Bring On The Violins

Ok, so the Vintage Fair is on. Not news anymore. It's a colourful, drool inducing experience and a good zen practice as it brings you down to the pace of the inevitable lag.

Despite the riches on offer, I was struggling to find stuff suited for the androgyne. This might be fair enough, to be honest, but still made my day a wee tad gloomy. The more fanciful the female outfits, the less extravagant the male... if present at all. And for the androgyne? He he.... well... not.


I realised this after I came across three theatrical creations from LG Concept Mademoiselle collection, sweetly suggesting commedia dell'arte and carnival. For once, my standard personal challenge at these events, 'create three outfits', failed and I had to leave the fair to find stuff to wear with them. 
Not that I'm complaining... in the end I had real good fun putting this lot together... keeping my initial gloominess as inspiration. For a larger version of the image above to see the outfits better, just click the X. 


The Violin Collar... sweet number one. Not yet available at the store but can be found at the shop at the fair.  Miamai released their new Linda Jumpsuit just in time to stop me tearing my hair out. White shirt and black opera gloves from the historic depths of my inventory. 
An old maiko skin became perfection with the black/pink Drama Eyes and Devil May Cry tears from Sorry Asia. Hooray for multiple layers, tears for Sorry Asia that's about to close the doors the 27th November. 
Last but not least.. my funny favourite PYO902 hair from BooN.


The Floral Napoleon... sweet number two. The original is a bit smaller... made to sit daintily on a fem hairdo. Comes as no mod and without any resizer... too many prims are already at their smallest size I was informed so mod was a risky business. Thank you LaGyo for this copy, making it possible for me to wear it in the male way on my larger head.
White Bow Shirt and Balloon Pants are both from COCO. Boots with stockings from ALB Dreamfashion, the 'seashore' Joy Boots.
The thematic Columbine Apres La Danse cosmetics is my latest purchase from Miss Shippe's Studio and hair base with the forelock comes from a new release at L+N Signature.


The Blind Mask - sweet number three. Perfect fit over a multiple layered makeup. The Devil May Cry tears and Nuuna's Astroglam Pink Makeup over the Clockwork Geisha from Tableau Vivant.
Cropped New Hope Sweater from Envious and Elaine Bell Bottom from Bliss Couture.
The backdrop is a photo of the de Chirico inspired tableau at the surrealistic Flashman's jazz club. Photos raw from SL... except the top one where three images was superimposed over each other.

Latex, my love

For those of you who thought they lost out when there was no latex or straps in my last posting... I've got news for you. Latex Station is having an store hunt.



Ten female and two male free outfits have been placed out throughout the levels. With this I mean 12 different outfits, not colour variations of the same. They are easy to find with a systematic stroll through the futuristic store that's worth a visit in it's own right. You're looking for large boxes textured with the vendor images of the included outfit. As easy as it sounds. 
The hunt lasts to Friday so there's a few days still to go. 



My two favourites from the lot... obviously created with me especially in mind. Yummy!Above: Overmoulding Blue.  Below: Francesca. Boots are not included. 
The poses were created on the spot using my trustworthy Animare, which I've blogged before => X.



That's it folks... have fun. If latex is your game, Latex Station is the name...
Now... if you will excuse me... *Turns my back*



Sooooooo... teddy... where did you say you hid the chocolate...?...

#7 Fetish

The personal Finesmith challenge is nearing it's end, this is #7 out of 10, and the theme is fetish. Fetish might not an art form but it is most certainly a popular genre.
A fetish is really just an object believed to have super natural powers... ehm... kind of easy to see why the term also is used for sexual obsessions for certain things, be it objects, poses or whatever. That's about how much I will 'discuss' it... 'everyone' knows what it is anyway.
My personal take is focusing entirely on the passion and the helplessness we feel when we're up against something from our own unconscious. Very organic, very animalistic, something I've tried to reflect in the outfit. Again, quite different from the kind of images turn up in a google search, not any vinyl or rubber anywhere... just organica.


Finesmith's In the flash - shpitz expressed exactly what I was trying to capture and I kept it as the only piece of jewelery. It was combined with a few things from ALB Dreamfashion: the Santina corset, feather shoulders from the Mara Elephant and the pants/stocking from the Mara Giraffe outfit. Yea, yea... you can have giraffes as fetish, no? Just imagine Freud's take on that.


