Spring Forward and put back!

Oops sorry everyone, my bad.  I posted by COC styling a little hastily, in error, so you will have to wait until the weekend.

I have decided instead to post my Spring Awakening styling for the Fashion Teller open casting. This was perhaps the most challenging styling I have ever had to do, and involved me deconstructing trees (yes, totally true!).

I wanted to visualise the Goddess Flora, awaking bright and shining from the waking earth, radiant and flower covered.  This tested my photographic skills to the limit too.  Here is my entry, which very happily resulted in me getting an invite to join the Fashion Teller Models group :)

 

Elemental Gown - Earth - Ghee

Petunia Outfit - White - Caverna Obscura (shoulder pieces, necklace, Leafy underpants)

Katy - *{ SeVered GarDeN}* - Flower Skirt, Flower Top, Bracelets and Hair Flowers x6 used in vegetation 'skirt'

Vegetation 'Skirt' made from pieces of full perm Sakura Tree by Mitsuko Kytori, and full perm mesh flowers from Flowers+Leaves (mesh) kit - BuilderKit Alliance

Birds Nest - full perm - FLECHA

Fairy Flower Hair / Love Antlers - Boudoir

Elegant Stone Bindi - Baby Blue - Soedara

Makeup - Mons, Madrid Solo, [TAXI TAXI]

Slink Hands

First Colour of Couture Challenge

We got information of our Colour of Couture Challenges in advance, and I am really excited by them all, to the extent that I am having to sit on my hands and not do about five at once!

The first Challenge is a photo challenge.  We have been asked to do a styling inspired by the Spring 2014 'Artisanal' Collection by Maison Martin.

I loved the crazy but oh so clever mix of patterns and colours in this collection, and the adventurous mixing of boho with avante garde.  The shapes are strong and deconstructed, and the use of colours in the fabric mixes and tattoos, together with the gold and metallic foils, the fringing and the beading make for a very rich effect.  A collection that on paper shouldn't work, but in the hands of a master designer knits and balances together in a dazzling sophisticated play of fabrics and shapes, patterns and textures.

I decided to focus mainly on the boho feel and pattern interplay in this styling, together with the deconstructed feel of this Maison Martin collection designs.  

Stylecard

2 Svara dress - forest - Zaara  

[femme] Asmita Sari - Brown/Teal - 22769

React - Lyrical B!zarre (sleeves, re-textured)

Mesh Beanie Hat - Audrey multicoloured -  Immerschoen-BodyCult

Aradhana Jewels - gold Maangtikka - Mashooka

Gypsy Earrings - Multi/Gold - Earthstones

Giordana Ankle Boots - gold - INDI Designs

Makeup - Mock, Soiree, Beautiful Deluxe

Hands - Slink

Haute Surreal

Kicking back and having a breather after a frantic two weeks of Audition, show preparation and designing.  I still haven't decided whether to feature my Romance Couture designs here.  Anyway, I was playing around with some of the unearthed treasures in my inventory, and put together this Gattaca look.  I love the combination of art, theatre and fashion, and I hope I managed to suggest a little of that here.

 Style details

Seven Sins - Vanity - The Library (Fantasy Gacha prize)

Tribute to IQ84 (skirt, edited and colour edited) - AD Creations

Rose petals from Love Gown - Romance Couture

Sian Headdress -  Miamai

Octopus Necklace - Brass - Pixicat

Baroque Earrings - Gold - LaGyo (Gacha Prize)

Kaya Stone Bracelets - Lazuri

Zion2 red tattoo (red shaded half mask makeup) - +Nuuna+

Other makeup - League

Memories and New Journeys..

OK, dusting off this blog and determined to keep it going this time :)

Last weekend I took part in the 2014 Colour of Couture Runway Audition, for a place as one of the 16 Finalists who will compete in the Challenges.  The previous week was spent in a frenzy of nerves, shopping bills, abandoned stylings half done, and absolute steely determination to do my best whatever happened on the day.  It was an experience I will never forget, almost 30 stunning models, all looking stylish and wonderful, walking in the glorious surroundings of the BOSL Fashion Dome, and being judged by a prestigious panel of judges.  The lag monkeys were having huge fun with me, but despite crashing a number of times I was able to walk and pose largely without mishap.  They didn't keep us waiting too long and before the day was out I found out I had been successful..omg and wow..

