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Name of Ensemble:Gentlemen Take Polaroids

Creator: Ariel Zuhal

Shoppe: Calamity

Comments:

Do I ever feel like Mr. Negativity these days! Apologies in advance for another slightly malcontented review.  I’m determined to find something light and positive for my next post.

I have been keeping tabs of Calamity’s creations on XStreet for some time now and this week decided to purchase one of their ensembles. The spread of style on their offerings are reasonably varied although heavily “Gothic”, leading to my hopefulness that I’d found a new creator I could count on to supply me with fanciful elegant gothic attire every now and then. Sadly, that will not be the case (unless they modify their creations drastically), which is unfortunate as the general styles and textures are quite nice.

My love of fanciful collars attracted me to the Gentlemen Take Polaroids ensemble. The concept is appealing to me; particularly given my closet ankh fetish which I blame entirely on David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. But as you can see, Don Cherry is not my fashion plate, and the oversized collar is too much for me. Granted, I have a slight avatar, but not that slight.

And here is where the problems began. All pieces in this ensemble are no copy/no mod. One piece contains resizer scripts that cannot be removed, another piece contains resizer scripts that can be removed and all other pieces (the two collars and the coat bottoms) contain no resizer scripts whatsoever. This is the first time I’ve encountered a schizophrenic ensemble in SL.

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There is a subtlety and even subdued nature to this ensemble that I do enjoy. While I have a penchant for extravagance, sometimes it’s nice to slip into something a little less overt yet still quite elegant.

The velveteen and heavy sheer fabrics and silvery-ebony accoutrements are quite perfect. The real crime is the inability to modify all the prim pieces to satisfaction. The coat bottoms flow reasonably and as expected for a heavier coat.

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While the cuffs may seem massive, I do like the size for my own personal taste. The belt is nicely styled as well. And yes, for once, I opted for no gloves (although it may be the shock of how poorly the ensemble was scripted and assigned permissions).

Again, vest and trouser styling not overly detailed, but still quite attractive.

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This was about the time I discovered the disparate resizer scripts and lack thereof in various prim pieces.

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I felt the coat collar was too large for the coat itself, and most certainly for me. Naturally this was one of the pieces in which there is no resizer script whatsoever.

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Stripping away the layers, we are left with an ensemble that still carries weight.

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Resizing the belt to my waist minimized the beautiful buckle to the point that it was far too tiny. This is the inherent problem with resizer scripts that do not allow resizing of one prim and even if they do, one often has to resize a couple of the prims and then realign the various components manually to look acceptable — if the item is no modify, then this is impossible.  When will creators learn?

Still… the shading/lighting on the lapels of the jacket is quite nice.

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While the shirt is not bad, and would look excellent beneath a brocade waistcoat, the texture clashing where the shirt meets trousers is a little hard on the eyes.

However, please note that the trousers display a simple belt if you find the prim belt not to your liking. This can be seen as being both helpful and not — depending on personal preferences.

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My fox self experienced momentary trauma as his tail vanished, consumed by the coat tails. However, attaching a backup tail returned fox to normalcy, although I had to give up the belt in order to do so. Thankfully the system trousers were modify so I was able to shorten them for my digitigrade legs.

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As fox is even smaller than my human self, I really do wish I could edit the prim pieces. But I must say, for all my whingeing, it’s nothing I cannot live with and for larger avatars, it’s doubtful they’ll encounter the same difficulties. I just do not wish to carry around a sign exclaiming “Sorry for lagging your sim, I can’t remove the resizer scripts because the creator is under the misguided notion that this actually protects their creations from being stolen and resold or given away by disrespectful thieves“.

On a final note, I would like to thank Eponymous Trenchmouth, divine creator of the spectacular Jeepers Creepers shoes, for being so kind as to remove the resizer script from the Sebastian shoes (worn in this post).  I really need to write a spotlight on shoes in SL.  But not for my next post.

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For the most part this ensemble is wonderful and I’m glad to have it in my inventory. But will I buy future ensembles from Calamity? Not unless the creation is truly outstanding in appearance and there is a sane way to modify prim components without compounding script resources.

ETA: Ariel Zuhal has responded to a notecard where I pointed out the lack of modify ability and the resizer script discrepancy. She was very prompt and kind enough to deliver to me a modify/no transfer version of this lovely ensemble. Unfortunately she took offense to my post (see below) and my whinge-fest regarding no mod and resizer scripts.  No serious slight was intended, and as I think can be seen in my post, I do believe the outfit has considerable merit.  As always, my views are my own and unlikely to reflect any majority.

Other Details:

Shoes: Sebastian – Coal by Eponymous Trenchmouth of Jeepers Creepers
Monocle: GC-Monokel (Dark-Knight clock) by Grazioso Alekseev of Crie Style
Socks: (ashes) nemu suit socks by hyasynth Tiramisu of Silent Sparrow

Photos taken in My Photosphere (which is open for all to use)

Human avatar

• Hair – Elliot (LightBlond) by Six Kennedy of GuRL 6
• Skin – Scorpio Revelation (3A Smooth) by Khai Sinister of The Abyss
• Eyes – Blue Opal by Miriel Enfield of Miriel (very sadly retired)

Fox avatar

• Avatar – Male White Fox by Mephitis Jezebel of Aventity
• Hair – The Dauphin (Powdered) by Siyu Suen of Illusions