Other visible its and pieces are Bax black suede ankle boots, Obscure net top by deviant girls and Sockers thong from Jungle Wear.


I found the long sharp nails by Cult of Belgar on the market place. I seem to have too big hands for all the real fancy nails, but these one are good. Costs a fraction and come with a colour and resizer HUD.
Cosmetics from A:S:S over Osakki's Creative Facepaint, my usual brands *shrugs*
There you have it. Hope something is of interest. Take care and have fun!

Wish I Was There

As the northern hemisphere rapidly approach winter, we in the southern are plunging closer to the summer heat. We had a fright the other day with the promise of the first true heat spike of the season and suddenly I longed for the northern midwinter. Freezing and little daylight but with the snow glistening and heavy on the tree branches and crunching under your feet.

Or maybe I was trying some 'heat magic', trying to cool myself by preparing something for low temperatures and hope the created illusion I'm cool. That kind of magic works well for politicians... they cover the farce with serious talk and suddenly they take themselves very seriously.
Or... maybe I just wanted to show off some lucky chair prizes and the prattle above is my lame way of introducing them.

Whatever the reason, if you enjoy japanese designers and are open to their special style, these two (out of three) lucky chair prizes will make you happy. The ivory boots and the 'grey-brown stripe' poncho, even if it's a jacket, are both scrumptious lucky chair prices at BUKKA. The colours and textures are made with the same delicacy which you can expect from a japanese creator. If you like natural hues, this place is a must, the wool has such fine quality about it you can smell the lanolin.
The boots come with socks on/off options and the jacket has a HUD driven colour change for collar and fringes. The little bag is a joining gift from the sub group and another group gift is lurking in the kiosk history. Well worth a visit in other words.
Have a good weekend.

This Is England

Now I love a good little event, so when I heard about MENS.SELECT I got all excited. The Dressing Room? For guys? Sign me up! And what should be there but a blue parka like I had as a small boy! That was probably the first item of clothing I ever really wanted, and if truth be told the only one for a few years more. We all zipped them up and stared past the faux-fur porthole as we ran around and it was wonderful. So I grabbed one and considered going over a field to kick a ball about, but realised I'm a grown man now.

The only option was the moody, brooding, young adult of the 80s. Sitting in wastelands drinking cheap cider, kicking the cans instead of a ball. Now, if you thought I was all set there, imagine my eyes when I saw that the creators, 22769, had another offering at The Vintage Fair - yes, the parka of my childhood wasn't enough for them, they wanted to turn me punk with a Union Jack parka too!

Now I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of SL coats. So often they look a little too turtleshell for my taste, but people like them and the Union Jack parka is a very fine coat in that regard, but for me the Blue Parka is the find of the month - not only is it a wonderful blast from the past but it's also one of the best made coats I've ever come across. It fits! I adore this parka, and with winter coming I look forward to wearing it a lot more.

No Dark Mice

May I present a new version of Siss? I'm playing with my shape to see what happens. This version of me is at least one head taller, and the face reflect more the classic ideals of the mediterranean cultures that inspire my colours. I'm attending this modelling course you see, and this is part of the necessary tasks if you nurturing secret dreams to be a super model... or simply just want to pass the course.

After recovering from the vertigo and gaining control of the stilts, I think I'm quite dapper. 

Anyway... that is not what I wanted to tell you about. I would like to draw your attention to a couple of real nice jewelery deals I've come across with unbeatable prices. They are completely free! The first is the lucky boards at Dark Mouse. The second is the November group gift at Finesmith.

Dark Mouse is a treasure for vintage feeling jewelery, all beautifully done and in tastefully subdued colours.  I haven't been there for some time so it was news to me that the lone lucky chair from the past has been replaced by six lucky boards. Three of those together creates this softly colourful Midsummer set. Each piece is delivered with both warm and cool colour schemes options... think red and gold or blue and silver. 

I keep going on about Finesmith and I'll do it again... and again... simply because some of their stuff is amazing. Finesmith is also a generous store which spoils its group members (no joining fee btw) with sudden flash deals or impromptu gifts. Some of the gifts are very stylish indeed, like the Geo set below, which is the group gift for this month. 

