Style Advisory

Were back Sorta :)

2008-05-06T19:40:00.003Z

I would like to first point out that this is ALL mariyas fault. Her new blog:Chigon

And also I have posted this here because mine and Eyva’s new blog artists tea party isn’t linked up yet :(. I don’t normally post just outfits but I thought it might be fun as this is a style of blogging that seems to work nicely.

Moving swiftly on to the outfit. This is an outfit that just clicked as soon as I saw this skirt. Its part of a dress from thimbles a shop I was recently introduced to (I know slow on the uptake or what). The top is an old favourite of mine from glam. I also used this bolero from the panther outfit from Timberry.

Timberry is a brilliant shop and well worth a look, run by my friend Vewitful young he really is pushing the female silhouette in SL which is uncommon territory. I love wearing bright colours with chunky thick tights. It keeps the look young and more modern. The shoes are some really old ones I found floating round the bedlam of my inventory.

I don’t normally wear MMS skins but I needed something that was clean and pretty so this was an obvious choice. Part of her new makeups the red tones worked well with the skirt. The hair I literly picked up just this second from Maitreya, I’m still not sure how iv missed it every time iv been in there but I guess you learn something new everyday.

Hair : Maitreya
Skin : Diva 6
Bolreo : Timberry
Top: Glam
Necklace: Miam Miam
Skirt : Thimbles
Clutch/Bag : +aya V+ AM
Tights : Glam
Shoes : 1800 Bettys

Righto I think that sums it all up…. If you cant wait until the next time I move my lazy bum and post something be sure to pick up the forth coming glam world issue I have a column in it that this month is on androgyny on men and woman.

Destinations: A Time For Quiet Reflection

2008-04-24T23:32:00.000Z

Rest, relaxation. Sometimes we just want to get away from it all. A little space to unwind, and just detach from the busy day for a while. Let's face it, the constant updates from favourite designers and new ones through Fashcon, the juggling of IM's from friends, customers, and perfect strangers, the little things you simply HAVE to do inworld, meetings, building, scripting, testing designs, it all builds up and before you know it logging in one morning becomes a chore. A holiday spot would be nice, even just somewhere pretty to go where there's no death metal or Kenny G making your ears bleed and you can just cruise.

I have a little place for you. I was looking around, sightseeing, and came across the Virgin Islands. More specifically, Hosoi Ichiba. When you land you will notice the Japanese architecture, of an old-style market built within luscious gardens, and itself surrounding a peace garden. In the mood for some relaxation, I at first turned around and walked through the gorgeous wooden roofed bridge to investigate a village I could see not too far away.

Walking through the village, I admired the huts and purchased one of the sweet chimes hanging from the gate. Blowing gently in the breeze, the soft chimes were soothing and I figured I could use some soothing at home. Backtracking down the path I took a turn and spotted a Samurai house. What attracted my attention was not the house itself but the onsen, a hot spa, right on the water. Perfect for some time to pause and think.

After a soak, I headed down another path, and after passing by some scenic lookouts decorated with meditation pillows, came across a clearing. There was a fishing village here, complete with a few boats, and some of the latest catch hanging outside one of the huts. I sat on the bank, watching the sun sparkle on the water, and after a pause, decided to see what was inside the market.

What is great about the market is that it incorporates itself into the garden, and the overall atmosphere of the place. Surrounded by garden, and in turn surrounding a small peace garden, the markets do not interrupt the calmness, the buildings themselves are well crafted which only enhances the atmosphere. I headed back to the main entrance and walked inside. Straight ahead I noticed a tea room, and sat down for a humble drink. Glancing around I noticed a few people were actually doing Tai Chi just outside, and decided to give it a try. No-one spoke, and before long I saw a stunning red tower I had to investigate.

A cute surprise was the Japanese rock garden I happened through on my way, perfect to sit by and reflect on, if they work for you. I headed through and over to the tower, which was in fact some kind of temple, complete with shrine and tools for worship. Browsing around I saw some well crafted rickshaws, and took a look at the homewares available in the market. If I'd been a little less poor after emptying PC yesterdayI would've bought a lot more.

I still haven't finished exploring properly, but around each corner I found something else to enjoy, a quiet spot to sit, a small garden, or a beautiful decor piece I wanted to buy. The construction and layout of the sim is wonderful, the texturing colours are bright and beautiful but not garish, and the design looks well thought out and built, but still keeps an element of wilderness and a root to nature with it. Hosoi Ichiba is a tranquil haven to relax and take a break, and I thoroughly enjoyed my all too short visit.

Blogday Updates

2008-04-12T08:21:00.001Z

The new viewer, with Caliah's handy windlight help

- The harsh light of Windlight can again be conquered by following Caliah's tips over at Soigne. She also has a handy slurl to her store Muse, where you can pick yourself up a facelight. I'm always curious to see how other people play with their settings and Canimal's also got some settings you can download and tinker with yourself.

- Elysium Eilde, talented photographer and [ida] staff member, has taken some wild bitchfight shots at Photographing SL. Apparently there was some argument about who's taking the wardrobe home after a shoot, and all hell breaks loose.

- If you're looking for somewhere new to visit, or just feel like tp'ing around, stop by b-places a site which accurately lists the most popular places in SL. Forget the Popular Places tab, as New World Notes has reported, the listings on it are usually manipulated by camping chairs and bots. B-places is a slurl list of sims voted worth visiting byr esidents who have actually been there, no cheating involved.

- Cory Edo has done it again, with new release furniture designed for the Arc Luxury Lodge. Gorgeous, low prim pieces at a very affordable price, see the Arc set at Content Confessionals, where you will also find gorgeous prefab stores and houses.

Arts - Shoshana Epsilon

2008-04-11T23:51:00.000Z

Photographer and mentor, Shoshana Epsilon has a strong passion for her art, constantly striving to show the beauty in SL® and sharing her skills with anyone willing to further their own. Fomerly a curator at the Cannery, Shoshana is a well-respected and loved member of the arts community, with permanent homes in several galleries across the grid.

You'll get to see her latest works when she becomes the official featured artist for the Avatrait gallery this month. Avatrait is an interesting company that recreates SL® photography into RL prints, and their gallery at Simuality is becoming one of the grid's most popular, with associated artists such as Kimberley Mirabeau, who was previously featured, and Stephen Venkman and Codebastard Redgrave, who serve on the advisory board.

Specializing in in-world photography with no post-processing, Shoshana's showing will open April 12, 1pm SL® and all pictures will be available for one-off sale, meaning once you own the picture you will be the only person to do so. The exhibition promises to be raw and a bit daring, and will be open for viewing for the rest of the month. A visit is highly recommended, and if you're curious, you can see some of Shoshana's current works at Artropolis.

EDITORIAL: Sale at CRAP

2008-04-06T04:17:00.005Z

On now at Cotton Candy and also Old Town. You can also pick up a gorgeous Hippo, the good kind, and I grabbed an opportunity to make my own ad, full of intelligent mockiness.

[CRAP] I'd rather wear nothing than wear....

wait....

forget it.

Sale on now!

Key Pieces

2008-03-21T15:20:00.002Z

Has anyone else noticed that over the last couple of months there seems to have been a massive jump in the amount of designers with extraordinary talent? Or should I say, the large number of designers whose skills just seemed to increase tenfold? Armidi already had strongly skilled artists when the sim was revealed a while ago now, but with the new additions of designers who were creative forces on their own, the overall skillset is phenomenal. But it's not just larger labels that have grown. MG Fashion was already a cute store with quality items, but Maria Gherardi really seemed to come into her own with her self named release Maria, a set of detailed blouses and silk skirts, and since then each piece has highlighted her skill with beautiful textures and uniquely shaped sculpties.

Quite often I find myself challenged in the personal style department. Finding it all too easy to go overboard and try to wear everything I just bought all at once, I'm learning, I hope, to tone it down when the time suits. For these pictures I have selected a key piece purchased over the last week, mixed in with some classic staples in my wardrobe. I'm still continuing to fight the urge to wear everything I own of a particular designer all at once, so bear with me.

Available in a wide range of colours, this jumpsuit from Armidi immediately brought JLo - superponytail - gold bling - to mind but I overlooked my first instinct and purchased this one in Cornflower. So instead I went a little wrong side of town with this one and roughed it up with some dramatic lips, which is actually a free skin from Rosemar. This piece just seems to highlight exactly what I'd hoped for from the designers, the shading, textures and seams are excellent, the sculpties needed no adjustment. From my own experience making simple jeans I appreciate how hard it is to make a whole denim outfit.

Elegance is a running theme I notice when I visit MG, and the Hunting Season sweater is no exception. Maria does warm winter clothing very well, I'm a big fan of her natural fibre-feeling texturing and the subtle colour options. A couple of items from G.L.A.M. have become go-to pieces, and the buttoned trousers I have on show why. When you visit the store you can see they offer basically everything you need to build up your wardrobe, as well as more statement items.

I pieced together this look beginning with the makeup. Being oblivious to Gala Phoenix's work until the Skin Fair, I was giddy when trying the demos, and now am slowly purchasing the entire range as I can afford it. Along with Roberta Beauchamps' Wax Poetic lines, Gala was the standout for me, her faces look realistic while still creating unique looks with each makeup option. Some skin designers make the skin tone then just tint the eyeshadow, but Gala and Roberta both create whole new looks, even with subtle makeups. Also loving the Armidi pants, they seem very rock n roll, and these chucks I've had forever from Old Gravy.

Review Copies - Nu Rave Glasses by Royal Blue were a gift.
Friends List - Yes, Jumpsuit and Nu Rave Glasses.

Credits

Hair - Mirai Natu in Coco
Jumpsuit - Armidi Limited in Cornflower
Glasses - Royal Blue - Nu Rave Glasses in Pink
Shoes - Stiletto moody - Pump & Anklestrap in Black
Skin - Rosemar - Creampuff in Twine **FREE
Ring - P.C. - Emerald ring
Necklace - Miam Miam - Layered necklace with beads
Eyes - Tuli - Amber eyes

Hair - Armidi - St Moritz in Smoked Nutshell
Top - MG Fashion - Hunting Season Sweater in Cream
Pants - G.L.A.M. - Buttoned Trousers in White
Shoes - Armidi Gisaci - Dhali Bow Platforms in Bole
Skin - LF Chai - Honey in Siyu
Ring - Yummy - Juicy Ring
Eyes - Tuli - Amber eyes

Hair - Aden - Edie in Black
Top - Last Call - Hunt Club Jumper in Black
Pants - Armidi Limtied - Kogo Skinny Pants in Ruby Red
Brassiere - Artilleri - Deanna Brassiere Top in Cherry Black
Skin - Gala Pheonix - Opaline - Doily Eyes
Eyes - Fashionable Dead - Green Eyes
Bandage - The Syndicate - Violence Solves Everything Bracer
Necklace - Yummy - Mini Robot Necklace

[Review] Detour Skins

2008-03-20T13:57:00.002Z

Detour has just opened up in the last few weeks and there new line of skins is defiantly starting to get noticed. These skins with elegant features and rich skins tones are going to be a welcome addition to your inventories bursting seams. This is defiantly for all the skin aficionados out there.

Skin - Detour - Cassie 3
Eyes - Detour -Sigma Blue
Lashes - Detour- Drama
Hair - Truth- Di in silver
Undies - Love Lace- Roseete Black
Necklace - Smitten - Chunky Boho Opalescent necklace

A cleaver thing about this line is that its not just one skin with 50 different makeup’s. Each set has a different face and different styles almost like a skin personality. I really love this touch it means that there’s going to be something for everyone.

The first thing that catch you eye is the colour of all the makeup, they’re very bright and fun. Using bright and jewel tones to creating eye catching and unusual looks. The eyes are defiantly the focus of these skins with a lot of cat’s eyes flicks and contrasting shadow. I think it takes a really god designer to make greens and red work but this skinner defiantly know how to use colour.

Left to right Tatiana 3, Stephanie 3, Stephanie 2, Rachel 1, Nina 2, Nari 2, Cassie 3, Anais 3

With undies from Love Lace in Pink satin and aya V Long Pearl Necklace (hair as before)

The eyebrows as you can see are excellent, elongated and elegant they frame you face and defiantly avoid the common Sl eyebrows pitfalls, of ether trannie brows or caterpillars.

I strange but often neglected feature of skin are the ears, detour has the cutest ears I’ve seen as of yet in SL. They look real and ready to hear your songs of niceness (black books quote)

Below the naked Image and NSFW

Break

 Break

This is my favorite of them all the skin is rachel 1 and i just love how cupidy it makes my avi look, Iv pair it with the ryan hair from truth and nothing else :P

(iv covered certain bits becuase only mr grut gets to see those bits :P)

I think even though these skins are not doubt striking there still natural, the skin itself isn’t perfect it has texture and isn’t to glossy. The freckled ones are my favourite and I rarely like freckled skins.

The packs them seleves are 3k for four skin, a face lamp, four brow options and a complmenting shape for the skin (each skin has a diffrent shape)

Detour has many other items (i used a few in this post) the eyes are super real and the lashes are total glamour. They also sell hair, shoes , clothes and homewear.

Hit up the Detour sim!

Marni
xxxx

Rosemar- OH! what a new skin talent!

2008-03-16T15:49:00.003Z

I'm on a skin binge :P

Above are me and eyva looking rather good if i do say so. Now id like to say that's our natural glow, but its because we are wearing wonderful Rosemar skins :D

Marni - Manhattan
Eyva- Nutmeg

The thing i really like about the skins is the fun makeup options. There nice and bright without being drag Queen.

This has to be my favorite style, and even though this is on of her first skins i think the quirks are really nice.

When you purchase the skins (as I'm sure a lot of you will do!) you get 3 sets of prim lashes included and 5 different brow options. I'm wearing brow four which is quite light due to my silver fox hair, but if you want a nice thick brow these are the skins for you.

90% hand drawn (according to the creator) mixed in with some photographic bits mainly on the body bits (don't panic children i wont show you them hahaha)

These is a selection of the makeups all in Manhattan. You can see what i mean about the fun colours.

Now when you buy the skins you might see the owners name and get dejavu? Rosemary used to own OH! what a neat boutique. In fact I'm hoping that well see clothes from her again.

Until then go check out Rosemar

There's a selection freebie/taster pack near the door which is guaranteed to get you hooked!

