“I’m a former hippie, so clothes are important to me – your clothes defined you in that period. I guess clothes still define people. But, I change a lot. I’m in my Brooks Brothers period now.” ~ John Hughes

Hippie Chic Ensemble

When I was a little girl, hippie and gypsy style clothing was the height of yum; it was long, straight hair and peasant blouses as far as the eye could see. So, when I saw the Ana hairstyle from Burley I had a squee fit that set off a David Gates soundtrack in the little girl lobes of my brain.

The bulk of this outfit comes from League, with the exception of the hair, the corset and boots, and I’ll get to those piece by piece.

First the Gypsy Tunic blouse from League is a nicely textured top with wonderfully billowing sculpted sleeves. League features some of the best textured system-based items on the grid today in my opinion. It amazes me how they convey so much character with the detail of their items. This gypsy style blouse is not an easy trick to turn (trust the girl who spent *years* in SL whimpering for peasant blouses). The system layer textures are delicate with minor folds and planned imperfections (like the lopsided, drooping tied bow). This detail is carried into the folds of fabric on the sculpts which lend femininity and break up the fixed shape that otherwise might come across as more bulk than breeze.

You see the quality in texturing again in the Merino Leggings that feature shade and highlights to create sheen without too much shine. So many creators in SL take this too far and you see girls wandering around in liquid latex instead of that whisper of luster that comes from silk-based hybrid textiles. IRL when a fabric like charmeuse is woven with lycra to make items like stretch leggings, they don’t cast a wet paint gloss. These leggings are perfect in the presentation of just a hint of shine while still providing the illusion of a tactile surface.

Hippie Chic Hair Problems

As you can see above, Burley‘s Ana hairstyle has a few drawbacks. Like all non-mesh long hair in SL right now it really only looks good when you’re staring straight ahead and bent slightly forward. I also reduced my breast size. These are unavoidable construction limitations for the moment and it’s easy to forgive them when you look at the detail in this style. The little fly-away loop that is caught in the leather band enchants me. And I love the way the hair is indented and shaded to emphasize the path of that band.

The base wig provides the long mane in the back and the chest-length sections in the front; there is a lower add-on section if you want to extend the front sections down to waist length. The style also comes with roots and no roots. IRL roots are not a style I embrace, but in virtual worlds I often find that things which don’t work in the real world are details that trick the eye and help with immersion. This is why often shadows work to build an immerse environment, even when they are placed somewhere that wouldn’t necessarily make sense with the light source.

The hair is heavily scripted and I had a moment of “ugh” when it showed up in inventory as no-mod, but that turned out to be an artifact of the scripts; I had no problem editing the hair manually or removing the scripts.

Hippie Chic Corset & Belt

The really great find of this outfit has to be the Celstine Dream Mesh Corset. If mesh provided nothing else but delicious corsets like this, it would have been worth the trouble. I love the antique brocade texturing and the oh-so-nummy chocolate sash and bow. The creator doesn’t seem to have much inventory, and as far as I can tell she’s only on the Marketplace, but what a hidden treat this item is. It comes with the necessary alpha and a notecard to help you adjust your body settings to make it work. I know many people balk at adjusting their sliders to fit mesh items for the moment, but is it really any different than sucking in and zipping up your skinny jeans? I’ve taken to making adjusted copies of my shape and tucking them into folders as needed. The whole point of a corset is that it changes your shape anyway, so it seems somehow appropriate.

The Crochet Belt with the little sculpted tassles attachment is another quality item from League. It comes with a matching necklace, but the long hair made that item moot and I had my eye on other jewelry. This crochet belt is a textured-on system layer item I would have killed to have back in the early SL shopping days. It is the perfect topper for making way-too-low bottoms slightly less low. My only complaint about it is that it doesn’t come in other colors.

Hippie Chic Jewelry

Switching to Truth‘s Velvet piggie buns to showcase some jewelry lovin’. This is the Coin Collector Jewelry Set, again from League. Other than little bell anklets it doesn’t get more gypsy than coin jewelry. You’ll have to click the image above to go to the full size verison (or take my word) to appreciate the detail at work. The gunmetal chain isn’t just a solid lace, but a linked chain and each coin dangles from equally detailed links. The aged copper and brass coins contrast well with their buffed gold cousins and the set features the necklace and a bracelet for each wrist. It’s a nice costume jewelry staple that will work for multiple earth-tone casual outfits.

