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

Erratic Delice lingerie, co-starring the Maitreya Lara Body, guest starring the Lelutka Karin Head.

First some windlighty, depth of field-y cheesecake on my Dutchie Gustavian Lesbian edition sex be--, I mean my Dutchie Gustavian Lesbian "photoprop" bed! (/me waves to Miss DME and Charlemagne amongst the admirers of CC Cheesecake)

Yes, I forgot to use the ankle lock!  Facepalm moment on my part.

Now for the actual pose stand pictures, still cheesecake though.  I think I resemble my friend LDO in this one:

 Right then, Erratic Delice set, Bra, thong, suspender belt (garter belt for us Yanks), and suspender brief (brief with built in garters), and stockings (with appliers for Maitreya bodies and Slink feet)  Make sure you have the most recent OmniHud 6.1 version of the feet, the stockings require them.  I really can't say more about the lingerie other than it's Erratic, which the glamorous sexpot fashionista types at the Chamber seem to wear.  The fit is good (erratic lingerie also works on non-mesh bodies if you're close to the standard sizes), and it looks REALLY good.  It's frickin shmexy for sure.  You can probably guess I have the fatpack.

I wore it with Truth's new Heloisa hair, a shmexy "windblown supermodel" hair and Hucci's Jacmel pumps

But this post isn't really about the lingerie, it's about the body.  I've been wearing the Maitreya Lara Body for two months now, and can state that I can recommend the body, with a caveat.  That caveat being the lack of fine grained control over the alpha, meaning I can't wear it with some of my mesh items sad to say.  One example being the Steffen Garcia Blair.

Otherwise it works well, is relatively easy to use, and has good support amongst third parties.

 As you can see, I'm also wearing the Karin head, with League Luna head appliers.

Perhaps I shouldn't have picked it up, since I was iffy about the demo. But a couple of friends had been urging me to go ALL mesh with a mesh head, and I wanted to see how it looked with actual League appliers on it so I held my nose at the price (L$2500, I consider it a bit overpriced at that level, I think a 1200 to 1500 price would be more reasonable), and bought the thing, and both sets of the Luna appliers.

Sadly the Luna makeup works much better with blonde hair than red. And you know how I am about my red hair. The lipsticks need a little more work to be more flattering to a redhead.  (As do the Erin makeups) And I'm not sure I like the head, there's something about it when I look at it in profile (from the side) that bothers me.  From the front it's gorgeous, but the side....I have mixed feelings.

Also the head had fewer functions than some other ones I have heard of.  For example there are only two settings for the mouth, closed and slightly open.  Some other heads have animated mouths.  Also lash tinting uses a color picker than some standard presets.  Another caveat involves the included hairbase applier, there aren't enough colors in it and I don't think my favorite hair makers make a hairbase applier for the head yet.

Sadly because of my mixed feelings on this head, I cannot categorically recommend this head, or the other Lelutka heads....yet.  My feelings may change as further updates are made to the head, I hope.

Also, besides LDO, it makes me look like my bacon-loving friend RachelAlivia, who also uses this head, especially with the blonde hair.

SLURLS:

League skin

Maitreya

Lelutka

Hucci Main store

IKON Eyes

Truth Hair

A Girl Genius/Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Fashion Fan-Fic: Report from Vulgarian Agent #1138

This is a fan-fic-y fashion post involving Jägers from Girl Genius, of which I am rather fond.  I recently picked up one of the hardbound compilations of the historical documents (that's what I call them around KlausWulfenbach Outlander in SL), aka the first Omnibus volume, though I had read some online at the Official Girl Genius website.

From Agent #1138, Steamlands Operations Desk

Hallo Mein Baron Bombi.

Forgive me for responding in English, I've spent so much time amongst the Steamlanders that it is easier to report in that Language, Ja?  As you may know I was assigned to follow various and sundry Steamlanders to gather intelligence for our Great Nation of Vulgaria. 

