Lobster Claws

“A truly destitute man is not one without riches, but the poor wretch who has never partaken of lobster.”

Eshi dropped by the other day and we went down to the market and had lobster. There is a little restaurant in the market that serves Maine lobsters relatively inexpensively and Eshi had a craving, so I joined her. As I watched her rip apart the crustacean, daintily dipping the flesh in melted butter and savoring it, I realized I invited Eshi to the wrong city. The problem we have is that we are in the dead center of the country, and Lake Michigan doesn’t have any decent shellfish. This is a woman who knows the Gulf and the seas of Croatia.

Eshi is definitely a water girl. She took a set of charming paintings she did in real life and replicated them on this gorgeous new dress, called “Joy.” The fish swim merrily around the dress, vibrantly alive and turning somersaults in the cool water. Seaweed and fronds move about as they do underwater, hiding and revealing the creatures.  And as I told her, she does joy better than anyone else.

I wear Emilia Redgrave’s skin fashioned after the Bella character from Twilight. It fits my shape well and has very lovely, almost realistic, classic features. Redgrave has cut their skin prices so now you get the whole set for the price of one skin, so it’s a very good value. My own gripe is that the base skin includes a hair base that is considerably darker than the brows, making it impossible to find a hair that matches. I fixed the problem by overlaying the skin with the “bald’ makeup included. (The pack also includes several lipsticks for mix and match fun.)

My hair is one of Calico Ingmann’s offerings for the Hair Fair, a lovely cut with an included HUD that allows streaking and resizing as well as recoloring. I love the shape and the textures. I would say that Calico’s assortment of coloring and streaking HUDs confused me—not sure why it can’t all go in one HUD but I am sure there is a reason. Either way, I found my way to the color I wanted, an otherworldly bright red to compliment the bright colors in Eshi’s dress.

“A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands.” ~ Lord Byron

Hair: !!CiC!! Marcie – Dark Reds by Calico Ingmann for Calico Ingmann Creations

Skin: 09   Pale Skin -Bella- /*wedding *REDGRAVE* with Scalp (pale skin Bella)  *REDGRAVE* by Emilia Redgrave for Redgrave

Eyes: IKON Horizon Eyes v2 – Deep Glass by Ikon Innovia for IKON *

Dress: Joy by Eshi Otawara (red) by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

The Triumph of a Heart

The nerves are sending shimmering signals
All through my fingers
The veins support
Blood that gushes impulsively towards
Is the triumph of a heart that gives all
That gives all
The triumph of a heart that gives all
That gives all

~ “Triumph of a Heart” by Bjork

The song fits. The connection is perfect. Eshi Otawara is releasing her first ensemble in quite a while, just in time for Valentine’s Day, and it is a triumph of the heart. With the bold red and black feathering, its intricate waist and bustle, its well… triumphant head piece, Eshi gives us that pulsing passionate art that we have missed so much in the past year. Look closely and you see Eshi packs this piece with passion, from the animated red pulses running up the swirls to the cosmic anemones in the headpiece to the side veils streaked with red edges.

The song from Bjork, if you listen to it, is from her 2004 album, Medulla, and features a montage of human vocal sounds with a “mew” on beat. Those who know Eshi personally know that her cat (named “Cat”) is a beautiful black and white calico, and sometimes I think his lush beautiful coat and self-reliant character are inspiration for her pieces.

I accompany it with aida Ewing’s Valentine’s Day offering, a set of skins that will be available at The Dressing Room. With bold red lips and makeup and aida’s au courant, minimalistic features, it’s a perfect match for this incredible piece of wearable sculpture.

Smooth soft red velvety lungs
Are pushing a network of oxygen joyfully
Through a nose, through a mouth
But all enjoys, which brings us to
The triumph of a heart that gives all
That gives all

Skin: -Glam Affair – Valentine skin 01 D by aida Ewing for –Glam Affair-, available at The Dressing Room *

Eyes: IKON Utopia Eyes – Black (ML) by Ikon Innovia for IKON *

Eyelashes: Detour – Klee Dot Lashes by Keri Clip for Detour

Outfit: Asteria by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

Poses by Luth Brodie for Reel Expression

Fashion is Danger!

Oooooh oooh oooh ooh
You think you know fashion, well fashion’s a stranger
You think fashion’s your friend, my friend
Fashion is danger

~ Flight of the Conchords in “Fashion is Danger”

I couldn’t help but share that song because it’s funny. Eshi Otawara’s newest outfit is sort of dangerous fashion—from the huge hatpins sticking out to the wild prims whipping about, there is a chance you may get hurt. If you don’t, just admire the construction of her work—the feathery fringy furry jacket, the speckling of flowers over the outfit, the crazy body-changing shape—all of it subversive fashion for SL. Wear it for fun or wear it for drama—it’s dangerous fashion.

Wear it with bold pink lips from Monicuzza Babenco as I do here (you can barely see the skin but the lips are luscious enough to carry this) and wear with white fantasy hair from MissAll Sunday Lemon (who seems to be putting out tons of new hair—go to her store), and you’re going to be one dangerous fashionista.

