A Swimmie That Will Make Your Admirer's Howl

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I was in a Target store a couple of weeks ago, and was very surprised to see that they had already stocked shelves with Halloween candies, costumes, and other Halloween themed paraphernalia. It would not be surprising to me if within a couple years stores would start putting out holiday items three months ahead of time, if not more.

Being a virtual merchant/content creator, I thought, "eh, what the hell." So I started brainstorming a swimmie for Halloween.   What you see at your right is what resulted:  two-toned swimmie in gold and black.  The front side, gold; the back side, black.  It has a little menacing black cat on the right thigh, and a white flexi drawstring.  To make it even more fun, I decided this will be a limited edition.  Only 15 will be sold, then it will be gone forever.

Because Menstuff Fashion group has been a great part of my success, I thought I would first offer it to members of the group exclusively for three days.  There are now two days left.  But if you are nervous they might all get snagged, you can head over to RetroSwim and join Menstuff via the group joiner at the front of my store.

I will be designing another Halloween swimmie soon, which will be available closer to the holiday and will not be a limited edition.

The Birth of RetroSwim

I love all things 50's, 60's and 70's.  Urban fashion was cooler and unpretentious. The music from these decades is still unmatched in terms of composition and lyrical content; especially when you move into the 60's and 70's.  Television programs were vastly more interesting back in those days.  It wasn't about how much they could blow up things, or how much they could tantalize its viewing audience with soft-porn, or is it now hardcore?  You had three major channels with a couple of local ones, and by midnight all you got was a test pattern.  Even if times were not simpler then, it sure seemed as if that was the case.

So, what has all this got to do with RetroSwim?  Well, it had been an idea with which I had been toying for quite some time while in Second Life.  I wanted to learn Photoshop, and I wanted to make some type of men's clothing.  Making swimwear seemed simpler than any other type of clothing; "seemed" being the operative word here.

I started working on the swimwear over a year ago, but at that time I also decided that it was time for me to break from SL.  I did not have any intention of returning, but I continued learning apparel-making in my spare time.  Sometime later, a friend encouraged me to return to Second Life and put all that learning to use.  I mulled it over for a while, and finally decided I could come back, but in a limited way; only being in-world to set up and manage the store.

Because of my love for those decades I mentioned earlier, it was a natural choice to choose textile themes from those eras.  I knew also that I did not want to make skimpies, thongs, or low-cuts. Lawd knows there are enough of those about in Second Life.  I simply wanted to make masculine cut swimmies with very fun patterns.  Finding and making those patterns turned out to be the most fun of all.

Now, a little over a year later, I have a beautiful store in Lionheart, and a small satellite store in Gay Town Mall.  Business has been extremely good.  I had no idea it would be as successful as it has been so far.  The response has been tremendous.  I'm still learning a great deal about PhotoShop (is it even possible learn everything there is to learn about it?), and I'm having a blast puttering around in the stores, changing this, changing that, and standing back and marveling at this thing I've done...hahahaha.