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Writing from Destin, Florida:

Copyright 2015 by Gidge Uriza.

Gidge Uriza sums it up rather nicely in her article at Its Only Fashion, which I link to for today’s big reblog.  Hair Fair every year gives us a chance to stock up on wigs for our already ready-to-explode Inventories, and I’m on of the thousands of avatars who loves to go there, fight the crowds when needed, and purchase what strikes my fancy.  But, if I could get in world today, I’d try to remember to take off my hair and wear some kind of bandanna — because Hair Fair every year is also to support and remember the kids who don’t have the beauty, luxury — or necessity — of hair in even Real Life.

Wigs for Kids exists for the purpose of supplying hair to children who, for various medical reasons, have little or no hair.  We as adults feel it when we have a “bad hair day,” and those of us who have undergone chemotherapy know how embarrassed we feel when we start having to cover our heads as the tufts of hair are falling out.  Children feel it even more, though; they’re at a stage of development where image is so much more important, where teasing can be cuttingly cruel, or where they just want to look like the others around them.  We remember these little ones on the final day of every Hair Fair by wearing a bandanna instead of the “hair” we normally sport.

Wigs for Kids helps these children reclaim their self-esteem.  But it ain’t cheap, not by a long shot.  The mission page at WfK tells us that each wig is custom designed, handmade from human hair, and the average cost is $1,800.  That’s U. S. dollars, people, not lindens.  You can gather from this that the organization needs all the help it can get, but in two different forms, not just one.

The obvious one is what Hair Fair is for.  If you haven’t been there yet, today is your last chance for the year; go find something that makes you look ravishing when you aren’t wearing your bandanna — you did get one of those, too, right?  They’re available in every Fair sim in a special shop, for donations of 50 or 100 lindens, chump change.  But buy some wigs for Second Life, and help by your purchase to buy some wigs for the kids.  Large numbers of the vendors will dedicate at least a percentage to Wigs for Kids from every purchase, and some of the designers sign over all their sales from the vendors during this fortnight to the cause.  Be generous, please.  And, if you somehow miss Hair Fair, or just decide not to go (silly girls and boys!), go to their site and give a direct donation.

But another way to help is to donate hair.  That’s a roger, RL hair.  Like I said above, the kids’ wigs are 100% human hair, no synthetics.  You have to get the hair somewhere.  The Web site also has an aid to finding a salon that will help harvest tails of hair from donors — a minimum of 12 straight inches; pull curly hair straight to be sure — for sending in to the organization.  You can find the details here.  My own family has done this in the past when we’ve had the length, and hope to again in the future.

It’s not a hairy thing to help out here; indeed, the good work here can only grow in length.  (Sorry, that’s the best I can do writing fast here.  Any road, please help out.  And remember Hair Fair next year as well!)

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Writing from Destin, Florida —

The family is off on its annual outing in Destin.  I took along an Ethernet cable this time so I might be able to get in world on my laptop, but I can’t seem to get a connection; so I’ll be reblogging things without too much in the way of photos until about Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  I always try to bring you the best, though, so stay tuned to this blog!

First up is a piece from Gidge Uriza at Its Only Fashion.  She reminds us there’s only a few more days left to this year’s Hair Fair, so you’d better get in while you have a chance to stock up at the Grid’s Home of Hair and Heart this year.  Remember that many of your purchases will be at least split with Wigs for Kids to help that group supply wigs for children who have lost their hair for various medical reasons.  This charity is almost as popular as the various Relay for Life functions, and is often well-stocked with Residents for the first few days.  Now’s the time to work your way around, before it sinks beneath the waves for another year!

Gidge is wearing in her photos one of the hairstyles available at the Fair, from Olive, along with a dress from this month’s Collabor88 which, if you are interested in it, you should be sure to pick up the demo on first!  Gidge mentions what she is wearing is fitted to the Belleza mesh body, so don’t spend more than a linden to be sure that you can wear what you want.  See photos at Gidge’s article.

