It's that time of the year again.
Less than one month to go until Christmas Eve. More and more Christmas markets open up all over the Hypergrid and with them more and more snow-covered sims. Unlike the real world, our virtual one gives you a white Christmas just around the corner.
In other words: The places to be are increasingly cold. Yes, they're beautiful, but they wouldn't be half as beautiful if they weren't cold enough for all that snow.
And this is why I pity all the masses of Athenas and the like. I've had a first impression of what will happen over the next weeks and months at
Eternal Ice today. The sim is every bit as icy and chilly as the name indicates. But there was a woman dressed in something that I'd only ever wear to a club or a party in summer, if at all. A skimpy, sleeveless micro-minidress. 10cm spike-heeled sandals (that's 4 inches for you Americans). No tights (that's pantyhose for you Americans), only a pair of lace socks.
Sure, there are ladies who have decided for themselves to
always dress this way, and be it in a blizzard. But for all those Athenas, Decadence-HGs etc. out there, it's pretty dang difficult to dress any differently. It isn't so much that they all only ever want to wear mesh that's rigged for their respective bodies. No, it's partly the suggestion that they have to wear that in order to look good, but mostly the complete and utter lack of anything else in the more recent, better-known freebie stores.
See, I'm a Ruth2 v4. I had to do quite a bit of exploration in order to find good sources for clothes, also because I tend to steer clear of anything illegal (especially anything blatantly illegal and only too obviously copybotted). Nonetheless, I ended up with quite a substantial amount of clothes for just about any occasion you could imagine. Including sight-seeing visits to mosques. And yes, also including being outside in the snow. I may only have to pass on a few party themes, but then again, who doesn't?
This also means I never go shopping in the ladies' departments of those typical popular freebie stores, at least not to keep something. At most, I'd test something out of curiosity, and truth be told, I've largely stopped doing that as well. That said, when I happen to step into such a shop, no matter what sheer masses of boxes hang on the walls, what I see there makes me sad. Or, thinking of the upcoming winter, shiver.
Most of what I see there that isn't swimwear, underwear or lingerie are super-short minidresses. Or rather micro-dresses. Thin and sleeveless more often than not. By far most skirts aren't much longer. This is often justified with the difficulty of rigging something longer. But rigging can't explain why there are also more shorts and hot pants than long jeans or trousers (that's pants for you Americans), nor can it explain all kinds of cutouts in garments that don't serve any other purpose than to make it look sexy or rather slutty. There are only two long dresses which are even quite similar, and many freebie stores don't even offer one of them. If you want to wear a long skirt or dress, you're left with evening gowns.
If something is at least two-piece, expect it to bare your midriff. If something is only a top, expect it to bare your midriff. If something calls itself a
jacket, yes, expect it to bare your midriff. Alternatively, expect it to be open and worn with nothing underneath. If something is a coat, expect it to come with an integrated top that bares your midriff. If something is a pullover (that's a sweater for you Americans), expect it to cling so tightly that you have to wear it as a micro-dress.
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Emulation of what copybotters want us women to wear all year round; top by Linda Kellie, skirt by Klarabella Karamell, shoes by Taarna WellesIndeed, that's another issue: Wearing something,
anything underneath these clothes is hit-and-miss if we're talking about mesh under mesh. And Athenas and their likes generally only ever wear mesh. I think most Athena 6 users have yet to understand that Bakes-on-Mesh enable them to wear layer clothes again, and besides, layer clothes are widely seen as "old crap". And all the others, Athena 5, Athena 4, Decadence-HG, Femme and so forth, can only wear mesh. So can the old Ruth 2.0 and most of her forks, but they're another story.
This wouldn't be such a big issue if not so many clothes were shaped around the body so tightly that it's difficult or downright impossible to wear anything that's mesh underneath. I think I've never seen an Athena wear tights. That's simply because most clothes that you'd wear tights under don't leave enough space for mesh tights. Also, what few tights are rigged for Athena are rigged directly onto the skin, so they themselves don't leave
any space for knickers (that's panties for you Americans). Some skirts and dresses, no matter how short, don't even allow for mesh
knickers to be worn underneath. You think that's the worst? Nope. If sweaters or shirts don't bare your midriff, chances are you can't wear anything below them except for shoes or maybe stockings because they lay against your butt skin. So you have to wear them as dresses. If they're long enough, that is.
