Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower
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Tag Archives: Behavior Body
Overwhelmed with the New
Gizza released a gorgeous formal gown at The Liaison Collaborative. It comes in rich jewel tones, deeply saturated colors such as this rich ruby red. It has a full, flowering skirt that falls deeply in the back. These skirts are sometimes controversial. Sometimes they are a failure, but when well done, they are beautiful, flashing your legs while still providing the length of formal wear. I kind of think we should name them by how well they work. Hi-lo or waterfall skirts if they work and mullet skirts if they do not.
By the way, Slink has updated their hands so they are rigged to the Bento skeleton. Note the very, not just released, but updated. What does that mean for you? It means that to have new Bento hands, you can simply update your old ones without an additional investment. How generous is that?
How does it work? You go to the mainstore and click the redelivery terminal and the update will be sent to you. If you bought the multipack, you will get the whole shebang, the dynamic hands, the idle HUD, and a fifteen pose HUD of static poses. If you bought the mini packs 1, 2, or 3, you will get the dynamic hands, the idle HUD and the static poses that match the set you already bought. If you bought individual hands, you will get the hands and the pose you purchased. You can buy the idle animations separately. All come with stiletto nails to offer nail length/shape options.
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Symbiosis
Oxford English Dictionary definition of Symbiosis
The relationship between designers and bloggers has generated a lot of conversation lately — and that is certainly preferable to allowing anger, frustration and resentment to bubble beneath the surface. For me, though, many of these discussions spend too little time reflecting on the symbiotic relationship between blogger and designer and that leads to an unnecessary and misleading polarization of the issue. Bloggers and creators should not be polarized, because they need each other and their relationship is symbiotic, not parasitic.
Don’t get me wrong. I roll my eyes when I see increasingly prescriptive demands from creators, but I understand where the motivation for these demands originate. There are more and more and more bloggers everyday. It is clear that several, though not most, people who decide to blog see it as an opportunity to get free stuff. There is plenty of evidence for this from Flickr posters soliciting “blog sponsors” without regard to their own aesthetic to the fact that I, a blogger who has made exactly two projectors for sale, get random notecards asking me to add people to my blogging team. Hah!
If you are sending me a notecard, you have not looked at what I make. If you have not looked at what I make, you don’t care about the quality or creativity or any of the other reasons someone would want to blog another’s items. You just want stuff.
I do not disapprove of a blogger contacting a designer. I have myself. However, I only do it when that designer speaks to me with their creations. When a designer’s work stands out from the crowd. When I have worn it and blogged it and know I love it. When their work suits my taste and the way I think about clothing. Yes, then I will read their profile to learn how they recruit new bloggers and follow their instructions. I may be one of the “old guard”, but I still follow instructions. The key point though, is that I only ask if their work is something I would still wear and still buy, if and when I can afford it, whether they added me as a blogger or not.
Modern Romance
The Fernando gown from Dead Dollz is romance personified. I love the beautiful embroidered tracery of flowers and vines in that soft peach, blue and mint. I love the fitted bodice with the bouffant exuberant squirt and the sheer overblouse. the definition of the belted waistline. It takes so many elements of historical and folk costume and the result is completely modern. It borrows from the baroque to make something minimalist and resolutely of the the now. It’s just great design on every level.
Petticoat Junction
I do love a full, wide, pouffy skirt with layers of petticoats. It can have its disadvantages. I was wearing several layers of petticoats under a skirt at a barn dance once. I was sitting out a butterfly on some hay bales one night and a mouse ran across the hay and up the skirt, between the layers of petticoats. What with the netting being very nice for the mouse to grasp and the many layers to try to shake him out of, I must have spent 10 minutes jumping up and down on a hay bale trying to shake him loose.
Of course, no mouse would dare come within striking distance of these spiked heels from Glamistry. They might be too dangerous for the speed of barn-dancing. Imagine stepping on someone’s toe. Fortunately, in Second Life® we do not have such banal concerns and I can wear my lethal weapon shoes without a care.
I began this outfit with the gorgeous Carrie skirt with the Black Rose print. It comes in several other prints, including beautifully feminine florals. However, I fell in love with the geometry of this print the minute I saw it. It is visually striking and makes such a powerful statement. I can imagine is with a massive shoulder piece of feathers for some gala, but for a walk on the beautiful streets of Venice, something less formal and avant garde seemed in order.
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Layering
Ghee has all sorts of knits and woolens for layering in rich jewel tones and foundation neutrals that make for great cold-weather fashion. I particularly love this tunic with a long cowl sweater. Underneath I am wearing ghee’s thermals that come in great colors and which I would recommend as investment purchases except for one big hurdle – they have no Slink Physique appliers which is becoming a deal breaker for things like tights, leggings and layering sweaters.
Audrey
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.
This is Real Life
The princess dress from Adore & Abhor was released to celebrate their sixth anniversary. It is rich in design details including a sheer overskirt, a lovely ribbon belt and a cameo collar.
Let me start with a confession. I do not hate Shopping Cart Disco’s SL Secrets. From sociology and evolutionary psychology, I understand the role of gossip in defining community norms and values. It is possible that anonymity allows more viciousness than we might see in first life, but given the many stories about young people driven to suicide by online harassment on Facebook® and Twitter® coming from non-anonymous classmates, I think that anonymity is a smaller factor than we might think.
Sometimes the secrets make me think, sometimes they make me laugh, sometimes they surprise me. Secrets often spark discussions on Plurk® and I suppose they do on other social media as well. Sometimes I agree with the secret-makers, sometimes I do not. One thing most secret-makers have in common is an idea of how the world should be and they want us all to know it is out of alignment with their standards.
Today a secret maker repeated the all too common “Get a real life” mantra that always seems so ironic coming from someone whose emotional investment is Second Life® is so powerful they are compelled to create anonymous secrets to share their opinions. This time, the “Get a real life” message included an insinuation that purchasing from SL creators could be contributing to their mental illness by promoting an attachment to this second life over their first life.
I think the secret maker is wrong on all levels – because while our first and second lives are distinct and often separate, they are both real.
The End of the Journey
I have done very little since I received that e-mail early Wednesday morning telling me that Squinternet had reached the end of her journey. I posted an announcement in her groups and on the Love Donna Flora blog and crawled into bed for a good cry. Crying can be so cleansing. Unfortunately, it upset my cat who proceeded to demonstrate loudly and longly that he can cry harder and louder than me. This touch of the ridiculous made me laugh.
Grief is like a cloud, fogging my brain. But one thing I know, I am not alone in my grief. Squinternet (Giulia) was widely admired and literally hundreds of people have been touched by her artistry and her kindness and they all feel her absence. I hope those who loved her find comfort in the knowledge that she was well and widely loved and that thanks to the generosity and openhearted spirit of the Second Life community, she got to see that before she died. In many ways, Love Donna Flora! was a memorial – one that she attended. People shared their hopes, best wishes and their love for her at the event and on the blog with blog posts, messages and open-hearted generosity. And she got to see it for herself.
Garden Delights
Gizza has released a gorgeous lace dress perfect for summer days. I am wearing without the higher waisted full skirt flexis and the rose at the waist, opting for a more casual look using the mesh skirt and flexi leg prime. I like this closer fitting, dropped waist, simpler, sleeker and chic.
The lovely braided hair is from Iren. I picked it up at Hair Fair last month.