Visit Rosemar @ popfuzz

Marni

xxxxx

<3 cupcakes and Popfuzz Skins!

2008-03-05T20:46:00.004Z

As soon as i tryed these skins on i knew that they had the potential to pull me out of my TAP or loveys (this is a rare happening).

Popfuzz who recently released over 600 skins to her line has teamed up with <3

Wearing
Hair : Etd, Lyinne 2 Nickel
Skin:Heart Cupcake and Popfuzz, Hilary
Undies: Heart Cupcake Catherine Lingerie--Blueberry
Wellies: UBU, Tattoo Wellies
Lashes: Cake, Wings (fitted a tad oddly i think :P)

I particularly like the eyebrows there so subtle, the lips are very real looking to. As a basic skin i think this one definitely holds up. The shading throughout the body is excellently detailed particularly the backs of the knees. Nether region shading (tho not shown) its detailed and if that's what you want in a skin then this on forfils the brief :P

Below are some of my favorite makeup options (more viewable on my flickr stream)

I have already spoken to poppy and she has confirmed they will be more makeup options. I cant wait to see what this dynamic and talented skin team come up with!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/PopFuzz/135/228/33

Get your tush over there!

Marni

xxxx

Totaly Self Indulgent! The shop Formaly known as TAP

2008-03-02T21:11:00.005Z


P.S View Image if you want the whole thing!

I also thought id Spare you guys having to see me in the buff *shudders* i know, scary!

We all knew this was coming!

The skin I'm Wearing in this photo is in fact the marni from TAP. Self indulgent ME! NEVER!

This skin was the product of the mini poll i ran on here a few weeks ago.

I'm wearing

Skin : Fleur - Marni 2 Almond
Hair: Bloomberry (modified to silver and the ponytail is removed)
Eyes: Glanz - Medium Light blue
Pose: Decollage
Top: Last Call (discontinued)
Underwear set: Panjen
Socks: Lulu pink from the light pink set!

So everyone Hot foot it down to Fleur!


MUST STOP CALLING IT TAP STILL
Marni

Japanesse Kitch

2008-02-22T13:56:00.003Z

I think the key to some Japan Fashion isn't to pile it on. Its not always about how many stuffed animal heads you can fit into one look.

The key to chic kitch is colour that's for sure, it still has to be bright and playful but not over the top. I found this wonderful Japanese department store called AOHARU, that to my surprise has its own Sim. Although slightly on the empty side atm its screaming out that this is going to be the Japanese armidi.

Here's my favorite outfit from the shop in two colours.
This is the skin that was a group freebie sent out for valentines days, its not bad actually. There are a few more for sale inside the store.

Grey Polo Neck - AOHARU
Blue and Green Gingham Skirt - AOHARU
Skin - AOHARU
Black Ruffle Boots - Shiny Things
Di silver Hair- Truth

I really liked this labeling detail on the shirts, they make for interesting basics with the unusual shape.

Blue Polo - AOHARU
Red and Pink Gingham Skirt- AOHARU
Skin as before
Nickel Cora- ETD
Wabbit Wellies - Jeepers Creepers

Visit AOHARU at
AOHARU, AOHARU (110, 124, 23)

On a side note as you can see my avi has become a smoker, yes i know my prim lung are filling with tar blah blah. I cant get this cute cig that antiona gave me away from my mouth! it even has a cute magic 8-ball on it :D

Marni
xxxxx

BBBM- an ironic name?

2008-02-18T23:15:00.007Z

BBBM (big botty big money) has been a shop I’ve always gone to when looking for something a big different. I would call Evelyn’s style eclectic chic. Her dresses are classic with attitude which was something that hit my about the shop waaaay back we she owned random airspace and a skybox.

Thankfully after moving to the hotspot of the envy shopping centre she’s had more press attention and I guess its time for me salute BBBM.

This is a fairly recent venture under her brand; eyes

Also Wearing:

Loveys - Peach

Kin -Yohkoh in white

.+*aya V*+.LONG NECKLACE PEARL

BBBM- Face to Face Dress (top pictured)

And lots of them, they have a glassy doll like quality that I look for in eyes. Defiantly for the avi with wider peepers these are a few of my favourite from the bright eye collection.

Auto Da Fe is her new dress pictured below in Green and Purple (it also comes in Black, Mustard, Red and Teal)

I personally think BBBM does the best green clothes in SL, which is, and odd statement to make but of so true. Her tones always look fresh.

When shooting these two dresses I was trying to get a feeling of Evelyn’s style, if seen photos of her wearing gas masks. Picking up on these dark quirks with a strong skin and rather odd Japanese cat.

BBBM- Auto Da Fe Dress

[miw]- Gutter Purple (tone1)

ETD -Lindsay, Nickel

Diamonde. by Valena Glushenko- Fashionatrix

[ TANGRAM ] UNO the Kitty

The Necklace is a wonderful peice by Valena Glushenko, it makes me think of a neckbrace in pearls. The juxtaposition of somthing classic like pearls mixed with the harsness of its shape is very striking.

Technikkorps- Gas mask (part of a set)
ETD- Juliana, Nickel
Necklace as before

Hear you can see the same dress in green, the gas mask mixed with the hair make me think on a very strange war time glamour.

These last two are old favourite (both still on sale)

Dress :Big Booty, Big Money- Slope Dress Navy
Hair :ETD - Brian, Nickle (yes its mens)
Skin : TAP/ Fleur- Vivant Almond Octobre 3
Shoes :(Shiny Things) MaryGeos - cream

Skin: Loveys - Kiwi

Dress :Big Booty, Big Money- Green Precious Louvre

Hat : Summer hat Chapue Tres Mingon

Hair - Abyss - Aoen steel

Cigarette - Gift

So head on down to envy for you dose of BBBM today!

Marni

xxxxx

Voting time people!

2008-02-16T13:25:00.002Z

Roslin owner of the shop formally known as TAP is somewhat of a patient dear. Putting up with the sheer volume of the suggestions I end up sending them for skin makeup’s ideas.

Sadly time and time again she has to sit me down and explain how a neon unicorn print with polka dot arms skin some how wouldn’t appeal to the masses. :P

Last night she mad me a promise with and idea which I think is somewhat more wearable.

A few of you might be familiar with her nova line and the skin in particularly siren, If I can get ten or more people to vote on the idea she’s going to make it! (no jokes this is real!)

Basically I thought she could used the wonderful purple kohl eyes and reproduce them onto the normal tone in jewel colours with nude lips

e.g

obvously the actuly thing will look ALOT better this is just my crappy overlay painting also ignore the skin tone it would be onto the normaly almond, buff etc.

So if you want this skins to go into production just leave a coment saying yes!

Simple as my dears!

Marni

xxxxx

Heros vs Villans

2008-02-13T00:29:00.000Z

I sat twirling my handle bar moustache of deliberation today, it dawned on me I haven’t posted in a while.

I began thinking about the idea of style villains and heroes. We all have those outfits to reflect our moods well this is what my mood would wear if my inventory declared war on itself. Think of it as the style civil war.

Cruela Devil is probably on of my all time favourite style icons (odd choice I know and I’m sure ill get flamed for this) she’s open about fur. She likes it and has a whimsically barbaric outlook on attaining it. Instead I went to bare rose and found this wonderful Cerberus Cloak.

-Prim sculptie head… check

-Molten red eyes on the heads….. check

Not exactly subtle taste but when am I?

I paired it with the Rebecca outfit from last call (sob), Vamp boots in onyx also last call. The Skin I have on is an another shop mode from Bazy called emmie. It might be the only tanned skin ill wear. The detail on it makes your avi look like its been drawn onto the grid I <3>

The hair is from Abyss and I added the black bits and a sort of Cruela Devil homage.

Now my Hero outfit also picked up on an animal theme. I figured they linked better that way. Also may I just point out that Eyva got my a pony from my rezz day, but not just a pony A FLYING UNICORN.

The skins the Muse another shop mod, Etd’s Gwen hair in nickel. The shoes are called Paris in silver. The dress is from I <3>

Those wonderful head pieces (collar/ruff and head dress) are both from and outfit I bought from wardrobe trunk. Although a tad pricey for a impractical costume iv actually got a lot of wear out of the items and I think outfit like that are as much of an investment as a LBD.

The amazing Unicorn is from AKK and the craftsmen ship it is amazing

Marni

xxxx

Quailty Control

2008-02-09T12:35:00.000Z

Are you SICK of rippers?

I think this has been a topic washing through the fashion comunity at the moment so i decided to take action. After all Knowlage is power.

Thisis my Proposal

http://slquality.blogspot.com/

Think of this blog as a yellow pages of Reputable Shops. There will be NO COST to add a blog and i plan on indexing shops and SURLS.

Im also thinking about letting people post anymouse reviews about the QUAILTY (not opinion) of an item (like the reviews you would read on amazon)

Protesting wont stop somone from selling ripped goods there sitting behind a computer screen far away from you, but if people know *what* there actualy buying i think i might stop a few unsupecting consumers from making a hastey purchase.

Email Any Shop names and SURLS (A MUST I WONT SEARCH FOR THEM)

Then i can personaly check them out for any rips and add them to the list. If there is Enough intrest then ill start indexing shops e.g Womans Wear, Mens Etc meaning theres and untilmate fashion directory for people

Marni

Happy Rezday Marni!

2008-02-04T13:29:00.000Z

I've been one of the luckiest people in SL to have met and gotten to know the bizarre, wonderful creative force that is Marni Grut. Her fantastic sense of humour and willingness to throw caution to the wind and make the most bizarre yet gorgeous clothing and accessory creations always inspires me and motivates me to keep trying when I lose my way.

We met just as she was starting her label and even her first releases were items I'd never seen anyone attempt, and I was in awe. While most people (including myself) were making lines just like you would find in RL, Marni used the possibilities SL could provide her designing skills, and would create anti-gravity dresses and flamingo bags galore.

So while your presents coming my common law SL wife, just thought I'd abuse my ability to reach a large number of people and say Happy Rezday crazy girl, I'm so lucky to have gotten to know you and SL is that much better for me because you're in it. You big dork.

80's Disco Done Right

2008-02-02T13:21:00.000Z

Forget the supersize black eyebrows...on women. The overuse of grey shimmer eyeshadow and the plain abuse and ignorant obsession with shoulder pads have turned into the stuff of horrific legend, marring an entire decade. Emery, however, have taken inspiration from the geometric patterns and colour tones to create fantastic pieces of clothing.

Dress: Emery - Heart of Glass
Hair: Aden - Windblown in Black
Skin: La Sylphide - Pecan in True Red
Shoes: Stiletto Moody - Pump with Anklestraps in Black Patent **SALE**
Socks: With dress purchase.

Dress: Emery - 512
Hair: COIF - Super Freak in a self-tinted colour
Skin: Another Fundraiser - MUSE's Celestine Skin
Shoes: Stiletto Moody - Silverstud Pump in Merlot
Tights: GLAM - Tintable Metallic Lycra Tights in Light Tone

Dress: Emery - Debbie
Hair: Shop Seu - Yuruyuru Odango in Black
Skin: miw - Guttergirl in Purple Tone 7
Shoes: Stiletto Moody - Pump in Silver Patent
Tights: Veschi - Tintable Horizontal Dots Tights

I was impressed with how well the clothing was drawn as Emery seems to be a fairly new brand. It took me a few minutes to get the prim attachment for the dress to fit me perfectly, but this was no more trouble than is normally expected with dress from other stores and having to work with your own perhaps unusual shape. The prices, while they may deter bargain hunters, are worth the great design and technique each item offers. If you're looking for bold, hit Emery.

Review Copies: No - Friends List: No

Dress for any Occasion

2008-01-20T10:53:00.000Z

There are a lot of creative and talented people in SL making clothing for us to wear, and out of all the many designers out there I've been fortunate enough to have met Kat Palmer. Both of us were both pretty new to the fashion scene, and over the almost year I've known her, Kat has always been working her next idea and always improving her skillset. Each new release would show off techniques she had mastered and I was always impressed with both her classic style of design and he quality of her work.

Stocking classic dresses and casual separates, Immortelle is a brand Kat should be very proud of. Sometimes if you really like the dress design you may be willing to forgive small design flaws, but this is never an issue with Kat's clothes. The detailing on all of her pieces, and especially intricate sparkles and patterns are extremely well done, you can tell she has paid each outfit special attention to get it just right. If you're looking for Last Call quality, Immortelle has it.

Some of these dresses I have bought and some are gifts, but which I'm not sure. I just love what she does and hope you enjoy her creations as much as I do.

Aiswyra in Red

Skin: Minnu Dark Skingloss in Base

Eyes: Tuli Amber Eyes in Small

Shoes: Shiny Things Cool Summer Wedges in Black

Hair: ETD Mira in Smoke (hairscarf recoloured - this style is on sale)

Soiree in Black

Skin: Tete a Pied Vivant Bronze Boudoir 3

Shoes: Shiny Things Vintage Pumps in Black

Stockings: G.L.A.M. Tintable Metallic Tights (Freebie)

Necklace : Paper Couture Diamond Bee Necklace

Bracelet: Miam Miam Her Majesty Bangle in Sterling Silver

Hair: COIF Bowl in Hot Chocolate

Elan in Silver

Skin: La Sylphide Liliana Pecan in Coral

Shoes: Paper Couture Diamond Heel

Hair: Armidi St Moritz in Orchid

You can find these in a range of colour options plus many more styles in store at Immortelle.

Birthday Dress

2008-01-18T21:05:00.000Z

Dakotta is offering these dresses for 1l (only 20 of them!) and i snapped one up i think there are a few more drops of the dress so check her blog!

I had the idea as soon as i treyd the dress on, of a girl being stuck on a Desert Island in her formal evening wear. An idea thats possibly making a few of you go "hmmm shes lossing it again...."

