The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

**Note** Haute Style is having a sale on select items at their store thru this Wednesday (5/21/08). If you like what you see, you might wanna run your pixels over there asap!

If you’re a sporting gal, then you know we’ve got a chance for a new triple crown winner. Big Brown has taken the Derby and the Preakness and now it’s all down to the Belmont. If he’s crowned, he’ll only be the 12th horse in history to win the big three, (the most recent being Affirmed thirty years ago in 1978). So, I spent a little time scanning through my inventory to see what would be a fun and fashionable wear to mark the occasion. Lo and behold, Forda Fairlane and Moxie Polano of Haute Style & Co. had me covered.

This Robin’s Egg gown is not my usual kind of wear, but it has a certain My Fair Lady feel that is impossible to resist. The textures are so delicate and the craftsmanship of the prims compliments the elusive qualities that make the pale pink blending into pale blue just work. You also can’t see it in the still photos, but the movement of the gown is perfect. It just…rustles. The hat which gives the ensemble it’s name is a sqeee-tastic work of art.

Part of playing dress up as a girl is wearing bold hats with silly things on them, and this lavishly feathered number with the birds nest tucked into it almost too charming to bear. Oh, and if you just want the parts that are lingerie-friendly and casual, there is the scaled-down version 2 that is sure to please.

While poking around the store, I also found the Ginnalli dress which I’ll have much more occasion to wear; it’s a formal dress that isn’t overly formal and not dated by a period style. Again, here, the textures are decadent. The lush layer of lace cascades over the blood red satin, sweeping down into an oyster shell ripple that will leave you drooling. The bodice is a stunner in itself - with a darling black satin bow. I do wish that more of the gowns offered their tops and bottoms on multiple layers. The items at Haute are premium priced and it would be nice to allow the consumer to mix and match them a bit.

Another couldn’t-leave-the-store-without pickup was the Maxie Sheer Jumpsuit. If you don’t have any involvement with creating textures in SL or any other 3d visual environment, I cannot express to you how difficult it is to lend detail and layer to black items. Black textures require an ungodly ability to manipulate sheen and light source so that it doesn’t all just look flat. Satin is also a royal pain in the ass to pull off in a visual sense because satin is only satin due to the shine and finish, otherwise it might just as well be polyester. So what am I trying to say to you? I’m trying to say that in order to make this jumpsuit someone had to make a deal with the devil. I’m not clear if there were sacrifices to the gods of virtual fashion, or if someone has agreed to the role of dark minion for a few centuries, but oh-my-god it’s worth it.

I love, love love this jumpsuit. I love the prim ruffles on the arms and legs; I love the sash; I love the sheer panels on the sides that tease you into following all the way around; I love the flirty open bodice. In short, there is NOTHING on this little number not to love. If it were cake, it would be solid frosting - it’s just that good.

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The only thing better than slipping into fabulous virtual clothes is slipping out of them and frolicking like a nymph with squee-tastic accessories.

These are the Spring Flowers sets from Sherona DeGroot of Innovations. They are over 280 prims of absolutely breathtaking wearable artistry. I love the way the foxgloves dangle from the bouquet and crown. Every flower is exquisitely textured. And whether it’s the goth-tastic black and red that catches your fancy, or one of the more traditionally colored sets, they’re sure to inspire. Granted, you may prefer to use them in weddings, but I maintain that running about a la Goddess of Spring in them is much more fun.

Did I mention that Innovations is having a 50%+ off sale on their gowns and silks this weekend only? *makes not attempt to hide completely evil grin*

So long as you’re heading out to the sale anyway, do not miss the Hermosa gown. It’s lush and lavish and, let’s face, it, one more floor-length gown won’t hurt anything. The textures are delish and the skirt shape boasts both a smooth hem and a flirty movement about the hips that compliments walking and standing animations that can otherwise make flex prims go all wonky.

Also not to be missed is the Aristicrat outfit (not sure if it’s an intentional or accidental misspell of Aristocrat, but with this much nummy detail, who cares about grammar). The jacket is accented with prim tail and cuffs and works surprisingly well with both the high-waisted pants (shown) and high-waisted cuffed shorts (not shown). The buttons on the pants and undershirt are applied with a natural hand-drawn look that makes them appear to move with the fabric textures. Likewise, the collar and lapels on the brocade jacket and silk blouse lend to the layered harmony of the entire ensemble.

There are also quite a few faboo hairstyles in the store, including this Stella design that I donned for a rare glimpse of blonde Salome. The little curls at the hairline are charming and the curly French twist of the back of the style makes for a fun, elegant updo.

If there is any disappointment with the Innovations items, it lies in their lack of versatility. Most of the pieces are on a single no-mod layer, offering only one or two options for wear and no opportunity for mixing and matching. The silk blouse of the Aristicrat, for example, is absolutely lovely and I would have greatly relished the option to wear it casually without the jacket. There was also an eye-catching set of a la carte corsets at the store, but being as they were shirt-layer only, I wasn’t motivated to buy or blog them. Considering that DeGroot’s quality and pricing puts her at the upper tier of SL designer clothing, I do hope that her future releases will update with the demands of the SL shopper.

