Adventure Brigade? Protectors of Seraph City?

Wuxtry Wuxtry, read all about it....rumors of Adventure Brigade to protect Seraph City...

Citizens, I Have heard rumors of a group of two-fisted adventurers forming to protect the Beautiful Metropolis of Seraph City from varous sundry forces of mischance and evil. Why do I know this, fashion reporter that I am? I hear things.

Terrible Lizard from Dinosaur Island wreaking Havoc among the spires of the City? They'll be there.

Black Vulture's mooks stealing the Good Professors Applied Phleabotium? They'll get it back.

Cultists of ancient Evil Entities trying to raise tentacled monstrosity from the sewers? Yep, anti Entity gas grenades will do the trick, dropped from their DeHaviland.

Madcap Heiress held for ransom? They'll bring her back safely and engage in witty banter with her every step of the way....it's in the Adventurer's Rulebook.

May the Brigade prosper and grow.

Great Minds Think Alike...perhaps they should join forces

So there I was in Seraph City...was I watching a Burlesque show at the New Champagne Room where you can always find retro-lovin gals and get more ideas on things to buy? maaaaybe. One of the audience members was wearing what looked like Icing's Puma Jie puffy sleeved blouse and pencil skirt combo...but it wasn't....it was a puffy sleeved dress with a pencil skirt combo named Guro from Ivalde. The lady told me it was a giftie...and turned out...I already had it. So here's a comparison, that's the default red bloused Icing Puma Jie on the left and the Ivalde Guro on the right.



Great minds think alike...red blouse/bodice and black high waisted skirt is a classic look and it makes perfect sense that both would do a version of it, so no saying that one stole the "idea" from the other because they did not. That look is a fashion archetype.

So that got me thinking. If one shops at Ivalde, one probably shops at Icing, and vice versa. (and probably Ingenue, Jet Doll and Donna Flora as well) Same people shop at both...they appeal to the same market segment. So...what if they joined forces or merged. It might be an advantage..focused marketing...larger inventory...more frequent releases because they have TWO people doing stuff so if one takes a break the other is still doing stuffs. It might help with customer service as well, if one isn't online, the other might be. Their skill sets might also compliment each other, say if one doesn't do jewellery but the other does or if one does shoes and the other doesn't. You never know...such things with similar businesses/markets might work in SL....or not. I have been told that one reason they don't is that there's the "trust" factor to deal with. SL doesn't have the trust mechanisms that RL has, so people don't do such things. Too bad...it might be a great way for smaller or medium sized design houses to compete with the larger super shops.


SLURL to ICING main Store in Mischief
Icing Blog

SLURL to Ivalde
Ivalde and L'Abel website

Donna Flora Andrea and Donna Flora Flickr.

Everyone knows CC loves a good suit or suitish type things in SL, so CC LOVES Donna Flora, who makes the retro pretty, and modernish fashionista suits with that Milan flair.

This is Andrea, a relatively recent release:



That's the Wine but it also comes in black and silver. It's very "I'm the Executive Editor of a Fashion Magazine" -ish....which means...J'adore! The jacket is sculpty so it might require some moving around. and you really need an updo with it because of the collar.

Acquire at: Donna Flora Main Store in Bonin 195, 130, 23

Best way to keep up with her new releases is via her flickr:

Donna Flora Flickr

GT220

I received a new video card for Christmas...a GT220. Yes it's a low end card...but it's still much better than the integrated 6150SE I was running. Shaders went on and sliders went up. It also fixed the double resolution screenshot bug I had with the 6150SE. Yay!

ICING Gala

Of note over the holidays there was an ICING release, not of retro pretty pretty, but something a little more modern red-carpet-y. Gala:

Long skirt (either with train or not, with a very high slit and one shoulder bodice. Personally I like the red the best.







Well worth adding to inventory if you want an "Award show gown".


SLURL to ICING main Store in Mischief

7 League Boots from Cattiva

CC NEEDED boots. Versatile Suede Boots, with not too many straps n buckles, but not too plain, not too high of a heel but high enough. A little bit of Victorian aesthetic wouldn't be bad either. Platform would be okay as long as it was a hidden platform and not too high. You know, victorian tinged fashionista window shopping boots. Boots that were "Just Right for CC" CC's friend Lissa Maertens at Cattiva made boots, not just for CC but all the grid to buy!




