Alexander McQueen said “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of punishment.” I agree, we should wear what makes us happy and only follow those trends that appeal to us. After all, style is more important than fashion and style is about our choices. There are always wonderful choices in Second Life®.
I have also finally figured out how to make Marketplace work again and uploaded the projector I used to shoot these pictures.
Continue reading
Gidge and I popped over to Nº21 because she had seen a dress in the EloquenceSL Shopping Guide she had to have. When I saw it, I had to have it too, so we decided to do a “Same Damn Thing” challenge, or in this case, Same Damn Dress. I love the same damn challenges because it gets at the heart of what makes fashion exciting and creative. We are all individuals who make decisions about styling so that even when we wear the same damn dress, we look different. So, if any of you want to style this same damn dress, post your links below for the giggles.
Continue reading
The rain has been gone for several weeks now. It did not even rain for the Grand Floral Parade during the annual Rose Festival, which is, I think, a violation of the Oregon Constitution. I guess we are going to get all of our 68 sunny and 74 partly sunny days in one fell swoop.
I have been feeling lethargic with the uncommon and unprecedented heat wave flattening us here in Oregon, but despite the heat, I did make it to The World’s Largest Louie Louie Sing-a-Long last week.
This Prey jacket for Penumbra Spring Summer Fashion Week goes over a coordinating corset. It seems like a capelet with short sleeves. It has long points that drop down and from which a silver spikes are suspended. Here you can see the point drops to the mid back.
I have spent a good portion of my life on buses; school buses, tour buses, Greyhound and Trailways buses and public transit buses. Of course, that means I have also spent a good portion of my life waiting for buses.
Among the many places I have waited, the most interesting, entertaining, freaky, funny, scary and downright wild place is Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday night. I would get off work at the planetarium just as the demi-monde was coming to life, late enough that missing one bus meant a long wait for the next one. A woman alone was often presumed to be on the stroll, so I had the “pleasure” of turning down many propositions. I am told that the infamous Block E where I would wait has been leveled and a new entertainment mall has replaced it. I suppose that would make for a more comfortable wait for the bus, but there was something vibrant, vital and exciting about Hennepin that I hope is never lost.
Of course, if this were Hennepin there would be at least three level of signs on every building and hundreds of people on the sidewalk.
There are a few more shopping days left of the Pretty In Punk round of Collabor88 and you won’t want to miss it. Look at this gorgeous dress from ISON for this round. It comes in several solid colors and well as two plaids and these gorgeous stripes. I love ISON’s contemporary style, minimalist and fashion forward with just a few details that reflect the designer’s discipline. You will never hear Nina say “it’s over-designed” about anything from ISON because the designer in control.
Continue reading
Ghee has all sorts of knits and woolens for layering in rich jewel tones and foundation neutrals that make for great cold-weather fashion. I particularly love this tunic with a long cowl sweater. Underneath I am wearing ghee’s thermals that come in great colors and which I would recommend as investment purchases except for one big hurdle – they have no Slink Physique appliers which is becoming a deal breaker for things like tights, leggings and layering sweaters.
The other day I witnessed a passionate discussion about the rise of punk, one person quite rightly insisting that punk music was born in the United States while the other gamely tried to agree while asserting equally correctly that punk in the UK was very different, bringing with it a complete cultural aesthetic, with art, fashion and music coming together to make a punk scene. One of the people who made punk in the UK less a musical evolution and more a cultural revolution was Vivienne Westwood. How fitting that she is a style icon at The Style Icon, the grand fashion event running until the end of the month. This gown from Legal Insanity incorporates many the tempestuous and wild themes that distinguish Westwood’s designs and make her a fashion revolutionary – not just a fashion designer.
Seriously, does anyone really think it is pure coincidence that the CIA confirmed the existence of Area 51 when The Garden opened up its Area 51 showcase? Besides, doesn’t the name Liaison Collaborative sounds like a cover organization for a covert mission? Covert operative liaise while the rest of us hang out. I wonder who it is? Please share all your random and reckless speculation.
So, Gidge wanted to run with the Area 51 idea and I worked with her to make a projector box. She made 11 poses. Her pose selection menu is a prose poem, an ode to sci-fi. The projector has three textures. All of these shots are done in the chrome texture, the differences in lighting come from the windlight.
I am slightly addicted to pose props, particularly pose sets that come complete with the background, props and poses all in one gorgeous picture frame of goodness. That’s why I look forward the the photo boxes that Whimsy Winx releases for My Addict each time around. I had a lot of fun with the Bright Lights box, particularly after pulling out my own bright lights or projectors.
Monica Outlander of MiaMai released her newest collection on December 8th. I love her shows. They are always an extravagant and imaginative work of art with music, text, illustration, photography and fashion coming together in a meaningful and thoughtful performance. I missed the show this time since my computer was still in need of repairs, but that doesn’t mean I missed the collection.
I found myself inspired by this rich brocade gown that brings together traditional formality in texture with a modern silhouette and avant garde embellishment. While brocade has been around for over a millennium, it reached its heyday in the 18th century. I have a mental image of one of the weavers who produced the lush silks for the Sun King’s Court seeing this brocade gown with its antlers and wings and wondering why she had not thought of that.