Hippie Chic Boots

Last, but not least are the Cairo Mesh Boots from Celoe which you have most assuredly seen in every SL fashion blog. I’m sort of over mesh boots in general as every designer has come out with a pair, but these worked exceptionally well with the outfit and they are a quality item. Not much to say here that hasn’t been said. The modeling on this product is excellent with the rounded toes and the gathers at the ankles. The texturing is equally well done with highlights that provide that slight sheen of brushed suede where it’s needed and shadows where they’re needed.

I suppose that’s all for now — I’m off to find a VW van. Peace, love and all that jazz.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

Gypsy Tunic – L$185
Merino Leggings & Flats – L$95
Tassles Necklace & Crochet Belt – L$115
The Coin Collector Jewellery Set – L$195
League | Nena Janus

Celestine Dream MESH Corset – L$50
Celestine Dreams Marketplace | Celestine Neutron

Cairo MESH Boots – L$760
Celoe | Jaden Celoe

Ana Hair – L$285 (Color Pack)
Burley | Bella Earst

“You can never have too much blue eyeshadow.” ~ Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly DeVoto in My Girl (via Laurice Elehwany)

It may have been the squee heard ’round the grid.

I have been waiting for one of my go-to hair designers to put out a to-die-for piggy buns style. Although I’ve been enjoying the long hair and luscious updos available around the grid, they just didn’t feel like Salome. ETD‘s Patootie was pretty much my trademark for years of blogging and I expect you might as well get used to Truth‘s Velvet as my new default. It’s basically Patootie with loose tendrils, richer textures and color change bows. There is not enough squee in the world.

Truth's Velvet Hairstyle

Velvet, like the over-blouse I’m wearing, is part of the Stumblebum designer group promotion which, if you’ve never heard of before, basically means a bunch of designers get together, put in one item for a modest sale price and cross-pitch each others work. This type of thing is very much in vogue these days and can be quite a boon for both designers and shoppers. Unfortunately, it also means you’re going to see the same handful of items blogged to death because they are high-quality and uber-promoted, but having too much high quality easy-to-locate swag is definitely a problem I’m happy to have.

If the one-two punch of piggy buns with bows is too much for you, the bows can be made invisible with a click — setting phasers to stunning cuteness instead of killing cuteness. They can also be recolored with the same built in menu, of course, or manually tinted. They are L$50 cheaper by the pack than Truth‘s usual pricing structure and available in all the standard colors of his current line.

Over the years a lot of people have asked me why I chose the piggy bun style to latch onto and, well, my reasons were (and remain) both personal and practical. As a blogger, piggy buns rarely get in the way of showcasing products. They don’t stick through your chest in fashion poses and they don’t hide jewelry. Also, I’m a child of the 70s/80s, so like every other girl my age, I wanted to be Princess Leia when I grew up. And part of the joy of playing virtual paper dolls in SL is that I can revisit all my favorite dress-up desires from girlhood. It’s just that simple.

Baby Blue Casual Outfit

Right now, I’m not taking off my SLink Mesh Bare feet because I lurves them; I don’t care how banned I am from the Sim, they feed my inner happy. So while everyone else is buried under coats and scarves I’ve been tossing together casual fare that is barefoot friendly.

***NOTE***
If you’re also an SLink barefoot addict and haven’t been able to match them to your LAQ Ivory skin tone, here’s your settings:
Tattoo/Sock Base – “Light”: 244(r), 224(g), 210(b)
RGB Tint Settings for HUD (again, using the “Light” Base: 243, 223, 210
(Just type “/13 skin 243, 223, 210″ while wearing the HUD)
***NOTE***

As for the rest of the outfit, the over-blouse is the Soft Resolution Top from Kyoot which is also part of the Stumblebum promotion clan. The chemise is part of the Gypsy Chemise set — an oldie from Wisp Jinn of Wishbox. The Kyoot blouse is texture-only with no prim sleeves or collar and comes on all the layers you’d expect. It also comes with a pair of matching knee socks which are too cute for color TV (but would require the removal of my mesh feet). Best of all, it’s mod, so you can tint it (yay). I’m glad to see that some designers are still offering simple well textured fare and not just going mesh crazy. It lends hope that all the tools available will be utilized and not just the latest craze.

