The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

*wakes up in a ditch somewhere in Idaho* Oh man what day is i- oh crap!

That, my dears, is is the emblem of your dreams. Until September 8th, anything in ETD with that lovely marker on it is half price. Get them while the getting’s good~!

There have been some neat and atypical releases this week, so I’ll be devoting some time to them. Bear with me and you won’t regret it. A lot of designers who’ve been a little quieter on the scene poked their heads back in, and at the same time some regulars shook things up, so lets give them a little rundown. Tuli Asturias of Lollypop brought out some cute corset styles; Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot of Tete a Pied released their fresh and delicious v 2.0 skin line with a super fun fairytale themed party last Saturday; Kala Bijoux of Material Squirrel broke once again from her usual fare of wings to release a new tail, a flexi and fluffy tail for the neko folks; Nephilaine Protagonist of PixelDolls has taken a break from Iki (get well soon, Torrid!) to post an adorable Limited Edition at Pixeldolls, available until September 30th so there time to save up; Ginny Talamasca of Dazzle released a customer appreciation dress, an empire-waisted number for a paltry L$20, while also fiiiinally releasing some new undies parallel with some by Lo Jacobs right across the prim street; finally, Nyte Caligari and Sol Columbia colaborated to make of of the most HOLY-COW-WOW outfits in awhile, September, for Luminosity. Plaid is rad, BTW!

A few new fashion discussion blogs worth checking out (and I may be repeating myself in some cases, but that is just for emphasis!) are Wanda Rich’s Electric Venus and Nicholas Shaftoe’s Second Man. On the subject of Second Man, Nicholas has started the Second Man classifieds, another helping hand for designers in preparation of the forums closing.

The loose ends this week: Episode 30 of Secondcast is finally FINALLY out, and offers a nice little lexicon of the inside jokes prevalent in the show; Alaska Metropolitan posted an nice tutorial of the dos and don’ts of ad design, so check it out (please? ^_~); there was some more hair drama, but it’s all been resolved in a relatively favourable way, so yay(zerama)!; and last and possibly least, there’s an article on NWN about the SL fashion industry and those who blog it.

You know, Roundup Girl is a token position. I was really hired to keep Salome and Sabrina in line. I’ve totally been phoning it in all summer. …Kidding. ROundup Girl is a token position, but my real job is to, infact, mix pink ladies and chocolate martinis for them. In which case it looks like I’ve been doing my job incredibly well…

That’s right bishes, Kin Keiko is back. Inventory intact. Don’t like it? Tough steaks.

Festivities abounded this past week, including anniversaries at BareRose and Kru’s Boutique. We also got some interesting footage of a secret designer party, “leaked” by Torrid Midnight. With a wiggle like that, Mistress is could sure go places. Also, how does Ginny get away with doing that dance and not looking like a seizing Spice Girl? Dayum, woman!

A few unexpected releases wiggled their way out of the woodwork this week, including the cyberfunk (I do mean funk, I’m not being a typo spaz) anime-esque Kobe line from DE Designs. Inspite of some Southerner’s sniffles, Nephilaine Protagonist produced a few new items for Pixeldolls (not Iki, though there too, and remember, Iki isn’t in Chartreuse anymore!). Nylon Pinkney released some prosh new skins at her store, Nylon Outfitters, and Starley Thereian of Celestial Studios made hathead desirable with two capped do’s to compliment her Lulu line.

Speaking of Celestial, Celestial City is moving up above the clouds. Teleport up and change your landmarks! A new pack of Innocence skins from Canimal, too, in sunny golden tones. So much to catch up on! Ginny Talamasca’s new Dazzle sim is also getting a little development TLC with new storefronts popping up to hold Taido furniture, Crushed skins, and also a soon-to-be-opened discount area, so take a deep breath before you panic that the stuff deleted from the Dazzle store hasn’t reappeared yet. Shh, some of us just never caught up! Another sim project whose completion we can all look forward to is Gurlywood! Take a peek at Six’s plans.

The loose ends…
Second Style vendor issues? Poke your cursor thisaways.
And don’t forget to submit an entry or twenty to the Empyrean Emporium renaming contest! I know I have! … I’ll get to it shortly.
King of Panties Shep Korvin posted an interesting blog entry about lucky chairs, something that are far more of a phenomenon than I realized (I saw my first one in a really questionable dancing establishment. They’ve come a long way baby!)
And finally, Myst Panther’s posted another cautionary tidbit on Caveat Emptor, this time about group sniping. Not really content related per se, but the implications stretch out to the realms of fashion VIP and land groups, so it is definitely worth informing yourself on!

Oh me oh my.

Yes, it has been a spell between entries. At this point I would like to point out that Sabrina and I are both prone to distractions and life latency issues. In fact, when we were putting together LL, I remember a conversation that went a little something like this:

Sabrina: So, what, entries twice daily?
Salome: That’s a bit of a pace. What happens when we get distracted?
Sabrina: Come on, the one thing we can count on to never get boring is shopping.
Salome: Yes, but what happens when I get sick? Or you get sick? Or vacations? Or distractions? Or work? Or real life? Or we just burn out a bit and go on walkabout?
Sabrina: You worry too much.