Well then I was assigned to the Steamlander known as Ms. CC Creeggan.  I spent many Jahre studying her, und I know EVERYTING about her.  The clothes she wears, her obsession with redheads, und her obsession with hats. Ms. CC Creeggan is a fashionista.  She shops, it's what she does.  At first glance it would seem she is just some flighty brainless shopping addict, but first glance would be wrong, Mein Baron.   Apparently she was drafted into the Caledon Militia and was promoted to Sergeant.  So how does some fashionista get promoted to non-commisioned officer?  She likes guns, big ones, especially gatlings.  She is Very good with gatlings.

So we have a fashionista who likes guns.  You might think that this is rather common, after all Fashionistas are noted for hunting down those who disrupt their shopping rituals with swords, katanas, guns, und weapons of mass BEWM.  That is verstehe, Mein Baron.

I learned much about her in St. John and Caledon.

One of the things that struck me as interesting was that she seemed to have an affinity for Baron Klaus Wulfenbach.  That might be expected considering Gabrielle Riel is close to him, but with Ms. Creeggan it was different.  She seemed to be "minding" him, watching over him, and always seemed well armed around him.  Not only that, but she was known for clicking her heels und saluting him.

I also discovered that Ms. Creeggan seemed to be FAR stronger und tougher than any fashionista I had seen before.  It was rumored that she had stopped a runaway cargo truck, a Daimler Vehicle No. 42 powered by an internal combustion engine by holding out her hand against it's front fender.  It was also rumored that she could stop potential ruffians by just looking at them, raising her voice, und gesturing towards a VERY LARGE .54 bore handgun that would appear at her waist. 

I managed to bribe a wandering down-on-his-luck seaman in St. John with some rum und he told me of an incident at a dockside pub:

"Now that Miz CC, she aint normal-like.  Hells Bells, she might not even be human.  Maybe she's a demon or some kind of spellcaster, I don't know.  But I saw her toss Baraboo Jack across the entire pub when he got uppity with her after the barkeep called her in to break up a bar fight. And when he came after her with a knife, she disarmed him and BROKE the knife with one hand, and said, and I quote:  " Hyu hain't a very schmot guy, hyu know "  And then she decked him, with one punch.  Lifted him off the floor and carried him back to his ship like he was a purse.  That aint natural.  And she gets shipments labeled "Genuine Fresh Europan Bogz", "Bogz Puree" and "Chocolate Covered Bogz" from someplace called Europa Wulfenbach."

That seemed VERY suspicious so I decided to take a trip to Winterfell, where Europa has an embassy and where the Europan Jägermonsters have a hut. You know of Jägermonsters, Mein Baron, those altered-human warriors who, for the most part, serve the Baron Wulfenbach. Known for their great strength, affinity for big guns and bug eating.

I have managed to sneak into the der Hut des Jäger and found their roster.  In it there is a listing for an "Infiltration agent, Ms. CC" with the description:

"Hyu know, dat redheaded Jäger gurlie vo likes schoes almost as much as hets?  De vun vith de kolor change hepidermoose, retractable fangs, und morpho-chango ears?  Yah her, she makes a goot infiltration agent. Let's send her to de schteamlunds to find schparks und vatch over de Baron und schtuff.  She vill need zum schpeech trainink to schpeak like de non-Jager pipples, but dat kan done viddout too much trubbel.  She's a schmot gurl. It iz a goot plan vith low probability for loss uf hets for everyone.  Authorization: Mamma Gkika"

This changes everything.  instead of just being some wandering shoe-obsessed fashionista, she's a wandering shoe-obsessed, hat-obsessed, utterly dangerous Jäger! Well I suppose there's not really THAT much difference, Fashionistas are known for being rather scary drama filled creatures of avarice und violence.

That said, I do believe this information will require continuing surveillance, und also a promotion.  After all...she's a Jäger.  

Agent #1138

As Agent #1138 was preparing to leave the Hut with his missive, the double doors opened and he saw the familiar face of Ms. CC the Fashionista, but this time her face was green, she was wearing a nice hat, and she was carrying a portable gatling.

