Saturday, September 30, 2006

Meow! I've gone neko!

Ok, you know how it is. Everyone reads PXP Theres peple posting all the time, and well there sure seems to be a lot of neko ears. It seems like everyfashionista has got to have her a pair.

But I've been avoiding the cat-girl phenomenon, as much as I can. Sure they're cute in that neko way, but No Mithra character when I played Final Fantaxy XI, no cat-girl anime, and no neko ears. Until now. I couldn't resist. All the cute neko ears were brainwashing me. "Don't you want to have cute neko ears like everyone else? C'mon it's just a pair of ears, you know you want them. C'mon" So eventually: "zOMG I gotta have some neko ears like Willow's"

They're from Boneflower in Temenos, the striped ones, they come in a set of several colors with matching tails for 300L. And they're cute.

As you can see I've also changed my eyes. The Perfect Peepers #66 would often show through my eyelids and under eye area because they fit over the regular eyes and I couldn't figure out how to fix that. It was annoying to see. So I got me a pair of the transparent peepers that one can use over any eye color you already have. The current ones are from Little Rebel, not as intense of a green and they don't glow in the dark but they're close enough. I'm also wearing the Lynnix prim eyelashes in Thick and Long.






Skin: Tete a Pied Sophisticate 4, Shape: OPIUM, Hair: Maaliyah from ETD in Mahogany

Meow!

Seen in World: Yes
Review copy: No
Friend List: No

Friday, September 29, 2006

Luminosity: Sahara West

Sol Columbia of Luminosity has released a new "classic safari" style ensemble called Sahara West. Here's the ad.




as you can see there is a lot of flexibility in how it can be worn and a lot of mix n' match possiblities. Especially that jacket, that beautiful jacket, that oh so lovely jacket. The skirt is short and prim, which is not my favorite style, but in khaki it "works". In part because "safari style" khaki skirts tend to be short. The khaki shorts would work well too. The trousers have that sheen some khaki pants do, and are well received in my wardrobe. The vest and tintable gauze shirt are on two layers for more options in wearing them. And there's socks! Here is a collage of some looks:




Far left I'm wearing the jacket with the brown bohemian skirt in Nyte N' Day's new Sephule collection. Very "I'm your still life painting instructor, Ms. Creeggan. Make your oranges, happy oranges."

The second I'm wearing the prim khaki skirt.Very "I am the "It Girl" of Misteria Lane. I've still got it going on. Hey Pool boy!"

The third is paired with a pair of gray trousers from Tart. "I'll drop these contracts and documentation off at Fed Ex over lunch."

The fourth is paired with the tintable gauze shirt and the khaki trousers. "Jennifer! Jason! Get into the minivan right now! The other moms on Misteria Lane ask me how I keep my figure, and I tell them that I get it from wrangling you two all day long. Scoot!"

I could also imagine wearing various pieces of Sahara West on a virtual safari.


In all images I'm wearing a Celebrity Moonbeam skin from Adam N Eve, shape from OPIUM, Maaliyah hair in Mahogany from ETD, Danielle bag in brown from eTC, and Lollies from Shiny Things. The background behind my avatar collage is an actual image of the Sahara Desert from Wikipedia.

Seen in World: Yes
Review Copy: Yes
Friend List: No

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

An angel I am.

As part of a limited series, Alaska Metropolitan of OPIUM Addictive has released three costumes for Hallween.But they remind me more of special ocassion lingerie more than costumes, they're too pretty, wear them without the attachments and you have pretty/sexy lingerie for "private moments"

I bought the Angel costume because I'm a goody two shoes, and the wings reminded me of the wings used in some Victoria's Secret lingerie layouts in the catalog. I'm wearing Skin 2.0 from OPIUM in Smoke, Lynnix prim lashes in thick and long, ETD Bedded Attitude hair in Mahogany and Boardwalk color change heels.

For some reason when I saw this image I kept thinking, "Fierce!" I think I've watched a bit too much America's Next Top Model. :-)




The Halo on the Angel cotume has bling, which I managed to capture.




