The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

When I suggested that a few of us do up final posts with some of our favorite things, I didn’t quite realize how difficult it would be to choose. My top 10 ran into extreme danger of being a top 1000. So I cheated a little and managed a sly sort of dirty dozen (with a few extra dozen shout-outs).

1. Patootie Hair From ETD in Chestnut Brown - my preference since June, 2006. If I’m not wearing Patootie, I’m almost always wearing either the Sleek Bob or Pigtail Braids from Rita Groshomme’s Empyrean Emporium.
2. Courtney Glasses from Persenickety! - seated happily upon my virtual nose since January, 2007.
3. The custom choker made for me by Jackal Ennui (of Lassitude & Ennui) sometime in May of 2006. I have no memory of what she charged me, but I’m sure it wasn’t nearly enough. I love it every bit as much today as I did the day she dropped it on me.
4. Babydoll eyes by E’s - Handpainted Fantasy Eyes - first brown and now gray but my first choice since July, 2006.

5. Squee-tastic virtual dress-up decadence from Simone! and Style Starts Here.

6. Lingerie from Insolence…because I love being a girl in frilly, feminine, delicate things.

7. My Alice in Wonderland themed garden home (yes, that is a hooka smoking caterpillar). About 2000 prims of Heart Garden Centre plants, Kriss Lehmann’s Botanicals, Shade’s fantasy items, and Animania critters.

The rest are too overwhelming to photograph.

8. Prim shoes. I love them. I need them. I’m addicted to them. Especially Shiny Things Spring Stilettos, Lassitude & Ennui Eva Pumps, Prim Seduction’s Beloveds and Uptowns, Thigh High Boots from Abyss, and Strike bowling shoes from Jeepers Creepers. Trust me, this is a *very* abbreviated list.

9. Prim Jewelry (see: Prim Shoes). Mine, mine all mine favorites include the Heirloom sets, my Millefiori pendants, and the Alternating Chanel and Square Diamond necklace by EMJ, the Tapa Set by Kiki Miranda of soon-to-launch Faux Posh, Pirate Beads by Accessories By Eolande, the Elena sets from Lassitude & Ennui (my above mentioned choker (#3) goes without saying. ), the Scheherezade sets from Shiny Things, and the Drop Circle sets from EarthStones.

10. Well textured virtual wrappers for our digital paper doll playground, created with glorious detail. My favorite labels (of present and past) include Blaze, Casa Del Shai, Ceres, Comme il Faut (which absorbed Bossa Nova) Details By Nonna Hedges, Icing, Ingenue, Insolence, Mischief, Muism, Nicky Ree, Nicola Escher, Nyte ‘n’ Day, PixelDolls, Simone!, Solange, and Style Starts Here. This list could easily go on forever, but those are my biggies.

11. My must-have accessories: Huddles from Keiki Lemieux, and MystiTool from Mystical Cookie. If you are navigating the grid without them, you’re playing at a disadvantage.

12. Last, but never least, has to send out a nod to slow dances from Bits and Bobs, Dance 18 from Animazoo, and fashion poses by Reel Expression.

And, yes, trust me, there could have been lots more

Raindrops on prim roses and whiskers on Neko…

Boss Salome has asked us to contribute our favorite things to send Linden Lifestyles out with a big hurrah. Here are some of my favorite things.

Here’s a nice headshot showcasing four of my favorite things. First off is the hair which is ETD, of course. In Mahogany, of course. ETD Mahogany, a lovely red-brown, is easily my favorite shade of hair in SL by far. It’s my color and in the current version the best it’s ever been. I hope Elika never ever changes it, or I shall cry. The style is Vivian, a classic updo. In my personal opinion, ETD has the best classic updos on the grid. Since I spend a lot of time in Steampunk Victorian Caledon and a lot of time wearing classic styles, I wear them often.

I really don’t have to mention what skin I’m wearing, do I. All together now, fashionistas: “CronoCloud Creeggan wears Fleur skins, everyone knows this.” Very good! Gold stars for everyone. I’ve favored Fleur skins, formerly known as Tete a Pied pretty much since a month after my rezday. It’s the pretty classic makeup that does it, it coordinates so well with my very classic and retro looks. This is the Laura skin, in Buff. This one has such pretty winged eyeliner. I’d kill for eyeliner like this in RL, I’ve never been able to wing it so so beautifully.

The pearls are from Raven Rosebud, and were highlighted in this post by Sabrina Like Sabrina, I don’t have the jewelery gene, but I do know great must have classics when I see them. Here’s the best part, they were free. How could I not have them. I’ve worn them many many times. I have the choker too and yes it probably is my favorite choker in SL.

Also you can see my Miriel Enfield eyes. I spend some time in my early days trying to find the perfect eyes until I finally tried Miriel’s. Now I wear nothing but eyes from Miriel, usually these Strong Green ones in the Vivid naturals series. I love Miriel eyes because of the small realistic irises, though she now makes her eyes in a larger size for those that prefer that.

More of my favorite things, after the break.

(Read More | Where to Buy)

Since this will be my last editorial here at LL, I thought I should make it one of the *biggest* pet peeves of my SL dress-up playtime.

90% of glitch pants in SL just plain suck-diddly-uck. I’m sick of wearing granny pants and biker shorts under my flirt-length skirts. For that matter, I’m tired of unimaginative calf-length drek under my gowns, too.

