Mannishly

Emboldened by the androgyny I was inspired to through Genre, I decided to give menswear a whirl with FATEwear's latest release - the Jordan jacket - and found it fit well and was a lot of fun, despite being rigged to the male instead of female frame! I was particularly pleased with the sleeve length, as it covered the wrist without clipping my hand, and the asymmetrical folds and wide spaced collar is wonderful. I very much like how thick the entire coat seems; the edges are all rounded and thick, even on the sleeve detailing. This gives a real sense of the weight and reality of the coat, making it's folds over my hips and gaping at the waist all the more realistic. I also like how the pocket is three dimensional instead of simply a texture on the fabric, and even the buttons are three dimensional - which makes some of the angled shots I took amazing. It's very well rigged through the body and to the legs, leading to an excellent fit even in more complicated pose. All of these are little details, but combined with the soft texture of the jacket - there are a variety of colors and event he option of a color-changing HUD with the fatpack - the jacket manages to straddle the border of Second Life and offline life beautifully.I have always loved FATEplay's female clothing, and FATEwear is equally impressive.

With the masculine quality of the jacket, I decided to go ultra-femme in the rest of my look. I began with this corset from Rosal, part of a complicated set but equally impressive on it's own. She just re-released it with updated colors and I highly recommend it both as a set and as an individual piece. I went with the narrowest waist - unrealistic offline, and gorgeously easy online. The fit of the jacket demanded a pair of pants, and I found those in a pair of jeans from Decoy that I picked up during one of the sale events and squirreled away in my inventory for just such an occasion. They are hip huggers, leaving that fascinating band of flesh between hips and belly exposed. I almost ended the look topless - the jacket actually covered enough to preserve modesty - but I ended up deciding that was a little more risque than I preferred and I used an old favorite, a texture-top from G Field - to finish my outfit. The flower for the halter-top was too voluminous for the narrow opening at the top of my FATEwear jacket, though, so I substituted in an old prim collar from Plastik that has the distinction of not only being modify-ok, but also set up so the different bands around the collar can be tinted separately. The close fit of the collar also maintained the illusion of layers that I was going for, as it fit beautifully into the gaps left by the jacket.

So far, my look was equal mixtures of casual masculine style with high fashion, ultra-femme touches, and I wanted to push the latter over the top with the remaining pieces of my style. First I went with an extravagant updo, the newest release from Ploom being released at The Kawaii Project. It is a whirl of braids and curls, editable mesh which meant I could shift the odd curl here or there out of my ears and make it a wonderful updo from every angle. I went with one of her candy hair textures, a wonderful blond with a fade of pink tips to echo the pink of my jacket. I also went with very dramatic cosmetics - a heavy, glamorous shadow around the eyes from .:Soul:. and dark black lips from MiaSnow. The goal was to maintain the predominance of black in my entire look, leaving the pink in only two places, and also to continue the thread of evening-wear despite my casual jeans. My nails were equally dramatic - a gorgeous pair from A:S:S on a black base with silvery sparkles set in a fade from the tips, like snow falling on a dark night and just barely catching the moonlight. The final touch, absolutely required to keep the styling over the top, are my sleek and delicate shoes from Lassitude & Ennui. One way to dress up jeans is through stylish shoes, and these do that job to perfection.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Sparkles: Folly, Rainbow Sheen
Hair: Ploom, Eskimo
Ears: .:Soul:., High Elf
Eyes: .:Soul:., RooMee
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: .:Soul:., Smoke
Lipstick: MiaSnow, black lips
Collar: Plastik, Recluse Collar
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands & Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands & Feet
Nails: A:S:S, Mahi Mahi
Jacket: FATEwear, Jordan
Shirt: G Field, Floral Halter Top
Corset: Rosal, Viron-M
Pants: Decoy, Jenna Jeans
Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui, Bijou Heels

Pose: Don't Freak Out

Location: Whisperdale
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Why So Blue? 1
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping