The Dinna dress from DG Innovations has amazing embroidery detail. It comes in several colors, but I chose the olive because it made me think of peacocks.
Quick Look: DG Innovations, Exile
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Tag Archives: Muse
Comfy Cozy Are We
It’s that time of year when comfy, cozy warm clothing trumps just about anything. The rainy, gloomy outdoor weather out my window has me reaching for warmth in RL and in SL. Today I went with the lovely corduroy skirt from Sn@tch and a sweater from Naima.
Quick Look: Donna Flora
Donna Flora always makes wonderfully detailed and imagined dresses. This is a fabulous wool tweed jacket and skirt that dresses you up for strolling the best high fashion streets in the world.
Dressing for Rain That Isn't There, plus an Ode to Maitreya
We have an average of 150 rainy days a year where I live and they are almost all consecutive. We have a sunny, dry season and a cloudy, wet season. As much as folks struggle to make four seasons, it’s more like 2.5. It’s not as bad as it sounds, though, since you can run around in the rain for two hours without getting wet. This is the perfect sort of outfit for the kind of rainy days we get. It acknowledges the weather without overreacting. You want to look like you did check the weather in the morning and are not oblivious to the rain or the old folks on the bus will “tut tut.” What could be better than a lovely sweater dress with a thick enough knit to repel all the rain and some nice warm knit stockings to keep your tootsies toasty? When I saw this Ingrid dress at Lelutka I decided I want one in every color in RL. Now if only they were sold in Lindens.
Chinoiserie
This gorgeous dress is called Chinoiserie and is from Icing. I had styled it a few weeks ago, when it was newly released, for a shoot for Second Style. But the vagaries of SL intervened and the reporter moved on from the magazine. So, no Second Style moment of glam for the dress and me. Oh well! To pay homage to what “might have been.” I have shot the photos on the white background with the Caliah Lyon windlight settings just so we all can pretend.
Marketing Matters
Coco & Co. Tailleur Romy
I admire clothing designers. I have no idea how they have the patience to match seams and the control to do the fine detail work. Even though I understand the technical aspect of how clothes are made, it doesn’t matter. In addition to technical knowledge, skill, imagination and creativity, I utterly lack on essential ingredient and that is patience. I could no more spend hours on a drawing than I could climb Mount Everest. I can however, shoot a photo and even get rid of those white lines as needed to make an alpha cutout for a floor stand. So, typically I assumed that if the alpha displays in a store were poorly done (something I could do) then the clothes would be poorly done as well (something I could not do.)
Coco & Co Chausettes en Dentelle et Noir
However, today I was in a store that had clothes based on Chanel designs, clothes made with me in mind. Tweedy, nubby knits, tailored jackets, system skirts, all my fashion loves wrapped up together. The alpha textures displaying the clothing, however, were terrible. But, oh I did want the clothing. So…I put out a plurk question for designers asking if I was wrong to assume bad alpha displays = bad clothing and though there was some belief that what is worth doing is worth doing well (yes!) that in all honesty, my assumption was wrong and that the only way to tell was to buy something. So… I bought the least expensive outfit.
Coco & Co Ensemble Chemesier Caramel et Jupe Culottes
And the edges were perfect! Seams were matched! It was everything I hoped it would be and oh, no, I spent too much money. Here are three of the outfits I picked up – inspired by real life designs and absolutely scrumptious.
How to Avoid Ugly White Edges on Your Alpha Textures: There’s a handy-dandy tutorial by Robin Wood on how to make an alpha channel. The Solidify filter that makes it easy to have nice clean edges is free and can be downloaded from Flaming Pear here. To be honest, there have been stores I have not purchased tempting items from because of bad alpha displays. The only reason I made the purchases today was that I was assured that it did not necessarily mean the clothes were bad. However, no one was going to guarantee they would be good since those kind of problems can mean not caring about details.
Peaches & Cream
If you have been reading my blog for any significant length of time, you know I am a peach-a-holic. Peach, coral, salmon just are irresistible colors for me. And why not? They look good with every skin tone and flatter everyone in 1st and 2nd life. So, when I went over to check out Stylissimo – after falling in love with the blogger appreciation gifts they sent – and saw some peach in a vendor, well that works like a homing device with a built-in buy button.
Butterflies Hanging Fire
Sometimes I shoot a great outfit or dress and then don’t post it right away, letting it get bumped by something more topical or timely. I try to shoot a few outfits at once and stock up a bit in case I can’t get anything done some nights. This is one that’s been hanging fire for more than 10 days and really it deserves better than that. It’s the butterfly gown from Moxie Polano. I picked it up at Relay For Life, but didn’t shoot it right away, so it’s been waiting its turn very patiently. Looking at the excellent cutwork and battenburg lace on the bodice as well as the button gloves, I really should not have let it wait. It’s just so lovely.
Black Velvet
In my experience, velvet is one of the trickier textures to do well in our pixel clothing, so I am so pleased with the lovely black velvet and brocade dress from Prelude. Like everything from Prelude, it comes in an over-stuffed folder full of options. In this case, you have every possible layer option and choices of the level of sheerness in the bodice as well as the option of wearing a jacket or not. Sweet! Don’t those Maitreya shoes stir up the hotness factor as well?
Just Say No to No-Mod
This gorgeous mohair skirt comes in green, grey and blue.
I love this mohair skirt from The Closet. In fact, I have it in three colors and if she made more colors, I would probably have it in those colors as well. And putting it together with some warm cozy tights and well, you have my favorite sort of run-around outfit. And it must be, I think I ran around in it for three days. But there was a problem – and not to single out The Closet – it is widespread problem that affects clothes from many stores and designers. It’s one that would be very simple to fix, though. The thing is – no mod prim clothing is just plain bad business practice.