This is the brown, and there will be a dark brown eventually. I also have them in a luscious black suede as well. I love these boots enough that if I was a young fashionista in RL that could handle the heel, I'd want these boots. And I've already received positive comments on them on flickr from a Caledonian. And yes, the name of the boots was inspired by the famed Seven League Boots of folklore.

They're available for L$500 a pair at the Cattiva e Cattivo Main Store in Zhao, 103,129,26

Ivalde Seremin

I'd been wanting a pink lady-who-lunches suit and found one at Ivalde, via Marketplace. Surprised I hadn't seen it or found it before.





Turns out it's an older release, 2008 vintage, but still pretty nice. It's not a work suit, this is what you wear to your charity luncheons and whatnot. The damask is rather subtle, I can barely see it with my bad eyes, and it has satin lapels. The skirt would probably be a touch more flattering on me if it was a touch shorter, but it's the "right" length for it's actual purpose. You'll notice the sleeve attachments have that shading/lighting issue, but it's not as noticeable in the black version, which I also have.

SLURL to Ivalde
Ivalde and L'Abel website


Truth Joceln hair in Blood
5th and Oxford Fair Kitty skin #3
Antique Pearls from Paper Couture
Carmen pantyhose in shiny light white
Delphine mary janes in blush from Shiny Things

IBizarre Mara Sweater/Jumper

This was a pleasant surprise in my inventory. I received a blogger package of a "Mara Jumper" from Ibizarre, which I hadn't heard of before.




It's just a simply cute ribbed turtleneck sweater with a little pouch in front. I'm pairing it with a pencil skirt with Whippet & Buck to show it's "dress it up" potential. I love how the turtleneck isn't snug, I loathe snug turtlenecks in RL. It hit my inventory at a good time too, since I was jonesing for a cute sweater. The slightly pushed up sleeves are a nice touch. It comes in several nice fall-ish colors, this is the graphite. And it's only L$150.

So thank you for dropping it on me, Anyusha.

SLURL to Anyusha Lilienthal's IBizarre Main Store

Anyusha Lilienthal's IBizarre blog


Hair: Truth Nadia in Blood
Skin 5th & Oxford Fair Kitty #4
Skirt: Victoria High Waisted Pencil Skirt from Whippet & Buck
Hosiery: Carmen pantyhose from Insolence
Shoes: Delphine's from Shiny Things

Elika's back.

Yep, she's baaaaack with hair stuffs. The question is...can she take back the mindshare and customers she lost (mostly to Truth, Analog Dog, and Damselfly) by being away/shut down for so long? We'll see. Personally, I think she'll get back some customers but not be as dominant as she was in the old days.

Here's the gist, new textures, more modern primwork. There are fairly nice browns...but....the reds need more work. She simply doesn't have a dark enough red to replace the old ETD Mahogany, the color I based my entire look around.

The good things:

Color numbers: This could let her add new colors, say she could do a dark brown with red highlights and simply call it 10RH. She could do colors inbetween colors and call it say 9.5. It also helps the customer, knowing a 5 is darker than a 1. Pop quiz, which is darker...sienna or chocolate. :-)

The prices: L$200 for 5 colors. Brilliant, a fair good price at the sweet spot in pricing. Most sales of stuffs in SL are of items L$200 or below. More hair makers should adopt the pricing.

The Bad:

The textures...welllllll....she could use more colors, and the reds could use more work I think, or some darker chocolatey reds. A la Clawtooth Hot Chocolate or Truth Blood. The browns seem a touch mousey and faded and not as vibrant and rich as I expected them to be, but she does have a color that could replace the old ETD Chestnut.

The Branding: Elika had a perfectly good brand...ETD. It was simple, it was easy to remember and referenced her name, Elikapeka Tiramisu Designs. It was also fast to find with an inventory search. Why she went with "[e]" and Elikatira is beyond me. Everyone is just going to call it ETD anyway, and slap her new hair in their ETD folder. Never rebrand unless you absolutely have to! (I was opposed to Dazzle rebranding as Last Call too! The name Dazzle had cachet and flair!) And if you do, the new name should be snappier and easier to remember. Frankly...IMHO she should just go back to using ETD.

