I spent far too much shopping this weekend with so many new releases and events that I decided to take a break and go for a walk at the fabulous Noweeto Grasslands. I thought the lizard tote from Celoe would love to go for a walk with me.
So I went looking for a lovely place to shoot and found Misali – a gorgeous water sim with small islands that hold lovely little set pieces perfect for the SL photographer. Since I was wearing the purple and sapphire dress and jacket outfit from Baiastice I decided to use the lovely Purple Moonlight windlight setting from Elysium Elide. I love the dress and the jacket and like them together, though this does highlight one of the reasons I have not become a 100% supporter of mesh. I would love to have them as separate pieces, but unlike system clothing, mesh separates can be difficult to fit together. Some strategies I have used to make mesh separates work is to wear a M under and an L on top, though that does not always work. That’s why designers like Baiastice’ Sissy Pessoa make the outfits in one unified mesh instead of separates. It makes them work together perfectly, adjusting to your poses and preventing all intersections, but it does reduce our opportunity to make individualist styling choices.
Or maybe we just have to dig a little deeper to come up with new ways to add our own quirks and options. Here, I added the collar and sleeve fur pieces from a Bliss Couture jacket. I decided to tie the jacket more directly to the dress, adding the accents in the sapphire color of the dress.
One of the most enigmatic songs of all time popped into my head while trying to conjure up a title for this post. I was sim-hopping through the many Linden Endowment for the Arts sims and stopped off at one (LEA17) that struck me as having a gorgeous, high desert atmosphere that might be fun for playing around with shadows. I used the Barcelona windlight setting though I fiddled around with the time of day and where east was relative to the sim just to arrange the lighting more conveniently. My outfit was great for trekking about – though that Maitreya top actually has a long, draping open back.
No, I am not feeling blue, just wearing blue – and sitting on blue. The blue cardigan is from Leverocci. I picked it up when I was thinking my outfit from The Sea Hole looked a bit chilly for the weather we were having. The chair is from RnB and is a Wear Gray event item. It has 9 sit animations in it with a good mix of realistic male and female options. I love the retro styling. It reminds me of this fabulous couch I bought at a rummage sale that was that same electric blue and also a 60s vintage in pristine condition. I bet they kept it in plastic covers. It was 75 inches long and I loved it. Unfortunately, my dog would chew on the legs a bit, so I bought some bitter apple and sprayed the entire couch so she would leave it alone. Big mistake! I came home after work to a house with floors 6 inches deep in couch batting and fabric and the only fabric and stuffing still on the counch the little bits near the staples and upholstery nails that she could not chew off. It went from fully upholstered to wood and springs with one spray of bitter apple. When I saw this chair, I felt a pang of nostalgia for that magnificent couch and for that damned dog.
I had a lot of fun in Second Life yesterday. I went to the Kamera Klub event at The Velvet where a bunch of folks dressed up as The Cramps and The Beatles for a two hour pose-off (Gidge did the poses as Status was an event sponsor) and musical duel and where I got a couple lovely compliments on this dress and jacket combo from Baiastice. Then I rushed off to the Labyrinth of Absurdity where I shot these blog photos. It’s an amazing spot and I will return to shoot there again as there are several installations, this one with my friend on the swing here being only one.
While checking out this new dress from Ivalde, I decided to trek around the Ivalde sim and climbed up high to get a good look. I am also taking a good look at this new dress with the colorful embroidery on the sleeves and bodice. I am wearing the teal dress, but it also comes in red, magenta, green, blue, and yellow all on a rich black fabric.
In less than four hours, Fashion For Life will be closing until next year. The vendors will be picked up and the sims will be dismantled and it will all go away, these beautiful builds such as this one that are all part of a monumental annual effort to raise funds in the hope of finding cures for cancer. Cancer is such a tricky bastard; it needs more than one cure. But the cures are possible; they can be found and it will take our concerted effort to find them.
I DJ’ed last night at The Velvet and put together a fun set full of mambos, tangos and sambas with a bit of jive and other things to spice it up. I wanted to wear something samba-worthy and remembered this top I picked up at The Dressing Room Blue. It was from Mimikri, so I dived into my Mimikri folder to find a silver skirt to wear with it – and adapting this skirt from the Adele dress worked perfectly.
I love putting together different sets that explore a mood or a beat and have a lot of fun spinning my songs on Monday nights. My long-time friend and former partner is the manager at The Velvet and has really brought a new spirit to the place. If you have not been there in awhile, you might want to try it again. The old “We are cooler than you,” vibe is long gone and there’s a friendly spirit that focuses on the sheer pleasure of sharing music. There’s a blog that you should check out with posts from many of the DJ’s updating readers on upcoming sets.
There’s a quote from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House that came to mind when I put this dress on. “I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies!” This Crazy Butterflies for Life dress from Orage Creations got me thinking about freedom – and what it means. FDR talked about the Four Freedoms; freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. He wasn’t thinking of cancer when he talking about those freedoms, but wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to finally come to a time when the word cancer does not evoke fear, but instead a confidence that it can be treated and overcome? To that end and working for that day, the designers for Fashion For Life, such as Orage Creations Elettra Gausman, are supporting the American Cancer Society’s efforts to combat cancer and create a future where cancer is no longer causes fear.
When most people think of MiaMai, they think of Monica Outlander’s high fashion avant garde creations that flirt with androgyny. Produced with grand spectacle and presented with artistry and poetic insight, they are her hallmark. However, a truer hallmark, I think, is her great flixibility and range in design. She is not content to issue endless iterations of the same shapes and ideas, and truly does go back to the drawing board for new inspiration. Take this ultra-feminine and soft-edged flowing dress that she recently released at Fashion For Life. It is the antithesis of the sharply defined, hard-edged androgynous designs and yet, there are distinct MiaMai details such as the lush peacock feather collar that make it a cohesive element in her body of work.