Tag Archives: The Annex

Noli Me Tangere

Noli me tangere

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Lea8 is home to the stunning Love, Henry, an installation that celebrates one of the most consequential love affairs of history, that between Henry VII and Anne Boleyn. But Henry was not the first man to fall in love with Anne. Before him was Harry Percy and Sir Thomas Wyatt who wrote that poem about her after he had been warned off. He went off to Italy for a while, though he came back in time to be caught up in the contrived ruse to eliminate Anne to make way for the third wife who finally gave Henry the son he so desperately needed. Noli me tangere

Henry and Anne are a popular subject because love matches are rare in royal history and their story is so very rich with passion and drama. However, their story is also important because the world would be very different if Henry had not fallen so desperately in love with Anne. This led to his rupture with the Catholic Church and with Spain. It’s possible without passion urging him forward, he would have waited for Catherine, who was not well, to die before seeking a new, young and fertile wife. Spain did not have Salic law and he may have looked to their example and pushed for a change in English law so Mary could inherit. He definitely would have married her off before menopause so she would have been able to have children. Henry would never have raided the wealth of the church and England would never have had the funds to build its great navy.

While it is possible Mary could have married her cousin James V and united Scotland and England, I doubt Henry would want a son-in-law in waiting on his northern border. It is too bad, we could have been spared Mary Queen of Scots and the countless books making a heroine of a relentlessly stupid woman. It is more likely Mary would have married her Spanish cousin Charles V (father of her eventual husband) and, if Henry had no son, he would have ruled when Mary took the throne. Without the war with Spain, the British would not have defeated the Spanish at sea and both North and South America would have been Spanish colonies. England would have remained a Catholic country and there would never have been a Glorious Revolution to rid her of a Catholic king which means John Locke may have never written his treatises on government that were the foundation for the American, French,  Vietnamese and many other revolutions

Noli me tangere

The Arborea gown from The Annex is a stunning ecru silk taffeta gown worthy of a queen. It has lovely leaf print panniers.

Protestantism might have still spread throughout Europe, though, and brought with it The Enlightenment and democracy, but it would have been slower and later and it is possible it would have been suppressed far, far longer. Religious wars and persecutions probably would have continued even beyond the 40 Years War because Spain, and with it, the Holy Roman Empire, would have not lost so much power and money to England and would have had more resources to wage war against Protestantism. The British might never have become a worldwide Empire without its great navy, the direct result of its war with Spain when the Spanish King tried to overthrown Anne and Henry’s daughter Elizabeth. Since Spain’s method of colonization was very different from England’s model, the entire world would be vastly different.  Continue reading

Petticoat Junction

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I do love a full, wide, pouffy skirt with layers of petticoats. It can have its disadvantages. I was wearing several layers of petticoats under a skirt at a barn dance once. I was sitting out a butterfly on some hay bales one night and a mouse ran across the hay and up the skirt, between the layers of petticoats. What with the netting being very nice for the mouse to grasp and the many layers to try to shake him out of, I must have spent 10 minutes jumping up and down on a hay bale trying to shake him loose.

Of course, no mouse would dare come within striking distance of these spiked heels from Glamistry. They might be too dangerous for the speed of barn-dancing. Imagine stepping on someone’s toe. Fortunately, in Second Life® we do not have such banal concerns and I can wear my lethal weapon shoes without a care.

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I began this outfit with the gorgeous Carrie skirt with the Black Rose print. It comes in several other prints, including beautifully feminine florals. However, I fell in love with the geometry of this print the minute I saw it. It is visually striking and makes such a powerful statement. I can imagine is with a massive shoulder piece of feathers for some gala, but for a walk on the beautiful streets of Venice, something less formal and avant garde seemed in order.
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Of Corrupted Databases, Cabbages and Kings

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Regular readers of It’s Only Fashion will have missed us for the last two days. We had a corrupted database. From what I understand, it took a package from a North Korean agent in a black wool coat and dark glasses. Of course, anyone else would have known the agent was suspicious because it’s something like 90° and he’s wearing a black wool coat. Our database, however, was naive and unsuspecting. I hope it has learned its lesson.

Perhaps though, like Thomas Bailey Aldrich, it was distracted by two petals falling from a rose:

MY mind lets go a thousand things,
Like dates of wars and deaths of kings,
And yet recalls the very hour—
’T was noon by yonder village tower,
And on the last blue noon in May— 5
The wind came briskly up this way,
Crisping the brook beside the road;
Then, pausing here, set down its load
Of pine-scents, and shook listlessly
Two petals from that wild-rose tree.

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Queen of Everything

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I am not the Queen of Everything, not even the Princess of Quite-A-Lot, but if I were, I might wear this gown – at least in the winter when it is cold. It might be a bit much on a hot, humid August afternoon. Do you ever wonder if those long ago aristocrats would feel twinges of envy for the peasants during the dog days of August, feeling every one of their layers of clothing and corsets and lacings?
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Rumpelstiltskin Was a Douche

The Tale of Rumpelstiltskin was always one that troubled me as a child. Really this poor girl has been kidnapped against her will because her FATHER is an ass and you can’t be nice to her and help her out? You have to make a bargain for her FIRST CHILD?

And what’s he going to do with the child anyway? I can’t even remember what the story says. In my mind, he’s going to eat it.  WHAT A JERKWAD.  Continue reading

Rough winds do shake

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If Shakespeare were as immortal as his poetry, he would be 450 years old. Isn’t it amazing that his stories and poetry are still relevant?

SHALL I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d:
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Willam Shakespeare Continue reading

The Enchantment of Beauty Begins

The Enchantment event has kicked off and there is a lot that’s new and exciting for this round. Today I’m showing off the gown from the Annex (slightly), the skin which is a gift from The Sugar Garden for a completed stamp card, and the veiled horns from tsg, as well as the hair from Mina.

There is a step by step set of instructions courtesy of Voshie on the BLOG as well as – ALL THE SLURLS WOOOOO! Everything you need to shop and or fill out one or more stamp cards!

Don’t forget, stamp cards ARE transferable so you can always gift one to a pal if you don’t need it!

Gidge is Wearing:

Skin: The Sugar Garden – Heartless Witch – ENCHANTMENT STAMP CARD PRIZE
Hair: Mina – Roos – ENCHANTMENT
Horns: The Sugar Garden – ENCHANTMENT
Dress: The Annex – ENCHANTMENT
Pose: Pretense, Mirror Pose – The Sugar Garden
Eyes: Ikon

 

Beauty Lost

A.N Roquelare’s version of SLEEPING BEAUTY is the subject of ENCHANTMENT this round which is set to kick off on MAY 1. If you are unfamiliar with the story, let’s just be ladylike and say that the prince doesn’t wake her up with a kiss. Also, he never lets her wear clothes. There’s lots more than that but if I shared it, it would spoil the fun of you reading it yourself.

The adventures in domination, submission and Beauty are the theme and the creators have done a spectacular job of bringing these themes of the darker and different version of the fairy tale to our SL.  Continue reading

Feeling Tweedy

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The weather is getting cooler. Spending hours waiting for Tri-Met yesterday, I could have used this outfit, so comfy, so cozy, so very chic. With a very modern silhouette, the tweed pants outfit from The Annex is a Fall/Winter stunner.

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The top is a coat-length tweed that mixes two very different tweeds for dramatic effect. That big, bold tweed on the sleeves would never work over the entire body, but as an accent on the sleeves, it is fabulous.

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