I had decided to compete in Colour of Couture as a tribute to my grandmother, who was of Spanish heritage.  I have borrowed her colouring for the competition, and love it, as it constantly reminds me of my nanna. She died when I was a child but  I remember her as a small, fierce old lady, with piercing light brown eyes, that perfectly matched the old topaz earrings she never took off.  I loved my nanna and was in awe of her in equal measure.  She had raised a brood of six children and also looked after my grandfather who had been gassed in WWI and left more or less an invalid.  She was an indomitable spirit and a woman of great strength, courage and character.  They just dont seem to make them like that any more.

I am truly looking forward to my journey in Colour of Couture, and all the challenges we will be given.  It will be a time for me to learn and grow as a model whatever happens in the end.

Here is my styling for the Audition.

Gown is made from pieces of following outfits

Susan Attire - black - **DIRAM**

Serenity Pie - Vassnia

Bandage Suit - cobalt - Ison

Maxi Skirt - Red - Gizza

Bodice decoration made from following designer sets

Amorette - full version (colour edited) - Zibska
Hedera set - silver - Violator

Other items used

Petit Tulip Hair Accessory (colour edited) - LODE 
 Femme 'Noir Intense' shoes - N-Core

Jewellery - Lazuri and Earthstones
Hair -  Vanity
Nails - Jamman

Makeup - League, [Mock], Soiree,  Beautiful Deluxe Body Artistry

I wanted to shoot my photo for this blog at the amazing Cloud Chateau, part of the Particle Laboratory, but to my great dismay this venerable institution of SL was gone when I tried to TP there.  Such a shame that these places of beauty and awe inspiring creativity are slowly going from SL... The Particle Laboratory itself is still there, take a balloon up to the laboratory itself and see the fantastic things that can be done with emitter scripts, or just wander around the sim below.

I might be cheap and have no knickers on but I am a LADY - Catskillz Homework under 200L styling

Starts this blog with a loud 'eep' as I usually run away from anything technical.

Okay.....I am starting this new adventure as a result of a homework I was given on my Catskillz training (I love you really Bonie, lol).  We were all given the homework to style an outfit for under 200L, and I confess it was a styling I attacked with relish, as I love to style and it was a challenge I really liked.  In fact, I 'upped the anti' as we say in the UK, and decided to include *everything* except for my shape and my AO/poses, in the challenge.  It meant finding a skin, hair, eyes, as well as the outfit and accessories.  I had fun, though I got off to a lucky start, with an INCREDIBLE Pure Poison bargain at Limited Bazaar. The Giselle Baroque tube dress is truly stunning and a great base to style, for only 10L - OMG - do get it before its gone.  Slurls or weblinks will be given to everything at the end of this post.

Okay, dress - check.  I wanted to va va voom it up even more and I remembered the wonderful Black Dahlia Group Gift that Eshi Otawara has.  Its a full outfit, but like a lot of her designs you can take parts and pieces and match them into other clothing.  The voluptuous ruffle sleeves went perfectly with the Giselle dress, and I was flying then, adding the earrings also from the Eshi Black Dahlia set.  I remembered a chic necklace from Gizza - the Electra in a light ivory/beige I had got in the Gacha Arcade only a few days before, chic and sharp, and a bargain at 75L it slotted just beautifully into my emerging monochrome style.  What next? - ah yes, BSD Design Studio have a great monochrome clutch bag as a free gift in their store, and a rummage in my inventory soon found it (note to self - hire Lion Tamer and whip inventory into some kind of order, omg its embarrassing).  BSD's monochrome clutch is beautifully toned in with the Gizza necklace, but now I had to find shoes.

I decided to plough through Marketplace, having got good hauls from the promotional items and gifts lurking there in the past.  I had been intending on finding some reasonable black pumps, but to my surprise and happiness found the Mafiosa black and ivory pumps by Sex Drugs Fashion.  A complete steal at only 10L, these shoes not only look super cool but wow they match the clutch perfectly.

I needed a hat, and remembered I had plundered the vast and amazing selection of group gifts that Zibska has.  A favourite designer of mine, her items are quirky, avante garde and deeply chic.  Further rummaging in my inventory resulted in a wide smile and the unearthing of her gloriously original and witty Pranzo hat, part of an outfit. I also found her lovely moody Brynna Eyeshadows, another group gift, and chose the smoky Coal colour.

Only a few finishing touches to the outfit now.  I added another really nice Pure Poison item, a group gift Cuff Bracelet in silver, the design echoing the swirls and curves of the baroque pattern on the Giselle dress.

It was now that I decided I wanted to look for a skin and eyes and hair as part of the homework.  I knew The Dressing Room often had skins for 70L from good makers, and of the three I found when I visited, I chose the pale Holly Skin in Candy by Izzie.   I found a nice pair of eyes by AZ Design on Marketplace for only 5L (their Realistic Eyes in Honey), not too dissimilar to my usual ones.

Hair was easy, I had already ransacked the entire group gift selection at Vanity, and that included a lovely Bob style, in my usual Feux colour.  The short full bob worked beautifully into the outfit I was creating. OMG gorgeous free hair helps to make life happy...

I needed lipstick, and a favourite makeup shop sprang to mind.  If you dont know already, check out M.O.C.K. they have free 'tester' lipsticks and glosses that are totally wearable (nope, no 'DEMO' written all over your face!).  A quick TP and hunt at the store resulted in me finding the sheer red Lucir lipgloss in 'venom', which gave a sheer soft red slick to my lips.  I wanted lashes, dammit, and a bit of a trawl through Marketplace again resulted in my finding the tintable Mina Lashes in grey by Kaiba - only 5L too, woot!

Then the luck ran out.  Ughh, I couldnt leave myself with nekkid SL nails, and worried that the bargain prim nails I found might not work with poses, but I discovered that glove nails in my budget (pretty much zero by now) were just not there.  Luckily for me I am a designer and made a ton of glove nails when I was based in Inworldz, so I whistled and innocently looked at the ceiling while I paid LL the 10L needed to import the texture from GIMP.  Voila, deep red glossy fingernails curtesy of Romance Couture hehe.

Okay, no knickers, ah well, the lady will have to be a tramp... Here is the resulting style, made for a jaw dropping 185L (polishes nails on chest and grins..).  Hope you like it (and I hope this blog posts correctly, lol)

Under 200L styling

Giselle Baroque Tube Dress - Pure Poison for Limited Bazaar - 10L
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Euphoria/36/161/26

Black Dahlia Upper Sleeve (part of Black Dahlia Group Gift - Eshi Otawara - Free
Black Dahlia Earrings (as above)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/blackLiquid/25/58/747

Monochrome Clutch Bag - BSD Gift - Free http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/blackLiquid/25/58/747

Mafiosa Heels shoes -  Sex Drugs Fashion -  10L https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/SDF-Mafiosa-Heels-Almost-Free-PROMO/5068471
Cuff Bracelet in Silver - Pure Poison Group Gift - Free http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/zenshi%20south%20two/213/68/27

Electra Necklace in White - Gizza (Arcade Gacha) - 75L http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Country%20Club/165/155/3115

Pranzo Hat - Zibska - part of group gift -  Free http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Heavens%20Touch/59/173/1491

Bob Hair in Feux - Vanity Group Gift - Free http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waterton%20Way/173/131/1027

Skin - Holly Skin Candy Pale by Izzie (The Dressing Room) - 70L http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imogen/219/159/28

Eyes - Realistic Eyes in Honey Eyes by AZ Design - 5L https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Az-Promo-Realistic-Honey/2535242

Eyelashes - Mina Lash in Grey by Kaiba (tinted darker) - 5L https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Kaiba-Mina-Lashes/5143674

Brynna Eyeshadow in Coal - Zibska - Group Gift - Free (slurl as for Pranzo Hat)

Lucir Lipcolor in Venom - Mock - Wearable Tester - Free http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Business%20District%20Delta/126/144/23

Texture Nail Varnish made my me - 10L texture upload cost

Total Cost = 185L