The gypsy chemise is a bit trickier. It comes in two packs – the base pack and an add-on. The sleeveless tube top version I’m wearing is in the add-on pack. If you want the prims for the sleeves, etc you’ll have to get the base pack as well. The packs also include skirts and other top options in multi layers but they are no-mod so no tinting. There are good images in the Wishbox shop to help you decide if you want them. I find they are tres delish for mixing and matching like with this outfit, but if you’re not a mixer they might not be worth the sheckles.

The denim mini skirt is from Jane — a store that is putting out a nice selection of template mesh items with great texturing. It’s a sweet little staple item for those of us who have fond memories of denim minis. I will say that the sizing of this product was tricky for me. In order to use the size that fit my hips (petite) I had to scale my leg muscles down about 20 clicks and shave a bit off my bum. The alternative was to have my legs and rear stay the same but use a wider mesh that gave me “ring around the hips.” This is a short-term problem since Qarl is on the case, but it’s worth noting that mesh items like this still require body tinkering to produce their ultimate yummy.

Kosh's Baby Blues & Ennui's Bleeding Heart

The gorgeous eyeshadow is Baby Blue from Kosh‘s Gala series – a lavish eye treatment that shouldn’t just be reserved for glam attire. Lynaja Bade of Kosh has some great cosmetic offerings including alpha and non-alpha eyelashes that I picked up just for a little lash variety (but haven’t had the patience to fit yet).

I was thrilled beyond words to find this necklace and earring set at Lassitude & Ennui. Over the last year, many old standard SL creators have finally thrown in the towel. But Jackal Ennui appears to have found a balance that allows her to still offer a modest library of high quality shoes, boots, jewelry and accessories. This necklace can be worn as a single or double strand and it comes with a low-lag scripted HUD that provides separate tinting of the pearls and metals. I went with the copper (in lieu of silver, gold or gunmetal) and actually tinted the pearls myself to match my outfit. This was something I could do because the jewelry is :::gasp of shock::: MOD.

See, jewelry designers, dogs and cats do not start living together if you allow your customers to MOD their purchases. Just sayin’.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys

Hair: Truth (Truth Hawks)– Velvet – L$200 Color Pack
Eyeshadow: Kosh (Lynaja Bade) – Gala Eyeshadow – L$199

Glasses: K_gs (koguma Kumaki) – Ellipse 1.03 – L$400
Jewelry: Lassitude & Ennui (Jackal Ennui) – Bleeding Heart Jewelry Set- L$390

Over-Blouse: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda) – Soft Resolution Top – L$125
Chemise: Wishbox (Wisp Jinn) – Gypsy Chemise Add-On Set – L$199
Skirt: Jane (Janie Marlowe) – Mini Skirt Hadlee Denim Classic – L$125

“Things do not change; we change.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Mesh has rekindled my love of shopping for pretty things in SL. Although, as a consumer I am concerned about some of the practices mesh seems to be bringing with it, the quality and performance of the products tickles my pixel vanity in all those yummy little spots that make me squee.

Since mesh clothing cannot currently be fitted, I have been doing a lot of tweaking to my avatar and about two weeks ago I did an evaluation of lil miss Salome. It turned out that I hadn’t made any major adjustments to my shape since May of 2007; I had been wearing the same skin since March of 2009, and I’d been wearing the same textured eyes since July of 2006. I wasn’t using any of the prim or cosmetic enhancement accessories that are available today and my customization of the base of my avatar was downright skimpy.

This was clearly not acceptable.

Partly for fun and partly because prissy girls loathe a rut when they recognize one, I decided to update my shape, my skin, and my “body accessories.”

The Shape

When I first started SL, Salome was much shorter, to reflect my RL height. I spent at least a month tweaking the facial settings the way I wanted them. After getting tired of being asked if I was a hobbit and having trouble fitting my clothing, I adjusted her shape to be taller. Although I kept my face settings, I went to Colette’s Body Shop (Colette Meiji’s store at the time) and let her do the hard work and math regarding the shape and proportions, (to be honest I even tweaked those body sliders so much they had very little in common with what I first purchased). Once Linden Lifestyles got popular and we were getting hundreds of items a day, I tailored my shape to fit the SL shopping norms for quick try-ons and product evaluation. After May of 2007 “Salome” was established and her shape hadn’t really been touched.

