The First Week of August

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. ~ Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Ugh. It is literally the dog days of summer for me right now, mostly because I got a new dog in RL but also because the weather has been oppressively hot (though it just turned cooler). This quote made so much sense to me—we are teetering on the cusp of summer now and about to plunge into fall. I thought this sheer topped, elegant dress from Kiddo Oh might put me in a better frame of mind, especially since it evokes a sort of glamour that never overheats. I used Ilaya Allen’s pretty chair for the Gacha Garden as my pose prop and the gorgeous new jewelry from Mea Carnell that she is featuring at the Cosmopolitan Room.

Hair pulled casually up is the perfect look and Mina Nakamura’s style for the Gacha Garden doesn’t go over board in fussiness. I took out Sopha Portal’s appliers for the LeLutka mesh heads and had a ball trying on different makeups. I will caution that Sopha’s skins tend towards the very light—this “India” tone is like no Indian person I have ever known but is, nevertheless, very pretty, especially with her accompanying makeups. The HUDs are a little annoying. You need to wear one for the skin and then another to apply the shadow and yet another for the lipstick, and the versions on the HUD are merely names—not colors or photos of the colors or styles. I much prefer Monicuzza Babenco’s graphic HUD to Sopha’s. The better feature of the HUDs, howevr, is that Sopha offers a creaseless as well as a creased eye so you can choose your look accordingly.

Hair: MINA Hair – Yenna (no materials) by Mina Nakamura for MINA, available at Gacha Garden *

Mesh head: .LeLutka.Mesh Head-KARIN v1.1 by JadenArt for LeLutka *

Skin applier: [MUDSKIN]_Yui(LeLutka Applier)_India with [MUDSKIN]_Yui Lipcolors_Med2 Tone(LeLutka Applier) and [MUDSKIN]_EyeShadow Collection Vol2_Dark Tone(LeLutka Applier) by Sopha Portal for MUDSKIN, available at Shiny Shabby *

Eyes: #adored – siren eyes – kelp by Constance Daehlie for #adored *

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V3.3 by Onyx LeShelle for Maitreya

Dress: Ellaria Salmon Tr by Kiddo Oh for .::Dead Dollz::., available at the Fantasy Collective *

Jewelry: Meva UbanZen set by Mea Carnell for Meva, available at the Cosmopolitan Room *

Chair: 05. [ILAYA] Vintage Armchair RARE by Ilaya Allen for ILAYA, available at Gacha Garden *

Poses by Luth Brodie for Reel Expression (no longer available)

Never a Wrong Time

“I don’t think there is ever a wrong time for a polka dot.” ~ Marc Jacobs

I just made the SL12B site (http://slcommunitycelebration.info) “live” yesterday and with all the moving parts in the site and in the organization, it was a bit of work, so I am ready to get outside for some fresh air and a little fun. (Please please join us for this great event!)

Spring is especially a good time for polka dots, and Moonbubble Gothly has colored my spring darling with this ruffled mesh blouse with polka dots. Available with a great texture change HUD that includes a plethora of polka dotted textures, the blouse is available at 100 Block, which means it’s discounted as well as exclusive. I paired it with jeans from Missqwerty Pevensey, also from 100 Block, in a great skinny style, and gacha items from Alia Whitfield, including a tote that has a texture change menu for the woven part of the bag. Sexy sandals from Senzati0n Domenitzo, which are fitted not just for Slink but also Maitreya feet (yay!) from 100 Block make me pink from head to toe literally.

Sopha Portal has made a series of gorgeous skins for the Black Fashion Fair, some in pale skin tones and some in deeper tones. With lined eyes and pale pink lips, they are pretty and sophisticated. The sets come with mouth appliers for various mesh mouths. I had to go to the store to get the body and hand appliers. Ikira Frimon made this darling cut for the Black Fashion Fair with her massively multicolor HUD. While it looks great in black, of course, it’s also darling in this bright pink. I love Polyester Partridge’s girly “normal” jewelry that she has been featuring at various events. This pretty pink gem is available at Kustom9.