That said, it's Elika hair, at good prices, and you really can't go wrong with it. She's also going to be doing other stuffs like shoes again, that'll be good. I can't tell if it's Willow modelling the hair in the displays, but she doesn't call the Willow Packs, Willow Packs anymore. :-(

SLURL to ETD Main Store...I mean Elikatira

Oldbie stories

There's a bittersweet post about Oldbie Stories on New World Notes
SL is very ephemeral, there is much that has been lost of beauty, wonder and fun. That's one reason I don't delete much in my inventory and started this blog...to remember.

I came into SL on July 19th of 2006 via a secondlife protocol link to join a vodcast releated chat, so I missed out on newbie island and landed at CC Chapman's Podcast Palace in Shatgogae. It's no longer there, of course.



My home point was in Waterhead welcome area, which is still around and still much the same.





A lot of the older stores aren't around or have changed locations, but my August 2006 LM to Adam n Eve is still quite functional because they're still in Genesis. SLURL to Adam n Eve in Genesis



My oldest Caledon LM dating to late July of 2006 is still quite functional since Caledon On Sea is a hubbed sim



I'm wearing the Spring Flowers dress from Torridwear which I bought about a week in SL. Torridwear is gone....the last thing to go was her poses I think.



My skin is a 2006 era skin from Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot of Tete a Pied (New York shade, Paris makeup, red brows), Fleur and Currently 5th & Oxford They're still around and I still wear their skins SLURL to 5th & Oxford The Tete a Pied makeup box, that you could buy skin from, sits on my vanity table in my apartment in Caledon.

The pearls are by Raven Rosebud of Raven's Creations, who is still in SL, but her store is now Sub Rosa SLURL to Sub Rosa

The hair is "Audrey" from Six Kennedy's Gurl 6. It is still in GurlyWood: SLURL to Gurl 6

And just for fun...I cow danced in Lalique: SLURL to Lalique, home of Luth Brodie's Reel Expression



Sigh, not even Elika calls her "Willow Packs", "Willow Packs" these days. For you newbies, "Willow Packs" were what you call "Fatpacks" they were so named after hardcore SL shopper and blogger Willow Zander

In the old days...things were different, with fewer people logged in at one time (5000 to 7000) it was easier to make a name for oneself. Heck, marketing fashion stuff was easy, you could drop review copies on about 4 people (Willow Zander, Celebrity Trollop, Sabrina Doolittle and Salome Strangelove) and be done! The fashion market is bigger, but more fragmented due to the huge number of stores and amount of stuffage on the grid.

Oh yeah: IIRC "stuffs" and "stuffage" as terms related to SL fashion started on PXP I think, as did "kyoot" What's PXP? Pixel Pinup Online, one of the old big 3 fashion blogs: PXP (Willow, Canimal Zephyr, Arbel Vogel and others, Second Style (Celebrity Trollop and eventually others) and Linden Lifestyles (Sabrina and Salome with assistants) I think the squint-eyed junk in the trunk tattood and pierced grungy look was popularized via PXP (in response to the pretty sparkly party dress look of Dazzle and other places)

I've been seeing more "Tableau Girls" lately, you know what I'm talking about. The cutesy oracul AO, the hand drawn casuals, the "touch of anime" look to their skin, the hair with the headband, the petite cutesy girly shape. For a while there, they seemed to have disappeared, but now they're back.

It would be fun to have an oldbie fashionista gathering of some sort.

Viewer 2.2 Awesome

Now normally when I change clothes in SL, I use the Add to feature, so I can change wherever I'm at and not be nekkid. Well last night I was changing and adding some jewellery....and it didn't replace my old jewellery like it normally did...it went on the same attachment point.

Also, some may not know but you can have multiple clothing items on the same spot...just right click "Add" That applies to skin and the new makeup layers as well. That's right...it would now be possible for skin makers to do their own separate lines of eyeshadows, blush, lippies, etc.



I'm actually wearing four sets of earrings in that pic, and two necklaces on the chest point (and another on the spine) Just before I took that pic I was wearing 2 makeup layers over it...just because I could.