Now that I no longer have the obligation to go through hundreds of items per day and I don’t care about taking some extra time to fit things, I feel comfortable going back to a “me” that is shorter than the 6′ tall lanky lass I’ve been wandering about in for so long. I had a friend help me with scaling things like arm length and other math challenged settings. The result was exactly what I wanted and closer to what I’d first created back in my earliest SL days.

The face was a different story. Part of me wanted to keep Salome’s face exactly the same, but for one thing — the mouth. I used to enjoy the toonish mouth with the upturned corner smile lines and thin upper lip. But I created this exaggerated expression during the LL days for a PR purpose; it seemed a good choice for posting my image over and over with my oft-cranky writing. I felt the friendlier avatar would convey that the majority of my grumblings are intended without bite. But I have oft longed for fuller, more realistic, pout-a-lucious lips. It was easier than I had thought (or maybe I’m just getting to that age where having a little work done doesn’t seem like such an offensive idea).

The bottom line: Salome-sized has now become slightly shorter, a tiny bit plumper and, as ever, downright lippy.

Salome-Sized: The New "Me"

The Skin

For reasons no fashion-addicted creature should be able to fathom, I always been inexplicably loyal to certain skin lines. It’s not because of any connection with the creator. For a great deal of my SL life, I wore “Quad Brat” skins and there was certainly no love lost between me and the creator of them — but what I like, I like, and if a creator’s products are high quality I have a hard time accepting less.

I have really only worn three skins long-term in SL:

Celestial Studios (Passport) > Celestial Studios (Vogue) > LAQ (Elin/Fair)

I reviewed skins and would even, on occasion, try an odd one out just to see if I could get used to it. I love Gala/Curio, for example, but they just never felt right on me. And, as much as I have delighted in being an LAQ girl for the last two years, I didn’t want to just accept a new LAQ skin as my only option.

So I flitted around and collected demos for all the pale skins that looked halfway decent in their ads. I went to every store mentioned in the blogs I read and asked friends for their favorites. At the end of the harvest I had just under forty demos. Forty. Fucking. Demos. It took two days to whittle the contestants down, but I had two sets of criteria to help with the culling — the “Non-Negotiable” factors and the “Preferences” factors.

Non-Negotiable:
A. Nice highlight and shading without over-exaggeration or “muddy” shadows;
B. A clean face without heavy make-up;
C. Healthy body definition and details;
D. Professional blending of photo-realism and airbrush without too much of either;
E. Light, creamy, pale shade.

Preferences:
A. Auburn brows and hairbase;
B. Bald kitty without any vulgar emphasis on bits or rough looking bits;
C. Larger, darker areolae.

One by one, demos were deleted. I was surprised at how many skins today still over-glam everything with baked on cosmetics that included exaggerated blush on even more exaggerated cheekbones and hooker-lined fish lips. There is so much tattoo make-up on the grid to help customize; any skin that doesn’t have a clean face “base” version in their packs shouldn’t even be considered by a consumer. Frankly I think skin makers today would be smart to only sell their base skin and then put up a mountain of cosmetic options, but I am not yet queen. Also, the faces on many skins are too tight for my liking; when using their included brow settings, they have that pissed off model look I can’t stand. Other skin makers need to learn that “pale” doesn’t equal “slightly less tan.” Still more had horrible shading on the bum and under-breast areas or that over-airbrushed wet-paint spray-tan look that is too shiny in all the wrong places. A few had great body work, but cringe-worthy facial lighting that seemed like they’d tried to bake on highlights while the model was holding a flashbulb in her teeth.

The list goes on, but at the end of the day I had narrowed it to two: LAQ‘s Ebba in the new Ivory tone option and Gala Phoenix’s Visitor in Moonbeam. I liked the Gala a lot, but I just liked the LAQ slightly more. And, it must be said, that as a consumer, I prefer LAQ‘s pricing practices over Gala‘s (although I disapprove of some of the tactics LAQ employs to make their brows only work on their skins, etc). I think part of it was also that I’ve just been so happy with LAQ for so long that I felt they deserved the extra tilt with everything else being even.

