Category Archives: Showcases & Discount Rooms

Audrey

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When I put on this dress, Half Measures, from Dead Dollz for Penumbra’s Autumn/Winter Fashion Week, I immediately thought of Audrey Hepburn. It has a similar front neckline to the little black dress by Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While the wide circle skirt is a complete opposite to the long, slim pencil skirt of that iconic gown, it is still something she would have worn.

Audrey Hepburn remains one of the great fashion icons achieving a kind of immortality with her legacy – not just in film but in fashion and even more importantly, with her activism. She was far more than a pretty face, but was a wise woman who worked tirelessly on behalf of refugees as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, a passionate commitment that may have risen out of her experiences as a teenager in World War II working as a courier for the resistance while one stepbrother went underground and the other was in a labor camp.

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Autocomplete

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I have such a hard time remembering hisw to spell Loovus Dzevavor. Thankfully, Google autocomplete finishes it for me. I had a hard time, too, choosing just one of the delightful outfits from the Fall Winter Collection that was released for Penumbra Fashion Week. You can take a peek at a few others on the Loovus web site. I chose the wrap-up top and skirt because I love the inset triangles and how they highlight the curves of my hip. It’s a single mesh piece, but it feel like separates. There are two other versions of this outfit at Penumbra with the same top but different color skirts – brilliant and bold. Continue reading

Petit Chat at Fashion Week

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Trinity Yazimoto of Petit Chat is doing something intriguing with her textiles in her Fashion Week collection. She is texturing her clothing with fabrics created from Second Life® photos that she took. In Sweet Mnemosyne, the outfit I am wearing, she using a picture of a woman in a giant bird cage in a field of flowers. I am excited to see someone using Second Life to create clothing textures as it is something new that I have not seen before.

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Please Come to Boston

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Dave Loggins wrote “Please come to Boston” which opens with a plea to his love to travel to Boston in the springtime. She refuses, telling him to come home to her. It is a lovely ballad of frustrated love between a rambling man and a homebody. Of course, I think his timing is wrong. He should have asked her to Denver in the spring and to Boston in the fall, not the other way around. Boston and its environs are so beautiful in the fall. And then she would could have worn wonderfully classic sweaters like this argyle from Gizza aptly names Boston. There is also a coordinating skirt and collar and the outfit comes in many styles from this classic argyle to stylized baroque a la McQueen.
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Penumbra Fashion Week Begins Today

PENUMBRA AW14 FASHION WEEK LOGO Mercedes Benz Fashion Week ended Thursday – with more fabulous Spring and Summer 2015 collections than you can imagine. They are all available for viewing at MBFW online. However, my favorite place to see the collections is New York magazine

Penumbra Fashion Week begins today with many runway shows everyday throughout the week and with forty-three designers, there’s a lot of fashions walking the runways. Second Life® has an immediacy that we do not have in our first lives, so Penumbra Fashion Week features Autumn/Winter 2014 collections.

Now there is a reason I love Second Life Fashion Week.  It always produces something new and exciting. Most of the time designers create a few items at a time for a weekly or monthly release schedule. They might release one to five items for an event. There is nothing wrong with this and it is great fun to see how designers take an event theme and interpret it in myriad ways as happens each month at Collabor88.

However, for Fashion Week, they are asked to produce a collection – several pieces that should reflect various forms but with a cohesive theme. This makes them think about design differently – about how elements work together, how shapes can be transformed from one outfit to the next. This different approach can develop into fantastical avant garde pieces, amazing show stopping gowns and really exciting invocations.

There is something about making a gown that  you know is going to walk down a runway in front of an audience that I think just gets those juices flowing – so I always am eager to see what folks produce and the stories their fashions tell.

Shut the Light, Shut the Shade

My House

Ispachi trunk, bed and dresser, AF Dolly Lamp, Zaara vanity, stool, end table, chandelier and makeup oddments, Letter C I made, AF Pheasant Feathers, ::db:: Picture Frame Set Silver Buddha, Elegant Mirrored Tree from Ravyn Stonesoul, AF Carriage Clock, MadPea Bonsai Ryu, AF Bed Text, floorplan. eiffel tower marquee, AF Mother of Pearl Inlaid Chest,

Close your eyes, close the door
You don’t have to worry anymore
I’ll be your baby tonight

My House

Trompe Loeil – Ines Branch Screen, Dutchie Vintage Bathroom,MadPea Bonsai Tsukikage RARE, Scarlet Creative Meribel Day Sofa, tarte. striped rug

Shut the light, shut the shade
You don’t have to be afraid
I’ll be your baby tonight

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A very, very fine house

My House

from left to right: [we’re CLOSED] summer flowers and shrubs, Silver Birch from Studio Skye, Lark – Desert Retreat Deck – Painted, [ba] hollyhocks, Trompe Loeil – Brooklyn Carriage , Sway’s [Door Mat] international, [we’re CLOSED] tree 01D spring

I do not move houses very often in Second Life® or in real life. It is just too much work. However, when the Brooklyn Carriage House came out at Collabor88 last month, I could not resist its bright red doors and fine brickwork. I finally have everything arranged, but will be moving shortly. I thought I would share before I pack it all up. I love the house and how it looks, but I guess my four year old computer really cannot handle such an open floor plan where everything fezzes all the time. I need rooms and walls that limit the textures my computer has to handle, so I will be on my way to a more traditional space. That is totally a reflection of my computer’s age and is no criticism of the house – which is gorgeous, very, very gorgeous.

My outdoor decor is pretty limited, just a few shrubs and bushes from We’re Closed, a couple trees and the gorgeous deck from Lark that was released at The Liaison Collaborative a few month’s back.

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I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

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The Old Astronomer is not a very good poem, but it does end well. Stars were on my mind thanks to the adorable Lootia shirts from Somnia for My Slink Obsession. Sanura Snowpaw of Somnia may have my head for how I am wearing it though. The shirts are actually long-sleeved, but I chose to wear them on my Slink Physique and then opted to not apply the sleeves for a tank top instead. A surprise benefit to wearing appliers – or an unintended consequence if you don’t like it, I suppose.

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I wore the top with a grey denim skirt from Mai Bilavio who is also a creator for Vive9. While I was a My Slink Obsession, I also found some great nails from Licked & Painted and Adore & Abhor. I tag all my pictures on Flickr with the store names. If it’s more than one word, I have to put quotes around the store name. That makes me wish for more one word store names.

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Remembrance

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Versus Magazine did a lovely tribute to Squinternet Larnia that was released on the 4th, the one-year anniversary of her death. Tania Tebaldi who wrote and managed Squinternet’s blog for her wrote an essay that showed a different perspective on Squinternet than the one I knew. That’s one of the reasons people come together to mourn their loved ones – because we all know people through different lenses and in sharing our grief, we all get a fuller, rounder perception of the person. Continue reading

Old School, New School

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There’s only a few designers with the confidence in their design aesthetic and creative skills to resist the tides of change while simultaneously surfing the waves. Monica Outlander is one of those artists. Her new MiaMai Black Label collection is the perfect exemplar of that duality of leading and trailing edge design.

What do I mean by that? Well, she is using appliers for Slink Mesh attachments to enhance her clothing. Meanwhile, she provides system layers for people who use the default avatar. She is using mesh in many creative ways. Meanwhile, she will use flexi-prims when they suit the design better. It is that flexibility that leads her to use whatever method best suits the design – not just the newest method, that shows confidence and commitment to her own vision.

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