Second Style Magazine

Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions yet? Mine is to clear my post queue from this year, no matter what! So you’re going to see a flurry of new posts from me over the next day or two as I try to get everything into calendar year 2007.

I want to kick things off right by showing off some gorgeous outfits by one of my favorite new designers, Kat Palmer of Immortelle. We featured Kat’s work in a recent Second Style produced fashion show, but before that I’d planned to write about several of her designs. My delay is your gain, though as Kat has recently released some really wonderful new looks which I included in this post.

This outfit started my love affair with Immortelle’s designs. When I saw it on FashCon, I couldn’t help myself from heading over immediately to add it to my closet. Called “Fleur Noire” it’s a gorgeous cocktail frock with a classic black top and a gold skirt with a fabulously beautiful lace overlay. Cut to fall just above the knee, this is a flirty look that isn’t at all trampy or overstated. I especially like Kat’s attention to the prim skirt pattern alignment – it must’ve taken forever to get all those panels to look just so when your avatar isn’t walking.

Around the same time Kat released Fleur Noire, she released the dress to the left named Miami. (Shown here with Stumbelina Ophelia of Cake’s Miami makeup in Golden skin.) Taken together, these two designs made me a fan forever more. Like its sister design Fleur Noire, Miami is another above the knee cocktail dress. But here, Kat shows her eye for color and pattern matching together perfectly in an ensemble. Everything I admire about Kat’s work is on display here: the understated elegance, the artful blend of color and accent, and magnificent attention to pattern. The tropical flowers on the skirt hem always make me picture this gown beachside on some warm island like Fiji.

Next to Miami, I’m showing off one of Kat’s most recent designs, the tiered skirted dress named Drama. Look at the tone-on-tone highlighting and fabric wrinkling at the bust and the hinted on trend sequin bands on the halter straps and underbust, as well as trim on the skirt tiers themselves. Kat added even more versatility by including a baby-doll style skirt which can be worn instead of this knee length version shown. Drama would be a cute way to ring in the New Year anywhere on the grid.

But Immortelle isn’t just about cute dresses. Kat has designed some casual outfits like Elizabeth, shown on the left. Elizabeth comes with several mix-n-matchy perfect layers so you can grab up elements you love from this outfit and mix them in with your favorite separates from other collections. Here I’m wearing a unified Immortelle look with the burnt orange shrug, with the lace-up corset style shirt and the jodhpurs-on-underwear layer which looks so fabulous with boots. (Earrings and boots by Lyra Muse for Last Call, Celebrity skin by LF Chai, Whitney hair by Starley Thereian.)

I wanted to end this overview of Immortelle with a look at the stunning floor length Muse empire waisted gown. Like Drama, this gown has several different skirt options to choose from – empire waisted floor length or something a bit shorter for a more relaxed casual look. I love the subtle shadowing work on the bust ruching, the super thin spaghetti straps, and the sheer overskirt and slow fade of color from the waist to the hem on the underskirt. Muse is available in a variety of colors: Honeydew, Pink, Purple (shown), and White.

Immortelle is located at Olympia (243, 93, 22).

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