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Writing from Altamonte Springs, Fla.:

Many of the blogs that I follow send me updates by E-mail, which I try to keep up with on the road — with a little success.  Fortunately, I caught Gidge Uriza’s article for It’s Only Fashion today.  She has suggestions for casual Style on a beer budget.  Take a look at what she’s wearing in this article — the entire thing, from top to shoes, came in one package for L$195!

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You’ll find a different sort of article right now at It’s Only Fashion. Written by Cajsa Lilliehook, it’s entitled “Can’t Orkney firbkkk phone”, and it’s about something that Linden Lab could do to increase user satisfaction and attract new people — instead of mega-events and various things, why not try emphasizing the ways the people connect with each other?  The proof of Cajsa’s thesis derives from the title, which is the last line plurked by our friend Gidge Uriza as she was going under for some surgery today.  As you’ll see in Cajsa’s article, she and Gidge connected via shared experiences in Second Life, and later extended that connection to the real world as well.  Gidge was there, figuratively, for Cajsa when she was undergoing some serious medical problems a few years ago, and now Cajsa is there for Gidge.

I hope you’ll stop by and read.  I hope this especially if you are someone from the Lab; you might want to consider recommending this to your public relations department (grin).  Get well soon, Gidge!

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I agree with Cajsa in her article here; anyone who doesn’t admit to mistakes in their photography in world, especially fashion photography, is either impossibly perfect, or they aren’t going over their work very well. It’s all a learning curve, one that all of us, including myself, are still traveling. But Cajsa suggests ways here that you can shorten the curve’s slope, at least in part.

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Talk to any Second Life® photographer or blogger and they will confess to committing multiple mistakes. Anyone who says otherwise is either annoyingly perfect or blindingly unobservant. Just the other day I had to reshoot my entire blog post because I left the camera set to show the User Interface – an elementary error that could have been prevented with a simple checklist. I notice simple errors in others’ photos as well. A prim is missing from … Read More

via It’s Only Fashion

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I hope you’ll join me in wishing a speedy recovery for my friend Cajsa Lilliehook of It’s Only Fashion, who went into the hospital for an operation.  You can get a little more information by reading the article below from her blog partner and even closer friend, Gidge Uriza, but most of all you’ll get a sense of how close a true friendship can develop between people who are, seemingly, no closer related than a computer screen and modem connection.  Follow the link on through, please, and read for yourself.

(Current information is that Cajsa came out of surgery in the minimum time and is in recovery.  Let’s hope and pray for the best results!)

About three years ago I met this girl. I was busily setting up vendors in this huge BIAB shop that my friend owned and doing other shiz associated with managing a mall, and this girl was there, stuck under the stairs to the store. We laughed and talked and eventually she got unstuck but I can’t remember how. She probably had to relog. She camped at my friends club, on the same property. He paid out tons of camping lindens daily because he had thi … Read More

via It’s Only Fashion

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Some of my favorite blog articles are based around poetry or song lyrics. I’ve done a few of these myself — indeed, I’ve composed at least one poem explicitly for a recent photo shoot.

This kind of artistic synthesis — not to mention perhaps a synergy — is popular with several SL fashion blog writers. Cajsa Lilliehook and Gidge Uriza of It’s Only Fashion use it often, as in the following….

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posted by Gidge Uriza

A thousand years, a thousand more
A thousand times a million doors to eternity
I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times
And endlessess turning stairway climbs to a tower of souls

A million roads, a million fears a million suns, ten million years of uncertainty
I could speak a million lies, a million songs…. But if there was a single truth, a single light
A single thought, a singular touch of grace
then following …

Read More

via It’s Only Fashion

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At the Ballroom of the Rose Theatre, Angel Manor region

…then I’d love to sweep up the red carpet at the Kodak Theater in something like this confection.  Hair piled up over my head, glittering jewels (preferably not on loan from Tiffany’s), and a gown that both hugs me in just the right places and rustles along the scarlet rug behind me.