Speaking of shoes, it doesn't get any better with them. All of them save for maybe half a dozen models, three of which are trainers, have 10cm heels, mostly spike heels. They seem to try to outdo each other in being the worst possible shoes for winter. Granted, there's quite a number of boots available, but except for one model, they're
all high-heeled with leather or wooden soles that
will have you slip on ice.
Don't get me wrong, I like to wear high heels every now and then, even though I prefer 5cm (that's 2 inches for you Americans). And I love boots, even thigh-high ones. But there's a time and place for everything. And winter with grounds covered in all kinds of frozen water is
not the time and place for CFM boots.
Oh, did I mention that almost no Athena footwear allows you to wear mesh socks, stockings or tights inside it? And that hardly any freebie store offers mesh tights in the first place because they're so useless even though they should be the opposite?
You'd think that Christmas outfits are an exception, what with all the snow. Guess what? Nope, they aren't. Here are a few examples:
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Seen on an actual Christmas sim, one of manyIt goes on like this. There may be two or three Christmas-themed outfits out of dozens upon dozens that cover you up sufficiently, and still, none of them keep you warm enough.
You know, I'd like to wear something these days that I can feel cosy (that's cozy for you Americans) in while ice-skating or strolling over a Christmas market or carolling (that's caroling for you Americans) outside in the snow. But seeing these garments makes me want to carol at most while standing right in front of a fireplace. Standing because you can impossibly sit on the floor in any of this without everyone being able to peep up your skirt. Sure, there may be women who don't have a problem with that or who don't care because they don't even notice. But not everyone is that keen on having a constant direct line-of-sight to a lady's undies (or, even worse, to what should be covered by undies but isn't) all the time.
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Emulation of your typical Christmas outfit; dress by Linda Kellie, shoes by Taarna WellesTruth be told, I'm actually impressed whenever I see ladies who have managed to dress at least halfway appropriately for this season.
Now I've mentioned that I'm a Ruth2 v4. Maybe you already knew that. From the total lack of rigged mesh clothes for this body in nearly all freebie stores you may deduce that it's even harder for me to get winter clothes. That there aren't any for me at all. Well, this may surprise you, but I don't have big problems dressing for winter.
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An example of what I'd actually wear in winter; dress by Christine LaRossa, tights by Masaki Shinomiya, boots by Aether DharmapalaAnd this is just one example. It's true that a Ruth2 v4 can't just walk into a well-known freebie store with clothes boxes from all over the place and compile 80% of her outfits right away. It takes research, it takes detective work, it takes quite a bit of luck actually, it takes experiments to see what fits me and what doesn't, and it takes some efforts of my own, for example to make alpha masks or put existing textures on existing mesh templates. But I can get it done.
In fact, I may even be able to get it done better than Athenas who only ever wear mesh rigged for Athena. I don't have to resort to skin-tight jeans because all jeans are skin-tight, and everything else is too short and requires me to leave at least my thighs bare. I don't have to resort to super-high-heeled CFM boots because there are none that are actually suitable for winter. Not that I don't have any CFM boots or skin-tight jeans, by the way.
My mesh clothes are a mixture of clothes made for Ruth 2.0 RC#2 or RC#3 and clothes made for the system body while the first pieces of Ruth2 v4 clothes have started to trickle into my wardrobe. I may not have hundreds of micro-dresses or dozens of micro-skirts, but I've got one and a half dozen regular long skirts, and I'd rather wear these in winter. I've got regular-fit jeans, and I've even got suit trousers.
Also, thanks to Bakes-on-Mesh, I'm not limited to mesh, I can wear layer clothes as well, and besides, I don't generally consider layer clothes "old crap". While Athenas can find it difficult or impossible to wear as little as a thong under a given skirt if it absolutely has to be mesh, I can wear leggings under any skirt, any dress, just about anything, tights under the leggings and knickers under the tights. If I wanted, I could even put on socks over the tights. And I can wear all of my shoes to all of this. Granted, I shouldn't wear tights, stockings or socks with sandals or open-toe shoes (I wouldn't do that anyway), but on the other hand, I'm also fully independent from foot positions when wearing tights, stockings or socks. So come what may, my legs will spend this winter warm and cosy.
And, against all seeming odds, so will the rest of me.
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Rant