Forty demos. Two days of trying on and looking in different light settings. Still, I ended up where I started – an LAQ skin. Go figure.

Old Sal | New Sal | Newer Sal

Body Accessories

With multiple attach points and tattoo layers, avatar customization in SL is sweeter candy now more than ever for a virtual paper doll addict like me. Why haven’t I been taking advantage of this? No clue. But with my shape and skin decided, I went all happy crazy with accessories.

Eyes. I have love, love, loved my E’s Handpainted eyes, but their quality level is from 2006 and there are oodles of new eyes with more impressive detail work. I switched from brown eyes to grey sometime in 2007 and since then I’ve purchased pretty much every pair of grey eyes I’ve run across just to see if anything would please me. But I’ve found most eyes are too small; I prefer larger irises and pupils. As fate would have it, while at Curio picking up Gala skin demos, I noticed the Tragic eyes. Not only did I fall head over heels for the Light Grey, but I finally found prim eyes that are easy to fit and provide a hint of luster without being too shiny. My peepers are happy campers. You may have heard the squee in your remote corners of the grid.

Hair/Brows. I had already decided to go more auburn than brown, bumping my hair habit from Truth‘s Pecan in the Browns pack to Jupiter in the Gingers pack. LAQ already had brows for Ebba which I snagged and the Red 1 is a nice red brow with a little darker shade than the 2 or 3. Since I don’t care for the Truth hairbases and LAQ didn’t have hers out yet, I scooted over to Amacci and found out their hairbases on tattoo layers are now FREE (Amacci‘s Henna is the counterpart of Truth‘s Jupiter, btw). So full of win. I am a little disappointed that League doesn’t have red hairbases because I really admire their hairbases, but I’ll survive for the time being. Someone eventually has to come out with a nice widow’s peak.

Lashes. As lashes go, I had put off the prim lash revolution for the simple reason that fitting them was, in my experience, a particularly ornery breed of bitch. So I bit the bullet, asked random strangers for their preferences and did some experimentation. What I finally decided was that I wanted to use a combination of both alpha and non-alpha lashes. For alpha lashes, Redgrave has a nice selection and the Luscious lashes were perfect for my needs. They come with an alpha layer that hides your system lashes. Yay. I’ve only been trying to do that since 2005. To those I added the LeLutka “Curl” full prim lashes, and this combo seemed to give me the zazazoo I was going for. I’m still tweaking here and there, but we’re definitely cooking with gas.

Make-Up. There is an obscenely wonderful selection of tattoo cosmetics on the grid. How much do I love not having to buy a new skin every time I want to change my lip stick? Yes. THAT FRAKKIN’ MUCH. First I ran over to PixelDolls which is soon to be no more, and snagged all her L$50 cosmetic eye shadow sets. The one I’m wearing in the far right photo is from the Rocket Fuel pack and the shade I’m wearing is Ashes. Its perfect for a nice, bold, smoky eye. For the lips, I’ve been taking advantage of Hush‘s Juicy lipstick colors, and what you see in the right photo is one of the tattoos from their reds pack. Because I wanted a beauty mark, I did a lot of looking around and finally clicked with a little mouth mole from Launa Fauna. Yes. My tattoo layers have tattoo layers.

The Outfit

I wanted something simple and non mesh for this entry as clothes go. There is still a lot of great stuff on the grid that isn’t mesh, and I think we’re finally to a point in avatar customization where the options for attractive, immersive products are the norm rather than the exception. For dresses, skirts, and body supplements (like toes) it will likely be mesh or nothing, but for tops and pants, there is still a lot that texturing and sculpts have to offer.

Exhibit A. If you do not have this delicately feminine Seashell Blouse from League you need to go now. It is a non-optional necessity which I cannot stop wearing. The whispery nature of this textured on treat is utterly irresistible and comes on all three top layers (as you would expect) in oodles of colors. So often in SL “sexy” is really just “trashy” but this top is sweet and feminine as well as dripping with smexy.

The jeans are my favorite old school staples from Plastik. As far as I know, however, these Vigos are only available on the marketplace in a huge fatpack. You get a baker’s dozen of colors and each of those comes in loose, skinny, capri, shorts, and jean skirt options with prim sculpted cuffs and hobo flares. I know that mesh pants are all the rage just now, but I’m finding most of these first offerings too…rubbery. I still find a lot of value in fabric textured items to mingle with my mesh (at least until mesh pants stop looking like liquid latex).

