Second Style Magazine

The EFA Fashion Week has been running at 11 am SLT this week which I know has made it difficult for North American readers especially to attend the shows. I’ve been shooting some of the outfits featured during the shows and posting them on my Flickr stream. Yesterday’s show featured designs by Quinlan Quimby and Delaney Whippet. (Model LaydeeBird Chastity is wearing Delaney Whippet’s dress in the photo to the left.) Today’s show was Indrya Seigo and ETD for Aveda Institute. There is no show tomorrow, but on Thursday LeeZu Baxter and Soraya Blachere will be showing off some of their latest designs.

I know that Tillie Ariantho has also been posting a round up of her photos to flickr too. Be sure to check them out! If you also have photos of EFA Fashion Week on flickr, leave the URL in a comment!

Don’t forget on Saturday, there will be a fun and fabulous designer charity auction to benefit the Pink Ribbon cancer research campaign.

If you’ve been thinking about an ad placement in November’s issue of Second Style, now would be the time to fire up PhotoShop.

Our ad deadline is October 20th for publication on/around November 1st. Our rate card can be found here, and our wildly popular “buy 3 placements get 1 one free” promotion is still available in all sizes except eighths. For more information or to reserve ad space, email HeatherDawn Cohen (heatherdawncohen -at- gmail -dot- com)

It is more than a year ago since I came to SL. After the initial confusion and awe, I started to notice some of the outfits that other avatars would wear, and, without payment info on file, I could only think of how much camping it would take before I could lay my hands on things as beautiful as that. What particularly struck me back then were the lovely gowns from a shop called Blaze. Velvet like textures, gorgeous designs and exquisite prim work (although I had no idea they were called that way). When I finally did have payment info on file and started using it too, I became a loyal customer at Blaze’s shop.

Just the other night I found something in my inventory that brought back sweet memories of good old times. Blaze made a new gown! A gown of which the texture is not the velvetlike textures as the ones that caught my eye a year ago, but not as shiny as the ones he has been recently using either, and frankly, for my personal taste, they were a bit too metallic. The Grace gown unites the best of the past and the present for me texturewise. The scarf is a great find that works very well with your avie. The embroidery on the hem of the skirt, gloves and the bodice is very well done and has definitely a 3D illusion to it and I love the laced up back. The only thing that I like a little less about this gown is… the variety of colours that Blaze made it in. He has 23 (!) out now. How is a girl ever going to choose from this?

Hair Sofia in burnt smoke by Elika Tiramisu at ETD, skin Tête à Pied Vivant Buff Peon (custom version) By CJ Carnot and Roslin Petion, jewelry Veronica with moonstone from Fallingwater Cellardoor at Shiny Things

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

[CT here] Since Grazia beat me to posting about these gowns already, I will just show off the photos I took of the silver one in Zurich City sim. Zurich City has a gorgeous opera house build. That’s where I snapped this photo. Something Grazia didn’t mention, but probably worth pointing out is that the Grace gown comes in a number of new colors — including the “mid-turquoise” and copper colors Grazia’s wearing. The silver I have on is one of the classic fabric textures Blaze has been using.

Blaze also recently released his “Women’s Tuxedo” ensemble which would be perfect as seperates with other outfits or together as I’m wearing them.

This week at SexySecond we went heavy on the sexy outfits- dresses, skirts and pants- and only did a couple of underthings. (Perhaps it’s the colder weather coming in and making us bundle up). That’s not to say we went easy on the sexy however, as we’re always serving up plenty of that.

Arabeth Laval reviewed some gorgeous things, like the Duchess Coat from Casa del Shai, shown left. She followed that up with a review of Unseelie  from Silent Sparrow  and Calico Creations. One of the many looks for this wonderful fantasy set is seen to the right in the picture above.  She also reviewed a vintage set from Indyra Originals and a fabulous silk set from Dark Eden. Our readers already know that Arabeth is a blogging treasure who scours the grid to bring us some incredible things. Come by and see for yourself, she really is a marvel.