These photos were taken at Temenos.
I am wearing

Hat : Chapue Tres Mingon Bird Nest Hat
Hair : ETD nickel Laynie 2
Skin : TAP Lustrous (i named that skin!)
Necklace : P.C pearl necklace (from the jewlarry expo no longer availble)
Gloves : TAP Long gloves in Midnight
Dress: Dakotas Birthday Dress
Stockings : Betties Taupe stockings
Shoes : Storm Schmooze Black Pumps

* If any of you recongise the suitcase its from the TAP sim, i Imed CJ and he sent me one of these loverly sculpties (my house is filled with them now)

Marni

xxxxx

Avant Garde Prep School

2008-01-16T22:53:00.000Z

I was inspired recently by Looking back at the fall 07 balenacaga collection. And decided to put my own spin on a preppy look. Mixing Mens wear in Sl is always a good way to get this look.Skin : My own make on a Another Shop Skin (not for sale obv)
ETD : Nickel Cady Hair
Shirt : Laundry
Jacket : LC catwalk Collection (mens) Ciao Evenng Suit
*This is a great set one not to be missed before the sale ends!
Trousers:Shai Le Smoking Tuxedo
Leg warmers : Ghost Prison Tights
Shoes : P.C Clobber
Gloves : Tap

(hint : mens trouser normaly are fairly high waist so i prefer them becuase on tops i dont need a jacket layer or and underpants layer to get rid of the skin gap)

Skin : Almond, La Sylphida
Hair : Vivian , ETD
Hat : Knock on Wood Sculpt Hat, Timberry
Glasses: Lemonade (no longer avilible)
Jumper : Colpire, (mens last call)
Shorts : Glam Gacho Shorts
Socks : Maitriya Toeless Socks
Shoes: Maitreya
Gloves : Tap

Ill continue my menswear campign!

Marni
xxxxx

Nuff Vs Another shop

2008-01-16T22:44:00.000Z

Some One actuly Had the balls to post these on the feed too.

Shes got Skins from RAC too so boycot Nuff!

I like that the skins called honesty :P

Marni
xxxx

Hypothetical

2008-01-04T20:46:00.000Z

Having this debate with a friend and I would like to hear your thoughts on this, what would you think if tomorrow the Lindens released a completely updated avatar? I'm not too sure of the technological names, but say when you logged on you were able to operate an avatar that had an infinitely better mesh, looked more realistic(and with the already fabulous skins, pretty much photorealistic), had none of the lighting issues, no distortion in poses and walks, and had an updated layering system so makeup, tattoos and skirts were more flexible. I realise a few of those factors are controlled by things other than the avatar, but stick with me. Basically, the avatar looked and moved and interacted with the up to the minute technology.

But there was a catch. Around 70-80% of your wardrobe now looked completely horrible. Even the most talented designers' work looked mmm..a little off, and a few outfits and hairs were still wearable, but on this whole new level of avatar construction, you now had to buy almost a whole new inventory. Although most skins and shoes(except for any higher than the ankle) survived the transformation, hair just doesn't fit or look right. Even worse, you either have to wait a month or so for the first releases that co-ordinate with the update, or try to create items yourself (however existing designers will find this easier than most). To counteract this, over half the designers had been informed so at about the month mark there are a decent amount of stock available, and at discounted rates since everyone realises the update means you can no longer wear most of your existing wardrobe. But how would you react?

Would you prefer to have the incredible new avatar and build a whole new platform of massively higher quality avatar clothing textures, clothing prims and avatar experience? When put in-world clothing textures are more true to what it was in photoshop and doesn't flatten the image. Any attachment prims for clothing and accessories would mesh better. Or does the thought of your now - obsolete majority of your inventory put you off? There are more and more amazing creators who keep raising the bar in terms of what our avatars look like and how they move, so would you prefer to see how we can continue to improve the existing avatar?

I'm interested in any thoughts on this, it's purely just a dive into theoretical waters, but with so many avatar developments for console gaming platforms I would have thought an online community like SL would have been a part of those kind of updates.

Do Clothes have Soul?

2008-01-01T23:57:00.000Z

Iv been shut out of the grid for nearly a week now (oh my god im going stir crazy too) and there was a blog post I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Now seem as good as any (although I had to find the image from the onrez shop so forgive that)

In RL we all have that dress that makes us feel special were queen of the party in it. Or maybe it’s a pair of shoes possibly apiece of jewellery. But I think any true fashoinista has that one item that always has a wow factor for them.

I began to think the other day about possibly having that one item in SL, that one treasured item. That on item that if our inventories died we’d genuinely miss (thankfully with SL rebuying things is easy)

My favourite Item is from a designer that’s always had a lot of press but when I was bought this dress I honestly had no clue about anything is SL.

During my first week on SL I made friends with a club owner called Lada Charlton who used to own a 40’s jazz club (which was the best on the grid) but was sadly shut down. I ended up acquiring the dress by winning a competition she had run and gained her as a close friend as well.

I wore the dress a lot in my noobish days and was always complemented on it. In fact it was possibly the most expensive item id had for a while and even today its one of my favourites.

As you can see it’s the paper couture sping06 amour gown. A simple across the bust dress, I think it have a very prom like look to it but the volume and chunky belt bring it towards a more contemporary look.

Shown above styled by Paper couture I normally wear it with coloured tights and possibly another top on the undershirt layer to make it less formal.

This is most certainly my most treasured item on SL its not the most practical or most expensive even the more unusual but I feel its and item that defiantly have soul to. Even if it is just pixels

Does anyone else feel like this about something they own?

Hope to see everyone back on the grid soon

Marni

xxxxxx

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T06:20:00.000Z

It's coming up to the new year, and I've been privileged to meet more warm, kooky, talented people than I could shake a stick at, and some have become great friends. So Marni and I would like to wish everyone a safe and spectacular New Year, best of luck to everyone in 2008, and we hope you all get smashed and make out with someone you won't regret in the morning. Cheers!

It was the Coat

2007-12-30T06:00:00.000Z

I'd had a few drinks before I received a folder from Tenshi with some cute coats. My first thought was they were bright and woman-pimptastic. I decided I'd wear one out that night, show off my little score, and some blingy bitch at this club tried to pull my coat off of me. She only wanted to try it on but I was drunk, and people getting in my personal space pissed me off. Next thing I'd dragged her outside by her hair and we were half slapping, half scratching each other. Some random guys appeared, must have been with her. One of my girls handed me a knife. I swear, if I hadn't been wearing the coat, this wouldn't have happened.

The next night, I thought I'd try my luck again, this time with the pink. I was heading out with some model friends, one of whom lent me their new designer dress. The bar was crazy, men were everywhere and all us girls were up for a good time. I thought I was smokin until some random came up and asked me straight out how much. I asked 'For what?', and he put his hand on my leg, above my knee. He started to slide his hand up my thigh and in that splitsecond I threw my drink on him and we left. I swear, if I hadn't been wearing the coat, this wouldn't have happened.

Third night out, I lent my girl Ames the black coat. I'd had enough trouble. With that coat Ames looked incredible, and she knew it. Always up for a good time, Ames was on a high tonight, and didn't stress about taking a few samples from work and dishing them out as party favours. As we moved from bar to bar we ended up at some dive where Ames was meeting the guy. We tried to get her to leave, she always wrecked herself and took god knows what, but tonight, feeling a natural and at least half-medicated high, she had her eye on the guy. They went out back, and it wasn't until we herd yelping that we ran out the back door and there she was, needle in hand, standing over the guy who had 5 minutes ago been swapping her saliva and was now writhing on the ground. "Son of a bitch", she panted. "Tried to manhandle me". She'd stabbed him in the cheek with the needle, and at that point we were too shocked to do anything but stare. I swear, if she hadn't been wearing the coat, this wouldn't have happened.

But damn, the coat looked hot.

Whore for the Holidays

2007-12-26T09:50:00.000Z

To suit the varying moral compass in your wardrobe, here I present you with three choices of gorgeous holiday wear, one of which is bound to relate more closely to your personal taste and conservatism, or lack of.

The Innocent

Dress by Heart Cupcakes

Whether unknowing or intentional, The Innocent dresses in attire mostly favoured by fantasy and whimsy. She has a wardrobe that would match a teenage girls, including what was hot when she was an actual teenage girl. Modesty abounds in the height of the collar, length of the skirt or sheerness of the top. No confusion here, fellas. This little thing makes it clear she's a good girl, and while she may be a party to a little flirting, she's got those good intentions, and doesn't have the faintest idea why you would think she's here for anything but the intellectual stimulation.

The Tainted But Hopeful Soul

Dress by Heart Cupcakes

Somewhat jaded by her one tragic experience, The Tainted but Hopeful Soul still believes in love, but has become more of a realist. She knows that it doesn't always happen, that love thing, and she may even laugh in your face if you seem a little too hopeful about finding it, but deep down she knows there is that chance of someone coming into her life that just gets her. Flaunting her sexuality but holding her feelings close, The Tainted But Hopeful Soul has hardened her personality upfront, but still lets her true self show to those she can trust, if you can win it.

The Femme Fatale

Jacket by Casa Del Shai

When a Femme Fatale walks in the room, you know it without turning around. The mood changes and the men sense the friction. Always to be handled as if dangerous , there are two kinds of Femme Fatale, and if you handle one the wrong way, prepare for war. One, The Vixen, a fiery temptress who's in the game for the trophies and men are just throwaway things. Fun for the night, but you'll never get that second date. It's skin deep baby, she's in control and she's having the time of her life. The other is The Broken Virgin. The less pleasant of the species, this former innocent is so damaged she believes the endless temptation of men and fulfilment of a strangers fantasies will make her whole, and watch out if you for one second make her feel. Sex is pure game with the Femme Fatale, she's all about the pleasure but don't expect she'll remember your name.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T08:59:00.000Z

Marni and I wish you all the best on the holidays, be safe and hope you all have a wonderful silly season.

Dude Looks like a Lady prt 1

2007-12-11T20:04:00.000Z

With the fashion on SL shifting more recently in a direction that I’m to be honest not always fond of. I have decided to take a look at an underblogged subject.

MENSWEAR

Although don’t expect my avi to grow a beard anytime soon (At least not a new one I did take to wearing a handle bar moustache in march…)

Menswear on SL is known for being ignored but with current real life catwalk trend all favouring an androgynous look I want to reflect that trend through my avi.

As you may also have noticed my avi now has grey hair (that’s no recent but it is pretty much permanent) I became sick of being YET another blonde.

The Suit:Jacket and Trousers: Shai

Shirt: Laundry (this shop is one of the best inexpensive men’s wear shop 50l a shirt!)

Boots: Last Call VAMP

Hair: Brian from ETD (yup even men’s hair J )

TAP : feline skin in almond

Marni

xxx

Sympathys and Best Wishes

2007-11-11T13:25:00.000Z

Me and Eyva would like to wish all our best to everyone who knew ginny in RL and in SL, his talent amazed us all.

I remeber having a very brief conversation with him about using lightwave, the fact that such a busy person had time to talk and explian even offer so tips on using the program shows that Ginny had time for everyone.

He will be missed and not forgot

Marni and Eyva

Solid Gold on a Saturday Night

2007-11-07T07:10:00.000Z

Hardcore night on the town? Get crazy. Don't worry about rules, you can clearly see we don't abide by them here either.

Dress: Casa Del Shai : Deepchild Dress in Black Gold
Skin: miw : Gutter Girl Purple in tone 7
Shoes: Armidi : Vidalia Pump in Turquoise Croc
Hairstyle: Kin : Emi in Black
Necklace: Fashionably Dead : Stone Necklace
Bangles: Turnstyle : Choco Bloo

Dress: Pampered Princess : Party Cheeta in Sunshine Skirt
Jacket: Mimikri : City Cat Jacket in Black
Shoes: Armidi(yes, again) : Vidalia Pumps in Turquoise Croc
Skin: miw : Fruitloops : Neptune
Hairstyle: Armidi : Roxy in Smoked Nutmeg
Necklace: Miam Miam : lucky Charms Necklace

Dress: Veschi : Le Poufe in Blue
Skin: Karamia : Marcelle in Medium
Hairstyle: Creamshop : Vanilla
Shoes: Periquita : Plenty Jane
Stockings: Veschi
Necklace: Chapeau tres Mignon : Satyr

Sabbatical

2007-11-02T07:28:00.000Z

To everyone who does read the blog, Marni and I will not be blogging very much if at all for the time being as we both struggle with harsh reality. Hopefully at least one of us will post something once in a while, but for the immediate future we're both caught up in our own projects. Well, just letting you know we're not dead...now go shop!

Elegance

2007-10-24T00:44:00.000Z

Maria Gherardi does beautiful things with silk, and Romance at Sunset showcases her talent with the silk texture, as well as her eye for that something extra as the detailing on the waisted belt and asymmetrical semi-transparent additional skirt show. My choice if I had to pick one colour was the olive, although all of the colour tones though are rich and pleasing to the eye. The prim skirt has a gentle flow and hangs well on the body, the length indicative that the dress is designed for a wide range of events, and therefore not destined to sit in the closet waiting for that themed or black tie only event.

When you do dress up, and find with that gorgeous dress you've picked out you need to find a special piece of jewelry, Muse has a considerable range of exquisitely designed finery to complete any outfit. By far the most unique and stunning collection is the Chatelaine Shoulder Brooch and Chain, as it sits unusually around your neck and beautifully highlights the decolletage. This is the most impressive work I've seen as the diamond set in silver wafers, the feather off set, and the large but delicately constructed chain all just appear to be art.

My hair was pulled together by Coif, and if you haven't seen the selection of crazy, elegant, fun, bizarre styles to choose from you're missing out. Disco Goddess was my first investment, and I'm loving every shade of it. Each style comes with all colours, so no more later regret you wish you'd gotten that perfect style with more options. For pure foot pampering, I chose Armidi's Gisaci Vidalia Pump in Turquoise Croc. Don't stop at the shoes there, though. A large street houses many of the departments that Armidi service, hair, accessories, clothing, and cosmetics.

Friends List: No - Review Copies: No

The List

Skin: Minnu - DarkSkinGloss - Nature Minnu Model Skins

Hair: Coif - Disco Goddess - Brown COIF

Jewellery: Muse - Chatelaine Shoulder Brooch and Chain - Silver Muse

Dress: MG Fashion - Silk Collection - Romance at Sunset - Olive
MG Fashion at Portucalis

Shoes: Armidi Gisaci - Vidalia Pumps - Turquoise Croc Armidi

Accessories: Earrings - Muse - Elle Bead Earrings - Rose Muse

Time Travel to to the fashionable and beyond.

