The Evolution of Female Fashions in Home
by keara22hi, HSM team writer
In the beginning was the pre-set. And the pre-set appears to have been based on some interesting assumptions:
FEMALES IN HOME:
- Wear jeans on a date
- Go to the disco in cargo pants
- Wear extremely short skirts (makes you wonder about underwear…)
- Are wearing their grandmother’s shoes from the 1960’s
- Dress like they are sleeping in their car
- Wear hair styles that are almost never seen on the street in real life anymore
- Do not own any jewelry or purses
- Never wear high heels or boots
No kidding! Here is a list of what comes with the pre-sets as wardrobe options:
TOPS:
- Home logo top
- Light blue tank top
- Gray t-shirt
- Red and black striped jersey
- Black scoop neck
- Red scoop neck
BOTTOMS:
- Black cargo pants
- Jeans
- Black shorts
- Olive green cropped pants
- Red plaid skirt
SHOES:
- Blue sneakers
- Black sandals
- Navy blue flats
- Red/green print flats
ACCESSORIES:
- Knit cap
- Sunglasses
Needless to say, most females gravitated to the short skirt, red or black scoop neck top, and the red/green print flat heeled shoes. It was that or look like they should be pushing a stolen grocery store basket heaped with everything they owned.
Soon, Threads began carrying some items for sale at reasonable prices. Reasonable if you consider that you are spending real life dollars for virtual clothing. But that’s a whole different topic.
Even then, you wonder who made the decisions over what costumes to add: Bunnies? Ice skaters? Jai Alai Players? Polo Players? Whoa! what kind of games were these developers playing? When you say costumes to gamers, they think in terms of the White Knight Chronicles armor, or Final Fantasy cosplay. Or some huge ‘Boss’ monster they managed to defeat in a game. Or a militaristic uniform that looks like they could be playing Black Ops in it. Some of the costumes were even more historical than game-related: Victorian? Cavewomen? Pilgrims? Who dreamed these up? And did they bother to get some advice from their wives or girlfriends?
Then, I suspect that sagging sales made them dig into their fantasies and think what kind of costumes they would LIKE to see women wearing – and out came the near-naked Amazons, the bondage and fetish leather/spikey dominatrixes, and teenage hookers. Maybe the men who hunger for eye-candy in Home would generate revenue by purchasing some of the really suggestive stuff and putting it on their own female avatars in their wardrobe.
Threads had frumpy blouses, sweaters, jackets, skirts, and hats from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. PixieTails called them on that one when she did her brilliant photo essay on Home for the past 100 years and dressed avatars in clothing that was currently being sold in the Home stores! From Gibson Girls to flappers to WWII bond sellers to Hippies! It is all there in the Mall, should anyone suddenly want to dress like their Mom.
Then Lockwood and Irem, in particular, came out with the very short skirted teenies – for girls ranging in age from eleven to eighteen. Cowgirls, Madonna wannabes, male fantasy versions of school uniforms, tube tops and mini-mini skirts, and dresses the same length as tunics. Even jeans as tight as a spray paint job were paired with spike heels which was something guaranteed to get a lot of male attention in CP. As long as a person wanted to appear to be still in high school – and female – these clothes worked. It also generated lengthy discussions on the Forum about ‘pervs,’ ‘trolls,’ and males foolish enough to believe the (cheese) cake.
Complaints were voiced, over and over again. Why couldn’t we have some “nice” clothes for day wear and some elegant things for evenings? Also, why couldn’t we dress up the outfits with accessories? Or, if we cannot add jewelry around the neck, how about burning some in? And what about some choices in bathing suits? Not everyone wants a string bikini or their grandmother’s hand-me-downs.
Astute developers listened. And, while the discussions raged, new ideas went to the drawing board and eventually emerged in the stores. One of the first was Lockwood with dresses! And some great looking mix and match separates. They even came out with purses, although some complained that for those prices, they should have looked more like Kate Spade or Chanel creations. Irem also jumped on the accessories bandwagon with wrist and ankle decorations (flowers, ribbons, ankle bracelets). And the range of bathing suit fashions motivated many of us to have an entire section of the closet devoted to beachwear.
CodeGlue brought in dresses that were delightful: simple, elegant, ladylike. And Lockwood introduced long tunic tops that went equally well with shorts, jeans, or skirts. The race to the kiosk in CP each Thursday morning to see the newest releases became a regular weekly event.
Lockwood threw down the gauntlet with an outstanding line of evening wear and casual separates that gained them the reputation of best developer in Home (at least according to the fashionistas). Billabong had been limping along in the Mall with some t-shirts until one of the HSM readers from France, Sorrow, posted pictures of the Billabong dresses that were being sold in Home EU. The hue and cry over “why can’t WE have those?” brought Billabong to make a business decision that soon had Billabong sun dresses and evening wear in evidence in almost every public space in Home.
