A little further along in this post, I will get around to drooling over the Catalyst boots from the Abyss, but first some brief ramblings about SL contests and about shapes.

As recent posts may have revealed, Ran and I have a thing for entering contests in SL. Partly, we’ve taken a liking to it because so far we’ve done very well, sometimes thanks to putting a lot of effort into piecing together costumes and sometimes thanks to a lot of luck (like being the only entrants in a very lucrative contest arranged by the Second House of Sweden). Lately, though, its been mostly photo contests that we’ve entered, and that’s all me being a show-off and Ran liking to take pictures. ;)

So, of course I had to enter a couple of model searches for magazines, specifically Glam and Homme (for some of my submitted pictures, see my Flickr), even though I know very well that my shapes are anything but traditional model material. They’re all supposed to be good-looking (though, perhaps not traditionally beautiful) and I am personally quite happy with the results, as each of the shapes has a pretty distinctive look. Including, in some cases, rather strong noses, which cause all sorts of problems with masks, veils and similar attachments.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to the problems you face when squeezing an atypical body into prim clothing or, even more so, prim boots. I’ve put a lot of effort into making my shapes as realistically proportioned as SL will allow and to make their builds relatively normal (but still idealized to some degree, of course). So, they’re quite short by SL standards (5’4” to 5’7” with the usual eye-height measure, meaning they’re actually a little taller than that) and they have a bit of meat (and muscle) on themselves. Most prim skirts can be made to fit fairly well (except very short ones that end up too long when stretched to accommodate the hips), but boots? That’s a different story entirely.

And that is what brings me to today’s featured item, which ended up being the centrepiece of and the inspiration behind the outfit I used for the aforementioned contest pictures.

Product Details

Skin: Saba No Makeup by Skin Within
Hair: Fair Auburn Blackened by ETD
Outfit: Janet by Last Call
Shoes: The Catalyst Black by the Abyss

When I first saw the Catalyst boots, I really liked the look of them. Not that I am that into leather, lace and fetishwear, and I am not even that big on shoes, but I do like tall boots. And tall these sure are. But after popping over to the Abyss and finding that there was no demo, I figured I just couldn’t take the chance to get a pair since I was convinced they’d never fit me.

Now, these boots are mod and copy (even the foot, yay!), but they looked to slender that I was concerned I would need to do a lot of stretching even for my most slender shapes, and that rarely ends up looking good because the end result is too chunky.

But, today I was persuaded to give them a try, and boy am I glad I did. Because they fit almost perfectly. I have no idea how they’ve done it, but even on my sturdiest shape there are only a few tiny gaps. And what’s more, those are almost perfectly hidden by the expert texturing of the footshaper beneath.

I am thinking that another pair may have to come home with me, though I would have preferred a very dark red to the fairly bright one that they have available.

In closing, to reconnect with the shape discussion, I wish that more boot creators would go to these lengths to make their boots fit on a wider range of avatars. Making the whole thing modifiable is really important (if its just the upper part, stretching that can make it look totally out of proportion with the foot part), but so is making the boot thin enough that it doesn’t end up looking really huge and heavy when stretched. And, as shown by these boots, having just the right texture on the footshaper beneath can make such a difference, though I imagine that its really only possible with a relatively smooth boot.