And two classic pinup style images.Very lingerie model-y






Since I don't own land, I sometimes go to a sandbox to do a "photo shoot" with the Picture Perfect Modeling studio. While taking the shots I had an audeince and an interested person asked me what I was doing. I explained the blogging fashionista bit. When I finished it seemed a bit funny to be sitting in a sandbox in very sheer/skimpy/sexy lingerie so I changed outfits Into the black v'neck top and jeans from OPIUM. After I had changed my observer commented that he liked the "new" look too.




Seen in World: Yes
Review Copy: No
Friends List: Yes

Tete a Pied: Heiress Bag and shapes

I had known that Roslin and CJ were going to enter the accessories business and was eagerly awaiting their bag. And wow, what a bag it is! The Heiress is a simple and classy pebbled leather bag with a color change script and hold animation. How much for this marvel? 200L

This thing begs to be admired and worshiped up close. Just look at the stitching, and the Tete a Pied logo on the hardware.





While in the store telling Roslin how much I liked the bag, I saw a new display poster for shapes.

"Shapes? Those are new"

"Not really."

they come in four basic styles: Enigma, Sophisticate, Seductive and Ingenue. Being aa big fan of the Sophisticate pack of Tete Deux I bought the sophisticate (for 300L) In the pack there are two shapes, one regular, one for dresses (with smaller hips/butt). Plus a special hair base with a brow shape that fits the theme of the package.

Here's the two shapes, regular on the left, the one for dresses on the right. I'm wearing the cowl necked dress from Little Rebel, Jewelry from OPIUM Everyday, Maaliyah hair from ETD, Lady Slinghacks from Shiny Things, Heiress bag from Tete a Pied, and the Tete Deux Sophisticate 1 skin.





Here's a bald comparison of the facial shapes. My usual OPIUM shape, TaP skin and ETD hair base on the left, TaP shape, skin and hair base on the right, The TaP Sophisticate shape makes me look a bit older, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do lose those full and luscious "Scarlet Johannsen" lips and big eyes. Notice the changes in brow shape. I'm NEVER taking off the TaP hair base, never never never, you can't make me.





Here's a comparison with my hair.TaP shape, TaP skin and TaP hair base on the left, OPIUM shape, TaP skin and TaP hair base on the right. See, I told you, I'm never taking that hair base off.




Also available at Tete a Pied are shapes by Haver Cole which say they are "compatible"
with TaP skins, which in plain language means they probably look good together.

Seen in world: Yes
Review copies: I was given an Heiress bag. Shapes, no.
Friend list: Yes

Image editing fun

I'm not an expert with image editing programs as everyone who reads this blog can see. I only first used one in 2003 I think. I can crop, I can scale, I can add text and I can fix red eye and thats pretty much it.

Alaska Metropolitan of OPIUM Everyday did a blog post with a basic howto on editing ones SL fashion screenshots. Her tutorial uses Photoshop but the techniques were quite applicable to the image editor I use, the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program).

I was able to take an image of my avatar, select just my avatar out of it and add it to a new bacground created with the paint can, a dollop of a lighter color and gaussian blur.




I had always wondered how people were able to make collages and stuff and select just the bits they wanted and now I know

"And knowing is half the battle"

Monday, September 25, 2006

Slashdot thread on SL fashion

There's a story and thread on Slashdot on SL fashion inspired by the WSJ article.

Sorry, I didn't see the comments.

Blogger is supposed to e-mail me when someone comments so I can moderate, but it didn't. and I didn't check the dashboard comments section, thinking blogger was smart enough to e-mail. Sorry about that.

I'll double check from now on.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Daywear and careerwear from LIttle Rebel

Little Rebel was recommended to me, byt I can't remember who did it.

Anyway Little Rebel has lots of pretty cocktail dresses, daywear, careerwear, separates and much much more. I picked up a nice suit and some career appropriate day dresses there recently


The suit has leather trim which gives it a bit of panache.





The cowl neck dress comes in other "heathery" colors, but I like this dark grey/black one.I needs ome classic dressy boots for this one and I can't find any. I'm probably going to have to go custom. I want slender high heel, no straps, no metal, no decoration, just simple and classy, like these Nine West "Botany" boots at Zappos.