The shoes are a delightful little pair of cork wedges from Duh!. When you just need a casual kick-around pair of Espadrilles you can’t really knock these for their price. They have their issues out-of-box, but they are mod, include alpha layers for 2.0+ viewers and are cheap cheap cheap, so I won’t pick them apart. They’re darling for what they are.

So if you’re wandering about and you happen to see a shorter, paler, more red-headed version of me, you needn’t worry about virtual alien abduction. I’m still here, I just changed my ribbons an wrapping paper.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

Skin: LAQ – Ebba in Ivory 5Pack – L$990 (Brows L$290)
Lashes: Redgrave – Luscious Alpha Lashes (L$90) and LeLutka Curl Prim Lashes (L$180)
Lips: Hush – Juicy Lips Red Pack- L$125
Eyes: Curio – Tragic Eyes in Light Grey – L$125
Eye Liner / Shadow: PixelDolls – Rocket Fuel 8Pack – L$50
Mole: Launa Fauna, Bayonetta – L$7 / L$15
Hair: Truth – Jolie in Jupiter – L$250 (Gingers Color Pack)

Blouse: League – Seashell Blouse – L$115
Jeans: Plastik – Vigos Jeans Fatpack – L$599
Shoes: Duh! - Women’s Espadrilles – L$60 (For the Fat Pack. Not even kidding)

“He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon.” ~ Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen (via Jane Espenson, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and/or George R.R. Martin)

Daenerys Targaryen Tames the Drakyns

It all started innocently enough. Sax Shepherd Designs finally released their Animated Drakyn companions and I wanted to write a follow-up to my video blog preview. Lately due to fever, I’d been catching up on Game of Thrones. Yes, I know, Martin lacks a certain amount of creative talent and is devoid of any gift with prose… and he blatantly steals draws significant inspiration from every major fantasy series that came before his, but HBO and Jane Espenson pairing was enough to make me give it a go.

And of course, the moment I realized I had pet dragons to play with, I had to play dress up as Daenerys Targaryen.

Large Drakyn

I really didn’t think it would be so hard. And it started well. I took a trip to Truth and a purchased two “light blonde” packs — one that would suit the character and one that would allow for proper display of jewelry and upper body purchases. That took two minutes. Next, I remembered that my Shiny Things Boho Sandals are still awesome and up to par for even a Dothraki khaleesi. Next, for the trappings, I thought, no problem. In writing his novels, Martin leaned on existing fantasy tropes like a drunk on a sagging bar, and as we all know, John Norman’s Gorean environments thrive in Second Life. So I’ll just find some Tuchuk/She-Urt/Panther wrappings and be done.

Daenerys Targaryen Outfit

Three hours later, I finally had an outfit I felt comfortable with. Before I continue, it’s important to realize that I am both spoiled and picky. I don’t spend a lot of time in stores that fall below market standards these days, and a vast majority of creators for fantasy/costume wear of this sort are not up to the standard a fashion blogger would be accustomed to. Items do not come on multiple layers. Resizing scripts (if they exist) are badly scripted and not as customer-friendly as the more current offerings. Skirts in general are skirts only in the sense that they go around the hips and sort of dangle. The vast majority of “skirts” offered in the Gorean costume markets I visited were just badly textured scraps of flex prims. But that’s okay because most of the tops covered only a single breast if you were lucky. I get the impression the avatars that purchase these types of outfits aren’t wearing them for long or for the purpose of taming dragons.

The bulk of the outfit above comes from Torvis Gorean Weapons and Bina.

Let’s go over the Torvis stuffs first. The top was the main reason for the purchase, but the outfit seemed a background offering meant to be a bonus for the sale of the dagger included in the outfit (at least the dagger seemed to be the main focus of the advertising). The full skirt is actually better done than most, but it’s no-mod and the resizing scripts were obnoxious. Because of this, I couldn’t get the belt narrow enough for my hips without exposing my ass. So, I shopped and shopped and shopped until I found something else. Also, the top by itself exposed my left breast. Because it’s on the shirt layer (and only the shirt layer) it was a little frustrating to mix and match with.

