Designing for the Male

I hate clothing in real life -- mostly because I have a hard time finding anything to appease my bass-ackwards sense of style. No local stores have anything remotely similiar what I like, and the internet can only bring me so far. Because of this, I make a lot of clothing myself.

Whether it's a fact or not, I like to think this is because there's a danger designing "adventurously" for the male not present in female fashion. Anything too far removed from the norm gets branded as flamboyant and "gay". Not in the nice, happy homosexual way -- but the creepy Liberace/Gary Glitter sort of gay.

So .... is this why people tend to do less men's SL stuff? Is this why any random person can download a basic female skin to edit for free, while I have to go through a tedious process of trial and error in order to figure out how to shape a male chest from a neutral trunk with very feminine looking polygon arrangements?

Damnit -- I like androgyny, but I don't want man-boobs!

After I snorted hot tea out my nose....

My experience is that female Avs buy more and in a wider range than male Avs. I design less for male Avs because I can spend the same amount of time on an outfit, and sell far fewer of them.. some of which will be sold to female Avs anyway.

As for the template, you are not alone in cursing that LL template maker to nethermost hell. That thing sucks. Chip deserves a big round of applause for the modifications he did - and shared!

If I could put a suggestion out to those of you who do make the occasional male outfit... please try wearing the outfit on a bigger male frame. Many a time I will buy an outfit only to have it look all stretched out because the designer's model was a little waify girly man.

And I'm not even one of those guys who jacks up the muscle slider to 100.

Damn you, men! Go out and buy stuff. Not just jeans and button down shirts -- find something interesting!



Amen. ::clap-clap-clap-clap-clap::

In SL, Guys are more prone to finding something they like and wear it constantly. Nor do they shop much.

On the other hand, it's no fun shopping when everything is female, or anything you find is just another derivitive of leather pants and a muscle shirt. There really is a men's market out there--dying for something more to wear. Just look at my customer list and I can show that men do shop!

So, Enoch, I whole-heartedly encourage you (and anyone else contemplating men's clothes) to try it out. If you have a unique style that you like, chances are that other men will be looking for the same and once word gets around, your stuff will fly off the shelf.


There are two whole malls in SL, that are devoted to men. Check them out... and sell your stuff there!
Manhunt Mall (in Futurama ?)
The Gordian Knot (in Knot)

I snorted cold peach yogurt out mine, Surreal! LOL

::wakes up::
:ours coffee::
::literally stumbles into the desired results while half asleep::

Funny how that happens...

I think the male market is truly under rated and very much under served. Get abunch of guys together with any sense of class or style gay straight or otherwise and the same conversation always comes up. Mens hair mostly sucks and we need good long hiar bad. And there is nowhere near enough good male clothing designers.

Consequently those designers that do mens clothing well Blaze, Desert Moon, Vindi, Emerald Springs, De P and MisMatches male line Mis Male fill my wardrobe and I tend to buy clothes at least 3 times a week ( so mutch for the men dont shop theory)

I have also spoken at length to some of the better womens clothing designers and asked them to please try a mens line. I for one would love to see Preen Male.

As for you Surreal I have every piece of Phobos menswear its damn good stuff, if you made more I'd buy it- so get to work

There is only one mesh in second life. And it is female.

And face it; us girls are sexier, more fun to look at, and a lot of guys want to be girls in SL. This means a good male avatar is just that extra bit more special, because you had to put the effort into getting the items instead of just going to one of several hunded stores.

Unfortunately men do make up a smaller market. I don't know if it's total numbers, or just numbers who shop frequently.

Thanks for the kind words. Ferran and I collaborate on most of what we make, but the male stuff is almost exclusively my work, and the most recent items I am stupidly proud of. Which leads me to the big Q... what would you like to see more of? If I go back into Corel (after RL slacks off a bit) what would you most like to see. What would you buy.

If you haven't been there, now would be a good time to visit Gecko (in Plush Delta). Not only do have they recently started giving away their older line of clothes as freebies (which is INSANE, because it's nice stuff that ANY male should have), but they regulary update stock almost every week with full outfits. Gecko was one of the first stores I visited when I first came to SL, and I hardly buy clothes anywhere else.

secondlife://Plush Delta/185/142/21

Gecko has the kind of mens clothing one would wear to a club.

I would like to see more mens clothing that was along the lines of suits and formalwear.

I shall have to drop by there.

I guess I'm not the only one who's noticed a severe lack in men's clothes. I'm actually working on a unisex wardrobe to sell...

*cough looking for a decent mall cough*

Couldn't that be because a vast majority of your customer base is females? Possibly because the vast majority of your stock is female clothing?

I'm just guessing, and shouldn't think so..

I used to shop A LOT, but male designers faded, and designers featured less and less male clothing, or stopped updating their male lines..

I think it goes round in circles, there are less male clothing shops/creators, so less men shop, so less male clothing shops open up, etc etc..

I don't think so. I found fewer buys on my male clothing, which ironically I invested more time and effort in making. Oddly, repackaging it caused my sales to rise. Changing the model was the biggest element in that. I asked one of my friends who had what I considered to be an overly muscled Av to model for me. Instant success. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't reshoot my girls stuff with tits and ass sliders maxed out.

The biggest handicap I've found for making guys clothing is that I'm a girl. Even though I like harder-edged fashions in RL, I'm still a girl and I have a hard time figuring out what guys would like to wear that's not jeans and a tshirt (well or leather straps).

Ok guys I have a good friend in Sl that designs great mens clothes!! So if yall will look up LoneWolf MacKenzie and I am sure hes got a link to his shop on his profile and hes always lookin for new ideas on things to make for Men and Women both.
So yall help support him in his designs I assure you wont be disapointed!!

Shelley Pinkney

Like?

Harhar, Juro.

The last time I in SL, I tried out making some men's clothing, even had a regualr male try them on. He found them a bit too...too. But listening to the males on here talk about what they want out of a male clothing line...hmm, it'll give me some ideas to consider when creating clothes for males.

Looks like I need to make av models of every type! Slider action, hoooo! XD

Okay, I'm done.

i design clothing for males as well as females and I must say my male clients rawk! They tend to really appreciate having options, IM me that they are really happy with designs and tend to buy in bulk and bring friends. Maybe my experience is an anomaly here but I think designers who cater to men as well as women will find their sales increase. I admit sometimes it is a bit more fun designing girls clothing and it can be a little extra work as I am female, but all in all its not a big deal and its well worth the effort. The reason I started was i geniunely felt bad for guy friends who were bitching there wasn't enough choices for them. I am glad I listened.

ooooo! now this is my kind of topic! being a guy on sl that not only has a female name but also wears female clothes, which is the answer to all your problems! wear female clothes! it's the same maping so it's not like it will go on wrong, maybe look a little different but alot of the womens clothes look good on the male ava, just not the ones with alot of chest shading and even some of those look fine. hehe, but then again i'm insane, and i get alot of people going "you freak!" but i dont care what they think

I think it is true many Men do not shop, they hate it...but, I shop all the time and would love to find Mens clothes transferrable so I can fill his closet.

At least a gift certificate and landmark so I can send him to one! (he wears the same jeans and shirt all the time, unless he is the monkey avatar, Lord help me).