Chubby, Cheap and Cheerful

One thing you're sure to notice after being in Second Life for a while is the oddity of some of the body shapes people create for their avatars. Many of the weirder ones are enshrined at What the Fug, a blog with a fascination for 'watermelon ass,' and other indignities inflicted upon avatar mesh.
What you won't see much of is fuller-figured avatars - at least, fuller-figured avatars that aren't doing it for the lulz or trying to be grotesque. When people get to choose how they're going to look, I guess it's natural enough that the majority of them are going to go for 'slender' or 'muscular' rather than 'pleasantly plump.' That's what our society tells us again and again is attractive and desirable. People are frequently judged on their character (lazy! stupid!) if their bodies are overweight, and that really stinks. Of course obesity is dangerous, but it's possible to be both heavier than the ideal and healthy, and many intelligent and conscientious people are carrying extra weight for one reason or another and shouldn't be shamed for it.
IRL I am a bit overweight. I'm generally healthy and can usually find clothes in mainstream stores that fit and look good on me (although some fashionable styles will always be out of bounds - skinny jeans should only be worn on skinny legs). I'm definitely not stupid, and have the MA diploma to prove it. Physically, sure - I AM a bit lazy, I just don't enjoy sports or exercise for their own sake, but mentally I'm far from it. I'm okay with how I am, and I am a nice-looking woman with style.
But my SL shapes have always been skinny - I guess it's just wish-fulfilment? They're also more facially beautiful than I am, with very dainty and symmetrical features, and never have dark shadows under their eyes. I give Jane more manageable, glamorous hair, too! Not to mention the power of flight...
However, the other day, I was browsing round a little mall in FS City when I spotted a shape that immediately made me go 'Oh, cute!' This was in Rosy Mood - I'd link you to their main shop, but when I went there I couldn't find this shape, and the whole point is to send you where you can find it, right? The stall is easy to find, just walk to your right from the landing point and then look to your left.

The shape is called Momo and she is an adorable, plump girl, very like the 'peach' that the name means. She's L90, which I find very reasonable (especially as, if I'm honest, I could probably generate her myself with a little sliderplay - L90 seems like a fair price to pay for that work being done for me). She's fully modifiable too, which is great - I thought she was a bit too knock-kneed to begin with so I straightened her legs out a little.

Up above you can purchase a choice of three skins to compliment her features - only L120 each, or L250 for a fatpack. That is very cheap for skins, and they do have certain limitations - as the sign says, they don't have genital details. I can deal with that, though - and she also looks good in a variety of other skins. Be careful with the vendor - I got Momo Blue when I actually wanted Red, because I didn't read the instructions carefully enough.
One problem with using a full-figured avatar is that most AO creators assume you'll be skinny (fair enough, most avs are), and you'll be stuck with a lot of animations that make your hands pass through your hips. However, there's a solution and it's absolutely free. Imperial Elegance offers two excellent, natural, casual female AOs, one for a slim figure and one for 'chubby.' You can get them for L0 either in-world or from XStSL (link goes to the chubby one, for the other click 'View all by this merchant' and look for 'Casual Girl AO'). Isn't that awesome? I highly recommend them to any girl getting started in SL. Unless you want an AO for something really specialised, like wearing a kimono, being a fairy or a mermaid, or constantly smoking, you may never need to buy another. Full marks for generosity and practicality!

Here is Momo Jane, then. She's wearing a Pleiades Another Skin mod from the current Newbie Assistance pack from Peppermint Blue. Peppermint Blue is another LM and subscribo group absolutely everyone should have. Although the packs are called 'Newbie' there is no 'avatars under 30 days old' restriction on them - anyone of any age can grab them, and they contain wonderful goodies.

Her hair is the June group gift from Tekuteku (another group, although not subscribo, that's well worth joining) and her teeshirt's from Reek (you do have to buy the fatpack but it's cheap for a fatpack), her jeans and socks from Untone Quilt and her sneakers from the fabulous HoC Industries. Their shoes are SO good, and SO cheap, that again, apart from very specialised needs like thigh-high pirate boots or ballet slippers or whatever, you hardly need buy anything else. Oh - if you like cheap, cute ballet flats, definitely go to 50 Flats. The '50' means Lindens per pair, and there are always freebies too.
One thing to keep in mind - system skirts are extremely unkind to a figure like this. Momo is copy/mod, so you could make a skirt shape, but it could be tricky to do that without losing her intended curves. I would recommend only wearing dresses that use a prim skirt and glitch pants. Actually, I think glitch pants would be a good thing in real life too!

A skin bargain which impresses me

I just discovered a lovely little pop-Japanese-influenced shopping sim called Cherry Buttons (I don't know whether that is meant to evoke Apple Bottoms...). I certainly recommend it, and right now I want to particularly big-note a shop therein called GiGi Couture (that link goes to the main shop in Broadmead; the Cherry Buttons outlet is easily found thanks to a teleport-links signboard at the sim's beam-in point). The clothes are gorgeous, with highly realistic textures, and quite reasonably priced (most things are L150 or under). The thing that really got my attention was upstairs - the skins.

You see, outside the store when I first visited was a signboard for a model search, and one of the conditions was that you must be wearing a GiGi Couture skin in your entry shots. 'Rip-off,' I thought, 'this is an attempt to trick us into spending L1k+ on a skin.' I went upstairs and to my joy and surprise found totally good-looking skins for L50 or L25 each. They have palm prints and at least a suggestion of genitals and everything, and really interesting makeup. The reason for their cheapitude is that they're mods of Eloh Eliot's 'another skin,' which you can get for free from Another Shop. Yes, completely free, and they are really lovely skins with pretty makeup, available in dark brown, tan, fair and pale shades. And each one comes with multiple makeup options, and the choice of freckles, and omg they will be another entry all to themselves. Does everyone in the world know about these already? Seems like they should!
But right now, the GiGi Couture skins. In these shots, I'm wearing Charmy Gray eyes from Annerose, okappa hair from *BP, and the Innocence shape mentioned in my first post.

This is the Ganguro Girl skin, for loitering in Shibuya texting on your keitai, crouching in the middle of the street laughing loudly with your mates, trying all the free samples in the 109 department store and picking fights with Kotobuki Ran. The hair is completely and utterly wrong for it (ganguro gals bleach their hair as light as they can get it and then add funky colours like candy pink and baby blue) but I couldn't be bothered to change.

This is 'Dramatic Eye,' which I love for its lashings of smoky eyeshadow and faint freckles. It's a good skin for an early 60s Priscilla Beaulieu kind of look.

This one is sort of equal parts Gothic Lolita and Venice Carnivale, and it's based on the GiGi Couture logo. There is also a symmetrical version, with 'lace' over both eyes in a kind of butterfly shape, which is totally spooky/sexy and you should wear it if you want to score with Batman or Gomez Addams.

And this one is called Marylin, which I think must be a typo for Marilyn, as it's a classic 50s glamorous makeup style. Wear it with a big skirt and pearls. As you can see, with the right haircut it can also pass for flapper style. I shall wear this combination if I ever wish to pass for Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.
So those are the delightful and cheap skins of GiGi Couture, and tomorrow, if I get my act together, I'll show you the Another Skin freebs.