I reviewed some of  Ameshin Yossarian’s fantastic things from Curious Kitties, including the Pirschjager Dress in red, seen left. Some of the items have been out for a while, some are newer, they all mix and match beautifully and they’re all made with Curious Kitties’ incredible quality and originality.

Also this week I reviewed some of Nyla Cheeky’s line of crochet items. This is one set that will change your perception of crochet as hats and mittens from Granma. The House of Nyla definitely sat down with some hot digital knitting needles to make them.

Finally, Second Style’s own Justine Babii dropped by to get a little gothy with us. She shared a great ensemble from X2′s Gothica that included skins, the incredible outfit to the left, and even some latex.

As I mentioned last week in my introduction to you, it is an honor and a privilege to be part of the Second Style Network and write for you here, and also on our “home turf” at SexySecond. Come on over and visit us,  and let us know how we’re doing!

You’ll be seeing some major changes to our blogroll over the next few weeks. The most visible change has already happened: the links moved from our sidebar to their own page. As a convenience to our readers, we now allow XML export of our complete blogroll in OPML — so you can take our blogroll and load it into your favorite feed reader. We currently have over 100 outbound links to other blogs about Second Life — 90% of them to other fashion blogs or designers’ websites. (Want to add your fashion-centric website to our blogroll? Email Justine Babii.)

The next change we’re going to make is to better categorize these links so that designers who create shoes will be in their own category, designers who create hair will be in their own category and so on. The intent behind this change is to help readers, new and old, find new-to-them designers creating items they might have interest in.

Finally, the blogroll on the sidebar was just getting too long to fit with the number of posts on the front page of the site, meaning our sidebar was often longer than the actual post content.

Let me know what you think about this change and how we can organize these links to be the most useful to you and other readers.

Download these links as OPML. (What is OPML?)

Email Justine Babii (justinebabii -at- gmail -dot- com) with addition, change and removal requests. Thank you.

[I recently interviewed Honeydew Hilite (left) the creator behind Diva Style who recently completed a model search called the Miss Diva Style competition. KandieKane Laval (right) was crowned Miss Diva Style 2007.]

Celebrity Trollop: Tell me about the Miss Diva Style contest. How many entrants? How many finalists?
Honeydew Hilite: We had quite a few entrants and we ended up initially just narrowing the field to 12 finalists and from that list the intial competition started with a photo shoot here at the gardens with those 12 contestants.
HH: I actually hired Miss Jujudoll Dancer owner of Moda Modeling agency to manage the whole competition. I wanted to say that because she and her organiziton did an excellent job.
KandieKain Laval: Yes indeed they did.
CT: And after the initial photoshoot, what happened?
HH: Another part of the competion that I included was the questions: I had every girl answer a particular question as to what a Diva would do in particular situations. I felt it was important to know what the girls really felt a true diva is. I feel that a diva is A state of mind and knowing their thoughts and ideas on certain topics is just as important at the way they look.
CT: Is Kandie going to be “The Face of Diva Style” now?
HH: Yes, as part of winning the competition she will be in all our planned furture advertisments for the next year as well as attend various events throughout SL and I must say thus far she has been doing an excellent job.
CT: Kandie, please tell me about the competition from your perspective.
KL: The competition was all handled by Miss Noelle Canning, she did wonderful with getting all of us girls ready for the competition, everything was done very fair, and professional.
CT: What sort of prep work was necessary for the competition?
KL: We had several rehearsals to check our wardrobes and to make sure we all knew what we were to do on the runway and the photoshoot. The show turned out to be very stunning; at the end of the night when I was crowned Miss Diva Style 2007 I was in total awe and shock. It’s a night I will definitely never forget.
CT: Kandie, describe your emotions through the competition. How did you feel throughout the night until you found out you were the winner?
Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to this week’s Wurfing Update.

We only added one new blog this week, Hairapy, which allowed me to go out and look for some super fresh fashions for you.

