What's some good SL clothing stores?

[kurt28]

I haven't come across very good free clothes, so I'd rather pay for something better.  Can you point me to some good clothing stores on SL?

Thank you

[Talligurl]

What sort of clothing do you want? What body do you need them for? I am going to guess that since your name is Kurt, that you are a guy? Do you have a mesh avi or classic? Do you want applier clothes or mesh? Lots of different options that need to be known to steer you in the right direction.

[kurt28]

I don't know about the body because I was planning on getting a different avi body too.  Yes I am a guy.  I just have an ordinary avi so I'm guessing classic.  I'm not sure of the difference between applier clothes and mesh.  I never heard of applier before, but I have heard of mesh and it seems like people have problems with mesh. 

[Talligurl]

Mesh is more complicated do not rush into that, especially not for a guy. Appliers are also known as layers, they conform to the shape of the body, and in effect are like painted on clothes. they are much easier to work with, and often much less expensive to buy. I am not sure I can be of much help to you though for recommending stores since I don't buy menswear. generally however in my experience most guys don't buy much of it either, typically they find an outfit they like and wear it all the time.

[Ceka Cianci]

I would say the market place might be the best place to look..

At the Market place,In the search type in ,system clothes, first..then click search and wait for the page to load..

Then on the list of options in the menu on the left choose,apparel and wait for the page to load again..

Then choose,Men's and wait for the page to load..

That should narrow down more to system clothes for you for men..

Look in the descriptions and details of the items for things that say they are system clothing..

Some will have appliers,but also system clothing..

just make sure you system clothing is in there somewhere..

 

I wish I could help more than that..My RL husband was in for a bit and had some nice places that he would shop,but I couldn't say if they were around  or not anymore and he's not home right now..

Hopefully this kind of helps get you on your way though

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Ceka Cianci

[Skell Dagger]

Since I'm suffering one of my occasional bouts of insomnia, I'm still awake at 5am, so bear with me if the following is a trifle convoluted. I'm a bit brain-fogged and loopy right now

It would help, Kurt, if you could give us an idea of the style of clothing you're looking for. Most guys will want at the very least a small handful of outfits to choose from: a good pair of jeans and some t-shirts, one formal suit in either a smart business or tuxedo style, something to wear to the beach, footwear to match these outfits, etc. Those are the basics, but if you have a certain more specific style you're interested in (eg: biker leathers, hipster stuff, and the like) then let us know.

I don't know how long you've been a resident in SL for, so forgive me if this post is a bit 'for Dummies', but here's some basic info in the form of a glossary, since there's a lot of choice available these days:

Applier clothing - When you see the word 'applier' used, it will be in regard to a purchased mesh body. Applier clothing will not work on the default system avatar. This comes in the form of a worn HUD that you click to apply (hence the name) a shape-conforming layer of clothing to your mesh body.

The shorts in this picture are an example of applier clothing on a mesh body:

System clothing - This works like applier clothing, but is for the default system avatar. It's the oldest form of clothing in SL, and - like applier clothing - it conforms to the body. (Think of it as being 'painted on'.) It comes in the form of underwear (undershirt and underpants layers), shirt and pants layers, and jacket layers. As might be expected, anything on the undershirt layer will be worn beneath anything on the shirt layer, which in turn will be beneath the jacket layer.

System clothing often comes with extra pieces that can be worn to add 3D parts to it, such as sculpted pant cuffs, jackets collars, etc.

An example of system clothing on a system body. The shirt collar and cuffs are sculpted additions:

Mesh clothing - This is (for want of a better description) 3D clothing that doesn't fit like a second skin in the way that applier and system clothing does. It comes in several forms, as follows:

- Standard Sizing: The typical sizes you might find in a RL store. XS, S, M, L, XL and so on. Usually you'll be roughly the same size, no matter what clothing you try on (although, as in RL, there are a few stores where you'll always be a 'small' or a 'large', even though you usually wear 'medium').

