Naturists, oddly enough, love nothing more than a bit of ‘dressing up’. Whether it’s ‘glam’ outfits for dinner in a restaurant after a day’s nude sunbathing, partaking in toga parties at some resorts, adopting native American ‘Red Indian’ outfits (it happened a lot in the 60s, there’s many photos online, but it  wouldn’t happen now) it appears we naturists love nothing better than running to the dressing up box! Go figure!

Christmas is also a time when…men, naturist men included, love nothing more than to buy their partners a bit of lingerie. Lingerie’s one of those go-to Xmas pressies, and used to figure largely as Xmas ‘freebies’ around the grid. This happens less often now, as people have adopted mesh clothes and bodies, and a simple bit of red and white ‘classic avatar’ undies are much less common these days than, say, five years ago.

Nevertheless, we decided we’d try to send some of our models out there with some linden dollars to see what they could find on the grid and marketplace. Rules? Nothing over L$10, which just so happens is the price limit at Fab Free’s Xmas cart sale. Margaret came back with a slew of nice items that (a) kind of work in a naturist context (at least some of them…real life photos further down the page will show people publicly naked while ‘dressed’ similarly to Margaret in naturist or public settings.

I love the ‘nude’ lingerie in the top pic, particularly as high waisted panties are such a rarity on the grid. The bottom pic, of mittens, hat and scarf would also be something that is a slight ‘theme’ in naturist photos. As I don’t wear anything in bed the babydoll nightie would be wasted on me, and I’ve never been a red lingerie person so you can scrub that too (lovely as they do look on Margaret).  And that’s an important point…men don’t always consider their partners’ preferences. I’ll buy lingerie in black, white, nude, pastel shades, dark purple…but red, green? No. Just no. 🙂 So fellas, don’t buy it with yourself in mind, but what your partner likes. I’ve never been one for thongs much either, although I did buy a couple when they first became a thing. I find them uncomfortable. 🙂

Speaking of thongs…the males in SL seem to like them, and there are certainly plenty available for L$10 on the Marketplace.

You can get a Rudolph male thong, or just go for a plain, red, Christmasy type.

Since I’m getting a few SL naturist-related gripes off my chest, such as the increasing number of textiles turning up at naturist sims…grrrr!!!!! I thought I’d share the thoughts of Hilary, middle-aged, plus sized avatar.

‘I’m a woman over 60 in RL’, she writes, ‘and getting increasingly pissed off with mesh that doesn’t fit, even in larger sizes, and even skins that, around the middle, look like I’ve got two separate parts joined together. I use some naturist sims (even if I’m not a naturist in real life) and I want my avatar to be a reflection of my real life. That is, I’ve got a big tummy due to a fondness for cake 😉 and the scars of childbirth. I don’t want to represent myself as some stick thin supermodel, however much SL is supposed to represent opportunities for fantasy. I want to talk to people who immediately grasp who I am, not project myself as something that’s 20 years old and super thin. What’s your take on the limitations of mesh clothes or even naked classic avatar bodies?’

I understand this. Even though I’ve not had any issues with wearing mesh clothes, the medium size usually fits, I do offer a silent swear word when I have to go to the ‘large’ mesh size, as it seems that there’s often no uniformity in mesh sizes.

The world is getting bigger, with 30% of the world being categorised as ‘obese’ (warning: it’s a link to Fox News, hardly a source of quality, informed journalism, but probably an accurate reflection of others’ research). At the same time, 13% of the world is undernourished. The developed world is eating too much, the third world not getting enough.

Here’s a photo of Hilary at Eden Bumrose, and just below her navel (belly button) you can see a distinct line which effectively ‘splits’ her skin into two separate sections. ‘My boobs also manage to stick out beyond the alpha layer on large sized mesh’, she adds.

Yes. Regardless of its capacity for fantasy and role-play, I’d say that skin and mesh clothes designers maybe need to address the fact that there needs to be an XXL mesh size, to allow people who are plus sized in real life design an avatar that they recognise in SL.

Many naturists are of a certain age and size. They’re comfortable in their less than svelte appearance, happy and contended with their naked selves. They’re doing naturism for them, not for the endorsement by others. So naturist or not, it would be nice to see skin and clothes designers address this in SL in 2017. As things stand, the five standard mesh sizes (who is actually XXS?????) don’t reflect any accuracy.

So let’s celebrate the human body in all of its different shapes and sizes. Everybody is beautiful. Every body is beautiful. Let’s see SL begin to reflect the reality of life in 2017 and encourage the diversity that is our wonderful human race.

Let’s make it easier for the likes of Hilary to adopt avatars they ‘own’, feel comfortable in, rather than feel forced to adopt an unrealistic alternative.

Ella

Here in the UK we’ve got an expression ‘she’s all fur coat and no knickers’ which means she (it”s an expression almost always applied to a female) has a veneer of elegance, class or style but, underneath she’s actually quite common or boorish. She may try to present herself as someone of ‘wealth’ in the sense that she owns a fur coat, but lacks the basics.

The photo above would sort of describe it. Despite their rather classy and expensive outfits, they’re clearly drunk in the street. All fur coat and no knickers.

If you want to be a little bit ‘all fur coat and no knickers’ in SL, now you can. At the Coat-Titzuki stand at the Tres Chic event, you can buy a shoulder fur coat (L$280) which will certainly create that look, although we’d advise that you don’t adopt that classless, drunk-in-the-street look that forms part of our major city centres most weekends.

I like the ‘pose’ of the coat. The fact that it’s draped on one shoulder makes it different, and immediately a stand-out item in the great big wardrobe of SL. With so many Christmas and New Year parties about to break out on the next two weekends, this could be worn with a ballgown when arriving at a ballroom for those dances ushering in 2017. This wasn’t intended for the blog, initially, as Harry (the photographer) wanted to place it on our Flickr site (I’ve added it there too, incidentally), but it does make for a nice ‘glamour’ style photo, even if not quite naturist. I wish more designers would consider adding slightly different ‘poses’ for their clothes as it makes them stand out immediately.

Of course, it also provides me (a vegetarian, animal loving person), to point out that we’ve previously blogged ‘naked’ mainstream campaigning, in the shape of PETA’s ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ (back in January of this year), and as far back as 2013, when Pookes was also writing about PETA’s anti-fur campaign.

Ella