time. You tend to run across things like this. Can you see what I'm talking about? Would you pay almost L$300 for something as bad as this? Are you filled with outrage? Probably not, but this *is* bad hair any way you slice it. Of course the Demo picture in her shop shows the hair from the other side (and in black) so not everyone will get treated to this example of shoddy craftsmanship - at least not right away. Oh, also... the hair is scripted resize (which I hate) and the store is one big 'no script zone' for your convenience.

"Nick"

This will be the first of my posts about one of my body shapes. I thought it would be appropriate to start with one of the first created, the one I named "Nick".

Originally I wanted to create sort of an 'ethnic' shape - one that evoked an attactive man of Mediterranean descent... Not specifically Greek or Italian, but one that could kind of go either way. When he was finished I spent a few days kicking around names until Gil finally decided that "Nick" would be best.

One of the things I wanted to do was focus on his nose and eyes, to give him a classic, yet rugged look - to make him beautiful, yet approachable at the same time. I wanted to stay away from the doe-eyed 'prettiness' that is so cliche and give him a friendly face that ordinary guys could relate to, yet find attractive. The not-too-full lips and squarish jaw line finished off the effect that I was going for. Once I had rounded his features a bit to make them less extreme, I knew that I had achieved what I was going for.

Next I chose a skin from Millage Valenti (approx L$2000 - I'm doing this from memory here) with a nice tanned texture that gave his facial features more depth without looking 'painted'. The triangular highlight area around the eyes, nose, and cheekbones worked perfectly to bring out the angularity of his face without looking harsh. Also, ths skin has some nice body highlighting that gives him a bit of a wiry muscularity that looks very male without making him look like a gymrat. The skin also includes a facelight that while good for photos, contains too many prims for use while travelling about the grid. As we all know, the SL client is only capable of rendering a total of 6 light sources. I believe that this facelight has a total of 7.

Once "Nick" was named and ready, I had to dress him for his photo shoot. For this I chose clothing from Brutal Gear. In keeping with my initial concept for the body shape, I chose something that would give him a masculine, yet comfortable lived-in look. I can't remember the prices off the top of my head right now (although I do promise to be more precise about this in the future), but the "Tread" tank top was under L$100 and the "Rebar" jeans were about L$125. Nick's Hair is from "Truth", and the color is Raven I do believe. This particular style goes for about L$250 and more than one shade of black is included.

The "Nick" body shape is available at all Agape Men's Store locations and sells for L$500 No Mod/Copy/No Trans. Both regular and "0" size feet versions are included as is an Agape (1 prim) facelilght and Styling Card.

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi there! My name's Zim Gunsberg and I'm an avatar in the Virtual World called Second Life.

I'm not a Fashionista by any means, but I do have a better than average eye for what looks good. I'm also the owner of the Agape Men's Store, where I sell male body shapes. Yeah, that does sound kind of strange, but this is a Virtual World we're talking about here - You can pretty much be anything you care to be. Face it, guys like looking good; and more often than not, they'd prefer to do it without having to spend an arm and a leg.

When I first got to Second Life I was pretty overwhelemed with all the choices available. I was also overwhelmed by the sheer amount of custom content available for women and the scarcity of good custom content for men. I thought, "Do guys not play Second Life? I see other guys here. They must get their clothes somewhere? Where can I find some cool stuff?"

After getting situated, I made it my mission to make my AVI look as hot as I could (hehe, that's me in the pic up there); so I dragged my buddies Gil and Trent around with me to just about every shop I could find and tried on as many things as I could until I thought I looked reasonably hot. This was back when the club DevilInside was the hottest gay nightspot on the Grid. I'd actually plan my outfits before heading on over, just waiting to show off the clothes and hair I'd found, and to see what everyone else was wearing (Shout outs here to Karmelle and Trent and Hartmann and Gil and Willi and Clarkie and everyone else; you all know who you are - and you all looked FAB... all the time! Muah!)

At this point you're probably wondering about my fashion creds. Trust me, I have none - other than visiting London in the 80's and having worked in the Theatre as a costume and scenic designer for 12 years (that's IRL, btw). So do I "know" fashion? No, but I've got a good eye for what looks 'right' on the male body. Being a homo helps a lot (wink wink), but don't let that scare you off if you're a straight guy reading this.