Most of the holiday parties have run their course, but Second Life has never limited parties to the holidays and formal events and clubs abound, so whenever you want to dress up, you can and you can find a place to show off your lovely gown. This one is a gorgeous gown from MiaMai with delicate silver tracery on the bodice. This is a dress that shows how sometimes less is more – the upright color poufs are there, but in control. There’s the embroidery – but just a dusting of it.
So last night was the Vaudeville/Burlesque party at The Deck and Sasy took pictures. I wore this adorable La Biche Corset Dress from Dolita, though I added a skirt to it that you can see after the cut. It’s another great find at Designers United Vaudeville.
That earthquake you felt on the grid yesterday was the re-opening of Tableau and with it the release of the newest collection from Paper Couture. This brings us to the perennial discussion about over-blogging and everyone blogging the Same Damn Thing. Of course, we settled that last year with the grand Same Damn Thing challenge, but the question still crops up. My view is that we never blog the Same Damn Thing because we all choose different accessories, shoes and hair. We look differently. We shoot different photographs. We have different readerships. And that brings us back to Paper Couture because if anything is worth a second, third or fourth glance – it’s the wonderful creations they produce – including this lovely suit called, appropriately enough, Second Glance.
Vaudeville was the great entertainment of the 1880’s to the 1930’s – a variety show of comedy, singers, musicians and any act that could fill the seats. American burlesque grew out of vaudeville and continues to this day with neo-burlesque geniuses like Dita Von Teese. The Designers United group have honored that heritage with their most recent exhibition and in that spirit, It’s Only Fashion is throwing a party tomorrow night at 8 pm at The Deck – graciously offered by Sasy Scarborough. It will feature vaudeville and burlesque music and some that could be.
I am in love with the new high-waisted skirts from Bijou. The come in bold, vibrant primary colors and black and white tank tops with a lovely ruffle collar. The tank top is fairly ordinary and the collar really needs a more substantial top than what is provided – though most of us have some white and black button downs that would do the trick in a pinch. The skirt – though- that’s the gem in this outfit with body-flattering curved panels that could make a twig look curvy and shapely – this is a flattering, hot and sexy skirt. The zipper and grommet details, the curving tulip shape that reveals a lot of leg, every effort has been made to make this dress hawt. Be careful while dressing that you don’t scorch your fingers.
Mama
Thinks I’m living in a convent,
A secluded little convent
In the southern part of France.
Mama
Doesn’t even have an inkling
That I’m working in a Nightclub
In a pair of Lacy pants.
So please, sir.
If you run into my Mama,
Don’t reveal my indiscretion,
Give a working girl a chance.
I love cabaret, burlesque and vaudeville music – the naughty risque and boisterously celebratory music that has mostly faded away though resuscitated from time to time with revival CD’s like Ute Lemper’s Berlin Cabaret Songs where you can hear Don’t Tell Mama in all its glory. Authorities like to pretend that culture marches in a straight line directly from nostalgic purity to modern hedonism on its way to hellfire and damnation. It’s much more complicated than that – and really goes through eras of social liberality and repression, openness and prudery, swinging back and forth like a pendulum and while one or the other might be in ascendent, the other cultural mores are there waiting their turn again. The prudes tsk-tsking away during liberal eras and the flamboyant maintaining an underground cultural freedom during repressive eras.
The 1890’s through the early 1930’s were an era of liberality that sparked great music, new fashions and new roles for women. Certainly the raunchiest song I have ever heard is from that era, raunchier by far than anything by Nine Inch Nails or Soulja Boy. Beware, it’s Not Safe For Work! There were also songs about the drug culture such as Wacky Dust and Reefer Man. Remember that when someone’s granddad or great granddad is going off complaining about “kids today” that really, everything old is new again, including raunchy music.
So, to celebrate the fabulous fashions of the Designers United Vaudeville exhibition and the joyous music of that time period, I thought a Vaudeville/Burlesque Dance Party might be in order – and Sasy Scarborough graciously offered The Deck as a venue….so please, mark your calendars for 8 p.m. Saturday January 2nd at the Deck for a crazy set of music from the past – and some from the present, too.
The dress may be ravishing, but the name of it ravissant has nothing to do with that. It means in a half-raised position which is a good description of the assymetrical sculptural collar that makes this dress so ravishing. A rich wine charmeuse from House of Beningborough – this is truly one of those gowns for the red carpets of life.
Ma, he’s making eyes at me
Ma, he’s awful nice to me
Ma, he’s almost breaking my heart
I’m beside him
Mercy! Let his conscience guide him! Continue reading
The Designers United Vaudeville exhibition is going on now and is well worth taking the time to visit and shop. I particularly love this playsuit from Milk Motion that has an adorable ruffle on the “chassis” which made me think of the song, If You Knew Susie – a vaudeville classic.
If you knew Susie, like I know Susie
Oh! Oh! Oh! What a girl
There’s none so classy
As this fair lassie
Oh! Oh! Holy Moses, what a chassis
A ruffle accentuates the chassis.
I love the hair at Detour – but sadly it has been an age and half since they last produced some new hair. So yesterday, even though I was all dressed, had done my style notes and ready to shoot this outfit, when I heard there was new hair at Detour I jumped off my pose pad and thumbed a ride over to Detour. And look what I found!!