Puzzling SL fashion trends

[Romana]

Speaking of shapes, there are a bazillion of them lately, for sale and, this month anyway, as gifts.
I picked up a couple of them for myself and my alts for the new free head.
One I particularly liked, from Wren's Nest, but I was having problems getting it to look right at my usual height. So I sent the creator a NC asking for advice. She was kind enough to help me adjust things in person.
While doing so, I realized that the legs were off no matter what we did. Wren said it's the way SL avatars are (the skeleton, I guess), and that's why driving myself crazy with the proportion tool Maitreya sends out didn't work.
So if anyone is trying to use it, the lower legs are just too long for the upper, and that's it.
High heels disguise that.
So maybe the omnipresence of very high heeled shoes isn't all about teh sexxors....

 

[Conifer Dada]

As we know, we're all free to look how we want in SL but when the herd instinct drives fashion trends like huge hips and tiny waists, or in the case of males, huge shoulders and biceps, that leaves 'normal' avatars looking like the odd ones out.

Creating a realistic shape is not easy for everyone, even with a system avatar. There must be quite a few avatars that are the result of the owner's lack of perception of scale and proportion. For instance a lot of avatars, both female and male, have their heads too small, while a lot of female ones have arms that are much too short with microscopic hands. Neither of these are likely to be fashion trends as such.

 

[Sid]

Whatever floats their boats, but all these exaggerations make them plain ugly.
So much money spend in development of avatars over the years to come to these results? Sigh.
More than 50% of the current SL population looks totally awful and among female avatars that percentage is even higher.
It's almost like the fairy tale of the emperor with no clothes on: Everyone sees it, but almost nobody dares to speak up.

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

*Glances at a majority of "sexy" music videos... (>.>)
*Sees an abundance of 'junk in the trunk' twerking... (<.<)
... (^_^)

 

[Beebo Brink]

Creating a realistic shape is not easy for everyone....

It's also not the desired goal of everyone. Those bizarre avatars are not always the result of incompetence. Many of them are designed in a way that pleases their typist for (I'm guessing) deeply emotional reasons that have little to do with reality and conventional aesthetics. I find them eerie (if not downright repulsive), but I realized a long time ago that it's my problem, not theirs.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Yeah... a while ago I tried and FAILED to help a friend find a black guy skin that was not horrendously ripped. I wish more dude skins just had neutral levels of muscle tone. It's okay to have a plain, smooth stomach that doesn't show the full abdominal anatomy chart...

Needs a tattoo layer that shows the beef cuts.

 

[Sid]

It's also not the desired goal of everyone. Those bizarre avatars are not always the result of incompetence. Many of them are designed in a way that pleases their typist for (I'm guessing) deeply emotional reasons that have little to do with reality and conventional aesthetics. I find them eerie (if not downright repulsive), but I realized a long time ago that it's my problem, not theirs.

Of course, whatever they want, it is their SL. Your world, your imagination, your exaggerations.
But they still have ugly avatars.
If that is their goal, fine with me.
As long as I don't have to pretend they look beautiful, cool or sexy.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I remember this thread! lol. A few more observations:

1) The way SL bodies evolve isn't totally in a vacuum. It kind of resembles trends in CGI porn to a large extent.. people like them big asses and tiddies! ...though sometimes execution quality can be bad independent of size....

2) There might come a day when RL body modifications are powerful enough so that RL people will resemble SL avatars more and more! Then you boomers will be scared! lol.

[[this is an obvious silly post]]

 

[Conifer Dada]

It's also not the desired goal of everyone. Those bizarre avatars are not always the result of incompetence. Many of them are designed in a way that pleases their typist for (I'm guessing) deeply emotional reasons that have little to do with reality and conventional aesthetics. I find them eerie (if not downright repulsive), but I realized a long time ago that it's my problem, not theirs.

I know people sometimes like to create bizarre avatars (e.g. the big lady telling me I need a makeover in the pic above) and that's fine. I remember when the majority of avatars were very tall, so that anyone with a realistic height looked like a child in comparison. That's not such a thing now, but it's an example of how 'normal' drifted away reality.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I know people sometimes like to create bizarre avatars (e.g. the big lady telling me I need a makeover in the pic above) and that's fine. I remember when the majority of avatars were very tall, so that anyone with a realistic height looked like a child in comparison. That's not such a thing now, but it's an example of how 'normal' drifted away reality.

I rarely judge people for what they are trying to do, but will sometimes cringe if it's executed poorly... If someone is super buff or stacked I assume they are trying to do that, but if someone's human face looks very uncanny valley, I assume that was probably not intentional...

 

[Romana]

I know people sometimes like to create bizarre avatars (e.g. the big lady telling me I need a makeover in the pic above) and that's fine. I remember when the majority of avatars were very tall, so that anyone with a realistic height looked like a child in comparison. That's not such a thing now, but it's an example of how 'normal' drifted away reality.

When Fallen Gods had their fortune teller (you could win a free skin and outfit),one time my male alt landed, an avatar who was standing there said "Are you that small in RL?" (The shape I was using for him was the default with his head at the time, and was a realistic height for a human male).
He (I) just muttered "not cool" and went in to FG.

 

[Clara D.]

It's also not the desired goal of everyone. Those bizarre avatars are not always the result of incompetence. Many of them are designed in a way that pleases their typist for (I'm guessing) deeply emotional reasons that have little to do with reality and conventional aesthetics. I find them eerie (if not downright repulsive), but I realized a long time ago that it's my problem, not theirs.

The "thighs bigger than waist and boobs bigger than head" look makes me cringe because it's generally associated with over-use of unicode.

And I'll admit that my AV's probably aren't some people's cup of tea, though even not-human I try for a sense of proportion.

 

[Ashiri]

2) There might come a day when RL body modifications are powerful enough so that RL people will resemble SL avatars more and more! Then you boomers will be scared! lol.

Already read SF which included this as a theme. What the residents of Avernus (Helliconia Trilogy) ended up doing...

 

[Ashiri]

I find them eerie (if not downright repulsive), but I realized a long time ago that it's my problem, not theirs.

Finding them eerie or repulsive seems a reasonable response... like the uncanny valley. If the avatar is clearly not intended as human, extreme shapes seem far more acceptable to my inbuilt filter. (There could be some interesting psych research here)

 

[Clara D.]

Finding them eerie or repulsive seems a reasonable response... like the uncanny valley. If the avatar is clearly not intended as human, extreme shapes seem far more acceptable to my inbuilt filter. (There could be some interesting psych research here)

That's why even my human-ish av's end up as robots or fairies or the like. It's one more step away, so less uncanny valley.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Still mostly logging in as a full time four legged fox.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Finding them eerie or repulsive seems a reasonable response... like the uncanny valley. If the avatar is clearly not intended as human, extreme shapes seem far more acceptable to my inbuilt filter. (There could be some interesting psych research here)

I get queasy seeing avatars with disproportionately long legs. Something about that particular ratio disturbance triggers alarms in my brain. But if it's done well, such as Jack Skellington, with equivalent arm length, I don't have that visceral reaction. Very curious.

 

[Monica Dream]

I get queasy seeing avatars with disproportionately long legs. Something about that particular ratio disturbance triggers alarms in my brain. But if it's done well, such as Jack Skellington, with equivalent arm length, I don't have that visceral reaction. Very curious.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but sounds like uncanny valley, maybe?
If both are proportionate (to each other) your brain has an easier time believing it's supposed to look that way?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

SL avatars with disproportionately long legs also tend to have disproportionately short arms, too.

 

[Ashiri]

SL avatars with disproportionately long legs also tend to have disproportionately short arms, too.

T-Rex with human suit.