Twisted Color Challenge: Week 52 - Deck the Halls

This is the last twisted color challenge - Deck the Halls - and I think I've come up with something rather delicious to round out the year. I've started playing around a bit with the expressions in Second Life, and it gives a little more life to otherwise doll-like inexpressiveness of my avatar. Up close the expression changes are cartoonishly enormous, but at a distance the hard edges are softened into moods and manner - sly smiles, bored expressions, a moment of laughter. I wish there was a smoother set of expressions - its one of the aspects of the Second Life avatars which is an artifact of how old they are, and the low bar they set for appearance. I keep wondering if down the pike some new avatar meshes are coming out way - after all of the mesh add-ons, the hands and feet I'm displaying in these images, for example, which greatly improve on the basic avatar, but which have seems and additional restrictions which can be challenging.

It's interesting to think about how minimally important the initial creators of Second Life found the avatars - just stand-ins for themselves, often unchanging for years - along with how baffled they were by how much people wanted to recreate the world of cars and houses that exists outside of the virtual world. Second Life is a world of imagination, but imagination is not as unmoored from reality as I think people often believe; we get our inspiration from the world around us, our life experiences, and the things which are important to us. One of the fascinating things about a low-investment thing like Second Life fashion, where high fashion can be purchased for under five dollars, is how varied and interesting peoples' fashion senses are. In a world without accidents, where bodies can be augmented and can fit the most demanding or extreme style of body - from the thinnest, to the most voluptuous, personal style becomes not just the meeting point of bodies and cloth, but also a fully realized dream of what we could be if only we could chose everything.

My dress is from LivGlam, and was - if I recall correctly - part of one of her holiday hunts. She does completely dreamtastic hunts; I think my favorite part is the enormous images of every possible prize, so if one has an inventory the size of mine, one can pick and chose what works without having to pick up and try everything. If one doesn't have an overflowing inventory, though, or one seeks to expand into new areas of style, one can pick up everything and have an awesome working wardrobe right out of the gate. Her store is worth a good look, too; in addition to taking part in half a dozen weekly events, her prices for just her standard clothing are such that there's little guilt in picking up a few "must have" items. In this case, this is outside of my usual style but actually reminds me strongly of a shirt I had - and loved - with the flower-and-animal-print motif. It's subtle enough to not be overpowering, and the rich red color was perfect for Deck the Halls.

The rich, tomato red was echoed in my nails - from the always exemplary Orc Inc - and in my lipstick - from one of my go-to brands, Adore & Abhor. To balance out the black of the bodice (check out that awesome open back, too) I added a necklace I simply couldn't resist picking up from Cyrious, and which came with three other colors bundled with the same style. I love the shape of it, like little faerie wings holding the dust in the vial. My shoes also managed to match, a recent collabor88 purchase from Hucci. From the top they seem like a single lacy style; it isn't until you're diving into the river that you realize the red can be overpowering. The notes of pale, yellowish green are much more subtle; I tinted my amazing wings from Deviance just slightly enough for the green to stand out from the other iridescence, and I pulled on these amazing tights from Cannibelle, with tiny, perfect angel wings on the calves. Both they and the shoes are SLink ready, which is really a blessing in this day and age; one of the major bonuses of SLink is how smoothly they cap a look - so smoothly you hardly notice them. Finally, as I flitted around the grid, it quickly became obvious I was going to flash everyone, tights or no tights, and so my darling katat0nik came to my rescue with a cute set of green panties. You can see them in a shot or two, so I figured they were worth a shout-out even if you weren't really supposed to be able to see them.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Emily
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyeshadow: Adore & Abhor, Mono V2 3
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Shreveport Lips
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Necklace: Cyrious, Fairy Dust Vial
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Nails: Orc Inc, Rich Darks
Dress: Liv Glam, Boutique - You Send Me Flying
Panties: katat0nik, Holiday
Stockings: Cannibelle, Angel Wing Tights
Shoes: Hucci, Kasos

Poses: Flowey

Location: <a href="http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vana/200/100/32">Vana</a>
Light Settings: Phototools, Dead End Sky
Water Settings: TOR, Impure

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only