- Fitted mesh: Also known as 'fitmesh'. This is a single size that will fit itself to your body no matter what size (within reason) you are.

- Slink/Signature/Aesthetic/etc: This is clothing that is fitted specifically to certain brands of mesh body that can be purchased.

NOTE: If you're buying mesh clothing to wear on a default system avatar, then make sure it contains an alpha layer. This is something that you need to wear to mask out parts of your system body so that it doesn't poke through the mesh. Since all of the purchaseable mesh bodies come with their own alpha HUDs they don't need an alpha layer, and some designers no longer include alpha layers in with their clothing.

An example of mesh clothing:

I strongly suggest that - to begin with - you don't worry about buying a mesh body or a mesh head. They involve a bit more work and fussing around (a lot more work, in the case of a mesh head), so if you don't want to go down that road just yet you can still look great with mesh clothing that's either fitted mesh or standard sizing.

Without any idea of a specific style you're looking for, I'll suggest the following stores to begin with:

Lapointe & Bastchild - Jeans, leather and denim jackets, footwear

Cold Ash - Casual, footwear

Deadwool - Suits, casual, business-casual, footwear

Redgrave - Casual, footwear, accessories, skins, hair

FATEwear - Casual and roleplay

Kauna - Formal, casual, footwear

Those should get you started

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Skell Dagger

[Skell Dagger]

2 hours ago, kurt28 said:

I have heard of mesh and it seems like people have problems with mesh. 

An additional note on this: The only problems I've ever had with mesh clothing (and, really, they're incredibly minor issues) is with pant cuffs. If the cuffs of mesh pants are fairly tight then it can be difficult to find shoes that fit naturally beneath them. Not impossible, mind you, but difficult. It's more of an issue for guys because our shoes tend to be flat, whereas ladies' heels will usually fit under even the tightest pant cuffs.

Additionally, if you want to wear boots that are taller than ankle height (eg: mid-shin biker boots) you're better off opting to wear clothing layer pants rather than trying to resize your boots to fit over the top of mesh pants. (I see some guys trying to do this and they don't realise that their feet look like bloody canoes because they've resized their boots way too much!) The exception to this is if you've bought a pants and boots combo from the same designer, since those will be created to work together.

Before purchasing footwear, make sure that it's compatible with the system avatar. Sometimes shoes are made to be worn with mesh feet, which means that - as with the mesh for certain bodies that I mentioned in my previous post - they won't come with an alpha layer to mask out your feet.

Other than that, mesh is a doddle to work with, and looks much better than system clothing, as you can see if you compare the suit in my third picture with the shirt in the second picture.

The only final note I'll have for you with regard to mesh is ALWAYS TRY THE DEMO! 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Skell Dagger
My god, the typos. I need some coffee... O.o

[kurt28]

Wow, after reading the difference between the three types of clothing I still can't tell the difference.  I know I have had clothes before that required an alpha layer.  I honestly couldn't tell you what kind of clothes I have so far, but I haven't run into any problems yet either.  So far I haven't worried about what type of clothes I'm wearing, I just wear whatever I like.  There just isn't very many freebies that I like.  I'm more of a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.  I know I have encountered other people that had certain body parts or clothing that was invisible which I assumed was a mesh problem.  Sometimes a part of them is only invisible from a certain point of view - zoom in or out and the clothing returns.  Thanks for the list of stores, I'll check them out.  I've been to Redgrave, but I haven't heard of the others. 

[Talligurl]

The invisible parts are most likely caused by an alpha layer, which hides part of the body so it does not stick through an item of mesh clothing. Sometimes people forget to turn the alpha layer off when the remove the mesh clothing, and so you get an avi with big holes in it. Another store you might check out is Brii, I used to shop there all the time before I went to mesh, they had a lot of free and 1L specials. Most of what they have is for ladies, but they did have a few things for the guys which always seemed nice to me.