Costumes became a lot more interesting – now I can be a monster, a mechjet, a warrior maiden, or a racecar driver. A quick trip to the wardrobe and an entirely new persona emerges. Of course, a few developers still have not gotten the message: t-shirts are not appreciated. Not many girls are such avid fangirls of a specific game that they want to wear that logo on their chest day in and day out. Meanwhile, wings became very popular – all sizes, colors, and shapes. Angelic wings or demonic wings? Feathery or reptilian scaly? Now if only we would actually be able to fly.
And then there’s an exotic princess on a flying carpet. Wow, who could have anticipated that one!
In short, the trends are getting incredibly exciting. Every fantasy, every daydream, every monster nightmare I can imagine are out there now – available – and delectable. What’s a girl to do?
September 21st, 2011 by keara22hi | 18 comments
Keara is also known in Home as DarthGranny. She is a wicked little old lady with a wild sense of humor.
great article, and INCREDIBLE video editing! wow. whoever made the video should teach some of these other people how to do it right!
Thank you April for your kind words. You can go to our website for more of our videos.From the very first one to now.Working with HSM is a great opportunity for me!
http://www.youtube.com/user/AvatardProductions1?feature=mhee
Very nice!
The purse under the arm always -- and I mean *always* -- makes me think think of my mother, as that is where she always wears hers. To me personally, it dates every outfit it’s paired with. It’ll be a cold day in Hades before that becomes a part of my virtual wardrobe.
Agreed Terra.
Yep. That’s the way Lockwood designed their first purses. Under the arm. But with the new ones, the purses are hand-held -- which comes in handy for bonking a troll in the head -- just use the “point” gesture.
Hahaha yesss how we needed to use this feature very often!
and LKWD didn’t name that new handheld bag ‘Bowling bag’ for nothing, did they! lmao
Great job as always granny and right on the mark. There are a few things that are still missing though. For me it would be a few different shades of off white or beige shoes (heels and others)and also purple ones to go with all the purple clothing they have given us.
Also if they would consider giving us necklaces that are separate somehow or it that isn’t possible (because there is no slot in wardrobe for it), how about making sets, like matching earrings and necklaces, or bracelets and necklaces. Most of the women I have talked to about this would buy out the stores on these ideas.
The last but I consider just important is long skirts. There are only a very few long skirts available to us to mix and match with. A variety of colored long skirts would also sell like hotcakes in Home. Every woman I have talked to about this totally agrees with me. With Irem leaving us I wish they had brought some of those wedding dress separates here before they left, it would have generated them a lot of last minute income.
Great article and I loved the videos Sue! You are becoming extremely good at your craft.
Thank you Burbie,I think kudos to Keara for doing 98% of the modeling in here.I also wanted to thank all the girls who participated in the making of this video..Mahalo Nui Loa
\m/
Great article Keara! I’d love to see more jewelry options as well as reasonably priced handbags and clutches.
This is so nice keara you Girls did a wonderful job Sue and olivia Congrats the video’s were great but your article was even better thanks for this:)
Thank you Mika.Keara did a great job thinking this out.It was a blast working with you all..
Thanks for the mention! I just wanted to make a comment though, and maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like you’re taking the ‘vintage’ fashions negatively. I personally really like the old fashioned stuff, which is one reason I did my little decades project. I would love to wear the things my mom used to wear in the 60s-80s, and I just feel like the comment was negative. But otherwise you brought up some very good points.
Yep! My feelings about the clothing choices for women in Home 2 years ago are negative. Look at that slide show again -- and then tell me those clothes are not frumpy, ill-fitting (in some cases), and very out of date when compared to what was in the stores in real life in 2009. Very few of us who wore those clothes in the 1960s ever wanted to see them again -- much less have to choose between that or looking like a teen-age hooker. What was missing from the stores in 2009 is finally there now -- in 2011. That is why I wanted to do this article: to encourage the developers to keep in touch with what the market is buying.
Great read Keara!! You all did a great job! The videos and the article are wonderful. I am very excited for more new ideas for fun clothes and fantasy costumes.
very nice article i agree i’ll love to see more jewellery options to plus a a few more nice skirts but not minis as av run out of matching underwear
lol . great work on the videos to . 10 /10
Nice article Keara. It’s been cool to see the different fashion trends on PS Home just like we see them in real life. I agree there should be more accessory options like more necklaces and bracelets. I wish we could get items for wrists separate from fingers for bracelets and rings. Also would be nice to wear necklaces separately too.
Awesome videos done by Sue as well. They seem to be getting better and better.
Wonderfull article and video’s!
We sure had so much fun being presets in that video…
My saturdaynight Party after that with dresscode ‘Presets’ was a succes to. Thanks for that idea Granny and Sue!
But thank god we didn’t go stuck in the presets and we have eyelushing fashion nowadays!