Black can (surprisingly) be a bitch to match, and fishnet is notoriously unforgiving on the shoulders of a male avatar, but thanks to the generosity of a friend who is fond of fishing for free outfits (holy shit, the f-alliteration there…) Skell is now in possession of a cropped fishnet top and glittering black pearl necklace from Sn@tch for the excellent price of, well, nothing.
Now, it’s not as if I don’t have one or two black items in my inventory (*koff*) but as soon as I knew I had fishnet and black pearls to work with, there was only one way to go: full-on goth. And when Skell does full-on goth there’s usually a corset involved. And it’s not as if I don’t have one or two of those in my inventory either, but I couldn’t find one with the exact shade of black to match everything else. Go figure.
One of my teenaged friends was a goth, and while it wasn’t my lifestyle at the time, I hung out with him and his friends. And some of the boys were the prettiest things ever to wear long black coats over long black skirts. Dear god, I loved those boys ;-) And so Skell had to get a long black skirt. Finding proper gothwear of that vintage in SL is… difficult, but this long kilt from A:S:S came close enough (although, true, the belt has a kind of sporran attached, which is more Scottish than gothish, but it’s good enough).
The shape of that kilt is gorgeous, seriously. Much appreciation to Pho Vinternatt for making it.
Minimal accessories for this, as a matter of fact. The belt is quite in-yer-face, but the cropped fishnet top needed something at the wrists. I searched inventory for ‘cuffs’ but – instead of using classic leather cuffs – I found these gorgeous jacket cuffs from an outfit I’ve had for years (purchased in 2009, according to the item properties). Just one more reason why I will never cleanse my inventory of all the non-mesh items in it; I have too many little treasures like these squirrelled away ;-)
For hair, Skell fell back on a style from Dura that’s taken him from leather rocker to goth. It’s one of the most versatile and Skell-ish hairstyles he owns. The skin is one from Red Sand that he picked up during this year’s Menswear Fashion Week, and the makeup was a gift from Blackeri at the World Goth Fair. Eyeballs are courtesy of A:S:S (and, again, I love these). I have a lot of realistic eyes, but I adore finding the weird stuff that works so well in looks like this one.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Skell without jewellery. This ring is from one of my favourite SL jewellers: KOSH. I absolutely love Lynaja’s style: very dark in the main, but with some beautiful touches. Definitely a store I’d recommend to both male and female avatars who want something a little outside the ‘bright gold and shiny diamonds’ type jewellery.
Skell’s other ring is also from KOSH. Told you that store was a favourite ;-)
Nails are, as (almost) always, by Rozoregalia (although please release some more styles for men, Yumi!). These come in both short and long styles, and – unless he’s in slightly more butch mode – Skell usually wears the long ones.
The corset is an old, old, old one from Sn@tch. I’m not sure if it’s still available (even in the store’s outlet), as I bought this thing in 2008. I remember seeing the outfit it came from still on sale in the Bargain Basement at Sn@tch until Ivey remodelled the store, though, so you may be in luck.
The black pearls are a triple row, with a black diamond set into the upper pendant. Both these and the fishnet top are part of the current ‘Fish for This’ outfit at the Sn@tch mainstore. (Buy a 7 Seas fishing rod, park your butt on the couch, and – according to the friend who gifted the items to me – “go to bed with auto-cast and auto-accept on and when you wake up, hopefully you should have all the pieces!”.)
The hardest thing is often the footwear. I tried on no end of shoes and boots (including Lapointe & Bastchild’s awesome goth boots with the massive black platforms) but in the end I settled for these tortuous-looking toothed boots from MV. Slightly tricky to get a good shot of them under the kilt, so have two views: front and back:
And now, the important stuff. Again, since stores frequently move, the links that I give are to the creators’ profiles. Those are almost always updated with their latest store locations.
Top: Sn@tch – Cropped Fishnet Top [ ivey.deschanel ]
Kilt: A:S:S – Long Kilt (plain black) [ photos.nikolaidis ]
Corset: Sn@tch – (from) The Hunger: Red Right Hand [ ivey.deschanel ]
Boots: MV – Horde Boots (onyx) [ lokii.violet ]
Necklace: Sn@tch – Monochrome Pearls [ ivey.deschanel ]
Cuffs: Draconic Kiss – (from) Gabriel [ draconic.lioncourt ]
Skin: Red Sand – The Huntsmen (metal) [ david.december ]
Hair: Dura – Dura-Boy 34 (black) [ chiaki.xue ]
Eyes: A:S:S – Galaxy Eyes (black) [ photos.nikolaidis ]
Ring (left hand): KOSH – Hibernation Ring [ lynaja.bade ]
Ring (right hand): KOSH – Adain Ring (silver) [ lynaja.bade ]
Nails: Rozoregalia – Gazellver Ring & Nail 2 [ rozoregalia.braveheart ]
Makeup: Blackeri – Guyliner w/shadow [ definate.balfour ]
And it ain’t a post from me if it ain’t got music. Have some of the Sweetest Things ;-)
How soft you feel, so sweet
How thin, how lean, how sleek
You came like some star
Like the lovers we all dream of