I am the Fairy Mab: to me ‘tis given
The wonders of the human world to keep;
The secrets of the immeasurable past,
In the unfailing consciences of men,
Those stern, unflattering chroniclers, I find;
The future, from the causes which arise
In each event, I gather; not the sting
Which retributive memory implants
In the hard bosom of the selfish man,
Nor that ecstatic and exulting throb
Which virtue’s votary feels when he sums up
The thoughts and actions of a well-spent day,
Are unforeseen, unregistered by me;
And it is yet permitted me to rend
The veil of mortal frailty, that the spirit,
Clothed in its changeless purity, may know
How soonest to accomplish the great end
For which it hath its being, and may taste
That peace which in the end all life will share.
This is the meed of virtue; happy Soul,
Ascend the car with me!’

selections from Quuen Mab by Percy Bysse Shelley

The hallucinogenic Mab from MiaMai is an astonishing gown. When I put it on, lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Xanadu ran through my mind, perhaps because it was so famously the result of an opium dream. It did encourage me to decide to shoot at Vegetal Planet because “there were gardens bright with sinuous rills.” It seemed right to me to shoot the gown in a place that seemed more rooted in dreams than reality – because that is the stuff of fairies, dreams and this dress.

For this is Mab’s dress quite literally. She is right there woven into the fabric – with all her ominous power as she presents her case against mankind.

Look on yonder earth:
The golden harvests spring; the unfailing sun
Sheds light and life; the fruits, the flowers, the trees,
Arise in due succession; all things speak
Peace, harmony and love. The universe,
In Nature’s silent eloquence, declares
That all fulfil the works of love and joy, –
All but the outcast, Man. He fabricates
The sword which stabs his peace; he cherisheth
The snakes that gnaw his heart; he raiseth up
The tyrant whose delight is in his woe,
Whose sport is in his agony.

But this is still a joyous dress – and so, in the end, is the poem. Queen Mab does promise that with Time the human spirit can change and live in harmony with the Earth.

‘How sweet a scene will earth become!
Of purest spirits a pure dwelling-place,
Symphonious with the planetary spheres;
When man, with changeless Nature coalescing,
Will undertake regeneration’s work,
When its ungenial poles no longer point
To the red and baleful sun
That faintly twinkles there!

****STYLE NOTES******
Promotional Copies are denoted by a Bold R

• Poses: Long Awkward Pose
• Skin: Tres Blah Hiccup
• Eyes: Unique
• Lashes: Lelutka Diva Prim Lashes
• Hair: Tukinowaguma Garry
• Dress: MiaMai Black Label Mab R
• Jewelry: Donna Flora
• Shoes: Lelutka Saffron
• Gloves: 5th & Oxford R
• Location: Vegetal Planet