"Vere do hyu tink hyu're gun, schmot guy?", said she,  "Hy tink hyu vill need to be hendink over everyddink hyu are karryink, includink you missiff to Vulgaria und hyu schould tink about defectink und retirink... to Zindra vith hall de pretty gurlies on de beaches, yah?  De Baron Bombi von' take kindly to a failure on you part."

Agent #1138 handed over everything without complaint. What could he do, facing a gatling armed Jäger.

She then said, "Dat's a schmot guy, Hy tink hyu vill enjoy you retirement hennyvay, much more fun ten servink dat jerk Baron Bombi"

The Agent thought, "Oh well, alls fair in espionage, and love.  Perhaps he could find a large bosomed oiled up vixen for his very own in Zindra." As he left, he turned and watched the Jager head into the Hut.

I saw this Nikita Military dress when Charlemagne Allen TP'd me over to Valentina E. one day.  She didn't know I was a fan of "V.E."and I didn't know she was a fan of V.E. either.  Anyway, I saw it first and told her she had to have it because it was so Charlemagne-y.  I eventually caved in and got it too.  There's also an all-black/grey, olive green and navy blue versions.

I'm wearing it with the  Lumae Orsimer Adore skin with the included Leevi ears. 

Makeup used is a red gloss from Roslin Petion's Luxuria brand , with Schadenfreude fangs.   I paired it with Lassitude & Ennui's "Flutter" boots.  I had to size them up to M to wear them over the Maitreya body.  Coincidentally, Luxuria, Lassitude & Ennui and Schadenfreude are all located in the Nouveau region.

The dress isn't quite perfect with the body, sadly we don't have enough fine grained control over the alpha, but it's not too bad.  The hair is Magika Honest with the Paulette hat from Pure Poison.

The portable Gatling is one of my cherished SL posessions, being made by the late Nix Sands for his XNT brand. He was a True Gentleman in my book and I still miss him. It is no longer available.

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reference is Vulgaria and Baron Bombi (Bomburst in the film and book), who are often used as "generic steampunk villains" in fiction-y blog posts and stories in the Steamlands.

SLURLS:

Lumae skin

Maitreya

IKON Eyes

Luxuria

Schadenfreude

Magika hair

Valentina E

Lassitude & Ennui

Pure Poison

Wicked Witch of the Woods, Once Upon a Time inspired SL cosplay

The Witch of the Woods had faced her haughty rival of the raven hair and the porcelain skin and had been defeated through treachery.

 She was now cursed and exiled.

As the curse took effect she thought one thing:  If Wicked was was they thought she was, then Wicked she would be.

Hundreds of years later, curse or no, she was ready to end her exile.  After outfitting herself in modern accoutrements, she would now achieve her vengeance.

"Wait till they get a load of ME!", she thought with a laugh in her mind.

Another gratuitous cleavage shot.

Why yes, I WAS inspired by Zelena of the television show, Once Upon a Time, so the cleavage isn't really all that gratuitous.   My Friend Gabi immediately recognized I was doing a version of Zelena when I showed her the pictures.

I cam across this inspiration by lucky chance.  I just happened to run across a Zelena video in a search I did some weeks back, I haven't actually watched the show yet, haven't had the time, and well...bandwidth cap.

After seeing that, I was like, "OH MY GOD! Just look at HER!" And then I started Googling her. Her famous fairytail black gown with the cleavage reminded me of the Black Arts Flora which I'd demo'd but not bought because of alpha issues with my non-mesh body.

Zelena image from Rumbelle! Forever.

Back to the SL fashion, I'm wearing the League Erin skin, when I'm non-green.  It's my standard skin now, even though It's not quite the perfect skin for me.

The green skin is the Lumae Orsimer Adore skin with a Luxuria Red Gloss layered over it.  "Orsimer" being a reference to the Orcs of the Elder Scrolls game series.  The skin DOES come with Maitreya body appliers AND Lelutka head appliers (as well as appliers for other bodies and heads)  It also comes with a set of ears as well!  I'm also planning on using this skin when I go Jagermonster from Girl Genius.

