Aerdrie Fabre

Check out Junk - I just found it on the MP today and they have some cute but industrial looking items - https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/77950 Oh and for midcentury: Soy - Main store, Soy (82, 224, 2505) - Moderate

I found this explanation on another thread by Skell very clear and helpful in figuring out how Omega works. Otherwise, if you're looking for other skins - look for their head and body appliers for Maitreya as mentioned in previous posts.

Hah good point. I spent a couple of hours trying on demos I'd been queuing up from the marketplace. Realized a store I thought would be super cute turned out to be kinda meh. So +1 for demos :p. Now if I can only figure out why shoes that say they're for the maitreya body attach on about half a foot in front of my feet!!

Not sure what your style is but Addams and Bowtique have some items that are a bit less boobs-out-there.

Thanks for this useful tip! As an aside, I feel like the general trepidation/misconception of mesh bodies isn't just about the bodies themselves, but about the changes to how SL is used from back in the olden days. I realize this is obvious to those who have been inworld for recent years as mesh bodies became a thing, but as an oldie, I didn't realize until actually playing with the bodies that really it's just based off of your base avatar shape. It makes body joints(?) smoother (and more often than not, the rear-end bigger). I think part of the trepidation for folks who have been on a break from SL and are just now coming back, is that the way you navigate the system feels more complex than it used to be. Now it feels VERY HUD-heavy and instead of being able to universally use clothing, you have to demo everything before buying it. Kind of feels like a "how many clicks to get to the outfit you want" sort of thing. Of course, this increases the power of customization so there is that benefit. That said, I totally get where Conifer's coming from . My system body was not far off from my mesh body, even with the smoother curves added. AND my clothing options are significantly greater - not only because of the amount of time I put into getting those outfits, but because I agree about the "baggy" items. System clothes obviously fit a bit tighter because well...they're pretty much drawn on the body itself. An outfit I just got last night for my mesh body looked a little like I had wrapped foam around my body. Still a great dress, but would have been better if it'd been "thinner", or closer to the body. (And yes, I did demo it, so I was aware of the effect). Anyway, so I don't go too far off topic. For any other folks using this thread as a way to learn about skins/mesh bodies, thus far I've learned the following that I don't think was mentioned before (or maybe it was and I didn't understand it EDIT: Skell definitely mentioned it...and now I'm repeating it 😛) If you have a Mesh Head, you don't actually need to buy a new system skin or system/classic skin applier. Mesh heads seem to come with their own set of skins and body appliers. So as long as your Mesh Head company has a body applier for your mesh body, it can ensure that your mesh body has the same tone of skin as your head. This extrapolates to what I have been taught which (I believe) is if you want to find a different brand of skin for your whole mesh head/body, then you need to find the applier for your body and your head for that particular skin. Following combos (Brand names used as examples...but also because that's what I used): System Head System Body LAQ Classic Skin Need: No appliers. Clothing: Look for clothing that says it's for classic/system AVs System Head Maitreya Mesh Body LAQ Classic Skin Need: LAQ Applier for Maitreya Body (gives LAQ tones for Maitreya body) Clothing: Look for mesh clothing that says it's for Maitreya. System clothing will not work though prim attachments should. LOGO Mesh Head (comes with 6 diff tones of skin in customization installer/hud) Maitreya Mesh Body No System Skin Needed Need: LOGO Applier for Maitreya Body (matches your body's tone with your face's tone) Clothing: Look for mesh clothing that says it's for Maitreya. System clothing will not work though prim attachments should. Tune in for more adventures :p.

We're currently working on heads and bodies - and I noticed that Logo heads use the same wear point for their head alpha as Maitreya does for their body alpha - so they can't overlap...any suggestions as to what we can do to remedy that? EDIT: Sorry - as expected some stores have full body alphas which is what was needed. Logo is not one of them (not in their head section anyway) LAQ's full body alpha doesn't alpha the eyes...Catwa's does!

Ah very useful! I had seen somewhere on the forums about Lumae having all of the major appliers available. I think we should likely start there first as we run around checking out the demos. Thanks for that tip! And thanks again @Skell Dagger for the explanations! It's making my searches on the marketplace make a bit more sense!

Hehe thanks for your CSR qualifier . I did wonder how all of the head appliers could account for the skin tones of all of the body appliers, and vice versa, and now I see that it's not universal, which logistically makes sense. Has someone made a list of universally known pairings of head/body matches? You mention Bento heads. I believe I would be more drawn to these to try to keep my custom look that I've had for these 13 years (if I decided to go mesh instead of stay with my system head). Is Bento something that Catwa or other head appliers incorporate into their heads, or is Bento another company? And on that same note, for heads that aren't Bento - is it essentially like buying that head shape, and not just the skin they're wearing? So if I bought a (made up) Lelutka Jenny head, and my friend bought a Lelutka Jenny head as well, we'd have the same face, but potentially different skins via the Lelutka head HUD? I'm sure I'll think of other tiny nuances to pick at your brain about....heh

Thanks so much for your minitutorial Skell - I've been reading through the forums all day and of course you're right - my friend got a classic avatar with mesh clothing. It made sense therefore that the AIMI classic skins worked on her shape. Just a couple of questions: To continue wrapping my head around this, no pun intended. If I buy a Catwa head - will I receive a Catwa head applier when I buy the head, or do I need to buy the head-applier separately? Likewise with Omega appliers, is this available at some central Omega store, or will Catwa have an Omega applier I can buy somewhere in the store? And in one of the threads I was reading: The individuals were mentioning towards the end that LAQ was selling System Skins with Mesh Appliers. I'm wondering if it's okay that I'm confused by this mashup or if it's another way to apply a skin to a mesh even though it's a system skin and not an applier skin. Thanks so much for the time put into your answers!

I think what we had our friend do (because we're blind leading the blind) was adjust her shape (Edit Appearance) of her starter av and look for system skins that worked with that. AIMI skins just weren't her jam. The terminology you've presented is very helpful - thank you!

2006 AV - Just got back into SL a few days ago after a few years off and I'm totally rockin my classic non-mesh av and still think I'm adorable in it, even with an old school Zaaya *Pipal* flexiprim dress heh. I like the floof. And am thankful that the skin that I got back in 2008 still looks great!

Hi all - 2006 account here, so I'm very much stuck in the classic AV with my old school skin. I'm okay with this. It's been a while since I've been in SL, but have been back in the last few days discovering Magika hair, and have also introduced a friend to SL. Because classic avatars aren't a thing for newbies anymore, she ended up with a mesh starter avatar and in general we've been having a nightmare looking for skins. We first went to LAQ skins and tried a demo, but her skin didn't actually change. Our best guess is there's some sort of mesh magic she wasn't invoking. So we bought a skin to see if it had extra instructions or something called an omega applier, and that didn't change anything either. These are what I'm deeming "Mesh Skins" and well...yeah. Then I saw in a blog of someone giving instructions on adjusting mesh bodies, that the skin she was using was from AIMI. We went last night and these made more sense to me and is what we're actually looking for. So firstly, can someone correct my terminology if I've messed it up since I feel like an old noob, and secondly, what are your top ranked skin shops (AIMI style NOT mesh style)? Thanks so much!! FWIW: The one thread I'm going to look at is and I'm hoping it's the system layer skins that they're selling...