Thank you Linden Lab.

Shiny Things Delphine

Shiny Things Delphine is a 2.foo alpha compatible, high heeled, almond-toed, mary jane pump with a slight platform that is very classic but still subtly sexy. The heel is probably equivalent to about a 100mm heel in RL. So far they only come in leathers. We need suedes and satins Fally!
Love them, they are fabulous shoes!





SLURL to Shiny Things

Icing Equestrienne

Have I mentioned Miko Omegamu is back to making retro pretty stuffage in SL? Yes, yes she is. And if you've seen me in world you've probably seen me wearing some of her recent stuffage, like the Mad Men inspired Peggy dress.

This is Equestrienne a very lovely riding habit. You can wear it either with the skirt (with our without the bustle or with the breeches. I paired it with Lassitude & Ennui's very realistic looking Severan riding boots which are now 2.foo alpha compatible.



SLURL to ICING main Store in Mischief

SLURL to Lassitude & Ennui in Nouveau

Wearing purple for GLAAD Spirit Day

GLAAD Spirit Day


What is Spirit Day?

The idea behind Spirit Day, first created by teenager Brittany McMillan earlier this month, is a simple one, not dissimilar to the idea of "Spirit Week" held in many high schools, and can be summed up in three words: Everyone Rally Together.

Spirit Day honors the teenagers who had taken their own lives in recent weeks. But just as importantly, it's also a way to show the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youth who face the same pressures and bullying, that there is a vast community of people who support them.

Purple symbolizes 'spirit' on the rainbow flag, a symbol for LGBT Pride that was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978.

As one of the event's Facebook pages says: "This event is not a seminar nor is it a rally. There is NO meeting place. All you have to do is wear purple."

Wearing purple on October 20 is a simple way to show the world that you stand by these courageous young people and a simple way to stand UP to the bullies. Remember those lives we've tragically lost, and show your solidarity with those who are still fighting. 'Go Purple' today!

http://www.glaad.org/spiritday

At the Cup of Goodness:



Myself, CoG owner Elisabeth Beurling, Icy Rage, Zana Starsider, Dana Starsider, all showing our support. Thank you to everyone there.

Two lovely avatars.

There are blogs out there that Fug SL avatars, but I sometimes like to show lovely ones I run across.

At the "Cup of Goodness" Sami Mohindi, wearing a lovely Pixeldolls dress, Truth hair and what she said was a Rockberry skin, romantically pretty:



Linda Whitehead, who had paired the top and sweater from Icing's Robot Love with some trousers:



And here I am with her, having paired the Robot Love top with a pencil skirt:

Food is the new black.

Slurpee's from Callie Cline are Yummy!




Rive Gauche dress from Baiastice
Baiastice store

BlakOpal Bella Luna

BlakOpal isn't a new store to me, I don't recall ever mentioning them on the blog before. They desbribe themselves best: Victorian, Gothic, Steampunk, and Pirate-wear for Men and women. This is a new Gothy release, Bella Luna



Basically a short crocheted lace minidress with prim bustle lace thingy with red rose accents. Black and red...can't go wrong there...I love the black n red



Moves well too. That's what of my things I look out for, does it look pretty when I'm moving. I'm all about the pretty.



That is very nice work on the bodice, well done indeed.



The stockings, while very squeetastic, are let down by the SL ankles, darn it. I do so love a good patterned stocking (in RL as well).



Those are the Riveted Low ankle boots, a little Western to my taste but not bad at all. Though IMHO it's the pirate-y knee boots to really take the cake in the footwear section at BlakOpal. Mmmm Pirates. In fact, the first time I saw a lady dressed in BlakOpal Pirate gear I immediately thought: "Pretty! CC Want!" And I still haven't got around to it...skin comes first.

The gown was dropped on me by the owner, but I have other blakopal items in my inventory. The skin is a 5th and Oxford Brooke Nightfall. The hair is new, a very "Joan from Mad Men"-ish updo named "Mrs. Kitten 2"from Clawtooth at Tableau

SLURL BlakOpal Main Store

SLURL to 5th and Oxford at Nouveau

SLURL to Clawtooth in Tableau

My Name is CC and I'm a Girloholic. (with props to Salome)

My former Boss at Linden Lifestyles, Salome strangelove has written a very thoughtful post in regards to her feminism and her "Squee" over SL fashion.

