The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

I had to dust the cobwebs off of poor Wisp Jinn’s things, they’ve been sitting waiting for me to blog them for ages. I haven’t ignored them on purpose, I’ve just been overwhelmed with my other projects. Wishbox is her store, and she’s got some really nice things there.

Starting out originally with fantasy, Wisp has branched out considerably. The first thing that caught my eye was her Gothic Lolita style dress, Velveteen Ribbons. It is so darling. I’ve wanted an excuse anyway to wear my Nellie Oleson hair from Leetah Moxie, and it fits the outfit to a T. I had to resist the urge to flounce around, showing all the others “my dress is prettier than yours.”

Almost every inch is textured with girly details, and prim ribbons abound, especially the huge bow on the back. Now all I need is one of those all day suckers. There are 12 pieces to the outfit, and every one fit perfectly, except for a small size adjustment to the sock lace. And what about those socks? Absolutely scrumptious is what they are.

Wisp has a lot of medieval style gowns, and I liked this one for the different prim sleeve treatment. The Fairest Maiden, one of her older gowns, is simple, yet elegant.

I’m wearing it here with her Maiden’s Wreath, a 128 prim circlet of daisies, my favorite flower, you know. That is sold separately. Coincidentally, I chose Miriel’s Maiden Hair to set it off. I rotated the wreath down to cover the hair’s circlet. Both the front and back of the bodice are nicely textured with a smocked detail, and the skirt is 2 separate layers.

I really, really fell in love with her Irish Refill Stein, better known as a beer belt. Not much one to partake of spirits any more, but this just may get me back to it. It was sold separately, so that may be why it attached to the same part as the second layer of the skirt. I also removed the jacket layer corset. But it really makes me look like a tavern wench. I love it. It’s belt is nicely textured, too. The stein can also be bought in a model that can be worn with pants.

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Rachel Darling of Milady’s Fancy has really been outdoing herself lately. Two of her dresses, in particular, hit my inventory and captured my eye; I’ve been mixing them happily with several accessory delights that I’ve been trying to showcase for a while.

This is the Ravel ensemble which has about 16 pieces all told, and thus can be worn in about three dozen ways, what you’re seeing is merely my favorite variation. I am a sucker for bolero jackets (Ravel…Bolero…I just got that…!) and this Spanish-influence style completely wooed me. The wine crushed velvet bodice with gold brocade trim is beautifully textured on multiple layers for versatility while still allowing the flow of the gown to continue uninterrupted into the lace-over-satin skirting.

Next is a mini-dress that I had oodles of fun with called the Alix. Now, the Alix comes in red or black and is fully intended to be a little black dress with disco teeth. It’s a blushingly tight dancing number that has more sequins than a Solid Gold Dancer reunion tour. You could go a lot of ways with it, push sexy to trashy or risque to retro. But the minute I looked at it, all I saw was bathtub gin and Mae West one-liners (damn it, I should be holding a martini in that photo). The peek-a-boo-lace over duel-side-slit system skirt (say that 3 times, kids) really doesn’t leave much to the imagination, so I’m hoping you’ll all don the included pair of panties (unless you’re planning on re-enacting Basic Instinct at your favorite nightclub). Oh, and this is the mini-skirt option, there’s also a micro-mini, gloves, and scarf.

It’s also my understanding that the Alix will feature an option for a pair of special edition matching sequined shoes by ZHAO at launch. I’ve only seen the version in gold and red, but they are faboo.

What really made these two dresses sing for me were the accessories I found to go with them. Read more after the cut for close-ups and details.

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Sometimes something catches your eye just because it’s so different from the rest of what’s out there. While I was flitting around looking for Spring / Summer offerrings, I happened upon Wyndham Burbclave’s little boutique. The concept of several of the store’s tops is that they are supposed to mimic body paint.

This Peacock Top has great alphas and really does look like it could be painted on. The light source on the top is a little too bright and washes out some of the more vibrant color, but even that adds to the reality of the illusion - body paint IRL does get pretty damn shiny.

The Sheer Gem Top is an eye-catching item. I picked the peridot because I’m in a spring green sort of mood, but it comes in other jewel tones just as startling. Unlike the Peacock which could be a standard top, the Gem has little random jewels on the shoulder blades and above the bust that could only be painted on (unless you’re really immune to hot glue gun related pain). In fact, the top is so different that it’s a little disappointing that the bottom hem is a straight line, but that might just be me. Also, it must be said, that on all the tops I tried on by Wyndham, the side seams are not perfectly aligned, so seam-watchers, consider yourselves warned.

Finally, I give you the Leaf Bustier which is a liquid latex inspired wet paint dream. I adore the buttons down the back and the little deocrative leaves that playfully rest on the shoulders. It is ironic that everything in Second Life looks “painted on” in one way or another, but I never thought of seeking body paint styles in game before.

I give these tops an A+ for concept, even if the execution could use a little tidying up. Sure, they’re not necessarily what I would normally wear, either, but then, neither is body paint IRL. Sometimes something different just catches your eye and shakes up the norm.

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Finally an entry in which I keep my clothes on.

Its practially a universal law of womanhood that bad experiences with particular types of clothing can traumatise you for life. Historically, I have had a very rocky relationship with various types of prim pant leg bottoms, including several hours of my life sunk into an unsuccesful NASA-scale mission to make lace eyelet capris cuffs one afternoon. I think I have at one time or another purchased every single pair made, and the only thing I have to show for it is a virtual closet stuffed full of dusty prim-leg pants, all of which hate me.

So while I’ve been hearing “Wrong… bootlegs… fabulous” for quite a while now, it took two glasses of wine and a large Valium before I mustered up the gumption to try again, one last time. And I am here to tell you: Wrong. Bootleg prim jeans. FABULOUS indeed.

They required only minor positioning adjustments and they totally fit and look completely sleek. They work beautifully with boots, athough I paired them with heels so you can see the bottoms and the shape better. They come in this dark jeans variety, and also a plain belted black trousers variety as well. Woot!

I also grabbed the off-the-shoulder stripey jumper, which is both sexy and funky. The sleeves deserve a Special Merit award; Kaysha Sion did a great job of wrapping the stripes around the mesh to line them up, though she says she was so traumatised by the experience, she swears she’s never doing stripes again. Luckily, we have this sweater to see us through.

But my absolute favourite thing at WRONG is this stunning and sexy Velvet Coat with fringe cuffs and hem:

There are so many things I appreciate about this coat, but chief among them is the cut. The prim skirt coat bottom took a little adjusting (I have a small waisted av; Salome has one in real life so I’m just assauging my envy) to fit me, but once there, it lines up perfectly with the jacket layer. The 3/4 length fringed sleeves are so glamourous, and the knee-length fall of the skirt makes a very fetching shape.

It comes with a matching trimmed prim skirt, but I am not a fan of that kind of matching because I think it ventures dangerously close to Betty Rubble territory. It looks great on its own or with the coat, though, so do with that as you may.

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