Category Archives: Expos, Fairs and Fundraisers

Carmen Was a Hussy

4 Replies

mar19_007

I am wearing the Carmen dress from Kunglers for Fashion For Life. It’s clear it’s inspiration comes from the fiery Carmen of Bizet’s opera. Carmen is an opera filled with catchy tunes that you will find yourself humming for days. The music is beautiful and makes it easy to forget what a misogynistic story it is. It’s all too familiar. A man who cannot accept that the woman he loves does not love him decides that if he can’t have her, no one will, and murders her. What’s infuriating is that he’s the hero and she’s the villain. And it’s a comedy. Still, I love the music and never miss a chance to see it. Carmen is a free spirit with a lively wit and insouciant spirit who easily captures men’s hearts. She is someone who wants what she wants and doesn’t settle for less. Sure, she was a hussy, but only because that’s how our society stigmatizes women who won’t settle.
Continue reading →

Beyond Black and White

Leave a reply

mar18_004

One of the pleasures of Fashion For Life has been seeing how creators have responded to the theme. Most obviously are the amazing greyscale builds that remind us all that black and white has a power all its own. Most wittily, SarahtheRed Aubierre of Vanitas Vesture focused on red, green and blue – the RGB color mixing that is literally beyond black and white. Some did not incorporate the theme into their clothing, guided by their own inspirations. Some, like Mami Jewell of Azul – adopted the theme fully and created black and white masterpieces. Canna Sombra is a powerful statement in black and white. You’ve seen the gown before in other colors, since Gidge and I did a shoot together. The dress is so stunningly beautiful we fell in love with its shape and flow. At FFL, you can find this lovely dress and help support cancer research at the same time.
Continue reading →

Man, I Feel Like A Woman

1 Reply


So I was bored a few days ago, before the SICK really took hold and knocked me into the RL bed. I went wandering and traipsed through THE ICING.
First of all, THE ICING is officially a store I LOVE HARD. And unlike some places, the freebie wardrobe closet in the store isn’t full of crap I’d never wear (pro-tip I don’t want a tee with your store logo). I had the other two dresses but for some reason this Pizzicato Poppies is new or NEW TO ME.
Which is just as good. Continue reading →

Looking Good While Doing Good

1 Reply

mar18_019

I hope you spend some of this weekend at Fashion For Life and the Pacific Crisis Fundraiser. I know sometimes folks are reluctant to go because they think with so many people there will be a lot of lag. That has not been my experience. I hopped over to Bourke White last night to shoot these pictures and had no troubles with lag or rezzing even with my graphics cranked. I checked the map before going and went to the sim with the fewest people, but I don’t think any of the sims were full except, perhaps, Avalon, where there was a dance. Additionally, at Fashion For Life have incorporated many strategies to reduce lag to make your experience as enjoyable as possible.
Continue reading →

Surfing the Map

1 Reply

mar16_008

How do you explore Second Life®? Do you use the Destination Guide? Perhaps you follow some of the travel blogs such as Hybrid Ansar’s Avatars in Motion or Ysé SLiffeuse et Gloodeuse, a French blog that is mostly pictures so anyone can enjoy it and find places to go. Maybe you go to Flickr and follow groups such as the SL Tourist Board. I do all of the above, but then sometimes I just open up the map, click on a spot and go there. Sometimes that is embarrassing, but sometimes it’s serendipity. That’s how I found this lovely harbor at Permutate.

mar16_002
Continue reading →

Charity Never Looked So Good

Leave a reply

mar14_004

The Second Life® community never stands still and it never stands by either. There’s always someone with the energy and courage to step up and do something when something needs to be done. So, now we have more than one charitable event going on at the same time. What to do? Why, shop of course. And why not put together an outfit highlighting items from both events just for fun. That’s what I have done here with items from Vanitas Vesture and Kouse’s Sanctum for Fashion For Life and from Peqe for the Pacific Crisis Fundraiser.

mar14_003

Now, while you are admiring the front view of this gorgeous jacket and texturing details in the skirt and top, I want to take a moment to remind you that the donations are from the creators. If you are getting clothing at the market value at a charitable event, you are not donating, you are shopping. I just think it’s useful to remind ourselves of that when we get ideas about how events should do this or that differently. The donation is coming from the participants who have the energy, talent and courage to put themselves out there on behalf of charities. The rest of us, including me, can support their donations by buying stuff, but we are getting our money’s worth.

