No rest for the aspiring dressmaker

Hi friends, hunters, and budding fashionistas! If you've been wondering where your pal V has disappeared to as of late, you need look no further than the following picture:

That's right dolls, I've been learning the fashion trade of SL from the ground up. The battle is being fought on to fronts. Firstly, I've been intensely studying fashion blogs so I can see what's new and what sells.  Secondly, I've been learning the art of design on Photoshop. As one might imagine it is taking up quite a bit of my time.

On the subject of fashion blogs, the group at Premiere Modeling Management has officially launched their publication, dubbed simply: MODEL Magazine.  One might expect to find pages and pages of clothes that the average humble avi could ill afford...and to a point you'd be right. But far more intriguing are the articles on carving an elite model out of your current avatar. Yes you will have to drop some lindens for the honor (after all don't lindens make this Second world go round?), but for every line recommending you to go out and purchase a super prices skin or shape, there is more down-to-earth advice such as "make sure all shapes are modifiable" or "make your own skirt shape". 

My favorite tip concerns Atmospheric Shading. If you've ever noticed that on Windlight your avatar always seems to have oil slicked T-zones, meet the culprit. The magazine recommends turning them off and here is why.

With atmospheric shaders on, even my beloved Gaussian Blur can't hide the lines and shadows.

With atmospheric shaders OFF my avatar doesn't looks as nearly as harsh.

The trade off is that the backgrounds don't look quit as pretty. It occurs to me that this situation could be solved by taking two pictures and combining them.

Even better than the fabulous magazine is the free skin that I'm wearing. It comes free with the first issue of Model Magazine.  Both make the new publication worth looking at.

Skin: QS Skin Cream Mat Additional for Model (free)
Shirt: Nyte'N'Day Camer Cami (free)
Hair: ETD Trinity (not free)

See you on the hunt!

Grr.

It was my intention to post a blog about the Hump day party. But Blogger is deciding to be a little b*tch. So alas, it just isn't meant to be. but it was a good time had by all, and Alicia's dj skills are hot enough to make even country seem cool.


And it goes without saying that all the ladies and gents looked fabulous!


~V~

A freebie malaise

I love freebie hunting. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing like the rush of finding a fabulous item at a real bargain. I even love standing around in stores looking at all of the beautiful inventory I would purchase if i had more lindens to spare.  Given my love of the hunt, it should come as no surprise that my favorite event is...the formal freebie hunt. Give me a sim jam packed with loot to search out and I'm a happy girl.

But I noticed early in my freebie days, after only a couple of well stocked hunts...inventories become jam packed with loot, majority of which I will never use. Lately I've been working on formulating a game plan. It may or may not work for you, but it works pretty well for me so far.

1) Do a general scout of the store/designer providing the freebies. If the clothes on the wall are not your style, the clothes in the freebie probably won't be either.

2) While hunting, make a separate folder for all item folders and actual items given. Put everything into that folder as soon as you get it.

3) Continuing with point number 2: Never, ever rely on the recent items tab to sort your hunt finds for you. This tab is only useful when for your current log in session. I can not tell you how many times I've made the mistake of relying on the tab only to log out from sheer lag frustration...and then have no idea where any of my items are.

4) Post hunt, sit down and sort through all of your finds. If its mostly clothes or skins, now is a good time to camp. Even though you are sitting you can usually get a fair idea of the cut and style of garments. I have found that independent of cut, if I don't like the pattern of an outfit it will never see the light of day.

5) Make the hard decisions. With each hunt you will find more new things to fall in love with, and that means more old things will disappear into the back of your closet. If its not your style, you have something like it but better, or you are just over it, trash it.

Now these wont keep you from accumulating tons of items. But with careful organization and some item control, you can at least keep on top of things.

See you on the hunt.

OOh it feels good to freebie hunt

Nothing gives me the rush of an utterly fabulous freebie, even if its only found stalking lucky chairs. *giggle*. Earlier in the day I stopped procrastinating and joined the Ch'know group. First off these are probably the nicest, friendliest ladies and gents I've met yet in SL.  Alicia is very generous and has made several gifts for group members. They aren't thousand linden items but they are funny and drool worthy none the less.

Here is my favorite

After a hard day of freebie hunting nothing is better than chilling out in a inflate-a-pool with tequila and tunes. Me likey!


Later in the day I moved to Tesla for some chair stalking. So far I have nabbed Mary Jane's, two sunglasses including this fabulous pair:

The gorgeous simple pearl earrings are a freebie from Eloane. She is so generous, her items are often found in the Ohana Isle Freebie hunts (held each month) and they are almost always among the spoils that remain in my rotation. The hair is a freebie from ETD. Though they can not be seen in the photo, I am wearing pjs from NyteNDay (90L$) and shoes from She's' So Unusual (50L$). The only thing I'm wearing in any of the photos that was not free is the skin a whooping 1200L$ from Chai Skins. Lord rescue me from my weakness for that store!

Even with the skin splurge I think I have once again proven that with a little effort, every woman can look fabulous in SL for pennies.

See you on the hunt.

Answer to Alicia's post

    I am at present in an SL relationship. But it is very new and as such still in a period of growth.  I met my boyfriend, Thallanor, in the lobby of the main building at the United Federation Starfleet sim. At first I thought he was overly friendly and a bit shy, So I basically ignored him. A day or so later I was decorating for the UFS St. Patrick's Day party and ran into Thallanor again. He and another person were doing a silly dance to the  music and I joined in, although I was using a Sine Wave dance. 

   At that point I realized that Thall was a sweet guy, and I really had nothing to worry about from him. So for a good while we were friends and now we are dating. I don't think if we had met anywhere but Starfleet we would have ended up together. The most active members at Starfleet are like a family. Many of them are like my brothers and sisters. In that environment I don't worry about whether or not I'm being taken advantage of. 

Now because I am a Starfleet officer, was a maiko, and have always been a freebie hunter, I just don't go to places where I am likely to get hit on. In fact until recently my SL schedule was so packed that even stopping by and hanging out with my friends was nearly impossible.  So I suppose that is further support to the idea that if Thall and I had met anywhere other than Starfleet we would not be together. As for blogging? I've never mentioned that I blog. So it is a non-issue.

 

What the duce?

     If you spend even a millisecond of time on the "fashion police" blogs, you'll notice that the most common fashion faux paux in SL is...disproportionate shapes. Now I freely admit that when I first started SL I was slider happy, but in the wrong direction. I had almost no meat on my bones.  Even with my "too skinny" sins, I was able to look at the freebie shapes I picked up and realize that they just weren't workin.

    When I began working and studying to become an SL geiko, my first instructor sat me down and had a chat with me. My face was far too harsh, I was way too tall, and my chest invoked images of silicone. It took about 20 minutes for me to adjust sliders and give myself a face that is all my own and much closer to my personality.

20 minutes.

While I prefer small slender figures, my sister prefers small fullfigured shapes. Both of us designed our own shape. Each of us has done tweaking. But the basic ideal is: WE LOOK LIKE WE COULD BE HUMAN!!!

So please, deflat those watermelon rears.
Realize that it ain't cute to have boobs that your back couldn't support.
If you have a size 0 waist, a DDD cup, and a size 45 seat, you are out of whack.
When you pick up skins and clothes that don't quite fit, tweak the sliders a bit. Most of the time you wont look that different. Alot of times it will make you look your best.
And stop with the glamazon look! It just makes you a target for ridicule. 

It ain't that damn cute!


If you find yourself unable to judge your own skin with an impartial eye. Find a neutral, female (sorry fellas) party and ask them to give you a clue. The anonymity you save may be your own.

PS...thanks Alicia.