Second Style Magazine

Update [CT]: Ginny mentioned this morning in a group notice that bidding is up to L$26,500 for this amazing creation.

Do you dare to be Unique? Do you dare enter a bidding for a good cause and risking running off with with one of the best and most versatile one-of-a-kinds you have ever seen?

Ginny Talamasca has created a stunning gown that will be on semi-silent auction at Last Call for the next two weeks. As of Monday the 23rd she will accept your biddings that are send to her on a notecard, containing your name and the bid you wish to make. The final auction value will benefit Relay for Life. The highest bidder will go home with a set that consist of 7 different colours for the bodice with and without a lovely corset, in several layer options that we all are so fond of, on a gorgeous iridescent flexi-prim skirt.

When a couple of weeks I asked Ginny if she would be willing to make a one of a kind for the upcoming Shopaholics Fashion Auction (date to be determined, but probably somewhere in June) and she jumped right at it I was delighted already, but when she IMmed the other week telling me about this little project, I could have just kissed her. Ginny… thank you so much for this great contribution!!!!

I would like to invite the highest bidder, or the one the gown is given to in case it’s a guy who actually bids highest, for an interview on Second Style blog and give her the opportunity to make us all green with envy showing it off right here.

Seen in world: no

Review copy: Noooo! what do you think, one of a kind is one of a kind!

Friends list: Yeah! Currently my best friend for making this beauty for RFL!!!!!

Yes, there are days that the tons of group notices from Fashion Consolidated drive me nuts and I just keep clicking them away without even bother to read them… and then there are days that I’m just so happy with it… like today when I received a message from Caliah Lyon that she released a new set of jewelry that on the ad was so totally delicious that I just had to buy it right away.

As all Caliah’s jewelry, this set is highly detailed. The Elle Orchid Collection is a delicate combination of pearls, semi-precious stones in pastel hues (5 different colours), and petals of silver finished in a thin layer of iridescent mother-of-pearl. The orchids are so beautiful. They really have this iridescent glow that looks great, especially at night time. The ton sur ton in the ivory set that I’m wearing is amazing. I have not seen this level of subtlety in SL often before. To match this lovely necklace Caliah has made several earrings. One fatpack with beads, dangles and studded earrings (I’m wearing the studs) and some single dangle earrings with the same semi-precious stones as in the several necklaces.

Besides  Caliah’s jewelry, I’m wearing ETD‘s Chalissa II in Smoke Burnt which I think is one of Elika’s best releases since Roslin, Tete à Pied’s Bronzage Medium Seductress wich I adore for it’s smoothness and the somewhat mute make up that is yet very glamorous, Starley’s prim lashes that come with the Deviant Nation skins (they are like a cell phone…. impossible that you ever managed to do without), Blaze’s lovely Rapshody gown and the incredibly beautiful green eyes that Toast Bard has on display in her shop Fashionably Dead.

Seen in world: yes  ~ Review copy: no  ~ Friends list: no 
 

The bloggers

Celebrity Trollop – Celebrity Trollop has been a Second Life resident since January of 2006. In March of 2006, she started this blog and became the managing editor of Second Style Magazine, working closely with magazine founder Josie Hamilton on a shared vision of a virtual fashion magazine that strives to showcase the quality and diversity of fashions in Second Life. Celebrity’s driver is 33, envies her avatar’s collection of shoes, and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contact her in world or by email: celebrity -dot- trollop -at- gmail -dot- com.

Jaydei Benmergui – In late 2005, Jaydei was born into Second Life, and joined the Second Style Fashionista team in early 2007. Currently, she spends much of her SL time working on her photography skills, blogging for Fashionista, and helping new residents learn their way around the game. Jaydei’s typist is a 24-year-old wannabe geek who used to be a World of Warcraft addict, but left because green and purple robes – and giant horned hats – do not make a positive fashion statement. Feel free to message her, or email at sillyjay -at- gmail -dot- com.

Grazia Horwitz – Grazia Horwitz took a first peek in Second Life mid September 2006 and spent the first few week in awe, exploring this amazing surreal world before discovering that her real life passion, fashion, was the most fantastic thing to explore in world. She has been writing for Second Style blog since the beginning of December 2006. Grazia�s secretary is 37 and lives near Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Contact her in world or via e-mail at grazia -underscore- horwitz -at- yahoo -dot- it.

