When we decided to shoot a group photo for the New Year, the only rule was to wear something black. I had seen this in the Baiastice holiday collection so choosing what to wear took no time at all. I love its form-fitting shapeliness coupled with the sexy, center panel. It’s also a super comfortable dress for New Year’s Eve activities from dancing, partying to the family tradition of making sure the house is spotless for the coming new year. Thankfully there’s no oven in my SL home to clean.
Samara Barzane is a friend and fellow blogger (The 3 Fashionteers) who braved the dangers of volunteering to be a guest stylist. But you know, that’s one of the defining characteristics of Samara for me – she’s game to do anything. When there’s a roll call of people to volunteer, she steps forward. I tp’ed her up to my platform to see her outfit and knew immediately where I wanted to shoot.
I saw that fabulous combination of the form-fitting cashmere sweater with the floaty sheer tulle skirt and the magnificent tights and immediately thought of China – the black and white sim. Setting windlight to Strawberry Singh’s fabulous Silver setting, I started snapping away.
Alea Lamont was the first blog reader to volunteer to be a Guest Stylist. We are highlighting our readers for Christmas, so hope you aren’t too shy and contact one of us to ask for a shoot. You can also ask in comments, but make sure you have your correct avatar name. The details are here or here. Alea is every inch a Snow Angel in this amazing confection from EMO-tions. With such a heavenly look, I had to shoot her in her natural element – the clouds.
And the moon rose just to have a look for itself, that’s how lovely she looks with the dress, the Fa(u)ntasy wings and the beautiful hair.
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“Fashion is self-consciously sociological and frankly featherbrained. It’s classic and immediate. Nostalgic and now. Worldly and other-worldly. Whatever’s happening you are part of it and at last you can be yourself and look as you choose.” English Vogue, 1968
1968 was the year fashion run amok. Hemlines on the runway ranged from the mini to just above the knee to the midi and the maxi. Women wore midi-coats with mini-skirts and minidresses over bell-bottoms. Velvet jumped off the formal rack and raced over to casuals and was seen everywhere. Thrift store chic meant looking like you dressed in a thrift store, not actually dressing in a thrift store. Fashion became not just a way of looking good, but a signifier of political and generational divides. Tonight you can visit the wild and crazy 1968 at The Velvet from 7 to 9 SLT – as Rock per Annum moves forward one more year.
1967 was the Summer of Love and 1968 was the year of sorrow. Martin Luther King was assassinated. So was Bobby Kennedy. The My Lai Massacre revealed that the American soldiers were not always the “good guys” of the romanticized war movies. The Tet Offensive challenged the military superiority of the American army. Richard Nixon is elected president after derailing the Paris peace talks by contacting the North Vietnamese and promising a better peace treaty with him. But it was not a completely horrible year. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a black power salute when getting their medals at the Olympics in Mexico. The Civil Rights Act was signed. Yale University opened admission to women. Intel was founded and President Johnson ordered that all computers purchased by the government support ASCII encoding, paving the way for generations of ASCII artists. Elvis made a comeback and the Beatles released The White Album and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In debuted.
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Eclectic Wingtips of Eclectic Apparel is having a super sale, putting half of her store on sale at half off. Yes, 50% of the items are 50% off. Even better, there are a few 1 linden items such as this gorgeous little number to sweeten the pot. What I like best about Eclectic Apparel is that there are great basics, separates that can be combined and mixed and matched and build and extend your wardrobe. This is a stocker-upper sale.
I mixed Kungler's Lavinia Top with the SHI pantsuit. It came with a solid black top, but I liked the addition of this tone on tone print. I am wearing the gauntlets with a bow on the wrist that Tracy Rubble made for me for Nzuri.
I got my new cat Oscar back in June. He was 11 when I got him from the Humane Society and a bit rough around the edges what with spending eight months waiting for someone to appreciate his unique qualities. Perhaps if they had known that he was a music critic someone might have found him first and I would have missed out on his delightful quirks and wonderful conversations like this one. I first discovered his talent while I was working on my What I Like column for Shopping Cart Disco at the computer in the kitchen. All of a sudden, I heard music playing from the bedroom and got up to check and there was Oscar sitting by the ipod which I have in a speaker base. How cute, I thought, he must have been rubbing his nose on it and turned it on.
Back in my infancy when I graduated from high school and thought I knew everything, I gave the valedictory speech at graduation. My title was “You get from life what you put into it.” How smug that sounds to me today. The lessons of time and experience have taught me that life is much more random that that. The course of your life is not determined by hard work and will alone, but by hard work, will combined with health, luck (good or bad) and sheer randomness. You can control some factors, but not all of them and even with the best of control of your own efforts, you can’t control others. We all like to take credit for our successes and blame outside forces for failures. That’s human nature. There is, however, one way that we still have control and it’s in how we react. Are we positive or negative? Do we try for more kindness in our actions and less bitterness? Our attitude to the randomness of life plays a major role in how we get along and move along in the world, so I guess that old speech wasn’t so bad after all.
I was getting read to shoot this outfit when Gidge and I went shopping. After a bit of a spree, we headed over to Collabor88. Now I thought I had put together a pretty good outfit, but I had that affirmed with a massive compliment when out of the blue a total stranger asked if she could shoot my look for her blog. Of course I said yes! I still hadn’t settled on earrings yet, but I was close to done.
BFour years ago, I went to ND/MD Skins and Shapes where I purchased an Angelina Jolie look-alike skin and shape and a Marilyn Monroe look-alike shape in preparation for Halloween parties. I was a noob and I was thrilled that the store owner was in the store. She chatted with me and tp’ed in her partner Moonlay Laval to say hi as well. Alea gave me lots of advice on how to put together my Tomb Raider look and taught me one of the most valuable skills I ever learned in Second Life – tinting hair to get the color I want. I still do it all the time and often think of her when I am fussing with my hair. She invited me to be her friend and became the very first creator on my friend’s list. If you remember you noob days, you know how over the moon I was.
There’s nothing puzzling about how to save lindens this weekend. Truth District, with its shops featuring many leading fashion designers and boutiques in Second Life®, is having a huge fall event and many items will be 50% off. With this discount, you can save money and you don’t have to hunt for anything. Just as significant, is that you can currently join the Truth District Update Group for free, but there will be a membership fee starting noon tomorrow.
This gorgeous Vee dress from MichaMi will be 50% and it comes in 6 gorgeous colors. You should never pass up a sale on MichaMi clothing because it’s all beautifully made investment clothing that you can easily wear with other clothes.