The straight lines in the design and the large contrasting pearls suggests Art Deco and considering that the Vintage Fair is still going strong, this set is definitely SL a la mode. But then, this is SL, all styles are ALWAYS a la mode here. How great is that?
The rest of the outfit was cobbled together as follows, all with 'old' favourites:
Hair - Black Jack from Shag, on black hair base from BooN.Make up - the subtle Guy Liner 12 from A:S:S and lip stain from Mock.Jacket - obviously white version of R.icielli's Alexandra leather jacket.Tank - brown transparent version of Summer Tank from A:S:S.Pants - COCO's Slim Fit Pants in gold.Shoes - Soubresout from 2g.

A Dapper Tascher

There are more than a few moustaches making appearances in that real world place this month, and I kinda love it. Facial hair gets a bad reputation sometimes, and in fairness there is a lot of pretty dodgy stuff out there, but as I sit here with my perennial stubble I lament the sparsity of SL facial hair. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it's not exactly common, and even less commonly good.

Now the tattoo layer is a real boon for facial hair fans, especially now we can wear multiple tattoo layers for those of us who want to use that layer for something more central to our identities (in my case my actual hair, but for many their ink is a large part of them). But the tattoo layer is very flat. I can get a nice stubble happening sure, I can even claim it a tightly trimmed beard, but the reality is your options are limits to something plastered to your face. (A comment which incidentally has given me a craving for one of those pencil moustaches slicked down with... well possibly best not to ask what with.)

Anyway, my recent revelation and desire aside, a thin moustache is rarely doable is it? I mean, full facial coverage works from stubble to ZZ Top, but a stubble moustache? Sorry, you'd look like a teenager trying to prove to everyone he shaves by not shaving the 5 hairs off his top lip. SO we get to the three dimension facial hair. Yes, having ditched prim hair I realise I am missing out on a big part of the SL experience, but instead of growing flowing locks I took a quicker solution - put the prims on my top lip.

Lucky for me, over at Discord Designs they have the Tasche Dash! 30 days, 30 sets of primly goodness facial hair, at 30L - they say it's 30L each, but it's actually 30L for a pack of four similar shades.

As you can see above there are many boxes per day. Aside from the standard pack they also have a 12 pack for 60L, or as I was possibly a tad excited at the bottom row... 90L for all 36 shades! Yes, that is where my Amethyst Mario Moustache came from, the scary bottom row which also included blues and hot pink! (The hot pink is actually in the purple box should you desire it.)

I love it, there are 13 out already, and previews of the next couple of days. The old ones are still available though, it's not a limited "one day to buy" type sale, it's one more being released per day. They really are great fun, there's a beard and a soul patch also available already, with the promise of more varieties to come. In fairness, there are some similar offerings, but there really is only so much you can do with facial hair so look at it as a way to find the perfect variation for you.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to look as dapper as I do (or indeed slightly regal with my purpleness) get on over there and poke around.

#6 Avant Garde (with Humour and Heart)

Its time for my little weekly Finesmith challenge. It might be a bit of a drag, but I'm learning a lot in the process and, most importantly, it's fun. I'm up to week #6 and the theme is avant garde.

Avant garde is a term that was very popular in the last century for cultural path finders into the new and un-explored. For the public, stuck in the 'bourgeois establishment', avant garde was the shockingly new that caused scandal and ridicule before it gradually became adopted into the mainstream as the new norm. 

Avant garde was the real catch phrase until art's only purpose became to shock...  shocking for the sake of shocking rather than for innovation or serious discourse. Personally, I find this has happened in the so called 'avant garde' of fashion... especially in SL. It has become a genre in it's own right with a very specific style that tends to look the same every season. If it has shown some direction it tending towards the hard and cold with more and more open BDSM involved in the imagery. I touched on this is the post about Mannerism. Then there's of course the liberating wearable art, which has it's own conceptual background, but which need be considered in any concluding discussion on the subject.

To be quite honest, I was rather despairing until, out of the blue, Azoury launched a fund raiser for Somalia. Of course... what else to bring some shock and new direction to our culture but some empathy and good hearted humour? So here we go...
Azoury's fund raising Constance - La Cape Afrique (not available, but is sold in other colours) over parts of the Ninja II Unisex from Ladies WhoLunch. The shiny black belt with it's squarish silver buckle chose the Active Ankle Boots from Neurolab Inc. 