Yes, I know. If I were using 2.0 it wouldn’t matter because I could have multiple things on the same layer. Imprudence isn’t offering that yet.

Daenerys Targaryen Support Outfits

On the left is the “Tende Slave Rags” outfit from Bina. Bina is one of the very few stores I visited that offered what I consider to be market-worthy products. Their prims were nicely done and nicely textured. There was some creativity in the pieces offered and most of them were on multiple layers. For medieval costuming, Bina and Vigo, were the best costumers I found (although nothing at Vigo struck me for this outfit – maybe a later entry). They’re not quite up to the quality of Evie’s Closet, but they’re close with lots of potential. The slave rags outfit has what may be the best all-prim waist sarong ever. It’s modify and copy (I re-tinted it in the previous photo) so the right textures could make it perfect for a swimsuit wrap for your beachy wear. Or, if you wanna play a little “You Tarzan, Me Jane” in the backyard, this outfit works for that, too.

On the right is the “Panther Scout” outfit from May Tolsen of May’s Soul. I wanted this for the leather straps that go around the top (they are a different layer from the shirt beneath) to hide the previously mentioned exposed breast. Unfortunately they only came on the shirt layer (suddenly, I’m shopping in SL 2007). I IMed May and she was an absolute sweetheart. She uploaded them for me on an undershit layer and then fought with me over trying to pay her for her time (I think she finally let me give her L$250 over the cost of the outfit, which is not NEARLY enough for a custom request, but some designers are just too kind for their own good).

And I was *so close* to being done.

Daenerys Targaryen Jewelry

Luckily I knew just where to go for jewelry. Previously, I had discovered TRIDENT while seeking dock supplies for the Freudian Slip. These “Lunnuitsa” bronze and ivory pieces are beyond perfect. I’ve always loved ivory, but it’s, of course, reprehensible to own any in reality. So being able to slip some on in the pixel is a nice treat. Plus, wearing bone helps keep the drakyns under thumb. If they get cheeky you can just tell them you’ll make a necklace out of them.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys?

Drakyn Animated Dragons – L$1475
Sax Shepherd Designs – Here Be Drakyns
Creator: Sax Shepherd
SLURL

SHAYNA PACK (Top & Big Skirt) – L$375
TORVIS GOREAN WEAPONS
Creator: Torvis Rainfall
SLURL

Panther Scout – L$250
May’s Soul
Creator: May Tolsen
SLURL

Lunnuitsa Necklace & Earrings – L$350 / L$250
TRIDENT
Creator: Rossana Llewellyn
SLURL

Tende Slave Rags – L$365
Bina
Creator: Cymoril Lightfoot
SLURL

Boho Sandals – L$250
Shiny Things
Creator: Fallingwater Cellardoor
SLURL

“The only constant is change.” ~ Heraclitus

I decided to see what the oldest outfits were that I could find in my inventory. In preparing for a new culling, it was fun to take one or two last shots in some of my favorites.

Hint: If your avatar looks in any way like these photos, you are sporting 2005 pixel vanity. Upgrade now. You may think it makes you seem cool and aloof, but it really just makes you outdated and out of touch.
Extra Hint: If the stuff you are making looks anything like these photos, stop, drop and skill up (this means *you* hair designers).

It’s worth noting that I no longer seem to have my old glasses, eyes, or stockings from that era, so I’m sportin’ current eyes and glasses and sans stockings.

Throwback SL 2005 Look

2005: Part I
Hair: Lash Xevious (Flower Child in Bronzed)
Skin: Starley Thereian (CS Passport Skin – Paris/Brown Torrid)
Rose: Forseti Svarog (Roses For Hair – Scarlet)
Top: Nicola Escher (GK – Red/Black Lace Corset Top)
Skirt: Janie Marlowe (**Mis** Lil Ebony Ruffles)
Shoes: Fallingwater Cellardoor (Mary Jane Mules)

Throwback SL Look 2005

2005: Part II
Hair: Lash Xevious (Flower Child in Bronzed)
Skin: Starley Thereian (CS Passport Skin – Paris/Brown Torrid)
Dress: Nonna Hedges (Thank You India)
Shoes: Jackal Ennui (Taupe Brocade Mules)