Hair: [^.^Ayashi^.^] Tami hair-fatpack by Ikira Frimon for ^.^ Ayashi^.^, available at the Black Fashion Fair *

Skin: [ MUDSKIN ]_Back To Black2_E2_India by Sopha Portal for MUDSKIN, available at the Black Fashion Fair *

Eyes: [Buzz] Moka Eyes – Pitch {Medium} by Eleri Catlyn for Buzzeri, available at Kustom9

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body – Lara V3.3 by Onyx LeShelle for Maitreya

Blouse: [ bubble ] Frilled Shirt -All in One by Moonbubble Gothly for [ bubble ], available at 100 Block *

Jeans: [AB] Toulouse Jeans FITTED Black by Missqwerty Pevensey for American Bazaar, available at 100 Block *

Sun hat: [blissiere] sun hat – rawr – predator by Alia Whitfield for [blissiere], available at 100 Block *

Necklace: (Yummy) Full Heart Pendant – Gold  – Pink & White Diamond by Polyester Partridge for Yummy, available at N21

Tote: [blissiere] beach tote – rawr – predator by Alia Whitfield for [blissiere], available at 100 Block *

Hands: Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Elegant and Bag by Siddean Munro for Slink

Nail applier: #adored – I’m a loner dottie pedi {slink+omega} by Constance Daehlie for #adored *

Shoes: Essenz – Phoenix  Maitreya by Senzati0n Domenitzo for Essenz, available at 100 Block *

Poses by Dove Swanson for Long Awkward Pose

Poetic Youth

I have written before about the artistry of creators in SL, the overwhelming vastness of talent and vitality present and laid on various prims and shape meshes in the name of commerce or art. What has disappointed me is that artists who choose to sell their work commercially are not acknowledged as such—they are “fashionistas” or “developers” or most crudely, “skin makers.” However, some of the young artists who choose to follow the commercial path are bringing art to the masses and are some of the best the grid has.

LeeZu Baxter is one such artist. I continually see her working over and over her theme of textures and silhouettes, pulling this and that out of previous creations—a texture from a corset she once made, a twisted garter from a piece of lingerie, a colorway from a set of pants and jackets—to make something new and as confounding as the last piece (now what am I going to do with this toplessness?). This is how vision works—it doesn’t run higgledy piggledy from one theme to the next. The artist can only sing her way–her voice comes out clearly in each piece. I see this in LeeZu as I see it in Eshi Otawara’s work. I don’t think I will ever get tired of LeeZu’s pastiche or Eshi’s flowers.

Our skin artist is Korean—Sopha Portal. Her skins at My UglyDorothy challenge the status quo. This one, with orangey freckles and sweet buttoned-up thin lips, is girlish but not girly, pale and pretty with its desexualized strangely pink/orange nipples and odd short penciled eyebrows.

Lamb Bellic keeps wedging herself into my posts. The kids at Tableau have sketched out a vision for an alternative SL universe, one where fashionistas wear sometimes dowdy hair cuts to devastating effects, where glamour emerges from a gawky teenager’s ministrations with her hair rather than from the pages of Vogue, where Tavi Gevinson emerges as the voice of fashion. (Say it ain’t so!)

And then we have our friend flopsie McArdle, who has her own fascinating voice, as shown on her sim Iron Fist. On the other side of her corndog and Atari set, wedged between the BMX and the banana seat bikes, she is selling these cute practical shoes, at once festive with their colored stitching and double buckles, and awkward with their ugly duckling shape. I am a huge fan of flopsie. She evokes something so achingly familiar and humorously nostalgic in her work, from the ennui of flopping backwards on a orange vinyl ottoman to the romance of a walking through an empty subway. (Speaking of corn dogs, I have a huge version from flopsie–I mean freaking huge–on the roof of my own studio. People who notice it are always astounded and then tickled.)

Ah youth!

Hair: !lamb. Bang Bang – Rotten Carrot (sideways bangs) by Lamb Bellic for !lamb

Skin: *MY UGLYDOROTHY -Magaret07(Red) by Sopha Portal for My UglyDorothy

Outfit: [LeeZu!] Pariizian Suit /air by LeeZu Baxter for LeeZu! *

Shoes: SMERSH Those Shoes GREY by flopsie McArdle for SMERSH