Has SL Fashion Become Too Homogeneous?

Argent Stonecutter

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Primate-chauvanist!
 
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I joked with Mr Muliaina the other week - I've bought more houses than clothes this year. Currently at zero clothing purchases this year. I don't really remember buying any clothes last year either. I've lost all interest in the mainstream SL fashions, I'm very clearly not their target customer :D

When mesh bodies started taking over I remember thinking that the clothes would frustrate me into demoing a mesh body or 3. I really thought I'd be tempted by lovely dresses and literally nothing has caught my eye. Needless to say I still don't have a human mesh body/head.
 
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I've bought less this year, usually I am tempted by pretty dresses that don't fit the Wastelands theme and get them as art and wear them for a few days then forget I own them. That's happening less lately, though. Are fewer people making clothes with the Gacha decor craze? But probably the main thing is the difficulty of making rigged mesh for 231778 body options. I myself have switched to mostly buying templates because I just can't be bothered with all the extra work it is to make clothes these days.
 

Bartholomew Gallacher

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Yes, it became more boring, because the necessary basic knowledge to create appealing fashion today is by far more harder to master than in the pre mesh era.

Therefore, less people are designing original stuff which also takes up quite more time, and retextured templates became even more a thing.
 

Adeon Writer

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To me it’s not fashion that has become homogenous. It’s faces. The “SL Face” of all the popular mesh heads is super ugly in my opinion. It’s always the same weird “I just ate a whole lemon and I can’t find my glasses” expression too.
 

Cristiano

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To me it’s not fashion that has become homogenous. It’s faces. The “SL Face” of all the popular mesh heads is super ugly in my opinion. It’s always the same weird “I just ate a whole lemon and I can’t find my glasses” expression too.
Remember when weird bowlegged avatars were a thing (who knows, they may still be)? They also all had that weird pissed off squinty look. I called them sour faced pony riders.
 

Gear

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One of the reasons I live as a filthy anime is how weird I find all LL UV heads, both in animation and look.

This, in turn, lets me treat every day like a costume party.
 

Ellen Cordeaux

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Remember when weird bowlegged avatars were a thing (who knows, they may still be)? They also all had that weird pissed off squinty look. I called them sour faced pony riders.
I can report that people have discovered how to reproduce that with the newer mesh heads. I really thought we'd escaped that but I guess some ugly is forever. *sigh.
 

Sean Gorham

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I think that's always going to be the case with replacement mesh heads. They're limited by the creator's design, and none of them allow for as wide a range of shapes/morphs as the default avatar shape's head does. It's the result of economics and finite creative resources.
 

Myficals

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To me it’s not fashion that has become homogenous. It’s faces. The “SL Face” of all the popular mesh heads is super ugly in my opinion. It’s always the same weird “I just ate a whole lemon and I can’t find my glasses” expression too.
I do wonder if that might change over the next little while. That particular look, the scowly heart-shaped face, is very much a signature of the Catwa line. It's not impossible to make a Catwa face that doesn't have this style, but it's difficult to do and pretty much none of the aftermarket shapes available for Catwa even try to not look pouty. Consequentially, most people with Catwa heads look a bit like this, and given that Catwa was for a long time, the 900lbs gorilla of the women's head market, it's very easy to see why to a casual observer, it might seem that all mesh heads have this look.

Change is happening though. If the skin and shape market is any guide, Genus is making a strong run at claiming Catwa's crown. It remains to be seen whether or not their current momentum will translate into long term gains. If it does though, the Genus look will start to dominate and the Catwa scowl will fade.
 

Ellen Cordeaux

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A lot depends on the skin though cuz I have a Catwa head and definitely don't look like that. It could be because I'm still wearing a pre-bento head. The bento seem to be the ones that can be twisted into the frowny face. And honestly some of the skin makers make it easy to do; two designers in particular come to mind.
 

Caliandris

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I buy quite a lot of clothes, usually for something specific. It's a frustrating experience buying clothes and animations if you don't want short and slutty or grande dame evening clothing. I have several dresses from Pulse and Chat which I loved, but which don't fit with my mesh body because they have scoop backs and there is a horrible choice between having transparent parts showing or body showing through the dresses. I have recently found one knee-length dress I love at ArisAris, which reacts to lighting and fits with my mesh body.

I also have a system head, having been unable to find a mesh head that I like or approximates the system head I have. I started as a plump avatar when I had a system body, but I became so fed up with the problems fitting clothes I have gradually become thinner and thinner.
 
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