Mrs. Darcy in Nature

The Empire waistline owes a lot of its simplicity to Neoclassical styles and popularity, and is loosely based off of the chiton of the Greeks which was belted under the bust for women. It was developed primarily in France, and also ushered in an era of short, often curly hair, thin ribbons to hold up the hair, and additional garments like shawls for the purpose of warmth and to offer some cover for bare arms and throats. In England, the style was popularized by Emma, Lady Hamilton even though England and France were at war, and heralded an era of Neoclassical influence which would continue until Queen Victoria took the throne. Austen is firmly seated in the middle of all of this, where serious topics were skimmed over with a narrow margin of pleasure-seeking and Empire building. In between the careful maneuvering of her novels, hints of the horrors which lay beyond the drawing room can be seen, and very few families are untouched by war and strife. Out of this era strolls this evening dress from Junbug tucked under a military-style pelisse. It's available in a variety of shades, though I picked up the pale pick for 50L Friday, along with the texture-matching shoes fit for the SLink high feet. With a fine lace fischu, I could walk along any street in absolute comfort and style as well - the color combination and length are charming, and it moves well. The coat is also available separately, and would be very fine over a variety of empire gowns.

I pulled my accessories from a variety of current events, leaping around rather like a gazelle - or something equally graceful and unpredictable. From the Hair Faire I have an amazing updo from Ploom. It fits extremely well, and is layered and built very realistically. The bow hair flops slightly as one would expect hair too, and has an amazing softness around the edges. The bangs alternate between being tucked sedately behind the ears, and dangling down in front with a gentle curl, and are layered such that they fall naturally around the face. Like always, Ploom offers up a wide variety or hair shade options - in this case I went with a blond/yellow/pink fade which made the "bow" part of the hair look particularly fun. The bangline of my hair worked beautifully with the pr!tty flowerband I picked up at One Word. It came with a single or double set of flowers, and I really loved both the shape - which reminded me strongly of the foam flowers you can buy in craft stores - and the gentle pastel colors. Finally, my jewelry is a new release at Genre from Eclectica, a glorious baroque set with dangling teal gems. Earrings, rings, and a generous necklace are included, and they offer up a bold statement to balance out my relatively simpler gown. I really like the asymetrical but balanced arrangement - and the fact I was able to echo the jewelry with the cosmetics around my eyes. The flower pattern I echoed through a White Widow design, with large, swirling bronze flowers. The teal I echoed with one of my best and narrowest eyeliners from cheLLe; I love how bright it looks against the bronze and black.

One final note - my gorgeous poses are from !bang, which recently moved to a new store and is having a sale associated with the move. I was able to fill out a lot of my collection there, and I really recommend you check it out soon.

Twisted Color Challenge: Week 23 - Beet Vibe

It was a real challenge to find the color combination for Beet Vibe, and in the end I didn't quite manage the reddish purple, though I adore the dress I'm wearing in general. I'm not quite sure what store it's from; the mesh was made by Maya Sharpshire of Vero Modero Designs, and a bunch of dresses by a different name but in the same style are at her store... so you can kind of find it? Maybe? One bit of warning - the texture doesn't go curled under the dress bottom, so it vanishes beneath, and I ended up making my own invisilayer to cover my belly, but the silhouette is so different from a lot of other dresses, and the texture is so sweet and lovely, that I had a ball bouncing around in it. It was purple and cyan, with hints of blue and sea green, and as such had a sort of Beet Vibe to it. My hair is from Wasabi Pills and has amazing curls and textures in it - I love the little wriggles in front of my ear, and the cowlick sticking off to one side. I took one of the pale shades and tinted it the sea green of the colors - it was amazingly easy, and so adorable. The same shade came more naturally from these fantastic wedges from G Field - she actually counts this particular shade of green among her regular shades. The cosmetics are pure magenta glory - eyes from White Widow that branch out from the side of my eyes, and matching lips from Mock - both of them the rich, reddish purple required to match up.The darker, duller purple I echoed in this fantastic jewelry from Eclectica.