I’ve been so busy organizing my 2010 Oscar Fashion Contest, and then trying to get people to enter, that I hadn’t gone out to purchase my own gown for a fashion piece.  But Gidge Uriza of It’s Only Fashion kindly gifted me with this delicious dress, thus saving me the need of rushing out and combing designers’ stores for something.  Absolutely sensational choice, Gidge, and thank you so much!

The gown is ZieZo from Sascha’s Designs.  Besides being a lovely color for red hair, I love the detail work that Sascha Frangilli puts into her work.  (This teal is one of a range of colors.)  And, of course, there are the Sascha’s choices for her gowns.  I’m wearing the “swooshy” mermaid prim skirt here; you also have a sleeker one, and empire-waisted version (that one drops down from almost straight below the breasts, guys), and the full-glam “battleship” skirt, in plain or with star embroidery around the hem!  On top of that, do you want the “plain” strapless bodice, or the one with the jewel-colored flower embroidery?  And, of course, the evening gloves are included; gloves may not be in style again in the Real World, but I think they add a perfect accent for evening wear.

A new gown demands new jewels.  I decided to go splashier than I usually do with jewelry — well, we’re talking the Academy Awards here, aren’t we?  So I went on a shopping run, and stopped at Eclectica, who’ve I’ve also featured before, and I ended up buying about four different sets, including one I have already in a different stone color (sigh).  Anyway, out of what I picked up, I settled on this necklace/earrings set as the strongest statement.  Simple links of gold in back, except for the catch, turn into heavier gold settings for some lovely rubies — there’s even a glow in the stones — with pearl teardrops.  I added a cocktail ring from my inventory, and some ole reliable pumps from Detour, and I was ready….

…except that I wanted something to pin in my hair tonight.  Fortunately, another item from Eclectica had caught my eye in that shopping spree:  this stylized dragonfly hatpin, part of a hatpin-and-brooch set.  I used the hatpin as a hair ornament (after copying it!), and was ready for the limousine.

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Photographed at the Rose Theatre Ballroom, Angel Manor

The details:

• Hair: W&Y Hair 90, Type D (tinted red)
• Lashes: Detour Edge lashes
• Gown: Sascha’s Designs ZieZo (teal)
• Shoes: Detour Glamour pumps (gold)
• Jewelry: Eclectica — Elizabeth suite (necklace and earrings, in gold, rubies and pearls), Dragonfly hatpin; Muse Catherine gold/pearl cocktail ring

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It is one of my ambitions to someday scoop Cajsa Lilliehook.

Difficult to do, though.  When it comes to me and fashion, though I enjoy the latest looks, I’m still rather much of a dilettante.  Cajsa, along with her co-blogger, Gidge Uriza, is definitely into the depths of Second Life fashion, finding new looks and new mixes and matches all the time.  She gets review copies, pays attention to new designers, and is generally right there among the leaders of the fashion-blogging pack.

Such is the case this time.  I’d gotten the word about Enua, a new party dress by Miamai, that looked absolutely hawt, and I went and snapped it up, planning to be the first to write an article about it.  Unfortunately, my time in Second Life has been scattered and scattershot this past week.  So, when I finally got everything together and zoomed off to a photosphere, I had lost the race again.  Cajsa wrote about this dress already.  She even chose the same color! — not surprising, since we both are usually redheads.

So I’m doing followup again.  Ah, well; them’s the breaks in journal publishing, and I can always put my own twist on the same dress. To wit:

The hair here is definitely twisted — up over my head and way to the side (grin).  This comes from a hairstylist I hadn’t known about before, but I was sent to by Milli Santos. The store is 3636 — yes, that’s the name; don’t ask me.  I just know that many of the styles are beautiful, and most of them are as out there as this one, named Tila.  I remember seeing a style similar to this worn by Doris Day, believe it or not (probably as a wig, since she didn’t have that much hair even back in the Sixties/Seventies), on an episode of her old television show!  The only difference was that her hair arced up from the back of her head.  I’ve searched through Google Images and can’t find a picture of that scene, but that image has stuck in my head for years.  To find something similar here in world is fantastic!