2007-10-15T21:01:00.000Z

It’s a worry we all have I know I myself was once afraid too however, should you fit yourself falling into a black hole, time vortex or just walk into the wrong sort of phone box (I do it all the time myself almost a daily occurrence) and then find yourself in rather a different time you always want to look your best lets face it a few hundreds years is no excuse you should always be prepared for the worst.

No I’m not going to claim to be the world best authority in historical accuracy so please don’t comment going “OMG I can believe you used those cuffs so not 1830 more 1850 how could you be SOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong”

Anyways I was using a telephone box round the corner from my shop but as soon as I pressed the Dial Tone it felt ever so odd, there was a far off voice quoting film lines too me “I don’t think were in Kansas anymore Toto”. How I managed the power of time travel is still beyond me maybe it was my slightly clichés space age jacket or that fact that I’m clearly wanted in all time zones. We may never know…..

Hair- Armidi the Milano II in orchid
Jacket - Mimikri City Cat Silver Jacket (this designer is a brillant up and comer)
Gloves - TaP
Ring - P.C's limited jewlary expo collection black pearl
Shorts - Candy Apple from G.L.A.M (there old)
Socks- Maitreya
Shoes -Crisis Sculptie pumps
Skin - Loveys peach
(and bedroom lashes by Cake are worn in ALL shoots)

As you can see I landed in ancient Egypt….. and of coarse such savages should be greeted with due care therefore its best to have that “played down” chic. Don’t draw attention to ones self and try and blend in.

This is my somewhat played down outfit

Hair – Amidala Style from Curl Up and Dye
Top (worn tucked in yes they come in all layers which RULES) – Sh*t Happens
Jacket – Part of the Nicky Ree Tang Gold Dress
Skirt- X3d Tulle Gown from the Wicked collection.
Skin- Tap Vivant Feline in almond

Next up I thought id jump a few years to the 17^th century (*ish*, don’t shoot me costume genius’s). It was a cold night so I thought it play up my chic appearance, bright colours are a must rich gold’s and luxurious reds. But seeing as everyone and their mother had them on and I wanted to wow my fans I toned it down. I’ve already had a higher opinion of people who run from the bandwagon screaming and flailing their handbags wildly.

Outfit – the Virgin outfit from wardrobe trunk
Hair- Coif by Paulie (yes its unrealised biatches)
Skin – my favourite skin I own I seriously can’t take it off! Draconic Kiss Theresa
Shoes- X3d Virgin flower shoes

Now to the future because “hey who wants to be soooo last century?!?”

Clearly ruling the catwalk 100 years from now will be Viking space cyborgs, there hot you know you like them :P

I’m actually rather in love with the Prim work on the suit its fairly easy to mod as well so well worth the 1k lidon if you intend to push the boat out with you wardrobe. The fact it was pink was the icing on the mechanical cake.

Hair - BrunHilda by BLEACH
Space Suit The Girl Power 3000 Special Edition "EVE" Mech Suit by Cyberpunk Apocalypse
Skin - MIW Dawn in Pale

Now Children what was the point of this post? In fact any of my blogging? It’s been observed I have a slightly somewhat eccentric fashion sense I’m fond of wearing odd combinations whether they work or not. I cant help but notice one the fashion feed and in world people are clinging far too lovingly to there jeans and sparkly tops now as great as this party classic is don’t you think in a world without rules and fashion boundaries we should ALL be pushing the envelope?

Have fun and burn those party time jeans!

Marni
xxx

Poll: Designing from RL Creation

2007-10-12T16:00:00.000Z

This poll is mainly talking about a specific RL design that someone in SL creates a direct copy of, by which I mean you wouldn't be able to tell them apart if one wasn't virtual. Do you believe the SL designer owes it to their customers to inform them if their latest release actually existed already? Or perhaps the two realities do not have crossover rights or obligations?

For more information I refer you to a piece on SCD about designing off a well-known creator . Do you also believe all logos are sacred and copyright? Or do you think that aspects of logos in RL are fair game in SL?

New CRAP

2007-10-12T15:24:00.000Z

Colder weather is coming fast for all you northerners, and while we down below set to fry in the months of spring and summer, many operators are donning their charges in the thick, woolly offerings designers have whipped up for realtime seasonal changes. I tried to resist because just thinking about woolly coat warmness makes me sweat, but Tenshi Vielle had a big surprise for me and once I saw what it was, well sweat be damned.

You may recognize her from such productions as Shopping Cart Disco, and her previous flirtation with design, which I have dubbed That Which Shall Not Be Named, well Tenshi has turned her eye back towards designing clothing and accessories and coats are where it begins baby. Yes, Tenshi's making CRAP. I can safely say that because that is the name of the label, no doubt to start one step ahead of the haters, and to show she's got a funnybone. Also, she's a friend and surely we get the first dibs on messing with that name. Right?

I've taken some hard and fast shots of two coat creations, the one above being the Olive Prim Parka, which is actually spot on because it is olive in colour, yes, but it's also made entirely out of PRIMS. That's right, no jacket layer, no shirt layer, no underwear layer, just prims. And they're copy/mod, so back em up and move em around because although you may be smarter than me, I had to do a bit of a mod effort to get the front bumps covered.

This little beauty is the Plaid Coat, ironically enough, and is also a set entirely created with prims. I love the shade of the pattern, but once again lil old me had to take 5 minutes to get the front to sit right on me, without modding my shape. You be the judge if I pulled it off or not.

There's more in store, this is just the beginning of madames' grande plan, and I should tell you that prices will be very reasonable, as nothing will be over 125L. The coats will be available for 100L each and you can expect some avant garde and just plain cute fun from Tenshi soon. If you happen to be near Mischief Cove, you may decide to wander of the pier and down to a cute bazaar off the beaten track. You may soon see a storefront there, and that's all I'm saying.

And excuse to Take arty photos

2007-10-11T23:59:00.000Z

Now some may say these are more Flckr territoriy but a) iv forgoten all of my sign in details and b) Im promoting the use of arty photos in blogging today.

Without further ado

They original piont of this post was about me turning my SL hair colour to ETD's nickel but it sort of got lost, ill do the intelligent post tommorw!

Marni
xx

Old Gravy Review!

2007-10-07T18:20:00.000Z

A few of you will have noticed that I have said before I will accept review copies, and some vendors have taken notice although I takes a lot for me to blog something. So dont be affended if i dont, also i WILL be honest if your seems dont match i'l say, or post yet another badly spelt blog entry telling readers so send at your own risk.......

Old gravy is a brand I knew about a long time ago and ill honestly say iv not been there for a while, my style changed and iv grown out of quirky punk clothes. I was pleasantly pleased on a re-visit though.

Now I picked one of the outfits to blog in all honestly the other one wasn’t my cup of tea. This pop it outfit has some really cute qualitys, I also bought hair and a pose from old gravy for the blog.

The Pop it outfit comes with jeans and a nice slightly cropped blue jumper with hood. The cherries on it are rather cute and the bright colours fun. It’s a shame there’s not slightly more detail on the top. The jeans textures are rather rocking and the seems match so it defiantly ticks most of those requirements.

I rather liked the hair they sell there this is the saltine style in blonde. With the retro bandana (the hair has a tone o colours and is so worth it)

My favourite thing about this gem of a shop is the poses! When I first knew about the shop they didn’t do poses but I fell in love all over again once I found them. A much less known alterative to Reel Movement poses (which are rather over used).

Defiantly worth a stop by.

Marni xxx

Anorexia in a world without food

2007-10-07T00:20:00.000Z

Anorexia in a world without food

Anyone who familiar with my last posts will probably look at this and think why is the girl who writes the puff pieces that have me laughing into my earl grey tackling this?

It’s a subject that’s rather close to home actually for me I believe the best way to start this post is to tell you all in RL I am a recovering eating disorder patient I wont go into the full details. Hearing my Sap story isn’t what this is about.

Second style recently published a blog on the shape of avis in SL, the majority of metaverse residents are 6 ft about a size –2 and blonde. Healthy.

http://blog.secondstyle.com/2007/09/no-anorexia-second-life.html

I cant go on other people accounts and I doubt second life had a lot to do with the beginning of my illness but I do think that seeing my avi (we all now she used to need fairly good meal) is highly likely to have no helped. Seeing an entire race of people who its and oddity to be short, or unfounded to be anything over a UK size 10.

I don’t know were we can go from here I do know that all our avis need to start having a more healthy image, id love to think in a few months time we’d have a more open minded grid with someone like swirly cyclone leading a “ Prim Food for all” campaign.

You might call me a hypocrite my avi is still very thin, but you would be amazed at how many people are affected by something like an eating disorder in there lives. I’m thin I’ve always been thin. Even now the validation from typing that gives me a buzz. How ever that hasn’t stopped me from putting myself and my loved ones through hell.

The RL fashion industry is far too big to tackle the issue in second life we have created the fashion industry its not to late to change peoples outlooks. We need and industry that’s about clothes and how when you put on a certain outfit you become who you want to be, not about looking ill, And I honestly don’t know who’s brave enough to make the first move towards it.

Marni

SHOCK HORROR

2007-10-05T22:50:00.000Z

You’re probably thinking, we haven’t heard any updates on my shopping hiatus, well bloggers and readers, ladies and flamboyant gays. I have to admit something to you. This is hard to say but its official I’m not perfect: P. Difficult to come to terms with I know, but take a deep breath and take a few minutes to read through and re affirm yourself with all that is good!

I made a promise not to shop for a month, this was a plan that reached about 2 weeks (a long time for me might I say I did hold through about 5 ETD updates, several fashions shows and new line of nylon skins) how ever when I won part of the shockwaves water fight prize my err balance slipped. Slipped and few thousand in the general down direction, the drug found me again on a cold cold night. I was depressed I was low what was a girl to do. With no one online to hold me back my right mouse button clicked to that pie chart menu and I could hear the ca-ching sound. And a magic blue box saying things we delivered. It was like being reborn. Angels are less euphoric.

Anyways I’m sure the shopping economy will be back to normal by now, I only stopped briefly in order to work out if there a single shop in SL iv not been to, simple answer is not that I know of.

*Coming soon to a blog feed near you, the aftermath of binge shopping the dread inventory sort!*

Bombshell

2007-10-05T15:45:00.000Z

While I experiment and lately seem to be on a dirtier kind of style binge, it's been nice to slip back into a polished look every now and then. Cleaner lines, subtler colours, maybe even more photorealistic styles just make me feel happy when the blend of an excellent texture and craftsmanship lifts something from 'pretty' to 'stunning'. I've found a couple of items that fit that category the last few days, and would like to share them with you.

The title is exactly how I would describe this hairstyle, and funnily enough is the name of it, from Armidi. Seeing the coverage on SCD I had to check out the sim myself, and was directed to a small piece of land with this hair available with a few others, which they had debuted at the Hair Fair 2007. Looking closely at the textures involved, I'm in pure amazement at the quality, it looks almost like each prim piece was uniquely highlighted, and the thickness of the hair gives it the realistic appearance of depth and weight. They have been hyped since the building of the store began, with more exposure probably about to bombard the feeds, but this is completely warranted. They rival ETD in quality, sheer value for money and colour tones available.

It so happened I was looking for a darker skin tone to play with, and the mocha tones of the hair motivated me to find some demo's, through which I decided to get a fatpack from Minnu. While I have some of the paler tones , and love them, once I tried on the darks I got that little rush, where I think i should be ashamed I feel so alive just by shopping, but the skin was so well highlighted and the makeup so well drawn I got shivers. The last time that happened was when I finally came across Lovey's. Although Minnu is not cheap, at 1150L per skin it's definitely worth the indulgence and i would recommend if you like one, to splurge and get a fatpack. Anyone who makes skin gets my utmost respect.

While I was buying the hair, I noticed the Elephant Outfitters had a sale there also. I picked up the Preppy Polkies set from a section by Rummage for 90L, thats full price as it is new stock, which seems very cheap. You can split up the sweater and top, or wear them together, they all come on the jacket layer. You may also notice I'm wearing the Karamia shorts again, I can't find too many shorts that I want to wear everywhere, but these and Savvy's Lucas shorts are just my cup of tea.

Not so secret but awesome to behold are shoe creations by Maitreya, noticeably the Enchant Leopard selection I couldn't walk away from. Take a look at the heel shapes and tell me they aren't the most well-crafted shoes you've ever seen. The pattern makes more sense close up, where I would assume the work was painstaking, because it looks seamless and has a real kind of suede fabric appearance.

Also worth mentioning are the Heart Shell Screens by Corduroy. The team behind the name have created some wonderful clothing and furniture items, including this screen and more to choose from.

Friends List: No - Review Copies: No

Peek In The Closet

2007-10-02T00:23:00.001Z

Finally getting some time to relax and explore, I found the lilolOops store at Reigner, which, as well as having excellent store build and layout, has a fantastic collection of colourful and well-crafted clothes, shoes and accessories. You can also find tattoos and skins available, and I picked up a pair of these Purple Pea Leggings, as well as all the other colours and styles available.

While also on my travels I happened by Hubby's Boutique, where I came upon this grey corseted dress. The texture and drawing skills are very promising, and for a system skirt the seams at the waist blend incredibly well into the top. Distraction its what it's all about when it comes to system skirt waist seams, and Jessie Gervasi did an excellent job with this dress. It reminds me of a Last Call style, elegant but not boring.

Hair style was an easy choice, this long style by Kin is my favourite. It's a relatively simple design, but the huge choppy fringe was really appealing and Kin's textures are have a subtle depth to them. I've had these Misfit chucks from Old Gravy for a long time, and there is nothing they don't go with. They're chucks, wear em with anything!

Friends List : No --- Review Copies: No

The List:

Hair: Kin - Emi - Black

Skin: Celestial City - Vogue Skin- Champagne - Fall - 4

Tattoo: Aitui Tattoo - Fallen

Dress: Hubby's Boutique - Nadia

Leggings: LilolOops - Purple Pea leggings

Shoes: Old Gravy - Misfit Chucks

Your votes

2007-10-02T00:02:00.000Z

Congrats to Marni, who proved she has the inventory and just plain skankiness to win your votes as Trashiest Betch. The baby's due any day now but will that stop her from boozing it up at all hours at the local to find her baby a new daddy? Not likely.

Also congrats to Azar Kazan, who topped the list of reader entries with the all-too-familiar bling and bikini ensemble. She wins 1000L cash and her picture posted here as an advisory to others.