The old time-y neo-victorian look comprises the Black arts flora jacket and skirt, which as I said, couldn't actually wear before I started using the Maitreya body.  The default alpha when used with my non-mesh body has issues and needs some more work.  But with the Lara on the other hand it works very well.  This outfit is template based, there ARE other versions of it on the grid.  I picked two other colors of it, the red and pinstripe version.

I'm carrying the  Inanna staff from Tekeli-li, which I've had for a while and has a ton of color change options that you change via chat commands, not menus.

The Empyrean Forge Heritage statement jewelry set I picked up specifically for these looks, but it's the sort of glamorous statement set I'll get good use out of.  It is also color change for the gems.

I'm also wearing Ingenue Laura pumps, which you can't see.  The Victorian hat in all black I got with the Chantilly Victorian Gown by Boudoir, just a simply lovely and sexy victorian hat, not even taking into account how great the gown is.

The modern dress is the Kastle Rock Hilary dress, with Izzies Sheer tights basics, the versatile Hucci Glynco pumps, the same jewelry set and Amacci Amelie hair for both modern and old-timey looks.

More Zelena!  (From Reddit) These two looks are what inspired my modern "wicked witch" look.

 Fabulous!

 The show apparently runs on The Rule of Cool, Ridiculously Cool Clothes, and The Rule of Cleavage. When Cosmopolitan of all things does an article about the cleavage, there's a lot of cleavage on the show...and it is glorious.  As Everyone Knows, the CC is All About the Cleavage.  It is one of my many "CC Rules #1"

But All of the fashion on the show is fabulous!  Modern and Fairytale, which may be why I like the fashion so, since I need both Modern and Old-timey looks in SL.  Just look at Regina!  (you could easily come close to this with the red jacket version of the Black arts Flora)

And the hats!  The HATS with the CLEAVAGE and the GLAM makeup  Squeeeeeee!  I need everything Regina wears on the show in SL...now please.  Just look at these two modern dresses Regina wears, they are so me.  She also reminds me a bit of Megan Mullally's Karen Walker in "Will & Grace", whose style I also adored.

 Though it isn't actually just Regina's and Zelena's outfits I love, ALL the female characters have such delicious wardrobes in both modern and fairytale settings.  The Gowns!  THE FABULOUS GOWNS!

SLURLS:

Amacci Hair

League skin

Lumae skin

Maitreya

Black Arts

Kastle Rock

Empyrean Forge Heritage set on Marketplace

Tekeli-li Inanna staff on Marketplace

Boudoir

Ingenue, Fashion with a Past

Hucci Main store

IKON Eyes

Berry's Movie Character Meme

Another week, another cool Berry Meme.

Meme instructions: Dress up your avatar as a character from a movie. 

Which I did.  One of the characters my readers probably expect, Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's in her Iconic Little Black Dress.

That dress being the Maitreya Audrey.  Hair is Elikatira Arabella, Angsa hat from Schadenfreude, Hucci Glynco pumps, Maitreya Jackie-O sunglasses.

But here's a character one might not expect from me, Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  This is the maid outfit from Provocation Berry showed off some time ago, Hair is Truth Magenta, Frock-Be-Gone raygun from Doctor Obolensky, Hucci Jacmel pumps, Blacklace stockings.

Berry said that someone requested a Mean Girls meme in plurk, and Berry figured this would give us the opportunity, so I did Cady Heron a la the Jingle Bell Rock scene. Sexy Santa dress from Tuty, Hair is Truth Esperanza, boots from GOS.

I did another classic teen movie with Big Red from Bring It On.  This one didn't turn out quite so well.  Cheerleader costume from Meli Imako

Since I'm old, I just had to do two characters from the classic Heathers.  First up is my interpretation of Queen Bee Heather Chandler's Croquet outfit.   "My School Look" from Monso, Hair is Truth Dasha, Tights from Izzie's, Esme flats from Ingenue.  The croquet decorations were already rezzed at my house.