Justine Babii – Justine Babii became a Second Life resident in February 2007 and made a beeline for the media tent. In addition to covering Second Life fashion shows for Second Style Magazine and Second Style Fashionista, Justine is a regular correspondent for SLNN.com and an occasional contributor to other Second Life publications. Whether interviewing business leaders for SLNN or discussing a new gown for Fashionista, Justine enjoys throwing herself into the myriad aspects of life in the metaverse. Justine’s typist is 24 years old and is splitting her time between finishing a degree at the University of Florida and working part time as a paralegal. Her goal in life is to keep her real life self as cheery, friendly, confident and outgoing as Ms. Babii. Justine can be reached at justinebabii (at) gmail . com

Madison Carnot – Madison stumbled into Second Life in October of 2005. After floundering around for quite some time, she discovered the joys of shopping and specifically the world of digital fashion. She has been smitten ever since. Her time in world is mostly spent shopping and driving her friends crazy, so her friends are just grateful she joined up with the Second Style Fashionista team in September of 2007. Her typist is a not-yet-30 gal named Jen who likes to podcast and generally geek out when not at her full time job as a government drone. She can be reached in world, or emailed at madison.carnot (at) gmail dot com.

Our review copy policy

We often receive complimentary copies of items to review and feature on the blog. We feel it’s fair to let our readers judge if that introduces bias into our review of the product, therefore we disclose if an item has been seen in world (as opposed to just in an ad texture), if it was a review copy (i.e., complimentary), and if the creator of the item is on our Second Life friends list. (The original post outlining this policy can be found here.)

When we solicit review copies from content creators, we strive to post a review of that item within 7 days. Sometimes — for various reasons — reviews can take longer to photograph, write, edit and post. (The typical post takes around 30 minutes to one hour to compose, usually, and sometimes photo image selection and editing can take much longer.) In those circumstances, an explanation of the delay will be given if requested by the content creator.

Advertisting

Second Style Fashionista accepts advertisements in the following size factors:

• 125 x 125 buttons, rate of L$200/1000 impressions
• 468 x 60 banners, rate of L$400/1000 impressions

All ads must be smaller than 40k. We take GIF, JPG and PNG ads. Second Style Fashionista, on average, has approximately 3000 ad views per day. We can throttle your ad to deliver a specific number of ad views per day if desired.

To place an ad, contact HeatherDawn Cohen (heatherdawncohen -at- gmail -dot- com) or Celebrity Trollop at the email above. More advertising details can be found at on our magazine website.

At the beginning of 2007, Starley Thereian made a long anticipated announcement about an updated line of skins she named “Vogue.” Earlier, when I had the chance to interview Starley for Second Style Magazine, I asked her why she felt like she needed to create an entirely new line of skins — because I felt (and still feel) entirely pleased with my extensive collection the Charmed skin series. Starley replied that there were a set of features in Charmed that — as time went on — just annoyed her, even if customers were perfectly happy with the way the skins looked on their individual avatars. So the new set of skins (64 makeups, 2 skin options (freckled and not) in 5 different skin tones — that’s 640 different skins in total!) were developed detail by detail, pixel by pixel.

Because the way the Vogue skins handle color-matching different hair textures — an unintended, and unfixable consequence was that the system lashes on the skin would themselves be tinted the same color. Blue eyebrows meant blue eyelashes. And while some might be content with that result, most customers, she guessed would not be. Enter the prim lashes.

Yesterday, Starley released a huge expansion on her line of prim lashes — lashes which I consider to be the best in Second Life. They’re now available for the first time to people who didn’t purchase the Vogue skin line. There’s two different styles: 13 “Classic” lashes in the vein of the lashes which come with the Vogue skins, and 13 “Club” lashes which are more theatrical and dramatic false eyelashes. They’re tintable and modable for perfect fit and color. Implemented using cylinders (rather than tori as the Vogue lashes were), Starley notes these may be slightly more difficult to fit. If you’re comfortable checking the “edit linked prims” box, you shouldn’t have any trouble though. (As always, making a backup copy of your prim objects is a Good Idea(tm) before you edit them.)

As excellent as the prim lashes are — and they are highly! recommended! — I really wanted to write about a comparision between the Charmed skins and the Vogue skins. I remember talking to various friends and colleagues back in January about whether they were going to take the plunge on Vogue or not and something that I kept hearing was that they didn’t really see anything in the Vogue demos that’d make them want to upgrade. That’s a fair conclusion to make, of course — it isn’t like I never wear my Charmed skins any more, or that I think they’re just horrible skins (they’re still extremely lovely, in fact) — but I wanted to really lay out some of the key upgrades that I see in Vogue.

Since there are potentially NSFW photos (naked! boobies!) to come, I put them beneath the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you live under a rock, you likely know about the horrific shootings that happened Monday.

This incident, considered the most deadly shooting in US history, was a horrible shock to our nation…it seems only natural that our SL community pull together to help just as in RL.