I’ve heard all the excuses, reasons, etc and I’m tired of them. I’ve had designers tell me that the glitch pants are only a “courtesy” and not really part of the outfit. Ummm, no. Welcome to Widget Making 101. Part of creating and selling a product is dealing with the issues inherent to its application. It’s like making an umbrella out of cottonballs and then saying it’s not YOUR fault that the material isn’t water-repellent. The application should fit the final product. It’s not a “courtesy” that something works for the consumer; it’s your job as a content creator. It’s why we buy things from you.

In SL we have transparency issues. I’m not going to get into how some content creators stubbornly hold to making half our bodies disappear when you turn around instead of working around this “feature” none of us like, but all of us have to deal with. But I understand that we have to cope with prim movement issues. So I appreciate that many people (myself included) require a modesty pant layer under our clothes. But, modesty doesn’t mean “ugly.” Or, at least it shouldn’t.

Glitch pants should be more than just haphazard color or pattern layers with unfinished edges. If you’re going to include them, they should - if nothing else - be pretty. We should be able to wear them on their own merit. They should not look like a dog just puked up a yard of fabric on our legs. Skills applied to bodice should MATCH the skills applied to glitch pants. Otherwise it’s just designer laziness and a lack of attention to detail and quality.

Part of this is our fault. As consumers we’ve allowed this to continue without much grumbling. But as the costs of virtual designer clothing increases, so should our expectations of quality. In all fairness, how are designers to know we want something if we don’t give them feedback on it. This is especially important in a marketplace like SL where advertising displays are usually the only way we have to gauge the product before we buy it.

Still, the quality issue is only half of the glitch pants conundrum. There are some designers who DO skill up on their glitch pants and make them into usable articles in their own merit. However, quality is only half the issue.

All my friends lament with me about how we have to wear “biker shorts” under our flirt-length skirts. And, well, while that was fine for camp when we were 10, it’s lame now. However, whenever I’ve brought this up to designers I know, they wave it off, insisting none of THEIR customers care or complain about glitch pants. While it’s entirely possible my friends and the voices in my head are the only ones with this problem, it seems unlikely.

In looking around for solutions to this issue, I found two whole examples in my inventory of things that were on the right track. TWO. And I don’t have to tell you what my inventory looks like.

This first is a skimpy little costume I bought at the Playboy SIM last Halloween. Silly as it is, the glitch pants under the skirt are made to actually look like panties and not biker shorts. Go figure.

Next is one of my favorite short skirt dresses by Vitamin Ci called Valentine (and which I included in our last V-day Round-up). The bodice is on the jacket layer, which I have started to prefer. This allows the bottom (while a little unfinished and in need of a hem) to come closer to something like this if you’re skirtless. If you are wearing the skirt, you get the yummy full effect of lingerie + short skirtage:

(panties, garters and stockings from Insolence)

I know some people will roll their eyes and get huffy and insist it’s just me staring at my virtual kitty again, but I’m playing dress-up in a world where my stockings never get runs, the pretty panties aren’t uncomfortable to wear, and short skirts will NOT garner disapproving looks from the old biddies at the bus stop. I don’t WANT sport bras and biker shorts, damn it. I want cute, short, flirty skirts and lavish lingerie accompaniments. And I’m betting that most of the people who play virtual paper dolls with me want similar.

So, if you do too, make sure you let your favorite designers know. Start asking what types of glitch pants are included with their dresses - drop notecards when you are disappointed with the quality or style of them. Let them know that glitch parts are part of your purchase and, as such, matter to you as a consumer. DO NOT HARASS. Feedback is important and is your right as a customer. Being a pill, however, will just get you dismissed as…well, a pill.

Save the torches and pitchforks for the designers who keep making “dresses” that are nothing but a prim shoved into our nethers. A prim over the twat and one on the crack of a bum IS NOT A SKIRT. It’s two prims trying to have sex with a pair of biker shorts and failing miserably. The prims don’t match the pant layer - they never match - unless you are standing perfectly still and adjusting the lighting specifically for advertising displays.

But, I’m not bitter.

Friends and Loyal Readers,

As of August 8th, 2008 Linden Lifestyles will no longer be updating active content. The time required to maintain this project simply hasn’t been a luxury we’ve got in pocket these days. The site will continue as a reference archive for existing and new readers, but there will be no new reviews or updates following August 8th. In the past, we have had periods of hiatus and/or slower posting paces, but this time we’re finally pouring the last few drinks, closing the doors and sweeping out the sawdust.

As of this posting:
1. Content creators should no longer send samples for evaluation to reviewers;
2. Any new advertising will be on the understanding that this is an archive only-site;
3. Current advertisers have the option to finish out their number of impressions, or request a refund on remaining impressions.

In addition to the above, as of August 8th, 2008:
1. Comments will be turned off on all entries;
2. The Linden Lifestyles Flickr Group will no longer be approving new images;

We may be posting a few final entries before the closing date - just to get it out of our systems

We cannot thank you enough for the support that you have shown as a community for a bunch of girls playing virtual paper dolls and writing about it. It has been a delight to squee with you in prim lust these last two years. While we move on to new projects, we hope you will continue to enjoy the goodies the grid has to offer and share them with friends in the name of fun and prim vanity.

Kindest Regards,

Sabrina Doolittle
Salome Strangelove
Linden Lifestyles Staff

(note: Salome is bad at math. Our last day will be the 8th, not the 5th as originally posted.)