Ha! I *so* win this one.

At any rate, having been out of the Second Life loop, I returned to find my inventory stuffed full of lovely items. Being overwhelmed I lamented in IM and was sent to EnRaPTuReD, Designed By Szabo (yes, the whole capitalization thing still annoys me, but, whatever). At this yummy destination, I found some of the most lovely creations in SL. It’s a tropical wonderland of squee, if a bit on the primmy side of Second Life.

Of course I made a b-line for a chaise (*shocker*). This one is called simply “Golden Chaise.” Absent a Cleopatra costume (let’s get on that, shall we?) I opted for a bikini. I *love* the design of this, although I do wish the included pose was a bit more of a leisurely recline. However, poses are cheap and adding them is easy. This was my favorite find. The cream and gold is heavenly.

For the SLer who has everything (including prims to burn) this “Lohmann Telescope” is a work of art! It is 80 prims of amazing detail. The time and patience it takes to put items like this together — to texture them and position and craft them. It blows my mind. I think items like this show us the real wonder of SL creation. I was knocked out several times in delight and if my virtual home wasn’t underground I’d have one on my roof

Last, but hardly least, I snagged a random pal and forced him to pose with me on the “Couples Hammock.” This is the one item that I found in the store that was low prim (12 prims only) and it’s got a charming easy-to-cycle group of poses for you and your snuggle-mate to enjoy together. I will say that I wish the texturing on this item was a bit more detailed. I understand it needed to be low-prim and I’m sure it’s a great seller (it’s a sweetheart item) but the wood frame is bland, the pillows could use some spicing up and the webbing on the main swing really would look better with borders instead of just ending abruptly where they were in mid-repeat. As with most SL items, however, such shortcomings are only for the nit-picker’s eye and taken as a whole from a step back, it’s truly a charmer.

There are dozens upon dozens of items to go through here. Most of them all a delight and bordering on art more than simple furniture. I enjoyed wandering the location and could have easily dropped a mint. Erm. Another mint.
(Read More | Where to Buy)

It’s been a rather troubled week, so put on some cheerful music as you read this or risk slipping into a downward spiral of sulking. The good part is all the bad news may yet have a happy ending, so let’s try not to be too sour~!

First off, to break up this mood of foreboding, a little quickie about some store shifting! Nephilaine and Torrid’s casual like, Iki, has been relocated and updated from its previous home in Chartreuse to a spot in Plush Gamma. Remake your Landmarks and check out some of the awesome new releases as well. Shep Korvin of Lapgirl is having a sale on some older styles he will be eliminating to free up prims in his store. Deekay Xavier’s trendy Deeks piercing shop has also moved, and is now in Unlimited with 7 brand new teeny tiny belly-button piercings to check out. Sezmra Svarog of Nora has remodelled and returned, with 3 new skins, nailpolish, and more! BareRose, the cult clothing phenomenon run by June Dion, will be celebrating its first birthday this week, so there is a full schedule of events and limited edition B@R outfits set up for the 19th– That’s this Saturday! Definitely worth checking out, and promising to be packed. Also, be sure to read about the attack on American Apparel, and listen to Secondcast for a few morsels if you’re interested in texture IP rights or drowning someone in Pepsi.

Now, onto the meat. Last week, the Lindens announced on their official blog that they would be shutting down the Second Life Forums… mostly. And gradually. It’s not letting me access the original post for some reason, but interesting views and transcripts/quotes can be found on Second Life Herald and on PixelPinupOnline. This has resulted in a rush to create new 3rd party SL Forum sites. One of my main concerns with the loss of the forums (the new products ones specifically) is that there will be less exposure for smaller, newer designers, and fashion writers will be accused of favouritsm and “payola” even more than they are now. While this may be completely unrelated, it’s interesting that Celebrity Trollop is now choosing to tell readers exactly where she finds items she talks about– if she happened upon them, if they were passed to her, and also if the designer is on her friend’s list. “Transparency” is a useful and at the very least interesting idea. It’s not for every SL Fashion writer, but I’m curious to see how it works out for Celeb.

The final issue likely could not have surfaced at a worse time. Sandwhiched neatly between the controversial decision to “change” the forums, and the face-to-face Second Life Community Convention, the reasons behind Kin Keiko’s conspicuous absence have made themselves known. Kin Keiko was one of the up-and-coming “it” girls of SL hairstyles, and her account, and all its holdings, have been wiped from the grid. Look for an article on this in the fashion section of next week’s Metaverse Messenger if you want more info, since we’re working our rears off to put all the peices of this puzzle back in place.

The backlash at the seemingly unjust IP banning (that’s right, she can’t even make an alt) has resulted in some displays that have been quite moving for all of us, and Kin herself, when I spoke with her. elka Lehane of !Boing Fromage! has been very distraught, and made a set of 2 “Bring Back Kin!” t-shirts, selling 1L for the pair, and they are transfer enabled, so you can spread the word. This shirt is this week’s eyecatch. Another moving show of support has been made by Nephilaine and Neil Protagonist, who have shut down their sim Nakama in a “moment of silence” to protest the loss of Kin, who was a very valued vendor in Ayashi Ku, the cyberpunk district. Here’s hoping we get this talented designer back soon!