The gems and the metal are both tintable to any shade, and while I stuck with a slightly less red shade, I think you'll agree it's gorgeous. It comes with a load of extras, too - in addition to two rings and a bracelet, there is a broach and hair ornaments. I'm not wearing all of them; the weight alone would knock me sideways. Finally, my nails are from Nine Inch Nails and they really are lovely - a french manicure style with delicate patterns etched into the enamel. Since SLink released her enhanced hands I have rarely worn anything else - only when gloves are involved - and I completely love them; the sheer variety by being able to add color to the tip of every finger blows me away - I just wish it was easier to photograph them. I'm becoming increasingly displeased with my photography and how skilled it is; I feel like I'm missing some elemental quality of emotion and meaning in these and I'm not sure how to fix it. I still love taking the pictures, and seeing the gorgeous sims across the grid, but I will probably start experimenting more with angle and color and light to see if it can fill my existential photographic void.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace - Creamer
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Julia (promotional)
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: White Widow, Space
Lipstick: Mock, Lucir Lipcolor Orchid
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Enhanced Mesh Hands
Nails: Nine Inch Nails, Colorful pattern
Jewelry: Eclectica, Nouveau Leaves (promotional)
Dress: Vero Modero Fashion, Batik Bali Maxi Dress
Shoes: G Field, Wedge Pumps "Adele"

Pose: !bang

Location: Gehenna Vampire Clan
Light Settings: Places Kunming
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Monochromatic

Monochromatic - literally one color - is when the shades of black and white are used in conjunction with a single color to create a rich field of view. These images aren't actually monochromatic, though - the Salamander eyes I chose from Rue's group gifts are of many colors, and that's perhaps why I'm not as happy with these as I might be (I'm already considering alternatives). One funny thing about how I do photoshoots, several pictures in a single location over space and time in a single outfit, is that while I have some artistic pretensions, I don't think about what I'm trying to convey as much as I might. It's more about the look and me, and how we both interact with the landscape; it's less about trying to capture a mood, or share a deeply held emotion, and I think sometimes that's a weakness to what I do. I am terrifically fond of this look, though; I think it's striking, almost overpowering, with subtle implications on oil and wildlife in the combination of Fallen Gods' dripping Coalborn with a much older Feathers skin of his, which I seem to return to now and then when I'm looking for white. My only wish is that he had adapters for the SLink hand system, as I would have loved to have superior hands, but in the end it's a minor point in an amazing look. I did augment the skin with a little cosmetics - lips from Rue and eyes from White Widow - but it was the blotchy dripping of the skin with the silkiness of the feathers which really dictated this black-on-white look.

The hair I all but backed into; a new, spiky, single sided hairstyle from Wasabi Pills. I didn't use the included texture for the skull - it doesn't work around my ears at all - and I think I like it better for being cleanly shaven. One of my favorite mandalas from my college years has a woman curving over the top, the long hair from one side of her head flowing around the circle of the mandala while the shaved other side mutely protests that extravagance. I was aiming for slightly unnerving, and I think the hair helps; it was pure luck there was a streaks addition to it, which enabled me to continue miking black and white as I went. From there, the outfit was obvious; I had picked up this new Moon Priestess silks from Deviance months ago, but never hit on a look which really called for it's opulent spareness. Since I had picked up the fatpack, I had a pick of the litter, and I settled on white, dark silver, and an opal gem texture available only in the fatpack. Something was missing on the ear, though, so I ended up copying and ripping apart one of the necklaces to make this dual-earring - I'm somewhat, but not entirely, pleased with it, but I wasn't in the temper to try to get the curving bands over the ear to work; perhaps another time. I really love the fit around the hips of the silks, though, and since the whole set is color-change on touch, I only had to fit it once. For the final touch of "priestess will cut u", I added this bindi from Souzou Eien after trying a few different options on. I think it well continued the trend of aggressive jewelry, for all that it is very simple.

