The Soda Pop Dress from Deco for April’s Collabor88 reminded me of the ancient cultural struggle between those who say Soda and those who say Pop and the outliers who say Coke. It’s a conflict that has been mapped and researched and will probably continue long after we all are gone. DECO’s designer sidestepped the controversy by called the dress the Soda Pop dress, showing a keen instinct for diplomacy.
I can never resist a beautiful feminine and romantic ball gown. I found this one at AVENUE Fashion Week. I missed the show, but saw this in the Retail Gallery. One of the joys of Second Life® is having a closet full of ball gowns. I love how this gown from Arikea combines the soft colors and floral patterns of traditional romantic gowns, but with a thoroughly modern eye. The floral patter is abstract and made even more so by being so very large. The colors are soft and pastel, but not your granny’s pastels – not with that brown.
The gown itself is a traditional shape ball gown shape with a fitted bodice, sweetheart neckline and a full skirt full of drama. The modern edge is totally fabric and color choice. I wanted to emphasize the modern color palette and tinted my white cloves just a slightly darker shade of brown that I pulled from the skirt.
Ariskea made shoes that are a perfect companion to the gown. These shoes come in three colors as does the gown. 
I added jewelry from Donna Flora and and an updo from Exile called Part of Me. I love the loft on this undo.
I chose the new PXL skin for Collabor88 called Jade. I love the dramatic makeup.
Store info at Blogging Second Life
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: Adorkable
Skin: [PXL] JADE NAT Crush Makeup {C88 Edition}
Eyes: Insufferable Dastard
Lashes: Lelutka
Hair: ::Exile:: Part of Me:Ember
Clothing: Ariskea// F l e u r i e mesh dress//m // Sage
(5th&Oxford) Leather Gloves – L *white* (tinted) store is closed
Shoes: Ariskea// S o r b e t mesh peep toes
Jewelry: Donna Flora Asia Gold Necklace and Earrings
Retro prints make me happy and I could not resist trying to make a thoroughly modern look out of the gorgeous Kitsch leggings from Tableau Vivant for Collabor88. Adding a very modern bodysuit and capelet from Molichino, this look may be feeling groovy, but it’s hippie chic not hippie chick.
Slow down, you move too fast, you’ve got to make the morning last
Just kickin’ down the cobble-stones, lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy
Feeling groovy Continue reading
The theme for April’s Collabor88 is Kitsch. Well, Kitsch never had it so good. Normally, I use the word pejoratively, describing some tired gimcrack tchotchke. Don’t get me wrong. I have kitsch. Most of mine is Scandinavian folk art, but it’s still kitsch. The kitsch is in this outfit from ISON is the flying bird patter in the sheer bodice, but in such skillful hands, it’s kitsch as art.
The ISON dress can be worn with the long sleeves that I chose or as a sleeveless sheath. It comes in black, blue, green, gray, purple, red and tan and there is no reason you cannot mix the system layer bodices from one color with the mesh dress pieces of another – just to add more interest.
I am loving the spring/summer collection from MiaMai that was released for AVENUE fashion week. These are great casual pieces and comfy resort wear that suit the season. With romantic florals and flirty hems, the entire collection is full-on feminine. This is the Sagi dress which comes in several print sleeveless asymmetrical dresses worn over a lace system layer blouse.
VoguE released a fabulous dress full of feathers and drama though the big drama comes from the STG shoes that are a feathery shoegasm.
The Alexis Print dress from LIV-Glam, of course. That’s not actually accurate. The thing with LIV-Glam outfits is they are usually come in a fat pack for the price of a single dress. This particular dress is at The Designers Showroom and comes with the unique LIV-Glam packaging that I love. It comes in a HUD package that you wear. First you specify the size, so you are only getting the pieces you need and not filling your inventory. But don’t worry, if you are wrong, you can ask for a different size. One you put the pieces on, you can click on the hud to change the textures for different outfits. For example, this dress comes in three striped options and three floral options. When you consider that her prices range from 99 to 275 L, you can see that you do get a fat pack of dresses for the price of one. It is important to wear the HUD, not rez it. If you rez it, you will think you have an empty box.
The ottoman is a pose prop from Lost Angel for Pose Fair. The shopping bags come with the ottoman.
One day baby, we’ll be old
Oh baby, we’ll be old
And think of all the stories that we could have told
One day baby, we’ll be old
Oh baby, we’ll be old
And think of all the stories that we could have told
One Day Reckoning by Asaf Avidan
We aren’t old yet; and there’s no reason not to tell our stories now. I think one way we tell our stories is through fashion. What we wear signifies so much about us. as we walk down the street, complete strangers can learn how daring or conventional we are, how flashy or restrained, how forward-looking or how nostalgic. Of course, that is an incomplete picture since we can wear something avant garde one day and something waiflike the next. After all, we contain multitudes.
It is Easter a holiday, a Christian holiday celebrated on the day of a pagan rite celebrating spring. We are told it is named after Eostre, the goddess of spring. Our source for that is the Venerable Bede who wrote in his book On the The Reckoning of Time “Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.”
You know, he could have been joking. He did a lot of fabricating in his book. I guess, lacking Google, he filled in with imagination what he didn’t have well-sourced. The only thing that is known that several cognates in other languages mean dawn, so it’s possible it could be the dawn of spring. This really is the only early evidence of Eostre. There’s Grimm of course, but he’s closer to our time and is even more certainly inventing as he goes along.
Still, the commercial traditions of easter eggs and bunnies and peeps are harmless fun that make a holiday special for kids who are not quite ready to understand the metaphysical aspect of the day. They also give the holiday secular components that make it part of the unofficial civic religion that people of all and no faiths participate in as part of being here in this society. That is how Easter works for me. So, of course I am wearing an Easter bonnet, courtesy of Gidge who sent it to me. Thanks, Gidge!
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So this is an outfit to wear clubbing. The sleek, almost mirror-like pants look great under the moving colored lights over the dance floor. The top is about as sexy and revealing as is legal and yet cool, comfortable and perfect for dancing. I imagine that little bow could tempt someone to pull one end, but smart tailoring has stitched it closed so there won’t be an murder on the dance floor tonight.
The super sheer lace is lined along the facing, providing strategic opacity just where it is needed. Little chain button closures flirt with exposure but are perfectly secure. Because it is sheer, it has to fit perfectly and it does. There is no alpha with this top because the point is exposing the skin. Continue reading