I did two Heather Duke shots, in an outfit inspired by her end-of-movie look. First up a shot inspired by her lounging at the window scene.

And near the lockers.  Diaz jacket with dress by Coldlogic, Tights from Izzies, Shoes from Fri.day, Hair is Truth Vixen.

Boogie Trains and Template Complaints

When I first saw the Liv Glam "Yes sir, I can Boogie" (white/black) and Trains and Winter Rains (multiple color hud) suits, I desired them as a classic suit loving SL fashionista should.

Classic military style belted jacket, slim pencil skirt, what's not to love?

 

What's not to love?  The skirt slit and rigging that's what.  The jacket is fine, the jacket is worth acquiring...the skirt not so much.  Look at the slit placement.  Yes, I know, I should be cheering that it actually HAS a realistic slit, but it would be better if it was centered and not quite so wide.  But the real issue is the rigging, notice  how the skirt clips into the leg.  That effect is worse, the more the legs bend.

Here's a close look at the issue.  It's just simply a problem with the rigging...of the template.   This outfit is a template so I can't blame the Liv-Glam's designer (SamanthaSJones) for this...other than her choice to use a template that really needed some more tweaks and polish.  If the rigging was fixed...I would be recommending this outfit.  But as it is, I can't.  It's not horrible, and I've worn it out and about, but it does need more work.  It's an "almost, but not quite" sort of thing.   Which is what I say about Liv-Glam as a design house...with some reluctance:  "Almost, but not quite a first tier designer...the work is hit or miss, could  use more tweaks/polish/better texture choices, and a second critical eye would do the designer some good.  Not horrible, but not spectacular either, especially since it's probably all templates."

For an example of how this skirt SHOULD be rigged, we have to go no further than the classic Maitreya Nolita.  THAT is how you rig a slightly below the knee skirt.

I've got a couple of other issues with the  Liv-Glam "Boogie/Trains" ensembles.  The HUD colors on the multicolor "Trains and winter rains" version don't match the actual on suit colors closely enough.  And some of those colors aren't very good choices at all, basically making those colors unusable.  Why put unattractive unflattering colors in a HUD?  Put colors that ARE attractive in it.

Theres also the fact that the template origin of the Liv-Glam suits are not mentioned and/or credited.  A customer might not be aware that they're templates, and thusly not know who else besides Liv-Glam to send suggestions/complaints to.  Here's a link to the template on marketplace

Dolphin Designs "The Lady"

It also means that there are most likely other designers using this template that needs more work that I don't know about.  I am absolutely of the opinion that Templates need to be credited in the interest of transparency and honesty to one's customers.  Use templates all you want, but for goodness sake, credit them.

SLURLS:

Belleza Betty Pale skin

Truth Colbie hair

Hucci Glynco pumps

Liv Glam

Maitreya

Lelutka Hair: Kate

I'm not for sure I've mentioned liking the Duchess of Cambridge's style on my blog before, but I'm a fan.  In her duties, she tends towards the classic, simple and pretty, skirts around the knee, moderately high but not too high heeled shoes, neutral makeup and long layered hair.  And when she's off duty, she can rock the jeans and ballet flats.  She almost always looks "nice".

As an aside, she has a brain too, graduated from St. Andrews with a Art History degree...with honors mind you.

And how I love her hair.   Thanks be to Lelutka for creating a Kate-ish fluffily wavy-whirly hair.

Normally I'm not a big fan of Lelutka hair because it's "too big" and kind of "there are too many extensions in it for fullness" look.  But this I like.  This is the Jessica color, I had to tint it to get it close to my "proper color".  It's a nice hair, worth demo-ing if you like long layered "girl next door pretty" hair.

Skin is Belleza, Eyes from IKON, Jewellery from Sax Shepherd, and everyone recognizes one of the most recognizable dresses in SL, the Maitreya Nolita.

SLURLS:

Lelutka hair

Belleza skin

IKON eyes

Sax Shepherd Designs jewelry

Maitreya