Vintage

Vintage is fun.  Aside from that fact that every fashion designer in SL seems to go through a retro period, there are a number of small groups that use their sims for accurate historical reenactment or roleplay, plus larger groups that co-opt the designs and looks and music of yesteryear for their own pastiche.  So you can sail the seas in the Age of Sail, dance at a Baroque Masquerade, walk the battle lines of the Napoleonic Era, darken the alleys of a hundred Victorian cites, quaff a drink in Weimar Berlin, stroll the boulevards of Old Hollywood, drag-race Midwestern streets in the 1950s (theoretically all in the same night)…  and with a little bit of effort, you can look the part while doing each one, often very economically.  (The exception seems to be if you want to be a Gibson Girl.  The Edwardian period is madly under-represented, probably because it’s sandwiched inbetween the Victorian era and the Roaring 20s, two larger timespans that most people are more familiar with.)

Most of what you see me wearing in this picture cost nothing.  The flapper dress, gold belt, skin, hair, necklace, bracelet and earrings (invisible at this angle) were all free, acquired by me at various points in the past, either through my own initiative, or via tips from friends that they were available.  The shoes I already had (ironically, they’re the same ones you saw me unboxing previously);  I just changed their color.  Ditto for the eyes.  I bought the eyelash layer for L$25 off Marketplace, after an informative discussion with Dragonia as to whether or not my normal prim lashes were appropriate for the look, and the eyeglasses from Hatpins for $L125, since I’d had my eye on them for a few months anyway.  Final cost:  L$150–  about 60 cents US, and paid for out of my profits on texture and object sales from Tiphareth Designs.  I’d call that a bargain.

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On the other hand, it is possible to overdo it in pursuit of the Free.  Ivey Deschanel of Sn@tch had THIS to say on the ugly evolution of freebie hunting, and that was three years ago.  Behave yourself.  And if you’ve got the L, and you like somebody’s work, cough up for it once in a while–  especially if they’re catering to your niche-passion under-represented section of the market!