Relika (Blog, Slurl) just released some gorgeous clothes in classic Fall colors. Down to Earth comes in two primary colors, black and brown. Each of those is L$200. Both are only L$325. There are six coordinating undershirts for each.

From there I wurfed over to Mystikal Hair Designs’ (Blog, Slurl)and saw that thay have a couple of new things that look great. Audrey, shown, is a hair made entirely from sculpties that I can’t wait to try. (They also look to have a nice hair for Halloween called Witchipoo if you’re putting together your costumes yet).

Audrey is shown in the picture to the left. I popped into their shop and had time to try the demo, which looks great. Audrey comes in 22 colors sells for for L$ 250 a color.

It was early in the week, but as October is such an awesome month for things Goth, I should mention the Gothique line from Tête à Pied (Blog, Slurl). Goth Skins are easy to find but good Goth Skins can be tricky. Based on Tête à Pied’s wonderful work in the past I’m putting some lindens aside in my Halloween budget to pick these up. There are six distinct looks, (Corbeau is the one in the pic).

Also this week they released Paon, which has a great story you’ll have to wurf to their post and read

That’s all for this week. As always, if you have a blog to add or something fun going on for our calendar, send me an IM or an email.

Jeweler and accessories creator JCNY is having another model search which features a pretty awesome prize package, including:

• Your photo in the JCNY ad in Second Style,
• a modeling contract for JCNY,
• L$5000 in fashion prizes,
• Your photo in JCNY’s classified ad,
• an awards ceremony on November 1st.

Entries need to be submitted to JD Hansen by October 31.

There are some very specific entry guidelines, so you should pick up a copy of the official rules from the JCNY flagship store on Farrah Island (195, 59, 24).

Good luck!

There … it’s out in the open. I realised it last night… I am a Bare Rose Addict, and I don’t want a program…. I want more.  My Bare Rose folder has been silently growing over time, and my TPs to June Dion’s shop have grown in frequency. I admit  idling at Bare Rose waiting for everything to rez, just to see if there are new things that I don’t have yet, I admit not minding the lag that eats me alive sometimes, I admit playing for hours, like a little girl with her Barbies, with all the options that come with the outfits, shamelessly mixing and matching colours and items from other Bare Rose products and I admit that it has been a looong looong time that I laid my hands on something that blatantly yelled at me “BLOG ME NOW!!!!” but here it is, Nora.

Nora is a lovely dress that comes in four demure colours ( black, grey, brown and light brown), showing you the light brown one here. It is the kind of dress you put away at this kind of year because its sleeveless top and lacey looks are for a season warmer than this… but you really don’t want to because it is your favourite and it reminds you of long summer evenings and you don’t want the cold season to jump in just yet. So this amazing jeans jacket is just the item that you need to be able to wear it a while longer. And of course… Bare Rose would not be Bare Rose if not the jacket came in several options too. In plain, washed and washed more (wearing). June provides a demo for this outfit which I can highly recommend you to try, because the primwork on this jacket is quite complex. The collar, the buttons and the bottom of the jacket are prim, and all linked together. Getting it to fit might be a bit tricky if you are not a star in prim adjusting. 

I decided to combine this outfit with ETD’s Amber in blonde, and Adam ‘n Eve’s black Plain Riding boots. The skin is Tete à Pied’s Vivant Boudoir Buff 1 (soon to be released, inspired after Shai’s awesome lingerie) and the beaded necklace? A little sculpted extra that comes with the Nora outfit.

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

Calla turns one this weekend and Tigerlily Koi and Haedon Quine are having a huge celebration party all weekend long and an even bigger half-off sale. But wait… there’s more! There will be tons of high quality freebie goodies to nab including gifts from Nicky Ree, Alaska Metropolitan of Opium, Shai Delacroix of Casa Del Shai, Pushbutton Skolnick of Pushbutton Industries, Marleen Vaughan of Marlys, Truth Hawks of Truth, Rebel Hope, Haver Cole & Aemilia Case of Lemon, Colleen Desmoulins of The Loft 3, Eolande Elvehjem of Accessories by Eolande, Soda Domela of Bubblefish, and more! These gifts will only be available this weekend, so be sure and drop by to pick yours up.