Since CNN pulled one sentence out of the paragraph above, some people who did not read the post have gotten the impression that I think our participation in charity events does not count.  As you can see from what is bolded, that is not true. However,  the key ingredient to conflict is isolating an opinion from context to make it more polarizing, which is what happened, unintentionally as it probably is.  No fundraising event can happen without the synergy between the people who contribute items to sell and those who buy. Much of the shopping is motivated by the desire to support the effort and to raise funds and people often buy more than they planned.  I know I sure do.

Continue reading →

Week 18 – Ecru

Leave a reply

I’m almost caught up.. YaY… So, for Week 18 of the 52 Weeks of Color, we have Ecru.  I’m sure I have a lot of it in my inventory, its just not called Ecru and I didn’t feel like searching very hard, so I went to the Marketplace and typed in Ecru and found this sexy lil’ crocheted number from Indyra.

Style Notes:

Dress:  Indyra – Sienna Crochet Cocktail Gown

Shoes:  N-core – AURA, Champagne

Hair:  Truth – Evie, Auburn

Skin:  Belleza – Erika SK0 and Erika SK lips 3

Eyes:  Poetic Colors – October Wind (m) bright (FFL)

All Poses:  Z&S

Fashion For Life – Shiki Designs

Leave a reply

mar13_003

Shinichi Mathy of Shiki Designs always makes interesting clothes with a singular element that takes them in an unpredictable direction. For example, the addition of fur at the shoulders adds quirky interest to this lovely alencon lace dress. Shinichi is just one of the many Japanese designers who have generously participated in the Fashion For Life show.

I find myself often thinking about those Second Life friends and acquaintances in Japan and wondering how they are doing. Shinichi’s associate reports that he is fine, which is great news. So far, everyone seems to be doing okay. I find myself thinking about “Everything In Its Path” a book about the aftermath of the Buffalo Creek flood. The author explains with great compassion about the ways natural disaster traumatizes in ways that are not first seen – and most especially through loss of community. The evacuation, the loss of neighbors, habits, of the everyday. It is an incredible book and you can even read the author’s findings in a document downloadable from FEMA. While the ongoing crisis captures our attention now, especially since the damage keeps escalating with nuclear plants and more aftershocks, we should all know that it will take a long, long time to recover a sense of normality again.

mar13_008
I took the photos at the Fashion For Life event. I cannot encourage you enough to go and see these builds. They are just so amazing. I love seeing how the builders translate the different photographers’ aesthetics to architecture and landscaping. It really is a tour de force and you should not deprive yourself of the experience.
Continue reading →

Things My Brother Taught Me

Leave a reply

mar12_039

All my siblings were married by the time I was four years old and for some of them I was a sort of “practice child” that they spoiled with attention. My elder brother and his wife often had me spend weekends with them where I learned to play horseshoes, shoot pool and throw darts. I also learned how to shoot a rifle, hand load bullets and even aim and fire a cannon. He and his wife taught me ballroom dancing, poker and craps.When I was older, he taught me how to drive his stock car. He took me deer hunting, fishing and taught me to swim. He introduced me to dozens of books and encouraged my love of reading. So much of who I am comes from my siblings, not just him, but all of them. But my other siblings will be around to teach their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and my brother won’t. He died of cancer a year ago last July. Too may children lose the gifts of grandparents and family elders to teach them. The work of the American Cancer Society to find cures for cancers is invaluable. And it’s working, Four times as many people survive cancer as did forty years ago. So, let’s keep supporting this good work with events like Fashion For Life – and if support means wearing a rocking hot outfit like this one, how can you resist?
Continue reading →