We will be having another theme off in a few weeks, we have a list up our sleeves but if you have any nutso ideas you'd really like to see, we're obviously not above shedding our dignity so email either Marni or myself.

Sculptie Goodness

2007-09-24T23:43:00.001Z

So I had to jump on the bandwagon and grab this hoodie from Maitreya, the colour choices were perfect, and when I saw you could choose different hair colours to go with it, I couldn't walk away. The slouchiness of the hood is too good to be true, sculpties make everything a bit more liquid and flexible, and Maitreya have been one of the leading brands to show this. They get scupltie arms so perfect and the folds just right.

The shorts from Karamia are too perfect, I've bought skins from Kara Eagle's range before and the makeups are still one of my absolute favourites. In these shots though I had to go with one of Starley's Deviant Nation skins, I love how the eye makeup looks so dirty.

Old Gravy is also perfect for your dirty look, these shoes are one of a bunch of Chucks that Satine sells, there is also a huge range of hair, clothes, more shoes, and accessories to fulfill your filth needs.

friends List: No - Review Copies: No

The List:

Hair n Hoodie: Maitreya - Jam Hoody Blue

Shorts: Karamia - Sailor Shorts Black

Socks: Shop Seu - Kushukushu Kutsushita - brown

Shoes: Old Gravy - Nautical Star Print Chucks

Trash Off!

2007-09-22T02:24:00.001Z

This theme was all too easy to do, miraculously (or not so) we all had this stuff laying around in our inventories, and all of us wish to state upfront that we apologize to any and all designers we wear here, fortunately for this contest, it's all too easy to turn even the classiest of items into a ho-bag's outfit of choice.

Our guest star for this theme is Tenshi Vielle, blogger and fashion commentator extraordinaire. She foolishly agreed to be involved in our shameful contest, and we will see who indeed is crowned Trashiest Betch. We all had our own ideas of trash, and you can vote for your choice on the sidebar poll. Comments will be welcome, we are a shameless bunch and would love you all to expand on your ideas of trash.

Also, we're opening the contest up for readers' pics, if you dare. We will select the trashiest pic and the winner will recieve a prize of 1000L, perfect to shop your shame away. Just email your submissions to eyva.matova@hotmail.com and remember to hide the pink bits, either by clothes or poses, we're trashy, not porn stars. And please just one per person. Contest will finish one week from today, Saturday 29th September at noon.

With no further ado, I present your selections for voting, and may the biggest trash-bag win.

There once was a guitarist from Istanbul……

2007-09-20T00:08:00.000Z

Day 4ish
Marni lay on the floor when word came into her head.

“Start wearing purple, start wearing purple for me now, all you sanity and wits will vanish is just a matter off time…..”

(theres a video here for fashion planet user youll have to look at the blog on your site click the link at the top!)

Its was if these dream words had floated to except in a catchy eastern European beat and a guitarist from Istanbul……

Instead of ignore these words Marni thought to her self to follow her vision and to in fact wear purple in the hope that the lack of shopping madness and withdrawal would pass.
Thats what all halucinating people need, a french man telling you to wear purple, on the up side marni did find a cute outfit and the world was good again!

Lots of love
Marnis left (and slightly more concered) arm

Product Info
-Skin Loveys Mulberry
-Hair KIN pale blonde Annie
-Arm puffs Veschi from the 80's girl outift
- Veschi purple scarf from the Le pouf outfit
-Lico Lico crown
-Lico Lico cross and check dress in purple
-Footless socks from maitraya
-Crisis Pumps
-Ballon from
What is marni doing?
http://styleadvisory.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-pleadge-alegence-to-my-handbag.html

edit : WHY DID YUMMY MAKE NEW JEWLARY? IM ROCKING BACK AND FORTH TO CALM MYSELF!!!!!!

Ivalde like cocaine

2007-09-19T12:36:00.001Z

Going into Ivalde the other day immediately made me wish I'd crawled out of my hole to investigate it earlier. I have no idea how long this dress has been available but I nearly died from ecstasy when I saw it. Bias cut, system skirt abused wonderfully, excellent textures and colour, AND little extras like the sarong option tie off. I've been wearing the dress non-stop since I bought it, and the others I bought will eventually get their turn. It's hot but not slutty - for some reason I seem to dress like a prude and Berthe gives you some sexy AND class.

Indie Rainbow's vest was also easy to choose, I love his colours and cute store and it would be hard to maneuver the vest shoulders around the template minefield, but he's got it. Trust me, the poses don't do justice to it. I also fell in love at first sight with these White Orchid Heels by TOSL, expensive (like everything else seems to be getting nowadays), but worth it for the beautiful detail and you can just wear them with anything.

I've been, seen and conquered the Jewelry Expo, and hope to actually WEAR some at some stage, I'm planning to whore myself to Caliah Lyon for a discount on the feather-chain thing I wanted..I say discount because apparently I'm not worth the whole thing for free :( Seriously, pixel sexual favours will get you NOWHERE anymore. If only I wasn't a tightass...

Anywhoo, enjoy the quiet in the eye of the 12Avatar storm, and Next Week: Will anyone actually CARE who wins the calendar contest now everyone and their dog has participated/begged for votes/made judgemental comments about those who did enter? Research says....no.

Friends List: No - Review Copies: No

The List:

Hair - Naughty - Crave- Cool Tones Medium

Eyelashes - Minnu Model Skins - Catwalk Eyelashes

Dress -Ivalde - Berthe Red Dress

Shoes - Tree of Second Life (TOSL) - Flower Heels - White Orchid

Skin - Loveys - Chai - Peach

Bracelets - Cake - Flea Market Bangles (I know, again)

Tattoo - Aitui Tattoo - Fallen

Vest - Indie Rainbow - Classy Vest - Navy

Day 3

2007-09-18T22:29:00.001Z

Day 3

Marni Grut stands on a pose stand looking at her dulling skin. Even if this fete is impossible due to her loveys peach tone glow, she defiantly has less of a pep about her.

Maybes its just because she’s stuck in last weeks duds with such a high turnover, often done by simple refreshing the fashion planet page (now don’t tell me that’s not fast food fashion).

Her shakes are setting in. I’m looking on waiting for the rocking back and forth clutching part of the paper couture fall line in her clammy hands.

Lets hope in a few days she moved on to doing slightly more productive things :D

From

Concerned onlooker

I pleadge alegence to my handbag.....

2007-09-16T01:41:00.001Z

Lying on a pinewood floor, till receipts littered around boxes dishevelled and laying strewn on the ground. Marni Grut’s lying there fairly lifeless, drolling out of her open mouth still clutching her latest purchase the high now gone. It was painfully apparent that after a few of these dark episodes she needed help. Some people drink, some take drugs it was clear Marni shopped her pain away. The ching on linden’s leaving her balance was like heroin.

We told her she was in need of help and have made her write the following mission statement.

xxxxx

From and fashionable onlooker

Now as my hands shake and I starts I shall leave you my dears and post my findings tomorrow.

THIS IS MY STAND AGAINST CONSUMERISM: P (well no but we all need a righteous excuse these days)

Marni Grut

Haute Couture? STOP USING THE WORD

2007-09-14T15:28:00.001Z

The word couture is used a lot it seems, mostly as a PR tool to make a designer seem “a bit of an art ponce”, sometimes even in a vein hope to attract fashionistas to your label. However I hate to break it to a lot of metaverse residents but,

It’s actually impossible to have a Haute Couture brand in SL.

I can see a few puzzled faces out there at this statement. The term itself in fact is protected by French law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris. (Sofia Grey linked me to the wikipedia site when we got chatting about this topic)

There are so many flaws with people using this term for marketing for one a Haute Couture brand must design for clients and fit them all in house. (I think this rules a vast number of second life brands out, legal mumbo jumbo aside)

Secondly they should have a workshop in Paris, with more than 15 full time staff, again something id be surprised to here even if it was a sim called Paris :P

Thirdly each season a brand must produced 35 outfits and present them in a show to the French press. To date only 10 houses and three international house are considered couture.

The dry information bit over, my main issue with people using the term is that often its on clothes that frankly are nothing out of the ordinary and designers think the word will have people flocking to there clean anubas prim build.

Excuse my asshat face but i think you can see my piont, the RL image is from the Chanel FallHaute Couture Collection.

Im wearing a P.c Top from the amour dress, Form jeans, bettie page leg warmers (im in love with these atm) and tuxedo shoes from shiny things. (also not the dance troop Dandelion :P)

I honestly don’t think its for a designer to define there own work surely that’s for the consumers, if you want to be high fashion than wait for someone to praise you for it. If you want to jump on the Avant Garde bandwagon that seems to be moving about at the moment then by all means do just don’t say your producing couture and not be expected to be corrected in your use of langue.

Marni
xxxxxxxx

Peek In The Closet

2007-09-14T13:31:00.000Z

It began with a simple exploration, Marni found this cute shop Kurotsubaki, in Koenji. Mainly kimonos downstairs, and if you venture up the stairs you find some Western style clothing. There I found this blue short coat and fell in love.

The coat itself comes on the jacket layer, and has lovely texture to it. The jumper is on the shirt layer and the collar is part of that. It is awkward that the collar is no copy, I had to fiddle around a bit to get it the right size for my chicken neck and not make it TOO big, but the result was worth the few minutes' work. What really made me snap this up right away was the angling of the sleeve prims and the bottom hem, the front of the coat is cut away from the straight corner into a more sweeping front, and the sleeves give that bit of frilly fun without overcrowding the rest of the coat. All wintery fun.

I immediately went for the Boho hair from Cake to accentuate the warm woollen look, it's been around for a while, but I only got it a little while ago and will use any excuse to wear it. Same for the Maitreya boots, here shown in Burgundy, the dusky suede is very warming and the folds and creases in the boots are very realistic. I still have to go and get more colours of the belt I'm wearing too, from Studio Sidhe. It fit perfectly and I recommend the store highly, I had the good luck to meet the owner, Faery Sola, and she's wonderfully warm and down to earth.

Back to the grind for me, we're changing the look up around these parts and if you have any content requests or would like to mention anything you wanna see more or less of, please do.
Next week, 50 Cent: Can a guy who makes albums about cars, money and bitches really have a heart of gold? Research says...no.

Friends List: No - Review Copies: No

The List

Skin: Canimal - Innocence - Light - Aerial02

Hair: Cake - Boho - Black

Coat: Kurotsubaki - Short Coat - Viridian Kurotsubaki @ Koenji

Bracelet: Cake - Flea Market Bangles

Belt: Studio Sidhe - Grey Suede Double Belt

Pants: Tres Blah - Og JuJu Jeans

Boots: Maitreya - Dune Boots - Burgundy

Peek In The Closet

2007-09-07T11:52:00.001Z

It's an orange day, I happened to find a couple things around the grid and somehow they all had one thing orange, so I went a little nuts. Yay orange!

I had to finally make it to MG Fashion and grab some of the spectacular skirt sets, I'm in LOVE with the silken folds look and the tiny band waist is perfect. The texturing on all the pieces in each outfit is superb and Maria's colour selections are excellent.

Artilleri has a sale on now, but literally 10 minutes before it was announced I spent way too much on the new hairs and this cute Beatrix midriff shirt in orange. The prim collar makes it feel really fresh and the pattern feels very country, a great match. Don't even get me started on the hairstyles, the colours in the browns and blondes are my favourite in all of SL.

Veschi has so many bright, funky, quirky things out I'm already hoarding and these wedges are a highlight. There are so many colours to choose from and the chunky platform with the covered toe works well with outfits for almost any occasion.

I've been a slack girl, but I'm getting my shit together and we'll update more often, promise.
Next week, black tape: Can you make haute couture out of your stationery drawer? Recent trends say: Yes!

Friends List: Yes Review Copies: No, but wedges were a gift.

The List

Skin: Minnu Model Skins - PaleSkinGloss in RedLips Minnu Main Store

Hair: Artilleri - Rita in Brown October Artilleri Sim

Tattoo: Aitui - FallenAitui

Top: Artilleri - Beatrix in Orange

Skirt: MG Fashion - Maria Outfit in Tan/Salmon MG Fashion at Portucalis

Jewelry: Left arm - Turnstyle Choco-Bloo Bangles Turnstyle at Imjin

Right Arm - Eye Candy - Woody Giraffe Set Eye Candy

Shoes: Veschi - Wedges in Orange Veschi Main Store

Feeding the Nudity

2007-09-01T23:21:00.000Z

Burning Life has been marred somewhat by the nude statue drama, where a piece of art depicting a naked woman which was placed in a PG sim had been censored. There are other works of naked art on the grid , and more importantly, on other PG sims, but this was deemed broadly offensive. The reaction I can gauge seems to be outrage at a selective act of censorship and also disbelief of the Lindens' reaction to the enquiry made by the Burning Life Blog, which was basically Iridium Linden asking the artist who created the statue to alter it, to 'make the breast without so much detail'.

This got me thinking about the SL fashion feed, and the blogs it feeds from. We all check it, probably once a day, and a lot of us maybe more, but where do you do it? From work? Public transport? Designers post their creations, and fashion bloggers post their photos and opinions, and I'm curious where people's tastes are when it comes to nudity in the feed. Sure enough, a person's blog is their domain, and therefore they're free to fill it with whatever you like, but the question is, when your blog feeds into bigger resources like the fashion feed and the world of SL feed, should the blogger have to think of censorship of their own blog, or should blogs featuring nudity for reasons other than designer displays cut the size of the post shown on the feed? Alternatively, is it just plain arrogant and rude to assume that because you may not like it, it should be censored or cut to please your own personal tastes?

Particularly in the fashion feed, I noticed London Spengler's posts about new builds coming together and her choice to use naked photos. From what I could see, there was nothing offensive in the selected photos, and although I'm not keen to see women parading around naked in their new build for the sake of nothing but fun, and the nudity wasn't really related to the post, I wasn't offended she'd posted the photos. Is it unacceptable only because it isn't using nudity in a direct marketing exercise, or because you may be checking from a public place or workplace? Did the shots appear to some people offensive because it was two women nude? I'm not seeing any open discussion about it apart from a comment.