I could tell epic stories about my angst in trying to reconcile my feminism, with my love of femme-y things, and my Transgenderedness. And I do mean epic. I have several threads, one of them 18 pages, on a message board I frequent that are basically all about that issue.

It wasn't till relatively recently, May of Last year, that I got over it...mostly. You see, for many years, I thought that because I was a nerd, I couldn't be a woman because I was nothing like a woman. Also for many years, I thought I couldn't be a woman because I was attracted women (I didn't know that lesbian MTF Transsexuals existed). And there were times that I believed that because I'd go squee over some RL pair of shoes like these Christian Louboutin Anemone's (even if I couldn't actually walk or afford them) that I wasn't "really a TS".

Dear readers, did I ever tell you that I'm amazingly low self esteemy? Even in SL! Just last week I was thinking that perhaps my avatar wasn't pretty enough.

What helped me the most was my friends on the Internets, and the Visible: A Femmethology Volumes.

Am I a feminist? Yes, yes I am. I've identified as such for years. Lets see, I think it was before Anita Hill, somewhere between 1988 and 1990. I began identifying more strongly with feminism with the rise of Third Wave feminism. In fact, it was a series of articles and interviews in Glamour magazine about and by Naomi Wolf and Susan Faludi that did so.

I would describe myself as a pro-porn, pro-choice Third Wave feminist. I'm a practical feminist, I don't go for that deconstruction and theorizing, it hurts my head. I like to keep it simple.

I don't refer to myself as a "girl" or "woman" yet, I feel like I haven't "earned it" yet, but when I was young, I played with my sisters dolls, read her YM and Seventeen, played with her makeup. But that doesn't mean I didn't like Dungeons & Dragon's (got my first set in 81), playing with the Brix Blox Lego knockoffs, and playing video games.

I also sometimes sing the chorus of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" from the Musical "Flower Drum Song", sometimes ironically, but sometimes not, and I have done it while shopping in SL:


When I have a brand new hairdo
With my eyelashes all in curl,
I float as the clouds on air do,
I enjoy being a girl!

Vita's Boudoir

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes mentioned a shop called Boudoir operated by two RL fashionista sisters (SL names: Vitabela Dubrovna & Precious Restless) who own a RL shop of the same name in Croatia. It's all couture and runway inspired stuff, totally impractical, but very fabulous. I only saw one dress that really spoke to me at that particular moment: The Bed of Roses Dress



The laced corset style bodice appears to be leather to me, and the sheer tulle skirt (I think it's tulle) is covered in roses. It's got a sort of badass punk princess look to it. The skirt has the usual alpha issues though, not too bad though and it looks nice while moving.




I also saw these Red open-toed platform stilettos with roses, very couture-y...I know it's not a word. :-)



I was a bit surprised by the store build, I was disappointed, I expected it to look more like their lovely Boutique in Zagreb, which you can see in this Youtube Video of their boutique


Boudoir at Zora 61, 205, 303
There are also websites for both the RL and SL boutiques

RL Boutique store website
SL Boutique blog


ETD Lorraine hair
5th & Oxford Brooke Subtle skin

Rosie's Thingies

Rosemarie Indigo dropped a blogger box on me today, and the name of the shop intrigued me so I opened it right up. Eyes, it contained eyes, Considering how my favourite Eye maker (Miriel Enfield) has left SL, I figured I ought to take a look considering how the eyes were described as a fruit inspired set. One set of the eyes, the Framboise (raspberry) made CC look deranged, but this set...the Kiwi, is nice.



A very nice kiwi-ish green, and how I love a nice green eye. Now admittedly I'm a smaller iris sort of gal, so these larger irises aren't my thing, but if you do like quirky large irised eyes, you ought to take a look...considering how the designer said she was a Miriel fan herself. They're inexpesive as well, 30L% for the fruit eyes, except for Framboise, which is a dollarbie.

Rosie's Thingies at Fantasy Dreams (181, 109, 801)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fantasy%20Dreams/181/109/801

And on XstreetSL:
https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=237462