All of these pictures were taken in world, in a sim with very muted textures which I further muted with the greying windlight I chose - you can see hints of green on the ground here and there, and a bit of other colors, but in general I aimed and cropped carefully. What I didn't do is apply any filters after taking the pictures - these are all possible in Second Life without anything more than cropping. Winter Moon is a fantastic place to try your hand at unedited black-and-white photography, as all of the buildings and such cooperate with a very monochromatic pallet with some nicely patterned trees. The only hitch is the waterfalls, which are plentiful and full bright, so when picking your windlight aim yourself at the waterfalls and make sure they work (or vanish). One thing I'm increasingly annoyed with, though, is the static nature of my expression in all of my pictures - that sort of calm, slightly smiley look which anyone who sees my photostream is well aware of. The actual facial animations available to us often distort and disfigure the face, being very extreme, but subtler effects can be gained by editing the shape, and now that I've adjusted my facial profile, I may start playing around with subtler emotions in the eyes, brow, and mouth to see how I can more subtly convey emotion. Yes, sometimes the snarling face above is fun - and even appropriate - but more often than not our anger and our sadness are concealed and quiet, not loud and distorted.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: Fallen Gods, Feathers (promotional item)
Tattoo: Fallen Gods, Coalborn (promotional item)
Eyes: Rue, Pluto - Salamander (group gift)
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: White Widow, Pisces
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: Rue, Lip Service - Gothier Than Thou
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Morgan (promotional item)
Bindi: Souzou Eien, Precious Bindi
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Outfit: Deviance, Drown Moon Priestess
Shoes: Schadenfreude, Ivody Cygnette Shoes

Pose: !bang

Location: Winter Moon
Light Settings: Phototools - Mia Light
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

RFL: Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria (Teleport Point) is sponsored by [sYs] Designs.

Built around 250 B.C.E. on the island of Alexandria, for the purpose of guiding ships into port, the Lighthouse of Alexandria stood between 400 and 450 meters high and was built by Ptolemy I shortly after Alexander the Great (who founded Alexandria) died. It was made of light colored stone in three parts; the base was large and square, with an octagonal section on top, and finally a round section which lead to the light source. During the day, a large mirror reflected the sunlight; at night a fire was kindled there. Interestingly, the builders used liquid lead as mortar in order to help the stones resist the awesome forces of the sea. It remained intact until 796 C.E., when the top section was damaged and left unrepaired, however there are reports it was still used as a lighthouse. Earthquakes finished the damage; the initial one in 956 left it still functioning, but the twin ones in 1303 and 1323 turned it into a ruin which could no longer be entered. In 1480 the last remnants of it vanished below a fort built atop the lighthouse platform by Pharoh Qaitbay using stones from it's wreck. It wasn't until 1994 that stones which had fallen into the East Bay of Alexandria were discovered by French archaeologists and raised for display so that the public could see them.

The Lighthouse at Alexandria was by far the most complicated to navigate to find the stores, as they weren't in any clear order but were rather laid out like stands of cattails in a marsh. Displays were hung from trees, facing a variety of directions, which added to the confusion. It was completely lovely, though, so I had a difficult time complaining, even though I'm not sure I found all of the stores! Like the Pyramid and the Temple to Artemis, the Lighthouse creator Bryn Oh, whose work I adore, took the ancient structure as a jumping off point rather than something to even attempt to reproduce or represent. I have mixed feelings about this; although I love Bryn's work, and the lightbulb orrey is simply wonderful to watch, the difficulty in navigating and finding the RFL items seems to at least somewhat undermine the purpose of the Fashion Faire and I really wondered what it would be like to move around a more faithful representation of the Lighthouse at Alexandria. I really enjoyed the sense of stepping back in time which came with a few of the other sims; here I was very aware I was walking within Bryn's idiosyncratic world. There is probably a lot here about the relationship between personal style and historical inspirations, but I'm mostly left with space for questions than any answers worth writing about.