As you can see, this skirt doesn’t leave much to the imagination!  That, combined with the single shoulder, the jazzy emerald green color and the silver trim, make it great for edgy clubbin’ with that guy your mother warned you about long ago.  I did decide, however, to leave off the fur trimmed collar; that was the one aspect that did not appeal to me.  As a prim attachment, it was simple, and didn’t ruin the dress.

With a gown this short, you can either let the dress make a bold but simple statement, or start heading for the heights.  I chose the heights, and J’s Thigh-High Boots certainly do that.  Made for short dresses and similar situations, they help your legs grab attention.  I did more on that line by putting on my Pixel Mode Version 2 prim nails, then lengthening them to Seventies-Cher distance, so they’re more like talons.  Don’t try to operate a keyboard with these babies on!

I may have made a stumble here in my choices when it came to jewelry.  I’m still not certain about the necklace I picked — Paper’s big uncut garnet necklace from a collection or two ago — but I had been too long working on getting this look together as it was, and I wanted something that would help grab attention, so here it is.  My own suspicion is something more in the costume-jewelry line might be better here.  I do like the bracelets I chose, though; a set of matched bangles from Eclectica Morris; and I think the brown of the Beguiled horn-hoop earrings goes nicely with the dress.

“Now then,” she purred, raising an eyebrow at the fellow at the bar, “just where were you thinking of going after you had that drink…?”

The details:

My standard Type 1 shape, with Chai 04 Black Cherry skin added (no longer available)

• Hair: 3636 Tila
• Nails: Pixel Mode sculpted nails, v. 2 (HUD controlled)
• Gown: Miamai Enua miniskirt party dress (green, w/o fur collar)
• Shoes: J’s Thigh High Boots (black)
• Jewelry: Paper Couture Faceted Dark Garnet necklace (2009 collection);
  Eclectica Morris Tulip & Willow bangles;
  Beguiled Curved Horn Hoop earrings (smoky bakelite/silver)

And one of these days, Lilliehook, I will scoop you! (GRIN)

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My original avatar (post-startup version), my "middle period," and today

Sophia Harlow has challenged us fashion mavens to reveal what we used to look like, compared to the (supposedly) polished appearance we have now.  And so I’ve done so, but for me it seems to be more a matter of skin tone and makeup than changes to my face.

The first above is my “original” appearance.  (I don’t count the original Linden female avatar I started off with; I think few of us who joined Second Life before the “Great De-Ruth-ing” would.)  Both the shape and skin were called Wendy, and the vendor is no longer available as far as I can tell, unless the “store” is well hidden.  I was well satisfied with this look, but I ultimately moved on to an Alady skin named for Jane Seymour.  Since I haven’t been back to Alady in a long time, I don’t know if she still carries them or not.

When I finally decided that I wanted a more intense look, I went to Chai, whom I’d stopped into before, and I picked up the middle skin, from her old series.  This was her skin shade 04, and with a much heavier eyeshadow and lipstick.  Getting used to this one was a shock at first, it was so profound a change from the scrubbed-face Harper of before.

Eventually, though, about three months ago, I decided that, while the skin shade was the fairer appearance that a redhead should have, that makeup was too much, unless for nighttime.  So I plunged out again, and settled on Numbah 3 above, which is Lana Sunblush Siren Gloss 2 from Atomic Bambi.  As you can see, the eyes and lips are still made up more, but it isn’t quite as much “evening glam” as the old Chai skin.  This is what I wear from day to day now…and, frankly, I forget to take it off and put on the Chai when I go out to Frank’s Place at night!

If you’d like to see more, check the comments at Sophia’s article.  Cajsa Lilliehook and Gidge Uriza have both done their own at It’s Only Fashion as well.