In that vein, caLLie cLine (whom, you may remember, created shirts in memorial of Steve Irwin last year) created these shirts to raise money to donate to the school. They come in a two pack with a mens and womens version in each pack, and three different prices (100L, 500L, and 1000L), so you can donate whichever amount you want to receive the shirts.

Also, as with the Steve Irwin memorial, caLLie intends to put together a collage of us residents to send along with the donation.

The shirts are available in caLLie’s main store.

caLLie mentioned in the FashCon post that Tenshi Vielle is also working on some stuff in memory of the students…possibly an event? I (or one of us ladies) will keep you all posted.

Here’s another great FashCon find — Pearlie Pedro’s Miam Miam — seen here in the close up photo — her fabulously detailed shoulder bag, her amazingly cute royal princess earrings and a silver charm necklace packed with tiny prim detail. (The close up also showcases another new makeup set by Portia Sin of Sin Skins — Valentine in Stratus skin tone.) To go with the accessories, I wanted to show off one of Moodi Moxie’s latest creations: Flare Necessities — a little bit 70s, but packed with hipster goodness and definitely 100% fashionable. I’m wearing a pin-stripe/skelly set of pants with the tied off top option. (There’s also a longer top option if you’re not feeling as hoochy as I was when I took this photo. ) I especially like the flexiprim ties on the legs of this outfit.

Simplicity by Moodii Moxie can be found on Nantli Xolal 204, 129, and I definitely recommend a stop at Miam Miam for some really beautiful and fun jewelry. The store is found at Sterling Point 103, 169.

Seen in world: Yes
Review copy: clothing, yes, jewelry, no
Friends list: clothing, yes, jewelry, no

A couple weeks ago, new designer Alexia Goddard sent out a notecard to the FashCon group listing some things in her boutique — the item that caught my eye was this flirty flippy springtime patterned skirt. I thought it was remarkable that a new designer had taken pains to perfectly align a tricky pattern on floppy flexiprims. It was also in brown and cream too — and that certainly didn’t offend my aesthetic tastes. I wanted to match it with an equally cute spring time top and the first thing which came to mind was the top from the Avril outfit by the Tete a Pied duo of CJ Carnot and Roslin Petion. Being seperates, they’d look great with any number of different coordinating pieces, but I think they work magnificently together. And since the weather in my neck of the world is finally starting to show improving signs of spring (lack of snowfall, much warmer temperatures, and abundant sunshine being three major clues!) it’s time to spring into spring fashions. I couldn’t be happier.

The patterned skirt is available at Julex boutique in Hyades 210, 235. The Avril outfit can be purchased at Tete a Pied, in Nouveau 212, 165.

Seen in world: Yes
Review copy: Yes
Friends list: No

NO!! I’m not, and neither was Charity Colville, the ever gracious owner of Phat Cat’s Jazzy Blue Lounge, when she told me the other day that in addition to the lovely freebie gown made by Nonna Hedges, they now have two other free outfits to offer their visitors. Both made by very talented designers.

First there is this delicious spring dress by Nicky Ree. The soft yellow top and the subtly swaying skirt are just too good to be a freebie… but it is. And not only the flexi prim skirt is beautiful, you can also opt to wear the mesh skirt without the prim overlay. Nicky even included a pair of cute high heeled sandals, so it is truly a full outfit. This really is a great basic outfit when you start in SL, but also a very welcome addition to one’s stuffed pixel wardrobe. The hair in this photo is Aveda’s Med End Curl in Cinder and the skin is Lovey Darling’s Passion Fruit/Cinnamon skintone, made for Perfect Image. The necklace is Wish by Earthtones Boutique. 

I referred already to Nonna’s free formal that became available when Phat Cat moved to it’s own sim Phatland, but now there is another one to choose from.. or maybe you should pick up both of them.. they are surely inviting you to get greedy as they both are so cute. This one is made by Pinkdiamond Peel, the talented DBP designer of formal wear and wedding gowns, and more but I’ll tell you about that later this week… I’ve met briefly with Pink earlier today and she really has some yummy stuff. The mauve bodice has a cute tiny black cat on it and the prims… they just beg for a waltz, or a slow…. or a swept away. The hair in this photo is Aveda’s Short Bob in Cinder, the skin is still Lovey’s Passion Fruit and the necklace is Earthtones Cassandra.

Hurry over to Phat Cat’s to grab your copies, and, while there…. don’t forget to enjoy the music and the great ambiance at this romantic club.

Hey all!

I must say, it was a lot of fun going through the pictures for Reader Style…seeing all those creative photos is definitely a great experience!

