Achariya suggested last week that we highlight our favorite posemaker. It’s hard to do because there are so many great ones, and that is why I have dawdled. Still, if I have to choose only one, that one must be Luth Brodie of Reel Expression.
Many people think of vintage clothing as costume clothing – but a smart fashionista buys vintage that is classic in form and fabric so that it’s timeless and always chic. As Chanel once said, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.” Illustrating that idea, I borrowed the top from a 1950’s Ivalde and combined it with a very 80’s pair of pants from &Bean for a completely contemporary look.
A friend of mine is taking a year off to live on the Pacific Coast of Mexico – for some sun, surfing and reflection – and asked for some book recommendations. Since I had put on these pants from Fear & Clothing, my first thought was a list of Hunter S. Thompson books. I really love the tartan pants from Fear & Clothing. They come in great colors such as this bold yellow and orange. I also pulled out my Spring Turtleneck from last Spring‘s collection from Aoharu. These turtlenecks have been on of my best investments and I wear them often.
Is there anything so feminie as a soft floaty top with lace and flowers and frills and furbelows? Today I dropped off the skirt prim from the Bare Rose Jazmin dress and am wearing it as a blouse with a skirt. Continue reading
Iota Ultsch for Très Jolie: "Ode à Vivienne"
Doing something a little different today. Iota Ultsch of Tres Jolie asked me several weeks ago if she could style and shoot her Ode to Vivienne dress on me. So today, you get to see how the designer envisions her dress being worn and styled – though within the limitations of my inventory — which was disappointingly (for her) lacking in wild punk hair. I may be wrong, but I think the reason this was particularly important for her to style and shoot is that Vivienne Westwood and her husband Malcolm MacLaren, more than other designers, inspired her aesthetic and design more intimately and deeply than other influences. Here, then, is her Ode a Vivienne in Lolly.
Bonnie & Clyde may have come to a bad end, but I think Jazmin and Clyde roll together famously and will ramble along until a comfortable retirement in some distant inventory purge. The Clyde in this outfit is the new line of ribbon-tied ankle boots from Digit Darkes. Jazmin is the marvelous minidress from Bare Rose that is as soft, romantic and frilly as can be…and flexible as well, wearable as a blouse or dress (just drop the prim) and comes in several colors. I chose the wear the black dress for this shoot.
Waking up stiff and cold, huddled in the back seat of a rusted out Nash Metro that I pulled over somewhere off the highway outside Las Vegas, I stretched and squinted past my knees wincing at the light bouncing off the white sands of the desert plains. I grabbed my bottle of whiskey to quench my dry mouth and saw I had emptied it in the night and unfortunately for my head, I didn’t spill a drop. A Soweto beat booming in my head from the mix of whiskey, chips and salsa and whatever else I could grab at the Arcade, I crawled out of the car and decided to end this little experiment in Gonzo writing by rezzing the huge box of promotional items from Fear & Clothing – the best named store in Second Life. The first thing I tried on was this Sharkskin Red Striped jacket that I completely fell in love with.
Mika has a wonderful outfit with a vintage flair called Anastasia. The fur muff and trim makes you think of Princess Anastasia who was rumored to have survived the regicide of the Romanov’s in 1918 and showed up years later in Paris. DNA tests proved conclusively that she did not survive and that the Anastasia of Paris society was a fraud, disappointing many. However, I think that Anna Anderson, a Polish factory worker, who was able to pull off such an ambitious and far-ranging long con is a much more interesting character and has a much more interesting story.Perhaps in honor of the deceptive story of Anastasia, this dress is deceptively simple at first glance – yet has three different ways to be worn just as Anna Anderson had three identities.
This dress and jewelry set is another collaboration between Unpick and Twinkleberry – and available at the Twinkleberry store in Albero. Named after Ondine, the water spirit, the dress in particular evokes the element of water – particularly with the prim skirt.
I know I told you how much I love Iki Ikarus’ use of color the other day before promptly showing you an outfit she made that was all in brown. Well, here’s a truly colorful outfit from her – though just as atypical of her usual color usage as the brown outfit the other day. These are bright colors and she usually uses desaturated colors – but despite that difference, the same understanding that color and pattern need to be freed from old habits come in to play. She understands that sometimes you just want colors to come bursting out all over – rich, saturated, vibrant rainbows of color.