Simple but pretty shirtdress




I was wearing a TaP2 Sophisticate skin and Lady pumps from Shiny Things. I can't remember the hair but it's either ETD Graceful or ETD Refined

Seen in World: Yes
Review copies: No
Friends list: No

Mix n Match

Sol Columbia of Luminosity recently released a rather nice shirt and sweater combo as aprt of a cpmplete outfit, Wayfarer I didn't buy it right away because I didn't like the skirt, it's too short. I don't mind short, but not that short, I'm picky about my skirt lengths. (in RL too)

Choice Sliter of Second Style made this post about mixing, matching and making your own personal statement. So I went ahead and bought it to try out some mixing and matching, that I don't do very much of in SL. I bought the pants too, because I though I have some nice trousers in black and pinstripes, I didn't have any gray, I think. Apart from the ones with the Pixel Dolls Linen Suit. :-)


This one is my favorite image of the ones I took The oxford shirt from Wayfarer, the sweater and my favorite SL jeans, from OPIUM Everyday. The shoes I just got today as part of a thank you package from Starley Thereian for applying to beta her next skin release. I didn't make the cut, but I got a VERY nice thank you folder, it had those shoes and eyes, lots of eyes. (I need to get me the clear Perfect Peeper contacts so I can use eyes, I love the Perfect Peeper capabilities)

Anyway it looks very nice in a RL sort of way.




This one uses the Wayfarer shirt and sweater with a black leather freebie skirt. Not too bad, but I wish the skirt was longer. I think I'd like this slightly better if I had some of the Shiny Things "Lollies". It's a conspiracy to take my money. :-)




In this one I'm wearing a jacket from Luxe, it comes in that green shown and a pretty wine. I paired with with the "Wayfarer shirt, skirt and stockings. Not bad, but I'd rather not be able to see my stocking tops.




In the next image I'm wearing the Luxe jacket, Wayfarer shirt and a tintable skirt from OPIUM Everyday. Not bad, not bad. The lace hem is a little bit not right but not bad.




I like this one a lot too, even though it shows tummy. It's the Luxe jacket, the skirt and a pair of gray trousers from T..a..R..t. The shoes are the unfussy urban ones from eTC.




In the final image, I"m wearing the Wayfarer shirt and sweater with a skirt from the Eventide set from SilentSparrow. I think the stripe on the skirt clashes with the sweater too much, but again, not bad. I ought to try the Eventide jacket with the gray trousers and jeans.




In all photos the hair is Maaliyah in Mahogany from ETD, the skin is a Hybrid II in Spectral, makeup #17 from Nevermore, the glasses are the Chiq scripted glasses from Frameworks, the earrings are the Silver Diva Earrings from OPIUM Everydaym, the bag is the new release by Ingrid INgersoll of eTC, Danielle, the eyes are Perfect Peepers #66 by NYTERAVE

In some of the pictures the poses from the purse that comes with City Girls Spring Flowers dresses are on. I transfered them in a Wet IKON AO device.I also use a Be Happy attachement.

Seen in World: Yes
Review copies: No
Friends list: Alaska Metropolitan of OPIUM is.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Farewell, Dazzle

Dazzle is having a going out of business sale. :-(

But, Ginny is not leaving SL, she's just recharging her creative juices to start a new line and new build and new stuff. :-)

Back to the sale.... it's like a madhouse, like I've heard the $99 David's Bridal sale is, or a big sale at Filene's Basement. Why the madness? everything is 100$L

That's right, one hundred lindens, but if you're reading this blog you know that already and have probably bough the entire inventory.:-)

Normally I didn't shop much at Dazzle, though I did love to stop by and look around at all the pretty. I had no need for lots of formal gowns or cocktail dreses because there aren't many places I'd wear them to. It kind of felt sort of silly. (I have the same feelings in RL regarding purchasing makeup and pretty things because I don't wear them that often, though I want to)

But at 100$L it felt "okay" to buy them, and maybe I'll just wear them around the grid. :-)

Although before the sale, I didn't own much Dazzle-wear, one of my favorite dresses is from there. The Marissa wrap dress, simple,and pretty.








When I took these screenshots I was wearing these stockings from the Liquid Velvet Studios Executive Skirt Set with the dress. To quote the mighty Sabrina Doolittle: They should be taken home and eaten for dessert.




One of the things I picked up during the sale was the Nana set which I first saw in another post on Linden Lifestyles Just some great low cut tops with some great trousers and a great chain belt.:-)






There is one thing I expected to see at the sale but didn't and that is the Audrey dress. I might have missed it, but I don't think it's out there in the sale.

Neither is "Sans", of course, but one can dream. :-)

The Dazzle sale lasts to the end of the month so there's still time to get in there. It's crowded, yes but keep trying and you'll get im.

I wish Ginny much sucess on her future venture.


Seen in World: yes
Review copies: No
Friend list: No

Oh no, it's faux Sabrina Doolittle again!

One of my rules is: If it looks good on Sabrina Doolittle, it' will probably look good on me
She's also got more fashion sense in her little finger than I have in my whole body.

So I went to check out Ciera Bergman's Vitamin Ci shop, which I had never visited, to find "Petal", because I thought it was nice looking. I found it in the maternity section. But non-preggers avatar moi sure looks good in it. I'm wearing X'clusive's Classical hair in Ruby, TaP2 skin, and that bag is the new Danielle release from eTC, the shoes are mules from Lassitude and Ennui.





That top really looks amazing close up, the way it wrinkles and folds. Love it.

Seen in world: yes
Review copy: no
Ciera on friends list: no

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

OPIUM goodness....again!

I've been meaning to do this post for a couple of weeks. I put it off and then diecided to add more to it.

Firstly, there's a new cami/tank, which is tintable, AND covers my belly button.AND shows off just enough cleavage but not too much, AND the the green/blue version looks good with my favorite hair colors AND it's cheap.AND it's assymetrical. I couldn't lose




And I'm wearing the new Skin 2.0 in Smoke.I think it gives me a sort of "midnight city" look.






As I discovered, glossy lips in Skin 2.0 looks much better on me than matte, on Alaska herself it's the other way around. People seem to love this eyemakeup so much that Alaska is releasing more lipcolors with these eyes. Yay!


We were talking, Alaska and I, and she made a joke about some of those silly contests clubs have, like "best naked with wings." And I was wondering if I had picked up any wings in any of those newbie boxes. Sure enough I had. I put them on and she said, "It's Aimee Weber's evil twin"

Now I've never met her, but she was one of the first people Alaska spoke with upon joining SL. I googled Aimee and found out she had black hair and glasses so...I found some Panache hair in black and my glasses..




Alaska said, "Now you look even more like Aimee"


Alaska also came out with this new eyelet top, it comes in black and tintable and has a sheer prim overlay. It's very cute and shows just enough cleavage but not too much, and the bottom part has just enough sheerness but not too much.





Monday, September 18, 2006

Avatars and image.

There have been several articles and blog posts recently about "game" avatars and image

On Second Life Arts & Total Entertainment Slatenight: Fantasies of Femininity


http://www.slatenight.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82&Itemid=40".Avatars, Power and the Ethics of Freedom in Second Life


Online Identities

Blog post on Terra Nova


My Other Self is an Ass Kicking Supermodel


Blog post on Second Style, making reference to the Slatenight articles


The uneasy tension of being Barbie


Making reference to the Terra Nova blog post, My other self



And now for my commentary:


I'm transgendered, some might call me a pre-anything transsexual, some might call me a crossdresser, but I always use transgendered.

I have two regular usernames I use, habit I adopted back in the days when I called myself a crossdresser. I had one (CronoCloud) that I used for general stuff and geeky stuff and another (VeronicaMoonlit visit my little webpage I set up to replace my old tripod site) I used just for transgender related things. I joined SL to take part in a vodcast related chat. To the vodcast fans, I'm CronoCloud. So that's the name I used when I joined and I chose a male avatar so as not to out myself.

And then I found out about the fashion stuff. And as I said in previous blog posts, once I found out about that, I wanted a pretty avatar too. One that felt "right" on that was really "me"
So I changed to a female avatar, and that's what I've been using ever since. I also decided to go ahead an announce my transgenderedness in my avatar's profile. It's right in the first line.

I try to convey a certain tone in my avatar's look, classy, sophisticated and appropriately sexy.I guess you might call my avatar a "lady". That's how I envision her, and I guess thats kind of what I want to be, even though it's not likely to happen in RL due to family and financial issues. Most of the things my avatar has worn, I would wear in RL, if I had her perfect figure of course. I often wear a similar haircolor, browns with a touch of red. My eyes are dark brown instead of that green. My avatar sometimes wears glasses because I do in RL. She's me, if I was a supermodel. :-)

I don't go for "hoochie clothes", I tend to wear business wear and simple dresses:


linen suit from Pixel Dolls:




Houndstooth suit from OPIUM with a new briefcase from Odds & Ends




,p>
And probably the most drop dead sexy dress in my inventory, Taliah Talamscas Schneewitchen. Afriend convinced me to buy it.




Second Life is special to me, it appeals to my fashionista nature and to my transgendered nature.

I have read Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth" so I do understand the social-cultural implications of what I have my avatar wear. But in the end, I guess it comes down to, deep inside I want to be pretty. and since that's not going to happen in RL even if I was to transition, it gets to happen in SL And it's kind of like those times whn I was young, that I was able to play with my sister's Barbies without anyone else knowing.

I might add more to this post as I think of it, I'll link back to it if that happens.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Hitting head against the wall.

Sometimes the little frustrations of Second Life shopping can be so annoying:

There's this store, that's closed for remodeling. That's right closed, don't ask me why they didn't just stay open during the remodeling. There's folks out there who like to watch that sort of thing for fun and edification. Heck they could take advantage of that with mini-events or something.

This store may be not open for weeks. yes that's right weeks. This isn't some little business, this one is a biggy. They're giving free money to their competitors!

Don't ask me why, if they didn't want to remain open during the remodeling like most RL stores do, set up a temporary store with a selection of their most popular items.

Sigh I really love this store otherwise, it's well organized, fast loading and an enjoyable place to shop, but apparently the owner is not so good at marketing.


Theres another store I just visted that sells items that usually expected to have demos. This store has none. If you want to see the items in question you're supposed to IM somebody. (by the way one of the names in the IM list is not listed correctly) Apparently this designer doesn't think about what happens if those people are offline. Just put demos up they are NOT optional, anything else is disrespecting your customers. And what sucks is that otherwise this store is a pretty good shopping experience.


Theres two other stores I visited recently, that totally blow chunks in build design and ad design. Garish, disorganized badly designed builds where you can't find items you knwo they have. And the ads, ugly, hard to read, slow to load, don't give the shopper the nformation they need.

Sigh

(Hits head against wall a few more times)

All ad designers need to read this

Monday, September 11, 2006

Second Style said it best

There's a post on the Second Style blog that pretty much states my position on recent matters

Direct link to the post.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Customers and Drama.

Some readers may know about the drama that has taken place in the SL fashion community. Alaska Metropolitan has a related blog post. It's not about the drama per se, but it says something I think is important.

Respect your customers.

It's pretty obvious to me that some SL content creators don't, sometimes it's little things, sometimes it's big thing. Sometimes it might even be something as simple as how easy it is to find what you're looking for in the content creator's store.

Sometimes I think the smaller designers are better at customer service because theire sales are so much lower, they have to be responsive. A single lost sale is a bigger chunk of their proceeds than some super huge "everybody buys from them" store.

The designers that I hype up here have some things in common and one of them tends to be good customer service.

For example, Tete a Pied sells skins, they have demos like everyone else does, but when you get the demo, it has a demo of EVERY skin in the shade you chose. That's right every makeup. There's no trying on a single demo of a sinlge makeup like some other places, there's no guessing, you can see what each and every makeup looks like on you. And I as a customer appreciated that...a LOT. Tete a Pied does custom work for a reasonable fee too. Want red brows, no problem, want freckles, yes indeed. The store is a very pleasant place to shop too, bright cheery. I can't say enough good things about Tete a Pied, that makes me a very satisfied customer.

And those changes in the appearanceTete Deux are there because of customer feedback. Roslin and CJ listened to their customers. Let me repeat that important thing, they listened.

Or take OPIUM, I love OPIUM Everyday. Do you know why? It's quality, reasonably priced clothing that looks "nice". It's hand drawn but it looks "real" And much of it comes with tintable versions alongside the standard colors.

I saw a top in the store once, looked at it, liked it but would have preferred a different color. Then I noticed that it was tintable! That top went smack dab in my inventory, so did the skirts, and the track suit. That's thinking of the customer and their needs and wants. Have you seen the new tank/cami? It covers the belly button! It's assymetrical! It shows just enough cleavage but not too much! It's sitting in my inventory! In other words it looks "nice" and I ought to blog about it.

Alaska does Skin too. Reasonably priced quality skin. Skin that she will customize for a reasonable fee, want extra eyeliner, done. different lippie, done. With a store that is nicely organized and pleasant to shop in. Look at those displays, look at her ads in general.

And both OPIUM SKIN 2.0 and Tete a Pied (along with HoseQueen of Panache) have done something that most of the other skin makers haven't done. Quality newbie skin. Quality CHEAP/FREE newbie skin. We all know that Skin is one of the problems of the default avatar appearance and they've done something about it. Think of all those newbies out there who appreciate what those three skin makers have done. It's not only good PR it's also just simply a nice thing to do.

Or take the Fiendish 3, they've released a nice top recently called Alta, you can buy individual ones for 10L, that's right 10L And they're cute and I think some other places might sell this sort of thing for a 100L. Not only that, but if you're a member of the Fiendish 3 group, you got one for free That's customer appreciation AND good marketing. Customer puts on cute top with the extemely flattering neckline, goes to store, buys the equivalent to the "Willow pack". Why not, it's pocket change!

Or Sylfie Minogue, from whom I ordered some custom shoes. She asked that I come to her location for delivery. She told me to look the shoes over and make certain they're what I wanted. She asked questions about certain aspects too and asked me about additional colors I might like. Which I did. I thought the shoes were perfect. but apparently they weren't perfect enough for Sylfie because a couple days later she IM's me that certain nagging flaws that she had noticed had been fixed and she had some updated ones for me. Flaws? I couldn't see them, but apparently she did. Perfectionism and good customer service.

Trust me, customer service is extremely important even in SL (Marketing too, but that is another story)

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Ch ch ch changes

I've changed my masthead and added the Linden Labs fansite copyright notice to bring this blog into line with the rules/guidelines for Second Life® fansites here.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Skin 2.0 from OPIUM Review

Yes, I've decided to go ahead and do a quick review.of Skin 2.0 from OPIUM

Firstly, Skin 2.0 is hand drawn, of which I am partial to. It has really nice shading especially on the torso. Nice butt shading too.




Gotta have a cleavage shot for those with particular interest in skin cleavage. :-)




I didn't do a kitty examination. That's Sabrina's job:-)



But the important thing is the face. Skin 2.0 emphasises the cheekbones a bit more than other shapes. The lips are full and remind me of Jessica Alba's lips. The eyebrows are very nicely done, excellent brow work. The overall look, on me is that of a late teens/college aged young woman. It was rather surprising to me that one day I saw a young woman that reminded me of these skins. Normally you wouldn't associate hand-drawn with realism, but with this line you do.







The makeups are varied and numerous as are the shades. Of particular note is the eyeliner which is really good. Nice eye shadow too. Again, the look is "young".and "real"

One drawback to me reviewing these skins is the way my shape's funky lips interact with the skins, the lips look better on others than they do me, which sucks because I love the way these skins look on others. Which is why everyone has got to see thsse skins on yourselves though, the lip shape looks awesome on others, just not on me. :-( I wish they did, because I love everything else, the shading, the eyes, the belly button, the butt crack in low-rise jeans. Really, this is one skin that looks awesome in low-rise jeans.

Skin 2.0 is quality work and it's moderately priced. There's not much more to say since choosing skin is such a personal thing. Skin 2.0 is "on my list of skin places to make certain newbies check out"

Seen in World: Yes, on others and myself (via the demos)
Review copy: No
Friends list: Yes, Alaska Metropolitan is on it and of all the people on it I chat with her more often than anyone else. I'm in OPIUM related groups.

Second Style #4 is out.



Yay, it's out1 Go grab the PDF from Second Style or the in world version from a vendor machine.

I still haven't figured out how to read the in-world version.

There's some nice articles about Men's Fashion and an interview with Ambyance Anubis and Lost Therian of Naughty Designs.

Second Style is also looking for a Photography Editor as mentioned in the magazine and in Celebrity Trollop's blog but whomever is doing the job now is doing a fine job.