My choice for this round of Reader Style is a photo of the lovely Ana Lutetia. So often, neutral tones are considered safe and not particularly eye catching (unless they’re hardly concealing a pair of huge, err…tracts o’ land), but Ana used brown as one of her main colors in this picture, and managed to make her ensemble both classy and funky.

From the photo comments:

“wearing: GuRL6 Peanut lg – SexyRed | DEEKS Middle Plain Rings | SLStats.com Wrist Watch v2.5 | *G*L*A*M* Apple Butt Jeans Yellow #1 | Luminosity – striped leather jacket (brown) | Vitamin Ci-Tankie Tan | (Shiny Things) Old Laceup Boots – brown”

Thank you for the photo, Ana!

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with these next couple weeks for Celebrity to pick through. Make it difficult for her to decide, like you’ve done with myself and Grazia!

Due to an unfortunate auto-return accident, the servers that connect to the Second Style Magazine vendors had to be reset with new keys, which means that all existing vendors do not work any more.

If you have a vendor on your land please delete the exisitng one and contact Celebrity Trollop, HeatherDawn Cohen, or myself for a replacement.

Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience.

OK dears… get your bandanas ready because tomorrow is BANDANA DAY!!!! Show them you care by replacing your hair! Be courageous, face the lag one more time and hurry over to Hair Fair before it’s too late… I’m pretty sure you have done it before to pick up the latest hairdos of SL’s finest. So go again and get a couple of the totally cute bandanas of which 100% of the proceeds go to Locks of Love, a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis (they are transferable, so give them to your friends that dare wearing hair!).

Having said this, and counting on seeing a lot of bandanas around tomorrow, I would like jump to this weeks RFL round up.There are so many lovely things around that it is always hard to make a choice, but hey… next week… new round up. To stay in the Hair Fair atmosphere for just a little longer, here is Strength, made by Elika Tiramisu. It combines the bandana with some hair and although for tomorrow I think that’s just unacceptable (don’t be so vain!), you will look great with it for the rest of the year.

Last week the SL community has suffered the loss of Feliciaa Feaver. Feliciaa Feaver, known as Theresa Guess in First Life, was born in First Life on Sept. 7, 1960 and became a resident of Second Life on Sept. 27, 2003. She lost her battle with cancer on April 2, 2007. She will be sorely missed by all who were close to her. But this is one more reason why we relay and the Transylvania Relay team is doing the most awesome job in fundraising in Feliciaa’s honor. Bcreative Wilde has made this hot pink dress for RFL in rememberance of Feliciaa.

I always love to see designers team up and get creative. Emma Gilmour from Sand Shack Surf & Co, and Artilleri’s Antonia Marat have decided to do a RFL release together. Two designers, four bikinis…. 100% for Relay for Life. I love them. I have been wearing Antonia’s purple bikini during the shopaholics auction event and it is just a great looking piece of swimwear. More of these creative joint releases please!

Neferia Abel, the talented designer of the Ivalde and Embla labels, has created these two sweet Marilyn Monroe like dresses “Tiril”. Although I can’t see enough purple these days, being that the theme colour of Relay for Life, I love the simple stylish black and white for these dresses. As we have come to expect from Neferia, the textures of these cute little numbers are great and it is an item you don’t just buy because it’s for charity… you’ll wear it all year long, because it’s just a very, very nice dress.

Last one for this week’s round up is a release by Little Rebel designer Jonquille Noir. Three totally sexy, shiny and trendy slipdresses. I am smitten with the colour combination that she did… creamy chocolate brown with candy pink and the sequined awareness ribbon on the neckline is a clear statement: I Relay! Jonquille has also some wonderful swimwear released for RFL, but that will have to wait till next round up, as are several other tips that I have received this week.

Ok, that’s it for now…. If you are a designer and have RFL releases, please send me a notecard with a full perm ad of it, a landmark and preferably some info on what inspired you to this particular release and I’ll blog it in one of the next weekly RFL round ups. And to all the others that read this… if you have spotted a special release… drop me a note as well so that I can contact the designer and share it with all of you.

Bump: Bandana Day is tomorrow!! (And also the last day of the Hair Fair! So shop now if you haven’t, or regret it until next year!)

Hair Fair is coming next week — are you ready for it? Sol Columbia and I are the Locks of Love charity liaisons for 2007 and one of the charity events the Hair Fair planners are promoting is “Bandana Day.” The idea behind bandana day is that you’d purchase several different bandanas to replace your normal prim hair on April 14th. Tons and tons of different hair fair creators are participating and all of the proceeds from the bandana sales will benefit Locks of Love.

Aside from the fund raising efforts, there will also be creator meet ‘n’ greets, another year of totally fabulous freebies, and scores and scores of new hair design releases.