The round buttons of the cape asked for Finesmith's Berry Blossom set, which asked for the sweetly crazy PYO902 hair from BooN (scrunchie with texture change). Makeup - A:S:S  Guyliner over Osakki Creativ Facepaint.
I'm fond of this outfit. It makes me smile and I enjoy wearing it.  It will linger in my inventory as a grid hopping one for sure.
Photos were taken over Quadrapop Lane's retrospective installation on LEA6.

Until next... take care and have fun!

Out For Lunch

Either there's something in the air or I have simply visited too many mind blowing builds these last few days. Whatever the reason, I feel the 'need' to push a little clothes-wise and try something new. 


Feeling like this, what better place to make acquaintance with than Ladies Who Lunch? Even if I'm not exactly a lady, or that they would only cater for such, I had a ball among the quirky and fun avant garde stuff. Like the After 6 Jacket and Stovepipe Slacks (cuff sculpts turned upside down). Not the usual tails, exactly.


The Alejandro Headdress is unique to say the least and doesn't exactly answer to mainstream aesthetics. I love it! The platinum hair and the separate eye pieces are included. Something to wear while around the grid and not just for dress-ups.

And heeee...... one have to love the Army Mouse Helmet. Here combined with Hijab (modded to fit) and Harem Pants, both available in a wide range of colours. The pant racks looks like a lolly stand, a yummy range of colours and textures.


I took these photos on Spencer Art Museum, funnily enough owned by the FL Spencer Museum of Art, (University of Kansas)... I would never have guessed! Anyway, it's an adventure. I used the 'Sailor's Delight' windlight preset and tweaked the gamma for more light and mmm... 
Real surrealism... or is it surreal realism? This is SL after all.

A Flash In The Sky

On Sunday I suggested that women could (and indeed should) buy a men's jacket, which is all well and good but let's be honest, women probably have more quality clothes on offer to them. Take 22769 for example. I've been watching them grow since they were exclusively menswear, these days they probably have a bigger ladieswear section than they do menswear! And the thing is, they make my kind of clothes. Earlier today they released some sneak photos of their items at the Vintage Fair; us chaps will be able to buy a pretty respectable 60s jacket. The ladies? They get two stunning flight attendant outfits (very Pan-Am) to choose from, and the outfit probably every woman in SL should invest in - a Barbarella dollarbie!

Now I found this sickening. This is a rather stunning little outfit and only a dollar, and only for women... or is it? Men can go in space too you know! Don't believe me? Well here I am hanging around in zero gravity.

Forget Barbarella, that outfit is Flasherella! Now I will confess it took a little tweaking to make it fit. I'm probably not quite there yet, but I am about twice the size of the mannequin it was made on so a little effort is only to be expected. But I ask you what is wrong with that? I was so happy I felt I could dance the night away, so I did - until the region restart told me to move along and stop disturbing the peace anyway.

So there you have it, not just a call for more unisex stores, but unisex clothes! Women buy "boyfriend cut" jeans for a reason. Men know that their shirts will get stolen every so often. We have this already, so bring on recognition! Stop limiting your shopping to half the store, explore, browse, and seriously... male or female that outfit will only cost you a single dollar when the fair opens. That really is a deal that's out of this world.

Cuckoo about COCO

Hiya again... COCO is having a clearance sale, a massive one with stuff reduced down to 75% which brings many prices down to well below 100 lindens. It's been on since August so this is not new news exactly. So much happens in SL, it's easy to miss worthwhile events, though.

COCO isn't costly at any time so this is a golden opportunity to pick up some real fantastic bargains. For all you full fem guys, check out the new summer dresses.

The freshness of her apparel is timeless,  her garments will last a long long time. I've bought my way through most of her shop during my time in SL but I added the bits below at long last, true to my bad habits I made it a challenge: find a complete outfit among 'new' stuff.




Fresh from her vendors: Cropped Knit Tee (red, 75L), Asymmetric Mini Skirt (tweed, 75L), Slim Fit Pants (black, 50L) and the black Engineer Boots (v2 and resizer HUD, 250L). I haven't bought the boots earlier because I thought I already owned the 'ultimate' boots of that strapped style, but having seen the textures of these ones I'm changed alliance. These are the scrummiest to date! 