It wasn't just the navigation which caused me problems; I also had some difficulty finding clothing that suited me on this sim as well, though there were many more demos in evidence than in other places. I finally settled on this gorgeous set of blue and pink silks (also available with pink silks and blue roses) from Likka House. While I'm more attached to her Lolita or historical fashions, her silks are really lovely and the chain over the hip is simply sublime. They are prim, which meant I could resize the arm bands to fit my larger-than-average arms, and the silk lengths move when one moves. I kept the jewelry from my last look, from Designs by Sebastian because the translucent colors and chandelier style fit so well. All of the rest of the action is around my eyes, where three items from three different stores work some absoluter magic. The bottom glow of color is from our old friends Pin Me Down, the RFL Nacre release which has gotten me so far through these seven faire looks. Layered over that is a gorgeous eye tattoo and faint eyeshadow from White Widow, who specializes in artistic paint around the eyes. Finally, I layered on top these amazing branch eyelashes from Boudoir. I had to alter them pretty radically to fit my eyes, as my eyes curve downward on the outsides, but that was easy to do since they are on a single curving prim away from the eye. I really love the effect, at once natural and bizarre.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Boudoir, Fairy eyeliner (RFL Donation)
Eyeshadow: Pin Me Down, Nacre 8 (RFL Donation)
Eye Decor: White Widow, Evasion (RFL Donation)
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss
Hair: Alice Project, Momo II
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Jewelry: Designs by Sebastian, Babylon Set (RFL Donation)
Silks: Likka House, Rosephilia Silk - Daybreak (RFL Donation)
Feet: SLink, Mesh Feet

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Lighthouse of Alexandria
Light Settings: Places Midian
Water Settings: Mirror Glass

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 29 - Persian Rose

I'm so late on this Color Challenge - I think this is the first time since the challenge began - with a lovely shade of pink called Persian Rose. The windlight - one of Torley's set in the FOG subheading - was central to bringing out the pinks, and I found the contrasting green really fascinating. This isn't the psychedelic pink and green of a watermelon, but rather it's duskier, darker sibling; one imagines a goth watermelon complaining about being told to take out her piercings and slamming the door in her parents' faces. I got two of the pictures taken in time, then was distracted by a flaw in the outfit and a glorious weekend offline, and came back several days late to wrap it up - only to find the Relay for Life sims were gone. I mourn all of the ones I didn't see, but there are only so many hours in the day and I am finding more and more that I simply can't accomplish everything I'd like to. I ended up seeking out the LEA sims instead, on LEA 6, a display which opened on the fifteenth of July and is ending... sometime. I wish the end dates were more explicit; it would make it easier to prioritize; I'm only halfway through photographing another LEA sim and feeling all the weight of the end of the month. I'm also feeling quite sore and tired, but happy, so I suppose things balance out in the end - even my woefully late Color Challenge.

The outfit is from Pinkmares, a store I've been meaning to showcase for a while due to her incredibly generosity. A regularly changing midnight mania and four lucky offers are always on in her store, and holidays regularly lead to hunts, additional lucky boards, and other offers. The store is a must join for any Thrifty Goths about, both for the free offers and the outfits for sale. My one complaint - and it is on the nitpicky side - is that the top of this particular gown had a line at the back of the neck which drove me wild until I realized what layer it was on. I photographed around it, but it didn't let me highlight this amazing Hair Faire offering from Discord Designs properly from the back (yes, I really am that picky, no I didn't change my top).  I have several angles to show off this awesome close braid with it's metal fastenings, though, and it is up to Discord Designs' usual high standards. The jewelry is another amazing release from Elemental and matches not at all, which I ended up deciding was fun; I had planned to swing by the store to hunt for something in pink, but the yellow was such a contrast to the rest in a look that really had very little contrast. The curling vines around my eyes are an amazing eye-makeup from White Widow and were, when I picked them up at least, very economical for a really distinctive and theatrical effect. I have a half dozen in the wings, so expect to see more from that store in the future. I thought the combination with my usual secondary eyelashes was very nice as well - vines and flowers are a weakness of mine, I suppose!

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: White Widow, Rosees
Lipstick: Mock, Pomegranate Lip Jelle
Hair: Discord Designs, Delrey - Baby Blonde (promotional item)
Jewelry: Elemental, Sunray Set (promotional item)
Dress: PiNkMaReS HoUsE, Beautifully Broken
Shoes: G Field, Strap Shoes "Alex"

Poses: Long, Awkward Pose

Location 1: Relay For Life
Location 2: LEA6 - Lollito Larkham
Light Settings: TOR, FOGGY Melon Chapterhouse
Water Settings: Atomist 2

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only