Kiko Life

A notice from Fashion Consolidated invited me to visit another skin maker promoting their creations as the best and most glamorous offerings in SL, so I felt a responsibility to follow up on the invitation and check out what was being advertised. I was not surprised to find that this was yet another store where the darkest skin available for female AVs was presented as a Latina skin, or at least implied by the name given to it, Eva (as in Eva Longoria Parker). No, I was not surprised, but again, I am disappointed to find that people of color continue to be an afterthought in the minds of so many creative people in SL, at the same time that the parameters of acceptable or available skin tones that can be created within the combined software interfaces of SL as a virtual world and Photoshop as a space where images are processed for digital use make it so difficult for a true variety of skin tones to be designed. Needing my faith in the vision of a multicultural SL restored, I remembered that I had spent the previous evening in-world quite pleasantly fascinated with the African Diasporic shapes and styles available for purchase at Kiko Life. The main store is on a sim also named Kiko (204, 23, 28), and there are currently satellite locations at University City, Rosewood Piazza, New Jack City, Atlantislove, and most recently, Saminaka--I certainly hope more are on the way. From the names of the different shapes available for demo to the style cards included in the packages available for sale, my faith was definitely restored! For example, shapes for female avatars are named for Adenike, Amira and Ayo, Lucayan, Niara and Nyoka, among others, and the style sheets show vibrant and contemporary urban fashions defining each AV's style, along with many textured hairstyles (also for sale on the Kiko sim, in neighboring stores Street Dermatology, Twist Out, Shelly's Bootylicious Gear, and Divahtoos). The hair styles included cornrows, finger waves, twists and Afros. The shape demos that I sampled offered a true variety of sisterly bodies--full-hipped, thick-thighed, and high, rounded behinds, along with a real range of breast sizes and proportionate shoulders. I was also very pleased to find that the designer Osuntomi Melendez had taken the time to give each of the shapes distinctive facial features that include noses that are not all tiny and narrow, nor arms that are just sticks. When I visited, 30 different shapes for women were on offer, along with about half as many for men. Kiko Life's men and women look strong and sexy and really, genuinely, beautifully black, and I can't wait to see what shapes and styles will be added next!http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kiko/193/29/28/