While at COCO, a visit to the gift shelf is a must.  All of them are serious keepers. The appearance of new gifts might be a bit sporadic, but the quality is as good as the priced stuff. As new gifts are added at one end of the shelf, the old are removed from the other. Next in line to disappear *sobs* is the classic black Turtleneck Sweater which has earned the position of 'essential' in my wardrobe. It comes with wrist cuffs and two different sized collars. The texture is very dark but has a true ribbed texture. Creates a bit of a contrast with the White Leggings ^^
The Flat Ankle Boots can be sized up to fit men as well. In fact I wore them as man in Gor and they looked better than most rp boots. They come with separate invisi prims, but it's an easy task to replace them with some random alpha from the inventory. The Shirt & Parka combo is available in four different colours divided on two  gifts. 






That's it for this time folks. The marvellous locations are from the fantastic The Path, a collaborate art project involving some of the best builder artists in SL. It's organised like a whimsical surreal tale where you have to find the tp to the next build. Each build is a mini world to explore. The creators of these two builds are Claudia222 Jewell and ROSE, respectively.

The Defiant Peacock

SL is always full of people with different opinions, but luckily there's one thing everyone can agree on - I'm never wrong. Which is why I got all excited to learn that the November group gift from VICE! was made for me! I mean sure, they claim this pose has something to do with remembering fallen heroes and stuff but let's be honest here - I'm never wrong. Although I guess the rifle they include with the pose does suggest it could be used as a military pose too...

With a pose called Defiant in my pocket I found myself pondering just how to express my greatness. Then I looked at the pile of computer parts sitting on the floor next to me and realised I should pick something other than my ability to upgrade my PC in a timely fashion (I know, perfection even evades me - just think of it as character). And then it struck me! I apparently really suck at anything to do with timing. Why? Because La Venta Eventa finishes today and I had a weekend bargain, and bargain does not do this justice. Over at A:S:S is a peacock bolero jacket. Now I'll be honest, they released a set of these the other week and I looked at them and thought "Nice, but not for me." When I heard about this one I figured I'd skip it, and then I saw it in all it's peacocky goodness and my fingers did a Bambi on ice type thing as they scrabbled over my drool covered keyboard to get me to the store quickly.

I like it.

Suddenly I was set! How better to show my defiance to the world than to dress as a peacock? So I posed, majestic and proud, and of course defiantly.

Now I paid 80L for my jacket, and I apologise if you read this too late. But based on past experience it will stay in the store, and the originals only cost 129L so if we assume this will be reasonably similar you're still getting great value really. And although A:S:S is in the menswear arm of La Venta Eventa it's safe to say this is pretty unisex - although if anyone looks better in it that I do I may have a use for that rifle after all...

#5 Classicism

I'm catching up. Week five of my challenge and the theme is 'Classic'.

I think ancient Greece, white marble, simple lines and harmonious proportions of mathematical precision. Whenever western society have wanted to start afresh, its gaze has returned to classic Greece for inspiration... which is why so many state buildings in former colonies are light in colour and have greek pillars. In fact, the White House is a good neo-classical example.



Then, of course, there's also classic fashion. Simple elegance that's easy on the eyes and never goes out of fashion. Think tux or little black dress. 

The ancient greeks designed after mathematical ideals of a divine beauty and nothing is more perfect than the circle. This makes the Finesmith Cybergirl necklace a perfect centrepiece for an outfit. The bracelets are part of the set while the more toned downed ear rings comes from Alienbear. The Tear Drops & Diamond Earrings mirror the gem shapes in the neck piece AND they are 'classic' in their own right, created as they were back in 2007.

I stuck to simple for the clothes and included soft folds and braided hairstyle to keep in touch with historic fashions. The colour was decided by the cardigan (Drape T & Cardigan Set from Scars), which you can have in any colour you want as long it's black. To avoid ending up with another black pants outfit (yet again the non-poofy bits of the, obviously, VERY useful Reich Pants from Tableau Vivant), I added a pencil mesh skirt (Lorene by Pixelated Design on the Marketplace). After that, I obviously gave the fem free reins. 
Black Sophie Hat - By Morrigan Hyun. Dug up from the depths of my inventory when I failed to find what I wanted in the stores. It's so old even the creator's account appears to be closed down. 
Backless Ankle Boots - COCO. I've used them before. Far from new but still looks good.
Hair - FTN683 with Anna45 added (extra front braid) and hair base from BooN.
I like the outcome, it reminds me about the almost fearful elegance of the late 1940s and 50s. I hope you find something that gives you pleasure in it as well.