We see lots of nude displays for skin creators, although carefully covered in the sensitive areas. We see nude photos from fashion blogs, although not often, where a pose is the only tool used to conceal genitals. We all live, play, and create on an over 18 grid, and it's pixels, not flesh. It seems a matter of personal taste where some won't even stand for nudity in art that is displayed to the public whether in SL or RL (although no-one I have met in SL yet agrees with this), but a vast majority seem to either tolerate or celebrate nudity and are spread out on the spectrum of nudity for the sake of art, to nudity because it's natural and should never be censored or villified, We all seem so forward and open about SL being a place where everyone can just be. So I'd like to know, if anyone would like to contribute, where do you believe nudity belongs in the fashion feed in particular, but generally as well. I'll be posting a poll, but if you have a differing opinion or strong feelings about the subject, feel free to leave a comment.

Throw Together - Casual Saturday

2007-08-25T01:02:00.001Z

I just threw on something casual but with a classy necklace to see me through shopping.

Marni found this great store Grandma, where I grabbed this white top and aqua knitted cami, they have some way out styles and patterns, great for eclectic mix and matches in your wardrobe. I also finally had enough spare money and time to have a good leisurely shop at Megg Demina's Chapeau Tres Mignon, where among her beautifully artistic hat creations she features furs and the gorgeous necklace I'm wearing. Finally, it wouldn't be casual spring (down under) Saturday without wearing something from Sand Shack, and the Hippie Skirt was perfect!

Friends List Items: No - Review Copies: No

The List:

Hair: ETD - Eva in Honey ETD

Skin: Lovey's - Chai in Blueberry Lovey's

Earrings: Muse - Elle Bead Earrings in Rose Muse

Necklace: Chapeau Tres Mignon - Satyr Necklace Chapeau Tres Mignon

Top: Grandma - B Lace Top and Cami Grandmas!

Tattoo: Aitui Tattoo - Cherry Blossom V.2 in Red Autui Tattoo & Piercing

Bangles: Model's Left: Cake -Flea Market Bracelet Cake
Model's Right: Earthtones - Giraffe Bangles Earthtones Boutique

Skirt: Sand Shack Surf Co. - Hippie Skirt - Foggy Bay Sand Shack at Artilleri

Shoes: Sand Shack - Delia Print Flats - Boardwalk.

RED ALERT

2007-08-24T02:41:00.000Z

***This is a Red Alert***

Reports have broken out of highly unorganized waterfights across the grid. Teams of women can be seen (and a few men) with a colour ball in hand ambushing others and engaging in the throwing of water-filled balloons. These women have been identified but for National Security reasons their names cannot be released at this time. I was alerted to this situation by one Tenshi Vielle, and was sent to investigate.

The epicentre of the madness appears to be Sheep Island. A fountain beholds a HUD which enables the crazed women to form teams, and equip them with water balloons. It also gives detailed instructions to a prize of L1,000,000. I was able to descramble their code and can safely release to you the following:

Game Overview

The Second Life Shockwaves Water Fight game is a grid wide water balloon fight with the winning team receiving L$1,000,000!! This is a provocative game of individual skill, alliances, team play and strategy. Bring your friends and test your skills in the Shockwaves Water Fight Game!

Wave/game 1: from August 23rd 2007 to September 12th 2007
Wave/game 2: from September 20th 2007 to October 10th 2007
Wave/game 3: from October 18th 2007 to November 7th 2007

Crazed fashionistas, famed bloggers and high end designers have all been spotted running around the grid with glazed eyes and a hunger for their next victim. I was told not to enter Sheep Island as this is the most common place for teams to set their ambush, but managed to get undercover and into one of the sims designated a water zone, where 'players' have alerted all that there are fights to be had and victims to soak. I smuggled a picture out of the medical camp at Jessie, of Tenshi and I facing the frontline.

The government is at this time quiet on the issue, but a small insurgence team is rumoured to be mobilised to defeat the large gang of wandering wild women. Before I am cut short I urge all readers to go to Sheep Island and get involved. These people must be stopped! I must claim the prize money! I...

***End of Transmission***

The Fashionista - a Creature to be ware of

2007-08-23T21:00:00.000Z

The SL fashionista can be picked out from a crowd; her cake bedroom prim lashes, framing her FD eyes. A soft glow being given of by her face lamp illuminating her loveys skin. Clutching he PC bag and tottering on her sculptie maitraya heels.

The true fashionista is a rare breed many impostors try to mimic the true creature in an attempt to join there heard. She shops alone and has a steely reproachable manner as she often talking in IM’s to her fellows. Its has been my experience whilst attempting to infiltrate this heard that these action are not meant in predatory manner. The permanent contact between the fashionista’s in merely a call to other telling them were the best products are for replenishing their inventories. The will later be found at a trendy watering hole swapping gossip and tips.

Once in the heard there is a hierarchy system those with the best plumage rank highest. Also newcomers to the flock will be treated with suspicion until proven to not be an impostor.

To catch a full-grown specimen one must have one of two things, a male avi with payment info on file whilst having a kind-giving manor or for a shop to catch a fashionista, to quote the godfather “make them and offer they can not refuse”.

The fashionista is similar to the magpie in the sense that they are attracted to shiny things, which they will hoard in there nests. Although in fact not in the avian family despite the spindly like appearance. They are in fact carnivorous epically around sales and special offers. If captured should be treated with care and allowed to read her favourite blogs.

Can be spotted in the desolate area often around tabalue or in the latest trendy shop.

Elegance in SL

2007-08-21T22:07:00.000Z

“It is a sort of harmony that rather resembles beauty with a difference that the latter is more often a gift of nature and the former a result of art.” Genevieve Antoine Dariaux from the book Elegance

Although the above is a somewhat arty and ever so slightly pretentious quote, it’s rather true. Although the act of beauty in SL isn’t a gift its something you can happily purchase, the idea of elegance is something that I find is often over looked. It’s odd how in the metaverse the two are reversed.

So instead of another photo shoot I thought id invent the 10 rules of elegance for SL and possibly a few things in my opinion to consider.

Less is more, always
Pastel coloured shoes are tacky
Make sure all your prim attachments fit; it takes only a few minutes to do.
When going to and event re-bake as soon as you get there just in case of a Ruth visit. The shortcut is Ctrl+ R
Try and find an AO where you feet touch the ground…. It’s just not natural!
No bling script should make there way into you inventory unless you plan on a) wearing them ironically e.g some ghetto fabulous joke or b) becoming a Christmas tree.
Glitch trouser come with your prim skirts for a reason wear them.
Shorts with bare legs and heeled boots are so wrong. It just doesn’t work ether wear flats or put on some fun bright coloured tights for a trendy mix.
Cropped tops are the height of tart. Naked mid-drifts unless your at the beach just don’t work (I don’t care if I sound an old granny :P)
Androgyny is chic on woman in a virtual world its easy to make sure people know you a girl whilst rocking a tux.

These are my Views and just a few things to think about

Marni

Votes Are In

2007-08-19T09:36:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who participated in our little bit of fun, alas no winner is to be announced this week with Marni and I in a tie!! This just means we'll have to up the ante for next fortnight's theme off, which will be announced Friday. We loved getting pics from everyone, and our prize winner is Nicole Sautereau!! Nicole will receive a colour choice of Marni's Sunglasses, and a 500L gift card to Last Call.

Our prizes will vary each contest, so keep your eyes out, we're working on getting some great goodies for those who compete. We've also secured a daring guest to be involved in our next round, she's fun, she's a fellow blogger and you'll have to keep watching this space til Friday to see who joins the fun!

Syndicate(d)

2007-08-19T01:17:00.000Z

I was at Queen Couture a while ago spying on the latest glamorous high fashion release and I met Tyreak Takashi, designer extraordinaire of fantastic urban clothes and AO's. He was wearing some great clothes and showing off his creations, he gave me the LM to his store the Syndicate, where of course I couldn't help myself.

This jacket was what popped out at me first, and I LOVE the hood. Polka dots and fur is genius. Although I couldn't get the neck to fit me right, it was advertised for men, so I think that's my bad. The jacket is so well textured, and the wrist and waist detail completes it perfectly. The hood was also perfect and didn't require any editing to fit.

The Under the Influence strings blew me away. It's such an original idea, and I have no clue what I'm gonna use it for but I had to have it, the wood is so well textured. There's a great range of belts available to, and while at that point I had already bought so much, I still had to have the padlock belt. Again, fitting to me was no problem.

This little bear, though, is the cuteness. Gloomy bear is his name and there are some different types available, this one was wearing a noose, and was my personal favourite. Hug him, carry him around, he's made to be loved.

There're so many more things Tyreak has made, typing AO's, accessories, shoes and a lot more, you have to check it out for some fantastic finds. He's also working on a main store which will hopefully be opening in a few weeks. I'll definitely be waiting for that, but until then I've included his current store locations for you to see for yourselves.

Visit In-World:
Plunder

The Pixel Cartel

Pull D'Vagin

Friends List: Yes - Review Copies: No - Discount on Gloomy Bear

The List:

Hair: Aden - Rihanna in Black Random

Skin: Lovey's - Chai Mulberry (nekid) Loveys at Fashion Mode

Jacket: Syndicate

Glasses: Nylon Outfitters -Nylon Outfitters

Belt: Syndicate

Jeans: GLAM - Gold Jeans in Light Indigo Wash GLAM Main Store

Boots: Shiny Things - Sleek Laceup Boots 2.0 Shiny Things

PopFuzz Corsets 3 styles

2007-08-18T01:14:00.000Z

When i ran into Miss Popfuzz and saw her wearing this corset set before it had even arrived on our shelves i knew i HAD to have it!I of coarse ended up with the fatpack, so here are the corsets in blue pink and gold in a few different outfits.

1.The classy look Aden Andy 3 hair in strawberry, loveys blueberry skin, foxy's cigarette and Tete a Peid sling back shoes. Popfuzz corset in blue

2.Vintage Vixen

This is a vintage look almost pin-up without being over "dressing up box", these shots show some nice close ups on just how well made this corset set actually is. Note the sculptie bows. Also i know for a fact the whole thing was handpainted with a mouse (yes i do mean that lace).
ETD Rachel chestnut, loveys cherry skin, stockings from Bettie's, corset as before.

3. a Little bit high fashion and a little bit punk

Now this is a look is you want to punk it up a bit, hot pink being colour of choice!
Kin Pur hair in pink , loveys bubblegum makeup, kyoot neck brace, socks from shop seu, Biker Boots from X3d.
Corset set as before.

Marni

Voting Update

2007-08-17T21:40:00.000Z

Hello fabulous people, I noticed this morning the poll was down, and mysteriously came back once I signed in, so if you'd like to vote, but the poll thingy isn't up for some reason, leave your vote in comments section of the civil war post, and you will be counted. Please, do it today. If I have to wait until next challenge to have an awesomely bad theme off winner, I may get stabby. And remember, enter yourself by sending an email to eyva.matova@hotmail.com for some free stuff. Yay Free Stuff!

BTW more posts are coming, we haven't died or anything, there's just so much fashion to fawn over in SL, and we're in the process of creating something special for you all. Have a great weekend :D

Eyva :)

It's Civil War!

2007-08-12T04:16:00.000Z

With SL being borked beyond belief, Marni and I have been having a little fun with our inventories. Our competitive streaks collided and we always seem to drag one another into a trash-off or drag-off and head straight to the nearest high fashion zone (Tableau seems to be the hottest spot) to confuse passers by and humiliate ourselves in general. And now we're taking it one step further!!

We're taking it to the blogs. We've decided enough is enough, and we brought our outfit-off out for everyone to see and vote on. Our in-fighting and hair pulling was amusing to the random bystanders, but we need your opinions, and your votes, to see who really is the Style Master of the two.

Basically the plan is, each fortnight or so we pick a theme, and create an outfit we think most represents that theme. We have a set of rules to follow, which will be revealed in a little bit. But it's all in the name of fun! We wanna get a bit silly and have fun doing it, and thought you might like to join in. So, down the bottom of this post you can vote for one of us, but we also want you to send in yours!

So here's the deal: We're aiming to do this every fortnight or so, and we'll have a guest star join us in the fun! This week it's just the two of us as a sort of 'trial' to see if we can pull this off or fail miserably, but after this we'll get another sucker in to join us. We'll put our pics up, and you choose who you think best represents that theme/style, or even just who you think has put together a mean outfit for the event. But here's where you can participate even further.

We also want you to send in your pics, following the rules below, to the email in my (Eyva's) profile in the sidebar. Marni, the guest, and I will choose a winner and they will receive some neato prizes! The 'contest' will open when the post is up, and finish exactly one week from then. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment, or email me, or see me inworld, I'm trying to cover everything here. And to make it challenging, here are the rules:

1. No photoshopping, we want an inworld snap and the only ps you can do is resizing images. We have a hard-assed photoshop pro behind the scenes who WILL spot rule breakers!

2. Dollar limit: We will set a linden limit each week, but for our ceremonial first stab, it will be limit free.

3. No porn - keep it classy, if for some reason you have to show that extra bit of skin, that's fine, just refrain from, well, the pink bits.

4. Have fun! We want cheeky, we want wacky, just stick to the theme if you wanna win!

That said, the theme for this competition is Preppy.

Prizes include:

-Royal Blue Plastic Fantastic Sunglasses in your colour choice
-500L gift voucher for Last Call (does not include Celestial City)

Prizes will change with every event.

So get to it! You've got til 12 noon, EST (Australian time, east coast) Sunday 19th August.

And without any further ado, we submit to your votes, who will you choose as this fortnight's
Style Master? Look at the top of this post to add your vote.

Marni is on the left ----------------------------- Eyva is on the right

***Disclaimer: We reserve the right to humiliate ourselves and our (lack of) photoshop talents as may be the case. We do not suppose to be experts in the fields of stated themes and in the event of landslide victory the winner may choose a punishment fitting the theme, which may or may not include chickens, lycra bicycle shorts, or secret horror snaps posted on flickr. :D

Peek In The Closet

2007-08-05T10:15:00.000Z

Today I'm flipping my usual style in order to show off a few things I recently found, in that tiny period when SL actually functions. I usually go through an unconscious routine when I log in, and it involves the outfit selection. Painstaking at first it may be to look at the shambles of a shopping spree crapping up my inventory and all it's meticulous folders, I realise how quickly I forgot that I bought something, and the adrenaline starts. I begin by finding one thing I have to wear, right now, and build from there. I somewhere along the way decide what kind of theme or dress standard I'm going for that day, skank? sophisticated? punk? well, try-punk? Today I found these boots, quickly searched for good pants that fit in them, and at that point decided my look for today was toight. Not tight, toight.