I’m the edge
I’m the chic
I’m the taste
I’m a larger than life with just a hint of lace

Hair: /Wasabi Pills/ Yumi Hair – Iceberg by MissAllSunday Lemon for /Wasabi Pills/ *

Skin: *YS & YS* Beatrice – 05 Happy by Monicuzza Babenco for *YS & YS* *

Outfit: AOI TORI (black and white) by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

To the Moon

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out. ~ William Blake

The moon is one of the most beautiful and persistent gifts of living on the Earth. No matter where you go in the world, no matter who you talk to, everyone knows the moon. We all look to it to mark the waning and waxing of time. So it’s no surprise that she used the moon as the core component of this sculptural dress she designed. What makes the dress more interesting is that the moon rotates. The photos don’t show a very delicate framework of crisscrossing silver wires around the moon—it’s gorgeous. So we have Eshi’s flowers, her wispy feathers and now the moon. What’s next?

She includes this gorgeous hair/headpiece combo with the outfit with a smaller version of the moon. I wear the dress with a delicate skin from Brendon Papp, who always adorns my Eshi looks for some reason. I think the otherworldly delicacy of these skins offsets Eshi’s work well. We don’t need a brazen look; we need something much more fragile.

The moon looks upon many night flowers; the night flowers see but one moon. ~ Jean Ingelow

Skin: !Imabee: Umeko – Underwater / DKbrow / by Brendon Papp for Imabee

Hairbase: AD hair base – black by Queue Marlow for Analog Dog

Outfit (including hair): LUNA by Eshi Otawara by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara

At a Lunar Eclipse

Last night was the lunar eclipse… on the longest night of the year… and of course we had complete cloud cover and snow. Wah! A great pity because this is such a rarity—lunar eclipse during the winter solstice. Thank goodness I could share it with the Girlfriends in chat.

Another rarity is the artistry of Eshi Otawara. She is almost as cool as a lunar eclipse in winter except she’s warmer than sitting outside in the middle of the night looking up at the sky. Her most recent outfit shown here is a versatile piece as she offers several top and bottom options in both opaque and sheer. I fell in love with the jacket and the flared pants. There is something Eshi gets so right in proportioning her outfits that so many miss.

I wear it with a uber-chic skin from aida Ewing being offered at this week’s Dressing Room. And I wanted to give Eshi’s work the proper edge it deserves so I donned a tattoo layer and hair from Emelie Carter. I am digging this tattoo a lot.

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon’s meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.

How shall I link such sun-cast symmetry
With the torn troubled form I know as thine,
That profile, placid as a brow divine,
With continents of moil and misery?

And can immense Mortality but throw
So small a shade, and Heaven’s high human scheme
Be hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies?

Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show,
Nation at war with nation, brains that teem,
Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?

~ Thomas Hardy

Hair: 99Hair -Kerry v1 –b1 with 99Hair -Shaved Tattoo LAYER -black T0 by Emelie Carter for 99 elephants

Skin: -Glam Affair- Eva- Light – Red Line by aida Ewing for -Glam Affair-, available at the Dressing Room

Outfit: CONTESSA (black) by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

Earrings: p.c; Spike Earrings by Cora Lu for Paper Couture

Shoes: – TESLA – *Vixen_Desire* (L) ‘black’ by Tesla Miles for TESLA

Holiday Office Party

Lots of women’s and business magazines are full of sage advice about what to wear to the holiday office party. An article in Forbes tells us, “The wrong outfit… will quickly make you the subject of unwanted stares and gossip.” But what about SL? What do you wear to an office party?

Eshi Otawara’s newest cocktail dress will do the job. It has the wow factor you need to be noticed among all the other glistening blinging beauties and has the cachet to make you look fashionistish. I mean, what is so wrong about a laced up bodice and speckly floaty flowers and thigh highs with high heel sandals from Onyx LeShelle when it’s an SL office party? (Especially when you bring cookies for the potluck!)

 

A glamorous look needs a glamorous skin and Minnu Palen provides that with her new Mila skin. It’s minimalist, of course. You don’t get all the pores and skin glow that you get on other skins but for a model skin, perhaps that is all you need—something powdered and made up. My updo, adorned with a modified rose from Siyu Suen, is a dramatic style from Mirja Mills.

“The rule of thumb, says Sanders, is understated is always better.” ~ Forbes magazine. Ha!

Hair: .:EMO-tions:. * STORMY * /snow by Mirja Mills for .:EMO-tions:. *

Skin: [LeLutka]-Mila/HUSH-Makeup1 by Minnu Palen for [LeLutka] *

Dress: Black Lace-up Coktail Dress by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

Hair rose: *~*Hair Rose: White & Black/Copy (Modified) by Siyu Suen for *~*Illusions*~*

Bracelet: LBB Green Winter charm bracelet by Tomoyuki Batra for Little Boy Blue

Shoes: Maitreya Gold * Moxie Patent Red by Onyx LeShelle for Maitreya

Unravel

While you are away
My heart comes undone
Slowly unravels
In a ball of yarn
The devil collects it
With a grin
Our love
In a ball of yarn
He’ll never return it

There is something about Eshi that reminds me of Bjork. I think it’s the use of prims and textures in the same way Bjork seems to use instrumentation and melody. It’s joyful, shimmering, exotic, beautiful, unique and sometimes confrontational or bizarre.

