Tag Archives: Flair

Slink Goes to New Heights

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Shoe addicts have a new drug thanks to Siddean Munro of Slink. Her flat and medium bare feet have conquered the grid, enabling shoe-makers to focus on making shoes while skin-makers bring their expertise to create appliers matching feet to their specific skins. It was a great innovation that has enhanced everyone’s style, but now Siddean takes it to new heights with her high bare feet. Shoe-makers whose focus has been on high stilettos can now join the party of folks doing what they do best – making shoes.

Fittingly, she is releasing these new higher bare feet at Shoetopia, the fabulous celebration of everything footly. Shoetopia is fundraising expo of shoes, socks and feet hoping to raise funds to support Soles4Souls, a charity that gives shoes to the shoeless around the world and also supports micro-enterprises in developing countries by allowing people to sell used shoes and earn a living.

SLink is also releasing three pairs of shoes for the high feet at Shoetopia. This is Hera, a sinuous stiletto with beautiful curving lines that enwrap the foot. I love how the natural flow of leather seems simply to be about curves as though securing the shoe is incidental – a lovely trick of engineering.

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My dress is from Mea Culpa. I love the gorgeous print and the extravagant stargazer lilies on the shoulder and hips. The rich gold and deep burgundy are gorgeous colors for fall. In particular, I love how the sweep of the gold lines in the dress remind me of the sweeping curves of the shoes.

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The glorious colors of the dress inspired me to go out leaf-peeping at Seni Seviyorum. It’s gorgeous and so many lovely spots for taking pictures.
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There Is Nothing Frivolous About Shoes

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Shoetopia is literally shoe heaven.

Shoetopia will be opening soon. Just two more days until the fashionistas of Second Life® can descend on shoe lover’s heaven, literally so as the build is itself heavenly. A brief bloggers preview run through tells me that folks will be thrilled with the variety, creativity and quality of shoes and that the most difficult aspect of Shoetopia will be deciding what to buy.

Some people love to make fun of people’s love of shoes, as though it is somehow decadent to enthuse over that fusion of art and engineering, but while shoes can be and often are extravagant indulgences for some, they are also the most important article of clothing there is.

Most of us are lucky enough to have shoes for many functions, daywear for work, formal dress shoes for special occasions, work shoes to protect us from harm while gardening or chopping wood, boots and galoshes for cold and rain, and even specialized athletic shoes for different activities.  Not all people are so lucky. In a working class family, they may buy one pair of new shoes for the school year – and hope no one grows too quickly. I grew up in a such a family and know very well the dilemma of choosing one pair that must be strong and hardy enough for the year. Those shoes are never delicate and dainty. Loafers, saddleshoes, oxfords, those last a year. Mary Janes? Not so much.

My parents never encouraged me to go barefoot to save on shoes in the summer. A good thing, since many kids get hookworm from walking around barefoot. On top of the risk of broken glass, sharp objects and hot burning tar on the road, parasites are a serious health hazard for those who go barefoot. Soles4Souls is a charity aimed at making sure people have the shoes they need to protect them and help them lead a healthier, safer life. Kids cannot go to school without shoes – so they are also important to reducing poverty. This is a critical, and often neglected, charitable need and Shoetopia aims to raise funds to donate to Soles4Souls efforts.

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I love this sleek modern sheath from CIA Designs.

{ SHOETOPIA 2013 - COMING SOON! }
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Spotify Me!

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For DJ’ing last night, i wore this casual sweater from The Secret Store with some pants from Baiastice.

Sasy Scarborough suggested some time ago that I share my DJ playlists on Spotify so folks can listen even if they can’t come to my set. I set up an account and hope you will follow me. I shared a playlist with Gidge and she confessed that Spotify was too complicated, so I thought I would do a Spotify tutorial.

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Industrial Chic

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Leather Sleeve Pullover from House of Fox – Color.Me.H.O.F at Collabor88

It makes sense that Industrial Chic has come back into fashion in this age of economic insecurity with the middle class fading into the working class. The fashions are a form of solidarity with labor – the use of metals, the hard and soft fabrics, the utilitarian forms and simple silhouettes all avoid blinged out conspicuous consumption in favor of working class colors and practicality. But it’s chic, so there are details that elevate it from banality, details like the inset leather sleeves in this top from House of Fox.

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Linen and Wool

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There is a reason designers and fashionistas encourage natural fabrics. They don’t trap moisture against your skin, “breathing” so that you feel dry and comfortable. They are warm when you need them to be warm and cool when you need them to be cool. Of course, that does not matter much in Second Life® where our pixel weather is always perfectly what we want it to be. But you know, natural fabrics still look right. They have a richness about them which is so evident in this wool sweater and linen skirt from NYU. Continue reading

WTB MATS SHINY SPARKLY PST FOR INFO

I was underwhelmed with Materials the first few releases I was introduced to. I don’t mean that as an insult, but as a consumer when you hear creators raving about something for weeks and then you see and think “Oh, that’s all it is? Shiny?” it’s hard to disguise your let down.

I definitely agree that items with materials have more lustre, but other than some furniture items (leather) I just didn’t see the OOOMPH or a real reason to rave like it was the second coming. Continue reading

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Dress

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MiaMai has released a gorgeous little cocktail dress that twinkles. It twinkles and shines. With materials, it really twinkles. This makes it kind of addictive, watching the light play over the dress. It’s so fun to watch that it’s almost a flaw – addictive!

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It’s also flexible – because you could remove the flexi skirt and wear it as a slim sheath – I love the scalloped hem.

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Sunday Finest

I always forget why I don’t wear mesh eyelashes until I go to process pictures where I was wearing them. The demon eyes in my shadow amuse me, yet, it’s not EXACTLY what I was going for. I suppose it could be that I’m being shadowed by my demons. Let’s go with that. Continue reading

Poisonous Enchantment

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I am always thrilled by designers who do not take their inspirations too literally, but instead use them as a springboard to develop something completely unexpected. Such is the case with Valentina Evangelista of Valentina E. who used the idea of the poisoned apple in Snow White to come up with this dress. Released in quite dangerous shades of green, red and black, it contains many of the elements that suggest danger from the snakeskin it’s made of to the sinuous femme fatale design. It is a creative expression of the inspiration and totally unexpected.
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Halloween Arrives

Ok yeah I got my Zooby baby a Halloween costume again. Sometimes I like dressing up my wee doll as much as I like dressing up my Gidge doll. But I couldn’t resist sending Gidge out to pull pixel single mom duty with her wee doll for Halloween. Continue reading