Well, tight too. Once I saw the jeans melded to my skin I knew I had to have it all looking fitted. The boots I found in ENVY, at Color Scheme Products, and fell in love with immediately. The detailing is excellent and the textures very realistic. Even the small buckles are well detailed with excellent shadowing. I bought a few sets of GLAM jeans and capris a while ago, and they were perfect for today.

These miw sunglasses were the first set I bought in SL, and they're my absolute favourite, they can funk up any outfit and the slightly square sides of the frames hooked me in. I got them in the pack of four base colours, and love them all. You can get the bracelets from Cake, the different colours and loose stacking up the arm seemed perfect, and love the little bit of animal in there too.

Every single piece in this outfit was very well-made, no seam problems, and texturing used effectively. Is anyone else noticing how unbelievably good designers are getting? Now, I'm off in my toight pants and toight top to cruise the town.

Friends List: No - Review Copies: No

The List:

Skin: Loveys - Chai - Antonia (nekid) (188, 161, 30)

Hair: Artilleri - Charlotte v.1 - Brown October

Shoes: Color Scheme Products - Camel Skin Boots in Beige (33, 153, 22)

Sunglasses: miw -Soda Painted Sunglasses - Black (132, 100, 24)

Bangles: L - Turnstyle - Choco Bloo Bangle Set (232, 141, 399)
R - Cake - Flea Market Bracelet (129, 46, 24)

Top: Sand Shack Surf Co. - Diner Top in Black (92, 180, 24)

Belt: Pushbutton Industries - Soundtrack Belt (171, 108, 22)

Necklace: Earthtones - Boho Necklace - Black/Silver (77, 237, 24)

Tattoo: Aitui Tattoo - Fallen (156, 191, 27)

Theatrical Fashion - Masks and Feathers

2007-08-01T23:22:00.001Z

Mask and Feathers is a shop that can start to cater to the more eccentric fashionista. I as style rule have tried to fear nothing my inventory has it all, Drag queen lashes, Super hero outfit’s, Mari Antoinette themed hair even a Cyborg jumpsuits (what I wanted the shiny trousers!). Think Quirky costume like style is something I wanted to bring into my first blog post. This will be Half review and half and introduction to my style.

Masks and Feathers sells what you would expect from the name. Here’s a selection mixed into outfits. All the photos were taken in Intempst Nox’s Opera house.

Outfit One

This is Kind of City girl Chic meets Masked Ball. It also incorporates my love of Using men’s clothes on woman (shirt).

Gold Mask- Masks and Feather Horned mask (no bling option)
Edna KIN hair
Loveys blueberry skin (worn throughout)
Paper Couture yellow Social Tea bag
Artillerie Hanna Highwaisted skirt
FD green Eyes

Outfit Two

Bird of Paradise hat by Chapeau Tres Mignon's
Rachel hair from ETD in Chestnut
G.L.A.M metallic Jumpsuit

Trimmed Striped Gloves in White and Black (iv mixed two different cuffs together) from Masks and Feathers

Outfit Three

Mask and Feathers Obsession Mask (black)
ETD Katie hair style in White
Glamour Dress from Cammi Cooper
Paper Couture clobber Shoes

Outfit Four

ETD Couture twist dark blonde
B@R rose Decadence Coat and eye mask
Masks and Feathers Tail Feathers in Black and White
T-strap shoes in Red, Shiny Things
Cammi Cooper Leggings (snow leopard and with red lace trim)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tanglewood%20Shores/60/232/21

Kisses
Marni!

Lil Preview - Sh*t Happens

2007-07-31T13:33:00.000Z

Mastermind behind Sh*t Happens and awesome blogger Ana Boogiewoogie was lurvely enough to send a few teaser snapshots to me of one of the new outfits she has designed as part of a Japanese streetwear line. This is called Kawaii Kappuke-ki, don't say it 3 times fast, but lookit!

I haven't done any photoshoppy things to it except add my own pink border (I can't stand plain photo edges, in case you care). I'm loving this! The pure mix-and-matchiness of it all, the socks, shoes, and the different patterned layers make this a quirky number, and all the better I say. I had a quick visit to her store at Lame Designs Mall and she has already developed cute quirky style, but now I'm keen to see what more comes from Ana's vision of Japanese streetwear.

According to Ana, we'll see the whole line,which includes several more oufits, in about 2 weeks. I couldn't think to say it better, so here it is from her:

This complete outfit comes with two different skirts, bracelets for both sides, gloves, two ties, socks, shoes, white cardigan on jacket layer, top, glitch pants, hair, and even a shape! All the clothing and textures are 100% hand drawn; No photosourcing here!!!

Prices on her existing stock seem very reasonable (..cheap!), but even if it's more expensive, look at all you get included. Ana also credits this outfit as a collaboration between herself, Gaia Goodnight, Noelle Hathaway for the shape, and Kimberley Foss of Overdose for the hair pictured. Keep a look out, Ana's got more coming soon.

Marlys Steamy 'Dos

2007-07-29T05:06:00.000Z

In my first few weeks in SL, I quickly learned that hair was going to be my downfall. When I found countless stores that made every style, colour, and length I could ever want, my first reaction was to literally gush 'oooooooooohhhh' out loud to my computer, and get the tingles. Then when I found places like Marlys, I threw away all hope of keeping my lindens.

There are so many hair creators, and only a handful that match the texture, style, and colour that pleases my too fussy tastes. When I went into Marlys, I liked the clothes and wandered upstairs and found elegant, classic hair heaven.

These pieces have excellent highlights, I'm a fiend for black styles done well, and the highlights on these were superb. I didn't have to struggle to fit them either, and the styles are incredible. I know a lot of stores have updos, but these you can make into anything, period, retro, rock, go nuts. I'm not wearing the latest releases here, I just wandered in a while ago and picked some favourites from my inventory, so definitely go check out everything she has to offer, including hat hairstyles and a few slinky numbers.

Visit In-World:
Marlys at ENVY

Read Marlys blog:
Marlys Vintage Clothing & Hair

Friends List: No -- Review Copies: No

The List:

Hair: Marlys - Clockwise from top left - Eveylyn Existentialist
Zade Sophisticate in Smoke
Shazy's Congo in Black
Michelle's Mystery Man in Black

Skin: Loveys - Chai Ashlin (nekid) (188, 161, 30)

Earrings: Muse - Kailena Earrings (143, 151, 49)

Freaky - Deek

2007-07-28T08:23:00.000Z

I've been busy with a few side projects, and as this blog is purely for fun, I haven't been too strict on myself for letting it get this long since my last post, but here I am. I've got a few things going at the moment, so posts may not be every day or two, but I ain't ditched the blog yet, and any cool things I find I'll be letting you know! :)

Enough about me, a good friend of mine Marni released her first set of sunglasses yesterday and kindly dropped the set on me. And oo-ahh! Talk about quirky, these are so different and colourful! I was a bit wary of them at first, I've seen so many of the RL styles I was used to the neutral tones and similar styles a lot of them have in common, but after wearing them for a few mins I was hooked.

The shape is a bit odd, but in a great way! I haven't seen frames like these before and I have to say I feel a little more cutting edge when I wear them, they give me an artsy vibe. The colour choices are excellent too, some more neutral tones for those that prefer them, or you can go all out and get something really bright. The texturing is well done too, you get the brightness of the colours but the shading means you don't get that harsh flat colour I see too often in clothing.

Pricing makes it a lot easier to take the plunge too. 100L each or the complete set of seven for 450L. I haven't shown all the colours, but I dare you to try one of the brighter ones, and tell me you don't love 'em!

Visit In-World:
Royal Blue Main Store

Friends List: Yes - Review Copies: No (but gifts yes)

The List:

Skin: Lovey's - Chai Antonia (nekid) (189, 165, 30)

Hair: ETD - Janae in Smoke (219, 220, 27)

Top: Nylon Outfitters - Sweater Layers (143, 175, 17)

Earrings: Miriel - Bauble II Earrings in Silver (117, 202, 23)

Urban - Kooky - Cute

2007-07-22T03:48:00.000Z

If you're looking for unique accessories with a lot of originality, something to add fun to your outfit, look no further. Pushbutton Industries is chock full of strange and wonderful creations with so much character they will be feature pieces of your outfit. You just have to visit this store, there's something for pretty much every part of your body, and in the quick visit I had before I crashed, I grabbed some kooky and fantastic stuff.

I'm wearing the Moustache Ride shirt here, and I'm in love with the texture. The shading is excellent and the length is perfect. The amazing thing is when you buy this, you get all the layers, and it comes for both guys and girls. You also get this kyoot moustache, and I went a bit silly when I saw it in there. I also love the Ouija choker, I'm wearing the Talking Board in Red. The detail, like everything else I've seen at Pushbutton's store, is perfect. The texturing on the choker is fantastic, and was easily modded to fit my neck. My favourite though was the Grim Fandango belt. I'm a fan of the pc game, and it brought back happy memories, so I bought it. The colours are great, and the belt is so well made, there are also so many other styles to choose from.

Huge talent, and some of the oddest and greatest creations I've seen, this is what you'll find at Pushbutton Industries. Currently the main store is at Envy, and has just had major renovations, but you can also find some of her building skills Downtown , she's also the mastermind behind the Velvet, a great urban build made as a place to hangout and have some fun, and also features some great shops.

Visit In-world:
Pushbutton Industries - ENVY

Friends list: No - Review Copies: No

The List:

Skin: Lovey's - Chai Ashlin (188, 161, 30)

Hair: Kin - Amaunet Black (93, 229, 36)

Bracelet: Miam Miam - Her Majesty in Sterling Silver (170, 178, 30)

Pants: Savvy Lucas Pants in Slate (102, 229, 23)

2007-07-21T01:13:00.000Z

Ms B - Hair Thief??

2007-07-20T00:59:00.001Z

****UPDATE****

I have kindly been informed that MsB has a reputation for hair thievery, the "Precious" style looks exactly the same as ETD's Preppy. As a relative newcomer I had no idea that people were so blatant about stealing others' creations and selling them as their own, and will be confronting this woman about it. How does a long term resident get away with doing this to not only ETD, but also apparently Gurl 6?? Ugh, it makes me sick. If anyone has any more information please come forward, I did not have any conversations with the seller before posting, but I'll be asking some serious questions and I am appalled someone would blatantly steal and profit from it.

Preview!

2007-07-19T13:31:00.000Z

Okay so here's a quick teaser shot...Queen Couture will soon be releasing jewelry...including a crown! Here is a set of earrings worn by the queen of couture herself. Great prim detail, more coming soon!

Interview: Esmerelda Oh

2007-07-19T02:25:00.000Z

Fabulous accessories do not happen every day, and those of us who appreciate the finer prims in life also know that great designers don't happen every day. I had the pleasure of interviewing the owner of Queen Couture, an upmarket boutique showcasing beautiful bags, sunglasses, and very soon, hats. Esmerelda Oh has just opened her flagship store at the LAME designs mall, and she took the time to answer a few questions.

SA: What brought you into SL?

EO: Starting out in The Sims Online as the notorous "Abusive Granny" allowed me to meet many people whom I have made a connection with. After The Sims Online got old and boring, me and my entourage made the transition to Second Life. I was appalled at the people, the buildings, and the lag that consumed everything. I spent many a day protesting sloppy building and unattractive things, then left. Recently, I have made my comeback and reconnected with a few lost friends and I am now much more pleased.

SA: How long were you in SL before you realised you wanted to create?

EO: I can remember in my Second Life infancy how much I wanted to create things and bring beauty to the players. It was only recently that I began working with objects and really making the wheels of design turn. I owe it to my friend, Kimbery Casanova, who inspired me and kept me from giving up.

SA: What was the hardest part of starting your own business?

EO: The hardest part would be finding and paying for the perfect location to display your designs. At the moment I am a small boutique located in the famed "Lame Designs Mall". I feel that it is truly the perfect place to start a name for myself, and I have made great alliances with many great designers there. Finding the funds for starting your business is very challenging, so location is key.

SA: Do you have a design philosophy?

EO: Discover yourself, and fashion will discover you.

SA: Do you seek out inspiration or let it find you?

EO: Inspiration is all around us, we must meet it half way.

SA: Who/what inspires you?

EO:I get inspiration from all things in History. I believe that in order to move on you must take parts of past events and incorporate them in your personalized designs.

SA: Who are your favourite SL designers?

EO: My all time favorite designs are The sisters of Paper Couture. I see a lot of myself in them, and find myself identifying with their designs and lifestyle.

SA: What do you find the most tedious about SL fashion/accessory designing?

EO: I am a perfectionist. I will not rest until they designs are flawless and no prim is out of place. The lines must line up, color must be perfect. I find creating or finding texture to be by far the most difficult and tedious part of design.

SA: What is your favourite item in the store right now?

EO: Designs, like children, should never be favored above another. A good designer would not have a favorite because each peice should hold its own place in his or her heart. I do not release an item until I am satisfied completely with it, therefore all of my designs are equally perfect to me.

SA: What will you be releasing in the upcoming weeks?

EO: In the upcoming weeks, expect to see hats and jewelry. I have not yet perfected the art of clothing, so I ask of all my fans to join the Mailing Group I have created so you will not miss important dates or announcements.

SA: What else do you enjoy about SL besides creating?

EO: Shopping and interaction with others.

SA: Anything you would like your customers to know?

EO: I hope that my designs will inspire others as much as they have inspired me.

Esmerelda's creations are indeed of similar quality as Paper Couture, the simple elegance and sophisticated designs make her bags and clutches high fashion must-haves. While she is still filling her store, some of the first releases I had the opportunity to snap up I have shown here.

These items are already favourites of mine, the oversized sunglasses I can't take off. As Esmerelda stated, she has a mailing list for new releases and her store at LAME designs mall is open. I'm looking forward to her upcoming hat creations and what comes in the future from Queen Couture.

Visit In-world:
Queen Couture

Truly Royal

2007-07-16T23:30:00.000Z

Marni Grut has, in the small space of two months, transformed from a fresh name no-one knew to a creative force that I think will become one of the most acclaimed. Royal Blue is a truly original label in that each piece you can see experimentation and development, she is always doing something to push herself and her clothing shows she is not following the well-travelled road most designers take when starting out, as you won't find tees and basic everyday outifts here. Marni's risk-taking in her style means she offers ensembles that you will not find anywhere else, and I have the pleasure of showing you some of her collection.