As if that wasn’t enough, Calla has been hoarding ten (10!) new styles from us and they will all be unveiled this weekend. Shown here from left to right are Lucerne (an elegant updo), Mallos (a very formal chignon), and Morning Glory (a more casual side-swept pony) all in Dark Mahogany. (Gown is Shooting Star in emerald by Lissa Maertens of Cattiva, Skin by Stumbelina Ophelia of Cake.) There’s seven more hairstyles to come too. Calla group members will get a sneak peek tomorrow around 1:00 pm SLT, and everyone else can drop by starting at 3:00 pm SLT. The sale goes all the way through Sunday, so there’s plenty of time to drop by even if you can’t be there at the stroke of three. (S: Yes, R: Yes, F: Yes) Callatropia (125, 193, 23).

Just an hour after Calla starts its big party, Nicky Ree unveils her brand new sim home, Tropical Orchid. She was kind enough to give me a sneak peak of the island two weeks ago and it’s really turned out to be a beautiful place to shop. Of course it will house all of Nicky’s designs for both men and women, and she’ll also be offering 20-50% off her entire line from the grand opening all the way until Sunday, 2 pm SLT. This sale is only available at the Tropical Orchid sim (Nicky’s other locations will remain at full price) and only until Sunday. From 4-5 there will be live jazz by Nedlev and Neekie Lednev and from 5-6 DJ Amy Ferguson will spin up popular tunes for beachside dancing and fun. Everything starts Friday at 4pm SLT Tropical Orchid (230, 128, 30).

Sherona DeGroot and the other designers at the all new Fine Fashion sim (including Isabella Maginot, Zarah Dawn, Lyssa Sapeur, Dexter Bachman, Altroth DeGroot, Adryanna Richelieu) invite you to see a short fashion show featuring designs from everyone at Innovations. After there will be a free raffle, freebie giveaways, and a Halloween themed treasure hunt with some excellent prizes to be found. The party starts Friday night at 6:30 pm SLT on Fine Fashion (94, 127, 31).

Last, but not least, on Saturday, October 13 Kirk Claymore and Maddox Dupont of KMADD will open their new sim home, KMADD Enterprise. The sim features all of the KMADD businesses including MADesign Shapes, MAD Modeling Agency, and virtually every well known male fashion designer in Second Life including AITUI, Akeyo, artilleri, Barnes Boutique, Blaze, Brief Encounter, Casa del Shai, Chez, Civvies, Desert Moon Clothiers, Endeavor, Ergo, Form, Guillaume Pour Homme, Gudshu Glasses, Indigo, JGD Swimwear, Jeepers Creepers, MINNU Skins, Muism Men, Nylon Outfitters, Pale Heretic, Paper Couture, Redgrave, Relax, Renegade, shinythings, Simone!, Tango New York, The Young Urban, Tonic, Truth, Laundry, Pixelmen and Last Call (Moderno). You can get your first look at the sim starting at 7:30 pm SLT. A fashion show is planned for Sunday October 14, too. Kmadd Enterprise (185, 183, 26).

“Fall In 2 Color” is a not only a clever name for a Fall clothing line that is predominantly made up of patterns involving two colors, it’s also a line you might want to take a look at. I’m wearing the Ally Cat coat and dress ensemble to the left and I love it. Featuring pants, two skirts, and two versions of the top in several choices of layer, the outfit is well worth the L$333 just for the variety within the emsemble. Add to that the classic fur collar attachment as well as the fur cuffs, belt and skirt trim and I’m sold. I’m wearing the classic black and white, it also comes in nine other color combos, or all ten for L$2222. I’m a sucker for vintage styles and the Ally Cat from Callie Cline, with its vintage fur look, is right up my alley. Available at Calliefornia.

Review Copy Y | Seen In World N | Friend’s List Y