When we see an Eshi dress, it makes sense even though it’s also odd to us, just as a Bjork song makes sense in some strange way. Eshi’s new dress, shown here, has elements of joy in the stamped blossoms, the lace, the bounty of billowing prims, the flowers floating all around. And then you hear more ominous notes: the needles jammed through the ears, the nipples pierced and chained, the almost posture-collar forcing the neck up.

I show the dress with a new skin from milok Hermit, who offers a somewhat different look on the grid. With its fresh coloring, it has a decidedly girlish air and suits Eshi’s alternative fashion perfectly, with the black off setting the pale skin nicely.

So when you come back
We’ll have to make new love
~ “Unravel” by Bjork

Hair: Kin-Cricket-[Black] by Kin Keiko for Kin Keiko

Skin: .::Mother Goose’s::.SiSi(2)_5a by milok Hermit for Mother Goose *

Dress: Flowers WIthin Flowers by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara

Boots: McQueen Rose Boots by Megg Demina for Chapeau Tres Mignon

Brave New World

Gwyneth Llewellyn twittered a great story yesterday, written in the finest post-apocalyptic style about SL after SL. Told by an “Oldbie,” the story predicts the future of the grid once the Open Grids took over. (Please click that link—it’s well worth reading.) Once mesh is on the grid, once other grids open up, what will it look like? Will our avatars be human or ultra human?

Whatever grid we end up on, Eshi Otawara will be leading the way for design. No matter what you put in her hands—prims, textures, sculpties—she finds a way to make something entirely new and imaginative.

One of her newest outfits, a mash up of pieces based on a look invented by Ipkiss Igaly, is enhanced by Eshi’s ability to scale the prims in new and exciting ways and to downplay color when shape is needed. I sometimes wonder if she should have been a sculptor rather than a painter.

I chose to show this with SinSister Chastity’s beautiful African-American skin for Abyss. I also think the future grid is going to be less “white” and more colorful, as the real world is—in more ways than just skin color.

“I do love new Clothes.” ~ A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Skin: [ ama garijus ][ sunset ][ vixen ][ bald] by SinSister Chastity for <TheAbyss>

Outfit: Igaly Darkness – by Eshi Otawara and Ipkiss Igaly for Eshi Otawara *

PS Yeah, not a lot of writing. I am just finishing this scarf. Must. Get. Done.

Hello, Dolly!

It’s no secret I have been watching a lot of East Asian television shows. I am beginning to understand the influence of fashion from that side of the world.

Eshi Otawara was certainly influenced, this time from the Harajuku girls in Tokyo. And who better to take on the exaggerated cartoon styles of the Harajuku? Eshi has fashioned another one of her fluffy pieces, this time into a sort of Lolita-style dress, equipped with flowery stockings and puffy sleeves. She paints her pieces with a flowery Eshi-like Asian-influenced texture, combining the modern with the more traditional.

I wear a skin from JOMAN Mai that has the sort of otherworldly makeup that an outfit from Eshi needs. The freckles add to the Lolita spirit of this look, as do the cute little shoes from Kookie Lemon. Finally, ponytails from MissAllSunday Lemon, these flopsie and mopsie, make the look complete.

I like to dress my dolly.

Hair: /Wasabi Pills/ Earleen Hair – Jet black by MissAllSunday Lemon for /Wasabi Pills/

Skin: JM:Mai skin_devonz sakuran nomal by JOMAN Mai for JM:Mai

Dress: Harajuku by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *

Shoes: ::Kookie :: Lazies /Night by Kookie Lemon for ::Kookie ::

20,000 Leagues

“The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.” ~ Jules Verne

It’s clear Eshi Otawara needs a trip to the beach. She has come out today with a set of gowns based on being in the ocean, near the floor—20,000 leagues under. With her fantastic Japanese-influenced fish and fronds of kelp, she has constructed a dress of fantasy, complete with rising bubbles (courtesy of Arminasx Saiman) and a beautifully constructed sea urchin hat. She has made a limited edition version of this dress as well.

The skin is from Brendon Papp, who has recently come out with a new set. For some reason I like to wear Brendon’s skins with Eshi’s work. They are delicate and otherworldly—a good counterpoint to Eshi’s bold work.

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace. ~ Kate Chopin

Hair: fri. – Amelia.2 – Delighted Blond by Parvarti Monday for fri.day *

Skin: !Imabee: Stigma – Umeko – Solid Gold / LTbrow / by Brendon Papp for !Imabee

Dress: Kelp Dress (gold) by Eshi Otawara for Eshi Otawara *