Mysteries

I love mysteries, but I get frustrated quickly - it's a problem.

In this case, I ended up in Hestium, a gorgeous little pocket full of well-decorated, adorable houses. There are hints to a greater mystery, and I wandered around a while poking at various corners and peering at various books, clicking everything I could find. One place is marked off limits - I avoided everything I couldn't walk to, and one walled garden; no idea which was the off limits place. I wasn't able to find any secrets, but I did enjoy snapping some shots and encourage you to check out this lovely little corner of the grid.

It's my hair that took me to FaMESHed - a lovely side style from Wasabi Pills with coils of hair over one shoulder, and delicate strands curling down elsewhere. I love how she has begin to use full mesh pieces for the wisps of hair, minimizing the alpha on larger pieces; not only does it minimize alpha occlusion errors, but also it leads to lovely effects like along the edge of the right side of my face, where strands of hair cling and fall in a most natural manner. I paired it with a jewelry set from Cae, bought at the same event, a wonderful necklace and earring set with dangling beads whose color can be changed. The HUD also includes three different areas where the metal can be tinted differently, and options for a short versus long necklace style.

It makes it such fun to pair with outfits, either in matching - or in this case contrasting - colors. The usual contrast for red is green, but when you have a slightly duller pink edging toward a warm orange - like in this dress from Coquet - teal actually works better to play off the color and make both more intense. I fell in love with this dress when I saw it's unusual, contrasting back and the most adorable bow in the world - one which called for a different wing than my usual. I ended up settling on Sway's chibi angel wings, one of the gifts during advent that I cached away for a brighter day. They're a very simple style form someone more known for her furniture than her wings, but the subtle layers and transparency is really fantastic, and I was able to tuck it right under the Coquet bow so that they looked apiece. The final touch were these shoes from Ricielli in a lovely bronze which contrasted beautifully with my gold Sway wings and re-appeared serendipitously in my nails, a hold-over from Fallen Gods' latest skin. I adore how intricate they are, boot in style but with large whorls which echo the whorls of my Cae jewelry. Combining contrasting colors with repeating shapes makes for a balance outfit that seems simple even while being very complicated.

On the Edge of Purple

It's always difficult to know how far to push light and shadow in windlight; too much light and the skin becomes washed out - which can be artistic but also too sketchy; too much shadow, and the images don't catch peoples attention or stand out at all. In this case, I started with a very misty windlight, modified it from being colored throughout to pale and smokey, and then I darkened the sky and made it electric to catch the same tints as my lips. Offline, I rarely go for neutrals; I like electric and bold colors. On Second Life I find that barrier, like so many, bending and warping even while I fit those bright colors I like into the frame in what I hope are unusual ways. In this case, outside of the electric purple sky, the only color in my look is lipstick from Adore & Abhor; it's a rich, vibrant color that really stands out against all of the peach, gold and black. The windlight I modified also included a rich, dark shadow to echo the black of my gown for Coquet, which was released at FaMESHed this round. It's an interesting kind of setup - you buy a wrap dress of one of three colors, with the cutout a plain white, and then you can add on texture changes for the white section - in this case, I went with the peach set because I thought it was an amazing high-contrast look. I was tempted by the rest - and I may go back and pick them up later - but I'm trying to watch my pocketbook. Part of me also wished there were more options, though three different patterns per set is a lovely thing. The inside of the dress is textured fairly high as well, though sharp angles upward will catch sight of nothing where something should be - I ended up adding in Fateplay's thigh shadow from his Sailor Fuku set for some verisimilitude, and I think I may well just keep a copy of it handy in my Normal Kit folder. It was one of those touches I didn't realize I wanted until I had it, and now I can't easily go without it.

The jewelry I'm wearing is from Amorous, but I modified it to add an anklet. One of my sadnesses about Second Life jewelry is how rarely it includes things like bracelets and anklets; both are fantastic for adding a spot of color or darkness to long limbs; the nice thing is, this set was modifiable, so I was able to copy the bracelets and turn one into a secondary use with only a little tweaking of it's size and location. This is why I love stores which leave their accessories modify-ok; while it is a deviation from what I purchased, it really adds value to the overall look. My hair is a new, windswept style from Wasabi Pills that was released at the Golden Thread Event - a clothing release by Miamai for a new line which seems to be combining natural forms and shapes in innovative ways - I was particularly struck by a flower afro which may soon be joining my inventory. Second Life offers fashion something completely unique to virtual worlds - the opportunity to bend the laws of physics and reality to create entirely new clothing and avatars. Much of Second Life is about imitation; shoes are often styled off of existing shoes - and when spike covered heels became big across the fashion blogs I was unsurprised to see it showing up in Target. Most of this outfit is realistic; my only consistent unrealities are my wings and my eyes - the wings should be obvious, but the eyes are rainbow. My shoes, however, the Hera heels from SLink, are an example of something which looks realistic but which could never actually be worn offline without additional transparent bits to hold everything in place. The curve of the shoe and how it never really meets itself; the bare nub of an impossibly high heel; even the smoothness of the curve over the top of the foot all would fail if they were attempted offline. The overall effect is a subtle one, though, and one where I doubt most people would think they're looking at anything unrealistic. I hope SLink - and other creators - continue to push the boundaries of what can be worn in Second Life; it makes dressing so much more interesting than offline.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Mia (The Golden Thread)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Pantone Fall eShadow
Lipstick: Adore & Abhor, Fluff Lips
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands and Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands and Feet
Collar: Ginza, Milk Crown Necklace (Advent)
Jewelry Set: Amorous, Antiquarian (anklet made from bracelet)
Dress: Coquet, Twist (FaMESHed)
Dress Shadow: Fateplay, Rena
Shoes: SLink, Hera Wrap Heel

Pose: Grafica

Location: Binemist
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY The Pink Tower (highly modified)
Water Settings: TOR, Eyeballin'

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only