That said, what you see is what you get and that includes rich, delicious textures, elegant styles with sophisticated flare, and delightful prim details.

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So, it turns out that Simone Stern (wench that she is) has been working on a new line - Style Starts Here - which focuses on casual wear (*thud*) and lingerie (*squee*) for women (*double squee*) and men (*double thud*).

Oh, and before I get into the goods, I am shivering with joy that in her new line, Simone is following the growing trend of high-quality SL designers by putting her clothing on MULTIPLE LAYERS — jacket layers, shirt layers, undershirt layers, etc. I am a loud and obnoxious advocate of this because it makes for ease of mix-and-match while extending the life and convenience of SL fashions considerably.

Yeah, I know. Could you die? I will tell you right now, the lingerie is mouth-wateringly nummy. I’m not a big fan of the babydoll style, and I care for it even less in SL, but the Lace Babydoll, above with or without the prim skirting pretty much owned me the minute I saw it.

I took a *lot* of photos, and I compiled a few “sum up” images (I’ll put the larger detail shots on Flickr) but I’ll be daft if I’m writing them all up. If you see something you like just go to the new SIM and have at thee - it’s actually a very easy SIM to navigate.

The Shirt Dress was pretty much made for me; I adore everything about it from the bottom of my child-of-the-eighties heart. As quality sexy casual dresses go, the selection in SL is pretty much slim to none. If it’s not outright slutwear, then it’s suffering from shiny abuse (note to designers: there are fabrics in the world other than silk and satin). This dress looks fine with jeans or leggings if you want to behave, and looks delish with stockings and garters if you want to decidedly misbehave. It’s a system-skirt based dress so you’ll get a hairline break at the bottom of the belt in some poses, but it’s a sacrifice I’m happy to make. Trust me, with the hike of the skirt, no one’s looking at your waist.

And then there are the tops. Glorious casual tops as far as the eye can see. I think I have about three dozen more choices to go with my jeans. Nearly all the tops are sold ala carte, as are many of the items at Style Starts Here.

But if I had to pick one “must-have-run-out-and-grab-now” item from the store, the Gettin’ Ready Red Heart Bath Towel would win every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I mean, how adorable is it to have a bath towel to run around in? Now I just need a bath towel turban and I’ll be a happy girl. (There are matching towels for boys, btw, so if you want to be unbearably cute at an upcoming Valentine’s day shindig, you might want to drag your hunny out and nab a matching set).

If you follow the cut, it’s just a Salome photo-fest with some links to the larger Flickr photos. I didn’t take photos of the ala carte skirts and pants because, frankly, I was too busy drooling over tops and lingerie to even think about putting anything over my pretty panties. SSH is a whole new line of clothing on its own SIM and the selection is impressive, with nothing costing over L$250 in the men’s or women’s departments (and most of the ala carte items are far below that).

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*drool drool drool*

I’ve been wandering around the grid in the Satine dress suit from StarSong for days now, and I can’t decide if it makes me feel more like some high profile trust fund brat trying to circumvent the paparazzi or a film noir heroine destined to smuggle microfilm in some very unladylike place. Either way, I’ve been having oodles of fun insisting my friends call me Natasha while I make campy comments about moose and squirrel.

It’s safe to say, they’re all ready for me to move on to my next dress-up phase.

Although it also comes in red, I’m obviously in favor of Satine in black with silver accents. It’s a simple top and system skirt pairing with a bell-shaped flex skirt that isn’t shown here because I prefer the cute little flexi sash that is attached to the same slot.

The beret (which goes so perfect with this outfit it’s a sin) is from from Maria Gherardi of MG Fashion and isn’t for sale…yet. She gave them out as gifts last September to her update group members and I’ve been waiting to see if she’d add them to her store. So far no-go, but I feel if enough of you IM her to beg for these sculpty gems, she may have a change of heart. I get compliments on this hat everywhere I go and there is a string of broken hearted bare headed women out there who have all railed at me when I tell them it isn’t available for purchase.

The diva-delish JetGloss glasses are from Suite17 and are some of the best low-prim textured glasses I’ve ever seen (four prims! four!). Each pair come with six different style and tint touch-script options so that you can be incognito in any outfit. Well, almost incognito. The big honkin’ names floating over our heads do have a tendency to give us away.

Completing the outfit are the Milano boots from Kitties Lair. I love how sophisticated shoes are getting these days with the help of sculpted prims (I’m on the fence about many other uses for sculpties, but I’m keeping the hair and boots in the plus column). These boots look way better on my friends who take the time to fit them properly - because they *DO* require fiddling. I messed with them for about 5 minutes before deciding they were good enough for me to hunt moose and squirrel. Those with more patience or skill at fitting items to their shapes will get a much better result, so please mind that when you look at my photos. Be warned, they do have that horrible sound feature - (a fad that can’t die fast enough as far as I’m concerned) but it’s pretty easy to disable if you’re used to that.

(Read More | Where to Buy)