This dress, to me, represents Royal Blue from the beginning. The print gives it an English sense, and the paint splatters throw in a bit of edge. This was the first dress Marni released and it shows how she had already mastered the system skirt, using the print to distract your eye from the usually obvious waistline. The frills shirt I have on underneath was something I was lucky enough to see while she was still experimenting, and that collar just blew me away. I hadn't seen anything like it yet, and it was obvious this girl wasn't starting small.

Royal Blue is couture in it's purest form. The Anti Reactionary Dress on the left shows how risk-taking goes right. It would be so easy to turn this outfit into a mess, but Marni's created a piece of art. The sleeves have subtle detailing and use flexi to their advantage, softening up the sharp angles. The puff skirt is dramatic but not silly, and the whole outfit is pulled together to create more a piece of art than a dress. And the Peacock dress, using a simple series of cuts around the chest, can change a simple dress into a design. Just excuse the whiteness under the fishnet petticoat, that's my photography to blame.

I am already a fan of Marni's work, and while she is just starting out and developing her techniques, she has developed a classy and unique place for herself. Royal Blue's new main store has just opened in the LAME designs mall among other well-known and talented designers, where I'm sure her constantly growing collection will impress.

Visit the stores in-world:
Royal Blue Main Store

Friends List: Yes Review Copies: All except Tartan Dress

The List

Hair: Photo 1 Random - Faye - Chocolate Brown
Photo 2 Marlys - Evelyn Exitentialist Black (40, 97, 652)
Marlys - Michelles Mystery Man (155, 88, 22)

Skin: Celestial Studios - Vogue Amber Mid-Red (36, 219, 26)

Eyewear: Queen Couture - Oversized Sunglasses (196, 236, 23)

Bracelet: Miam Miam - Her Majesty Bracelet in Sterling Silver (170, 178, 30)

Well-crafted Casual

2007-07-13T23:39:00.000Z

I had the fortune to meet Kat Palmer at the MO Islands Fashion show a little while ago, and besides being a genuinely nice person, she is also a dedicated designer, locking herself away to learn and create her mix and match lines. She has a wide array of styles and is building up her collection with her latest set for her label Immortelle, which I have the pleasure to preview for you.

Gaia is exactly what the name implies. Earthy and womanly. The fabric on the skirt looks like natural fibres, very comfy looking as well as being easy to fit. The length is perfect, it just grazes the knee and looks very classy. The jacket is very well made, flattering the shape and with a drawn bow. The shirt is gorgeous on it's own, but also works very well put together. All three are available in a wide range of colours, the jacket and skirt are ecru, the shirt is a rust colour. You can purchase a fatpack with every colour, or buy to your tastes.

The Hibiscus halter I'm wearing here is a fantastic example of Kat's style. Simple, but can be worn with practically anything for any time of day. It also comes in a few colour choices, and the top comes in the shirt layer, with a jacket layer extension piece which is perfect for me, I'm a big fan of extended tops. The folds on the Hibiscus are also noteworthy, because they're so good. It's balanced so well, a few folds in the right places, and look so realistic. These jeans are available in light, dark, and a darker wash, and look very realistic as well as having a good, low waist. As part of a trade I also scored the Gitana top, which features prim sleeves (that are already perfectly fitted), and a mini corset waist. This feature is unique to me, I've only seen full corsets, and I love that she's messed with it a little and made it something both feminine and a little sexy. My other purchase was the Black and White Bamboo top, sexy casual elegance you can dress up or just pair with jeans, another classic example of Kat's talents at creating styles that become staples in your wardrobe.

Kat is currently working on a new, larger store to fit her future lines. She is a relatively new designer but shows talent in her creativity and design skills to add feminine flair to staple pieces.

Visit In-world:
Immortelle Main - Dashton

See her blog:
Immortelle

Friends List: Yes - Review Copies: Gaia Set, Gitana (gift)

The List:

Hair: ETD - Naomi in Ash (212, 216, 26)

Skin: Canimal - Innocence Light Aerial 02 (198, 68, 26)

Shoes: Sand Shack Surf Co. - Delia Flats in Black (115, 142, 23)

Bangles: Turnstyle - Choco Bloo Bangles Set (232, 141, 398)

Clothes: all Immortelle

Last Call Renovation Sale

2007-07-12T23:03:00.001Z

Starting soon, the ad speaks for itself...

Always highest quality design, fly over and grab some bargains :D

Natural Tones

2007-07-12T12:00:00.000Z

My experience with jewelry is limited, and very much like RL, I haven't got a huge collection that I can mix and match every day. Until today. I was motivated to find some pretty things and came across Earthtones at the Promenade. I had a quick look and decided to check the main store for the complete range.

I'm not big on the coloured stones, I prefer subtle silver jewelry usually, but when I saw the Boho sets I was in awe. Every piece has beautifully done textures, but what instantly grabs me are the unusual shapes and originality in design which make these wooden sets flawless. The Boho Gypsy Necklace I'm wearing here is my instant favourite, the off center loops and random placement of wicker and wood are eclectic and unusual, and the tones are simultaneously dusky but bright, and so completing any outfit day or night. On my wrist is the Giraffe Bangle (stacked), from the Animal Fever collection. In each bangle set you get a stacked in the print, a few stacked thin bangles (shown below), and a single thin bangle and I love that you get extras from the display shown. The Solitaire ring is a cute simple design offered with a colour-changeable crystal.

I couldn't help myself, I also had to buy these Figured Wood Earrings which are also from the Boho collection. They look so earthy, as if shaped from clay in an exotic far away place, like Morocco. The necklace is another piece in the collection I had to have, it has a bit of a harder edge than the rest and goes great with a more urban look. Both the necklaces were easy to fit, after they appeared a little in my chest to start I got them to align perfectly in a minute. Although this may be a case of deformity on my part, I really am an amateur at tuning my shape but I'm working on it.

Lucas Lameth seems to be pretty well known for his jewelry talents, and I can see why. He has mastered small prims and if he ever gives classes on texturing I'm right there. I was also really impressed with the main store at Bushido Bay, it's one of the best designed I've seen. Of extra note is that most sets are also sold in their separate pieces for your choice of co-ordination.

Visit In-world:
Earthtones Main Store

Earthtones blog:
Earthtones

Friends List: No Review Copies: No
The List

Jewelry: All Earthtones

Skin: Loveys Chai - Blueberry (nekid) (187, 161, 30)

Hair: Naughty - Paris II - Warm Sand (80, 168, 24)

Top: Refuge - Adoration top (55, 67, 24)

Designers, get your creativity on!

2007-07-11T00:48:00.001Z

Tanya Book of SL Fashion Notes is putting together a fashion directory. I placed an ad in the previous edition, and these books are great, you just wear one and you can browse through picture advertisements for a ton of great designers. It's 1000 pages, and Tanya is currently taking ad submissions from designers for a couple of weeks still. This is a great opportunity for newer designers to get their names out there and for established labels to take some risks and create some special ad pieces.

If you'd like to be involved, contact Tanya through her blog (linked on the right), or contact her in-world. There single and double page spaces available, and you're only limited by your imagination. Get to it!

Beachwear with couture talents

2007-07-10T23:00:00.000Z

One of the first landmarks I made sure I kept was Sand Shack Surf Co. Beachwear was something that a lot of people did, but Emma Gilmour has made it a style all of her own. I have consistently returned to her stores and am always amazed at the new levels she reaches with every release. I've covered here some of my favourites from the store as well as some brand new items.

The polkadot is a hard pattern to master, and Emma's done it with Dotalicious Halter, seen here in Chocolate. Her jeans are an excellent fit, an and can be modified easily while keeping the look intact. Her talent at handdrawing these jeans is obvious, the seams are perfect, and like everything I've seen so far, the texturing is an asset to the clothing. I'm not sure why there is no extra beltline detailing, but the low waist is fantastic and goes perfectly with long tanks or a bare midriff. Her hair talents have been growing, and the first hair I saw was Lola, a loose ponytail secured by pins that really stays true to her beachwear theme, I bought three colours and love them all. The texture is excellent and I didn't have to fuss around with fitting it to my head, it's pretty much perfect.

While I'm also not an obsessive sunglass wearer, these Splash shades were too fantastic and too cheap to pass by. At 95L I almost feel guilty. Almost. I have these in the Chocolate shown and blue. If you look on the side of the frames you can see her logo, and included in the set are a pair that rest on top of your head...cute! The Shoulder top is a new item, seen here in Storm. The off the shoulder style keeps it casual, I'm wearing the Taggy Top in white underneath. My favourite so far, the Funky Fringe jacket, is a little more dressed up but keeps that wearability to make it a staple item. It shows off the best features of this designer in that you can mix and match with other items to make wholly different outfits. The detailing on this jacket is great, particularly the actualy fringing on the collar which is subtle but adds to the originality. I'm wearing the jacket in lime here, but I couldn't stay away from the reds as well. Finally, the shoes! Flats aren't done too much, and there are only a few that do them well. These are done well. Available in solid colours, or pay a little extra for the patterned styles, the Delia flats look like they took a lot of painstaking hours to create, but also look so comfy! Boardwalk are the ones I'm wearing, and the textures on these give them that casual natural fibre look.

Visit Emma's Main Store in-world here:
Shopping Islands (115, 142, 23)
(I'm still working on slurls, give me time!)

Or see her blog here:
Everything Beachy

Review Copies: No Friends List: No

The List

Earrings: Canimal - Natural Earrings (198, 68, 26)

Bangles: turnstyle Choco-Bloo Bangle Set (232, 141, 398)

Belt: Last Call Fascienne Belt (no longer available) (116, 79, 22)

Skin: Loveys Chai Vanilla (nekid) (187, 161, 30)

Everything else: Sand Shack Surf Co.

In the Beginning..

2007-07-10T11:03:00.000Z

With all the great fashion popping up all over SL, I decided to keep my record of shopping events so that the fabulous designers creating these pieces are recognized and appreciated. I have been in SL since April 2007, so I'm a total bebe, and while online communities were foreign to me before, I've taken to this crazy SL like a freakin fish. I've been learning a lot, so while this blog is up for all to see, I have not had professional experience in reviewing, and have based the posts on this blog on my sole opinion.

I have been reading all the fashion blogs from the very beginning, loving every minute, and with the dramas of review policies and just plain rumours that flare up every once in a while, I'd like to state my guidelines and where I stand on a few points. Just to cover my ass.

Statement of Intention

1. With every review the reader will be notified whether the item(s) are from friends, are review copies, what they are and where they came from. Also I will include slurls for user- friendliness!

2. I do not and will not ever ask/request for a free sample/review copy. I wanna blog it, I will buy it. I do accept review folders, but never at my solicitation, and I do reserve the right not to blog something that is sent.

3. I will communicate openly with designers about reviews/anything, you will be notified when I have received a folder, and when you have been blogged. I will not say for sure I will choose not to blog something, but I will let you know if I decline to blog your item(s). If you don't get a response in a timely manner, please ask for an update, I'm a humble creature and will kick myself for making you wait.

4. I am a designer myself, and will never blog about my own stuff. That's just egomaniacal and looks dumb. I have my store listed in links but will never use this site to promote my own business.

5. I will be honest. While I may decline to blog if I believe the item is that bad, if I notice basic design flaws, or anything that doesn't match up to what you see/believe, I will make it known. But please don't get me wrong, I will not scream from the highest hill purely negative drivel to further my own self-importance. I know how great it is to get a good review, I also know there are people out there looking to blog-bash and patronize others. That just ain't me. I'm still learning photoshop! There are just picky people out there, and I'm one of 'em. :D

6. I am always approachable and responsible for my opinions. It does not give me free licence to spin all kinds of bullshit, and if you read something you feel the need to call me on, do it! Leave a comment (although please make it constructive, I am always trying to improve), see me in-world, I'm more than happy to discuss any issue!

Okay, enough preaching, on with the fun stuff! Coming up soon will be the first of hopefully many reviews, stay tuned.

Eyva :)

Style Advisory

Were back Sorta :)

Destinations: A Time For Quiet Reflection

Blogday Updates

Arts - Shoshana Epsilon

EDITORIAL: Sale at CRAP

Key Pieces

[Review] Detour Skins

Rosemar- OH! what a new skin talent!

<3 cupcakes and Popfuzz Skins!

Totaly Self Indulgent! The shop Formaly known as TAP

Japanesse Kitch

BBBM- an ironic name?

Voting time people!

Heros vs Villans

Quailty Control

Happy Rezday Marni!

80's Disco Done Right

Dress for any Occasion

Birthday Dress

Avant Garde Prep School

Nuff Vs Another shop

Hypothetical

Do Clothes have Soul?

Happy New Year

It was the Coat

Whore for the Holidays

Merry Christmas

Dude Looks like a Lady prt 1

Sympathys and Best Wishes

Solid Gold on a Saturday Night

Sabbatical

Elegance

Time Travel to to the fashionable and beyond.

Poll: Designing from RL Creation

New CRAP

And excuse to Take arty photos

Old Gravy Review!

Anorexia in a world without food

Anorexia in a world without food

SHOCK HORROR

Bombshell

Peek In The Closet

Your votes

Sculptie Goodness

Trash Off!

There once was a guitarist from Istanbul……

Ivalde like cocaine

Day 3

I pleadge alegence to my handbag.....

Haute Couture? STOP USING THE WORD

Peek In The Closet

Peek In The Closet

Feeding the Nudity

Throw Together - Casual Saturday

*RED ALERT*

The Fashionista - a Creature to be ware of

Elegance in SL

Votes Are In

Syndicate(d)

PopFuzz Corsets 3 styles

Voting Update

It's Civil War!

Peek In The Closet

Theatrical Fashion - Masks and Feathers

Lil Preview - Sh*t Happens

Marlys Steamy 'Dos

Freaky - Deek

Urban - Kooky - Cute

Ms B - Hair Thief??

Preview!

Interview: Esmerelda Oh

Truly Royal

Well-crafted Casual

Last Call Renovation Sale

Natural Tones

Designers, get your creativity on!

Beachwear with couture talents

In the Beginning..

RED ALERT