A Rose by Any Other Name

"That which we call a rose. ... By any other name would smell as sweet..." is a famous line from one of the most romantic and tragic love stories of all time, Romeo and Juliet. This stunning wedding dress Pure gown from Hello world  is the epitome of romance with long flowing train, and sculpted roses all over. 

  
The sculpted rose head piece perfectly accents the delicate beading on the bodice. That is further accented with more sweet roses at the waist. This Nov group gift skin from Filthy is the ideal mix of sweet and sexy with the all over glow of love. The group is not free but you get a great quality skin like this EVERY month and just one of these skins are worth over 5x the cost to join. Definitely worth the investment of group slot and $L. I should also mention that there is a 50% off sale going on there now for a limited time.

This dress also comes with adorable shorter version that will make you stand out even in a field of roses, such as these at the beautiful Rose Garden on the Feast sim. This is just one part of this gorgeous natural sim. Great place to explore and did I say gorgeous? You can see more about Feast here. This awesome gown is a Lucky Board Prize but also available for sale.




Hair: B (aka Analog Dog)  Tangent
You have to check out her new stuff. Awesome new textures and still some of the best flexi hair on the grid. 
Skin: Filthy-Nov Group Gift-F ( shown here in beach tan with blusher from the sl2 group gift makeup also available now.) 
Jewelry: Icing-Princess Pearl Set
Dress: Hello world  -Pure gown. 
Shoes: GOS -Pointe Platforms  Check out my glowing review of these on marketplace

#4 Surrealism

I'm back after 1 1/2 weeks involuntary break from SL and must say that the corporate wall of what Linden Lab has become has put a real damper on my enthusiasm. Still, the intense colours are the same and so is the pixel magic so I will soon be back into my addicted self ^^

A few days late, to say the least, but it's time for the next instalment of the ten week challenge of Finesmith's from last year. The theme for week four is Surrealism, the art movement with it's roots in the 1920s and which was all about letting unconscious material flow and be given shape in various media. 

Usually surrealistic art is simply teasingly weird and strangely alien, distant and potentially dangerous. This is perfectly understandable considering the obsession with the material world and human reason that has come to dominate the western world since the Age of Reason. Freud's writings hasn't helped... the unconscious is where the wild things are, the source of all our sexual perversions and sad lives but nothing more.
However, Freud simply scratched the surface, if that. Jung continued the exploration and dived deeper and found a profoundly ordered world of magic and divinity that whispers to us in dreams and fantasies in a language that's common for all of mankind. When it is expressed destructively, we have our life and schooling to thank, both coloured and broken lenses trough which we see a distorted world.

It must be obvious that I see the energies that surrealists work with as a life source and that this is reflected in my choice of outfit.
I've chosen an old Finesmith group gift as the point of origin, the Joy necklace suggesting the basic life force. I've tried to collect symbols from the language of our collective consciousness on three different levels of being - plant, animal, human. Most of the stuff will probably make perfect 'sense'.


The fish scale 'pants' is really a free silver mer-tail from Lost in Starnight on the market place. The darkening towards the feet which was paired with the black sans heel Carmen boots from sYs. The combination brings my thoughts to grey horses, the most treasured colour in my cultural tradition as well as my personal favourite.  The FallnLuxuriaSuit coat from FallnAngel refers to the hermaphrodite of the alchemists, the result of the 'chymical wedding' or the union of male and female in all of us which the gold making process really was/is all about. 
The mask is so old I won't even bother try to research it's creator and the HSO 388 hair comes from BooN. The combination of black and white as well as the hidden or only hinted is most fortunate.
My weird shape makes mesh clothing a no go, but I found something mesh I can wear - the violin! Mikki Miles produces excellent working instruments and especially their range of medieval instruments is admirable. 
To get in the right mood for these pics... Next time you think swedes are cold and un-feeling, remember this tune: