I discovered Serene Sensations recently, and I’ve been wearing this for several days now. Details after the break below:
Posts Tagged ‘Couture
In a bid that almost surely takes the second place as the highest auction bid for a virtual object, a pair of avatars pooled their money to win the last copy of a very limited-supply item.
According to New World Notes and Kay Fairey and Clarabelle Cazalet, a pair of Second Life models, combined to purchase the last copy of Eshi Otawara’s famous “fishhook” gown. The proceeds of the auction went to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, one of the Grid’s favorite charities.
More information available at Not Possible in Real Life — which this dress surely qualifies for!
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A side note: Eshi is also known for her ongoing battle with U. S. Immigration, which is attempting to deport her on a charge of “green-card marriage.” The fight is continuing; while I take no sides in the question here, being unfamiliar with the matter, I link to her current status, and ask you to judge for yourselves. If you support Eshi, please consider contacting Immigrations and Custom Enforcement, and your congresscritter or senator, to bring this to their attention.
25
Apr
Red Dream from Alchemy
When Alchemy announced a 50-linden clearance sale about a week ago, I rushed over to check things out. There was probably more I could have spent my cash on, but I picked out only four dresses, two pair of each.
This dress is called Dream in the Inventory, and it’s definitely a dream design. I like the slingshot halter top especially — not surprising, I guess, considering a similar top is in the custom Droxine gown I commissioned a few months ago — and the skirt is reminiscent of Marilyn’s in The Seven Year Itch. I’m not sure if it’ll still be there; I’ve been catching up on other things, including starting my art store. But it may be worth a look!
Aleida at the Ewing Fashion Agency blog has sampled the spring 2008 catalogue from Paper Couture, and written about it here:
Paper Couture - Spring 2008 « Ewing Fashion Agency
The two ensembles she illustrates are definitely to die for — especially that picture hat! It’s a pity I don’t go anyplace where such a hat would be in good taste to wear; but it’s still tempting to go get it.
Or at least it seems that way. Like half of the avatars of Second Life, when the Last Sale of the late couturière’s designs started up at Last Call, I loaded up at the bargain-basement prices. But I was buying before that as well, and a good Talamasca is well worth the original price. If there was a vintage couture market for designs on the Grid — impossible because of most perm settings — Ginny’s styles would rank up at or near the top.
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I wanted a new gown for a fashion portrait I was shooting for my new page on the Second Life Bloggers site at ning.com, and so I broke into the Inventory and chose an item I’ve been wearing a lot of lately in various forms: Ginny’s Milena gown. This is a gorgeous creation in leather and black satin; the bustier hugs you in just the right spots (grin), while the bustle gives that romantic luxury we ball-dancers crave. I chose the chessboard in Versailles to pose at for the portrait, and the result was:
Second Life is loaded with great designers, even with the amount of content theft going on. I’m glad to say that a lot of people are hanging on, and still making great clothes for the fashionable avatar.
I’m also sorry to say this, because a large part of my budget every week goes to buying new dresses and the associated details (sigh, grin).
But there is a way to make your clothes do double duty. Some have thought of this already, I suspect; but it bears repeating — take off your prim skirt. Now don’t freak on me! Remember, many designers include the famous “glitch pants,” to cover up, shall we say, embarrassing moments when we sit down or fly someplace. By taking off the skirt and wearing the essential parts of the rest of the costume, we have two outfits for the price of one, a gown and a pantsuit!
Demonstrations: the first is Pragmata, and the second is Nadirra, both by Ginny Talamasca.
Make your money count, ladies. You don’t have to go into virtual bankruptcy to have tons of lovely outfits every week!
You may recall the flap a few weeks ago, started by the Washington Post, about how the CIA and others in (pseudo-) intelligence are worried virtual worlds such as Second Life can be recruiting, meeting and (money) laundry grounds for terrorists. (If you don’t recall, read here.)
Well, Chrisy Jewell read this recently, also discovering that the code name for the CIA’s operation in world is Reynard; and realized something the Post didn’t think about: if you’re gonna be keeping tabs on the bad guys, you should at least dress properly for the job. So she threw together a nice — and, more important, stylish — outfit from Shai, et al., and proceeded to put it to the test.
I can’t say if she managed to keep an eye on any bad guys. But, hey! She sure looked good!
(Incidentally, I wouldn’t count on being able to bring up “Reynard” in Search….)
We’ve all had that feeling at least once, I suppose; we teleport somewhere, and find on landing that half — if not all — of our attachments have become unattached from where they’re supposed to be, and hooked back up in our (ahem) nether regions. You either spend 5 minutes or so unattaching and reattaching everything, or log out and back in to do an “instant fix.” It isn’t that instant, of course, but sometimes it’s faster, depending on just how much garbage has suddenly acquired an affinity for your 6 o’clock.
Kit had a bit more extreme case than most, it seems; I discovered this the other day. Check the comments for a little extra giggle; and it also sends you to yet another article, with even better comments!!
22
Feb
Ready for Oscar Night
I wasn’t planning on putting up any more photos from other Residents for a few weeks, but I spotted this after posting this morning’s Contact Sheet, and it was too good to hold back. Connie Sec again, in something that would make every fashion critic drool for as she walked into the Kodak to prepare for her presentation turn for best picture:
The gown is by Pixel Mode, the hair by Truth. And Joan Rivers would shoot herself on seeing this. It reminds me of Charlize Theron a few times, like in that orange number with the shoulder clips some years ago. Young, sexy but with an old-school sophistication that is gradually coming back.
If I had to match this, I’d wear one of my Nadirra gowns from Last Call at first guess, such as this (which I’ve published before), but with a different, more formal updo hairstyle:
What would others of you wear? Send me links to Flickr photos or blog articles in the comments below.
(I was going to publish this yesterday, but the Real World interfered, and I’ve lost some of my planned links. Ah, well…. Also, a caution: just a touch of strong language below, but justifiable in the circumstances. Read on….)
The latest business crisis on the Grid stems from, not to put too fine a meaning on it, out and out piracy. In-world designers are suffering from more, and more aggressive, batches of slime mold who harvest skins and fashions, then reproduce them and sell them at a tithe of what the original designer charges. According to the lead of Eric Reuters’ story, one Jolly Roger, filled with the sheerest gall and covered in brass, actually sent alts into a designer’s grand opening, shouting to the crowd that the same stuff was available at his store at a fraction of the price.
It’s evident that the labels of Second Life are experiencing what has plagued RL labels for years, if not decades: the cheap knockoff industry. Name companies have fought for many a day against Asian makers and importers of fake Rolex watches, Gucci handbags and Chanel sunglasses, not to mention the entrenched battle Microsoft pits against pirated versions of Windows. (Remember pictures from the RL news of piles of knockoffs being smashed under steamrollers?) This war now spills over to the virtual economy — and it’s a lot harder to fight. We do possess the intellectual property rights to our work, and presumably the textures we use. But the only way we can wage the battle is through filing complaints based on the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) — something the many international Residents have a hard time doing. Or lawsuits can be filed; but, if the perpetrator lives in another country, that brings a whole new factor to the equation. Other aspects can be imagined, of course; I leave them as an exercise.
When it comes to the question of individual downloaders vs. music corporations or movie studios, I probably shouldn’t talk myself; but I tend to lean toward the individual. The companies’ policy has been for years to milk every penny they can out of the consumer, with merchandise that is dramatically overpriced relative to the cost of producing it. (I believe this; I work in the retail end of the industry.) They seem either congenitally unable to realize that they can make up in volume what they would “lose” by lowering their list prices, or are simply too greedy in upper echelons to give the consumer a break. The designers of Second Life, however, are not megacorps, despite their appearance of being so. Any Resident who applies himself/herself to designing and using tools such as Paint Shop Pro can afford to buy a quarter- or half-island and erect as palatial a store as Nicky Ree or Elika Tiramisu. These people are small business people, just like the pirates; the difference is that they’re playing fair and square, by the rules of society and the laws of their countries. And, most importantly, the ambition and drive to make something of themselves, as well as (perhaps) that thing that burns in the craw and heart of true artists — the need, physically and emotionally, to create.
The ones who are stealing from them are thieves, louts, lazy-assed oafs and caitiff rogues, plain and simple. Their only concern is to make a fistful of lindens, and a few lindens more, and they don’t care how they do it, or who they hurt in the process. Their vision is focused only on the short-term gain, and how long they can milk it — and, in that, they aren’t too different from the RIAA’s member companies. Their thefts kill the market for the original work, smother the drive for creativity (that the thieves are, ironically, relying on for their stolen goods!), and contribute nothing to the community except pollution of spirit. They and all their kind, if you’ll excuse the passion, are an accursed breed, and should be shunned as such.
You can help on this:
- Deal only with reputable merchants — though not just the big names, please; a small creator/merchant can be just as honest.
- If you spot someone ripping off a known skin or design, report them to the actual creator, especially the name and location they’re operating on. Also report them to Linden Lab, to back up and document any claims the artist may make under DMCA. Snapshots can document the situation; in this case, remember to keep the interface on, to collect as much information as possible.
- Vote on SVC-676, “Stopping texture theft and stop spreading of stolen items.” Remember that you’ll need to log in with your Second Life name and password. The process is not difficult at all, and lets you exercise community involvement and pressure on LL to take action.
In an ideal world, real or virtual, we wouldn’t need to deal with such wolf’s-heads, for they would not exist. Sadly, even here in Second Life, we are faced with thievery. Let’s help in the best ways we can, support true creativity as well as legitimate commerce, and drive the thieves away.
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Besides the Reuters article, others have tackled the problem on their own sites and blogs. A no-doubt partial list:
- Wagner James Au, New World Notes
- SLNN
- Does this make my ass look fat? (sic)
- Ornamental Life
- Fashion Consolidated
