Our next guest blogger is someone that I am a bit partial to simply because she is one of the most dynamic human beings I have ever met - Emerald Wynn.
Emerald Wynn is the author of the blog Emerald’s Eyes and, in her own words, “honestly, that’s about it.” She doesn’t take Second Life too seriously; however, she credits it – and her friends there – for helping her through some of the roughest transitions in her life. She describes her SL fashion style as “Quirky Chic” (and then laughs at the “chic” part). “If you’re not indulging your imagination in Second Life, you’re sort of missing the point,” she says, as she hands you a pocket-sized unicorn.
Well hello, all you lovely fashion addicts!
It’s wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me! And now, enough with the formalities. Let’s kick off this post with some name-dropping!
Last month, the talented and “OMG she’s sooooo nice!” designer Milla Michinaga gave me the LM to a fairly new luxury boutique called Orta. The selection there is small at the moment, but every piece is expertly crafted by former Lelutka team designer Valena Glushenko. I’ll take quality over quantity any day.
This Sophie gown in Ember is just one example. The skirt and the draping in the top are sculpted, which under ordinary circumstances would make me run screaming away from them. Modding prims on clothes is not my forte. Plus, the first time I wore a completely sculpted dress, I cluelessly threw it on and TPed into a social event . . . [dramatic pause] . . . and none of it rezzed. So there I was, butt-naked in public, wishing I had on decent underwear. Actually I was just wishing I had on ANY underwear. (I’m wiser now. “Hey, we have this thing in SL called lingerie!”)
Sophie has class though, kids, and covers your assets with cute little undies. Also, these prims aren’t tricky, and they’re generous enough to accommodate many body types without mod trauma.
Let’s talk about something else I usually don’t like – that hemline. Known in the fashion world as the hi-lo hem, I prefer to call it, “skirt that looks like a mullet.” This gown, however, makes it work with billowing volume, a soft curving transition from high to low, and a gorgeous pattern inside. No mullet here. It’s more like a cascade of wow. That’s right – I just said “cascade of wow.” Maybe the fashion mavens will adopt that description. It’s catchy.
The moral to this story? When it comes to fashion, never say never. According to a fortune cookie I once got, “Chances are good that someday you’ll see a striking design that’ll convince you that you actually don’t hate what you thought you hated as much as you thought you hated it.” (Unless it’s an outfit made entirely of ham, in which case I’d probably detest ham even more.)
Moving on.
I’ll admit that something about this gown made me feel vulnerable, which is why I decided to toughen it up a little with Plastik’s Burdies and Feathers tats. But watch as they magically disappear halfway through this post! Ready? . . .
Shazam! Gone.
I spent last night fruitlessly digging around in my inventory in frustration, trying to find a particular hat that has nothing to do with this post. It’s a really dramatic hat with a black bird (crow? raven?) on top. I believe it was made for a special themed fashion event, but I can’t remember its name – I think it was something really poetic (instead of “Hat with Bird on It”). I even searched for “Second Life hats” on Flickr and looked at about 600 pics (out of more than 4,000 results) before I finally gave up. But wow. I had no idea we had so many hat enthusiasts in SL. They even have their own Flickr groups. And that’s when I thought, “I need to wear more hats.”
So that was kind of a long way of saying, “Look at that hat up there,” called Fascinator Pewter Rose by XX Millinery. I like you, XX Millinery. Your hats are real head-turners, pardon the pun.
I promised Sophia Harlow that I wouldn’t turn this post into typical Emerald Wynn-style rambling and I’m sort of failing. So I guess I’ll wrap it up now. And believe me, you’re going to want to watch me leave:
Wow, that is stunning.
Hair – Truth – Eric in Ivory
Skin – Mynerva – Cynthia in Rose
Additional Makeup – Perfection – Smoky Hot Makeup in Pink, Just Eyes (tattoo layer for V2)
Eyes – A:S:S – Love in Your Eyes (Divine) in Oden
Gown – Orta – Sophie in Ember
Tattoos – Plastik – Burdies and Feathers
Hat – XX Millinery – Fascinator Pewter Rose
Shoes – Kalnins Footwear – Dante
Bracelets/Chain and Ring – Mandala – Lotus in Red
Earrings – Miriel – Casual Pearl Earrings in Black
Poses – Estetica – Pics 1 and 2; !Bang – Pic 3“
