Three Timeless Angels

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Angelwing produced three Timeless Angel costumes for Fashion For Life and I loved how they work together. The Light one is all white, the Fallen shows the marks of struggle and the Dark is all black. What I particularly liked is that the white and black were not counter-poised as good and evil since they both wear the same religious symbols, even the Fallen Angel wears the same symbols and is dressed in a stained white dress. Normally I do not wear any religious icons or symbols out of respect for their meaning to the people who believe in those religions, but I liked that the designer did not fall into the white-black/good-evil trap so common in design and language. I thought it worth making an exception in order to highlight this great trio of dresses.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote in “Where do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” that even language conspires with racism, noting that the synonyms for black were overwhelmingly negative and those for white were nearly all positive. So, too, are the expressions using those words. One of the ways, I work to undo the conditioning of a lifetime is to avoid using the words black and white as descriptors of anything except color in so far as is possible and reasonable. I don’t object when other people use black and dark in negative expressions or white and light in positive ones. That is our language, after all. This is just a personal challenge to consciously avoid that language trap – a way to resist cultural conditioning and struggle against my learned biases. It’s surprisingly difficult. I have been consciously using black and white purely as color descriptors and finding other ways to express phrases like blacklist (ban list or exclusion list) and white knight (rescuer) for over a decade and still catch myself falling into the language trap.

So I am in a foul mood, not a black mood. Bad guys use extortion, not blackmail. People tell harmless lies, not white lies. Of course, black holes remain black holes and white hot stars are white hot stars and the night sky is still black. Those are phrases using black and white as colors, not synonyms for good and bad. Just as an experiment, you could challenge yourself and try to go a week without using black/dark or white/light to express anything other than color. You might be surprised how difficult it is and how much our language is filled with subtext.


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Here you can see the lovely color-on-color print on the skirts, front and back and the signs of struggle on the Fallen skirt. I shot these pictures at The Dark Side by Anley Piers. There’s so much to enjoy, but I confess the forest of feathers is my favorite.

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I wore different hairstyles just to spice up the pictures a bit. The earrings are from Phoebe – and seem a perfect complement to the jewelry and embellishment that come with the outfits. The skin is from Hush for Fashion For Life.

Store info at Blogging Second Life
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: oOo Studio
Skin:Hush – Paige Cherry Blossom Cream
Eyes: Poetic Colors classic – forest morning (m) bright
Lashes: Lelutka
Mani/Pedi: Love Soul
Hair: Lelutka Knotted //Tallullah // Marie
Clothing/Jewelry/Wings: Angelwing Timeless Angel Light // Fallen // Dark
Shoes: Leverocci Lavender Pumps Belyl
Earrings: Phoebe Piercings and More – Monica Earrings Black

3 thoughts on “Three Timeless Angels

  1. angel6 Susanti

    Cajsa..thank you so much for blogging the dresses I made. This year I really want to focus on thinking in themes, slowing down and only making what I truly feel. This set of dresses are really made for pictures only.. and as with all of your other stunning work, you have done it again:) The sets, the poses and the angles you have photographed the dresses with are amazing..you really took them and made them into a bigger representation of an idea and I felt it coming at me through the pictures. Each representation of the theme lives in her own little world through the pictures. A lot of us have our own personal stories of loss, and RFL gives me a chance to help out from my heart. Thanks a million!
    angel

  2. Olela

    Oh my, Cajsa, those dresses and pictures are simply S T U N N I N G *_* And i love the post, you got me thinking here about the black and white words in our languages (it’s the same in Italian), i’ll challenge myself – as you suggested – and try to use black and white (nero e bianco) purely as color descriptors.
    😀

  3. Cajsa Lilliehook Post author

    I am so happy you like the post, Angel6. I always get a bit nervous when I start reading more into an outfit than designers may have intended.

    Hi Olela! Thanks so much! And hooray for trying the challenge – you will have to tell me how it goes. In English, it’s such a strong theme that it is a real struggle to stick to using them only as colors.

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