The CC's Holiday Office Party Look

Some time back before the holidays I was thinking to myself as I often do, about fashion.  Wait...stop laughing, I'm not always thinking about fashion or shopping in SL!  Anyway, I was thinking:  "What would the CC wear if she had a holiday office party to attend."  I had an outfit in mind, but didn't take any pictures or anything, being lazy, unmotivated to blog and without a lot of time.

But... I follow a few RL fashion blogs, One in particular is Fashion Apocalypse, which is the blog of my favorite curvy fashion blogger, who calls herself "The Lapsed Victorian".  I tend to like what "Lapsy" likes.  She likes the vintage influences, worships Christina Hendricks, and dresses WELL.

Well anyway, a couple of days ago she posted her Christmas day Outfit of the Day which was, "On Fleek", as the kids say these days on their Facingbooks, Tinterests and Pumblr's.  If you follow that link you can see that it's a lovely red dress with vintage influences, ballet neckline and slightly below the knee hemline.  She accesorized it with a nice bag, patterned hosiery and nice shoes.  I LOVED EET!  It reminded me so much of the outfit I was thinking of for "CC" that I decided to post the outfit.  It also reminded me of an outfit I was thinking of for a character in a story that was writing in my head.

Anyway here's the look, taken with shadows, depth of field and whatnot:

That's the Fame dress from Molichino.  Molichino shut down so it's not available anymore sad to say.  But I love this dress and should have shown it on the blog sooner.  It's in my flickr, but not the blog, but I would have sworn that I blogged it, but I guess I didn't.  But it doesn't matter because you can't get it anymore. Sadface, because it works well over the Maitreya Lara body.  The clutch is from CoCo

The hair is Wasabi Pills Jamie, which I wore because it reminded me of "Lapsy's" hair a nice layered mid-length. Jewelry is the Michelle set from Yummy.  Skin is my usual League Erin and eyes are my usual IKON Charmed Eyes in Moor.

The shoes and hosiery I picked up for the look today. I was going to wear my Izzie's tights, but the patterned tights don't have Maitreya appliers.  So I looked on market place for something like the dotted faux-fishnet Lapsy was wearing and found these Polka Tights from The Secret Store, which are perfect for adding a bit of interest to the leg.

The shoes are the Mutresse Volena Spectator style pumps, worn with the SLink High feet, but I'm wearing them with all black options set.

Here's a studio shot of the look.

It might not be surprising but I thought about doing a "do's and don'ts" of Holiday Party dressing post last year using RL as a basis for the choices.  One of the pictures I took then is also a good holiday party look.  It's a bit more formal.  You wouldn't wear this one to an office party, unless it was held at a hotel ballroom or something.  This is more a "Dressy holiday party where there will be dancing" look:

The dress is the PurpleMoon Maureen from a couple of years ago. It's vintage inspired with a sort of 50's look to it, but it's classic enough one could wear it to a modern party. It's a nice dress but doesn't play well with mesh bodies sad to say.  I'd kill for an updated version.  I wore it with Truth Mayim hair, and Essenz Zurich pumps.  I do believe that's the same Michelle pearl set from Yummy.  I was wearing Belleza skin back then, of course.

Anyway there you have two nice holiday looks.  Which would work rather well for Valentines Day outfits as well!


SLURLS:

League skin

Truth Hair

IKON Eyes

Wasabi Pills

Slink Main store

Mutresse

Essenz shoes

PurpleMoon

The Secret Store

Maitreya

CoCo Designs

Liv Glam Laurent, the sort of dress I like in RL.

I discovered Liv Glam sometime back after seeing one of their things on an acquaintance.  Most of Liv-glam's styles seem to have a sort of high end department store look to them, which I like for the most part.  To be honest, their stuff can be hit or miss, and some of the texturing is of questionable style on some of their stuff, or could use a little work...but some of it IS worth picking up.  Besides, they have demos.

I picked up this classic "Laurent" wrap dress some months back and was saving a blog post for fall.  It's a simple versatile v-neck mesh dress with a color change hud.  This solid version is only available at the store, but there is also a print version available.  In my opinion, some of the solid colors are questionable choices in a dress like this, but there's enough colors that it does look good in to be worth a look:


Here it is in classic black, desk to dinner, though it is a little cleavagey for desk in RL, but we all know that in SL we tend to show more cleavage...even me.  Shoes are from Elikatira, the Move's.  Skin is my usual Belleza Betty

 Just to show you how classic the dress is, here's a similar RL one from Talbots!  I tend to be classic, so I like to peruse Talbots for Internet Window Shopping.  And yes, I based the styling of my picture on the way the Talbot's dress was styled, just to show that classic style works well in SL...and RL.

And here I have used a dark red color.  The hair I used was Wasabi Pills Jamie, which is fairly close, a touch more controlled than the RL hair of the model, which I think suits the dress better.  Jewellery is Drop Stone Pendant and earrings in Gold by Sax Shepherd.  Bag is the "Lourdes" from Alexandra Sautereau via Marketplace

Which I styled like this styling of the dress. Close, but not quite.  The RL dress comes in several colors and it does come in plus and petite sizes and is $109.  It is unlined though.

Ready for fall window shopping in brown, with a scarf from Miel and GOS Equestrian boots.

SLURLS:


Liv-Glam

Wasabi Pills

Belleza skin HQ

Elikatira

Sax Shepherd Jewellery

Miel

GOS

Alexandra Satereau Collection

Ruminations on a dress.

This post is not really about this dress, but more about what came to my mind as I was wearing this dress today:



A simple black sweaterdress from Salt. I have accessorized it with a Truth Hair called "Jean", one of my go-to 5th & Oxford skins, Shiny Things Kelseys, and the Carmen hosiery from Insolence.

I was wearing this dress while socializing. For my sake I usually don't wear cocktail or evening dresses in the daytime (unless the event or venue is formal), so I have a bunch of go-to daytime wear. Simple dresses, suits, blouses, sweaters and skirts that I wear during the day. I want to look "nice" and most of my daytime wear would be considered appropriate in a dressy office. The thing is, I am often the dressiest dressed person at social places...and often the most covered up. I like my style, I mean after all, I have Audrey Hepburn as a Fashion Icon, but I don't want to be perceived as a "haughty fashionista", and I'm worried my look does that. And I must admit...I was wearing that dress at a lesbian venue, I know what you're thinking now and THAT is another story. Yes I suppose I could wear jeans and t-shirts when socializing, but that is not "me". It's hard to explain.

Is there anyone else out there who feels similarly?

SLURL to Salt

Snooki-ized CC

I was in a group chat and someone mentioned an internet meme showing Carl Sagan and Snooki (yes that snooki from Jersey Shore), where if you didn't know who Carl is, you are what's wrong with the world.

So I got the harebrained idea to Snooki-ize myself a bit:



That's a Vero Modero Dream dress. They have a ton of cute n' sexay dresses like this...in their casuals section...it's quality stuffs in my opinion.

Shoes are G Field Eve's of course.

Hair is Truth Bonnie, for that poofed up big hair snooki- look.



The skin is a 5th & Oxford Tan Rebel Rebel 1 with M.O.C.K Cosmetics L'Eau lip gloss Alchemist and Mile High Eyeliner layered over it.

Shopping partner fun.

There was someone in one of the fashion groups that was looking for shopping advice. What she wanted was "French Chic/conservative/Ann Taylor" stuff. So of course I chimed in, considering I've mentioned Ann Taylor in regards to SL Fashion before on this very blog. After she had got some great advice from the group, I met up with her after tossing her some LM's asking if she'd like some shopping company. She eventually gave me a link to the sort of thing she was looking for:

Armani Side stiched Jacket and dress on Saks Website

An image from the Saks site is below.



I laughed in IM, and she wondered why I was laughing and I told her I had given TWO people that very link in the past 24 hours to show them the sort of tailored elegant look I like to portray in SL, when I can find it. Most of the time I have to settle for retro...perhaps with mesh we'll see jackets like that.

So anyway I took her to the usual haunts for classic tailored things. We all know the drill. We hit up Lo Lo sim (Caroline Apollo) for jewellery, good place to hit if you need quality basics at good prices, and saw Caroline there.

I also took her to SF designs, where I had been a few hours before to pick up THIS on recommendation of Cousin Savannah Blindside of Caledon:



It's your typical ladies who lunch suit, though I'm wearing the short skirt which makes it more "20-something little miss junior league junior socialite who likes her skirts a touch shorter and heels a touch higher" (I actually knew of someone like that in USENET alt.fashion), but there's a longer skirt option if you want to go for the mature charity luncheon look. The outfit, with the short skirt anyway, actually reminded me of this dress from Donna Rico:



It really is lovely, comes in three colors too. However, the fabric looks fall-y and "heavy" like a nice thick dressy wool.

Mimi is available at the SF Designs for Women

The lady and myself had fun, we both discovered we had been fans of Ally McBeal and she commented on how some of the tailored skirts she had seen were Ally-short. And she swooned over Donna Flora's version of Audrey's famous Breakfast at Tiffany's dress. I helped her a bit in creating a skirt shape, and wanted her hair. She was wearing Elika's Rhythm style, which resembles the old ETD Roslin...but doesn't come in the dark reds Elika used to have...sigh.

RL influences on my Avatar

There has been a bit of a meme for SL bloggers to discuss their RL influences on their avatar. My turn now.

My biggest influence is probably the iconic Audrey Hepburn especially in her incarnation as Holly Golightly in the famed "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which should come as no surprise to my readers:








And perhaps just a touch of redhead Ann Margret from her ingenue days:





And also a bit of red headed Rita Hayworth, especially when I'm doing a Hollywood style gown.




And modern burlesque pin-up, Miss Dita Von Teese. That might surprise some, but you haven't seen all my SL lingerie. :-) The lady also really knows how to work her makeup. That dress even looks like it could be from ICING in SL.




Not long after visiting Caledon, and hanging around there I realized I had subconsciously made my avatar look like Kate Winslet as Rose in Titanic. Look, another redhead!




I was once described by SL fashionista Celebrity Trollop as the Bree Hodge (of Desperate Housewives as portrayed by Marcia Cross) of SL. Little did she know as she said it that Bree is easily my favourite character on that show, in part because of her look. Very very prim, very very tasteful, very very classic and elegant, but still very very sexy, and very much a redhead.







Although her appearances on Project Runway took place after I had joined SL, there's quite a bit of the third season's Laura Bennett in my avatar. Which goes to reason since Laura is still my favourite Project Runway designer, and is the one whos designs I just loved loved loved. Very very classic, elegant and sophisticated and redheaded.








Laura has a comic book style column on iVillage called Case Clothed, where she has been avatarized by fellow Project Runway alumni and Barbie clothing designer, Robert Best. Avatar Laura and avatar CC could be sisters!









Since I've added some poundage to my shape, it seems there's a bit of plus-size model Kate Dillon too, but that's to be expected since she was one of my fashion role models during the days when the late lamented plus-size fashion magazine MODE was still around.

Plus (real) size CC

I'm friends with the lovely bear eared fashionista and Fleur CSA Rosie Barthelmess, and every time I'm near her, I kind of feel shame for having an unrealistically slender avatar. Sure my avatar is not as super skinny and amazon tall as some, and not as much as I was, but still, I always have admired Rosie. So while hanging with her today at Fleur, I decided to do a "Real size" CC, with her help and this was the result. I used my standard shape and modded it to something more like my RL shape, but still pretty and pleasing.



Layniewear Audrey Dress, Fleur Truffle Biba 1 skin, Shiny Things classic pumps, Stockings from Adam n Eve, Analog Dog Mia hair in Brown Sugar, and Oval glasses from First Impressions

Yes, I know, my hair doesn't look like this. I wish it did.



And a shot in lingerie from the Adam N Eve Carrie gown



And as a comparison, RL femme mode me, not so young and pretty as even Real Size CC, but similar in style. I'm even wearing faux lashes and I tried to wing my eyeliner, like how avatar me sometimes wears prim lashes and wears Fleur skins with winged eyeliner.



L'Oreal Infallible foundation
L'Oreal Wear Infinite eyeshadow quad in Subtle Sable
L'Oreal Lineur Intense felt tip liner in Carbon black
Andrea Modlash #33 lashes applied using the "put the glue on the lid instead of the lashes" trick
MAC Angel blush
MAC Viva Glam IV lipstick

I haven't decided if Real Size CC will become the Standard Avatar Me or not. I know the shape will make prim skirts more difficult, but I think it's a good thing I made the shape.

What CC wants....besides the pony.

Yes, I still want a pony for my full sized avatar self (the one from Virrginia Tombola), but there are other things I want in SL. Many of which I cannot find.

First of all, I want some tailored loafer styled shoes:


Lumiani Assisi high heel loafer style pump from Zappos



Chinese Laundry Degree chunky heel loafer from Zappos




Anne Klein Felder tailored loafer Look, a medium-low heel!



I'd also like to see some "Everyday", tailored basics (images and links from Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft):

Ann Taylor Loft Striped Cotton strech shirt This is the sort of thing worn by women everyday to work, it's simple, it's attractive, it has clean lines, it just "works"



Ann Taylor shift dress A basic shift dress one can dress up and dress down. Wear it with a jacket and those Lumiani Assisi's above for work, pair it with dressy jewelry and the equivalent of our Tesla Natasha's or Maitreya Slinky's for a dinner date.



Ann Taylor white shirt and black skirt Oh wait, I have this in SL. :-)



I also need some springy/eastery/ladies-who-lunch pink tweed/boucle suits. Other pastel colours would be good too. (All images and links from ebay)

Karen Scott pink tweed suit A little bit boxy and matronly with the cardigan styled jacket but still a classic.




Nanette Lepore pink tweed suit I really love the silhouette on this one and the insets on the hemline of the skirt. Since it's fitted, it might work well in SL.



Valerie Stevens pink tweed suit Oooh it's so pretty, and the trim! Again, love the fitted silhouette that should work well in SL.



Chanel Jacket Dress So classic, so fabulous, so perfect. Love, love, love.



If anyone has seen anything like these in SL, I NEED to know NOW! If not designers NEED to make them. :-)

I am such a Bree Hodge (van De Kamp) aren't I?



That must be why I like Icing's Stepford Wife