Genre's theme is Back to the Future for another week and one of the releases there is this gorgeous Victorian Ensemble from Goth1c0 in a rich, dark red. It comes in two pieces - the jacket top and the long skirt, so one could mix and match it if one wished. By far my favorite detail is on the skirt, the lacing down the front of the skirt is simply delightful. The dress is well-rigged and well-lined, making pictures a joy to take - I had a ball with my image of Glamitry's latest heels. Simple, with a low-slung ankle strap, these shoes are fit for every shoe on the block including my own SLink high feet.
It's damnably difficult to find a volcano in Second Life! I spend a short while in the Amazon River area, but found the volcano there impossible to easily find; to be in this area one must wear a HUD which punishes you for camming to other areas, kills you if you follow rivers, and puts you in a cage if you take it off - all of which definitely impede any attempt to find a volcano three sims away! I ended up instead on Orwood Volcano, a Linden build which is complete with occasional events - spouts of flame into the sky, flying lava rocks - as well as the even glow of flowing lava. I love the Protected Land of the grid, all of them little frozen balls of art created ages ago by Linden employees. Sadly they didn't continue their builds, updating them as the tech of Second Life improved, but they are often still lovely areas and good for photography, leaning heavily on legacy textures and Linden trees. Expect to be able to get a lot out of your windlights, and to have to angle sharply to avoid surrounding buildings - de-rezzing them can also work well.
This month's Genre is Celebratory, a Third Anniversary Party filled with shine and glamor and edged on all sides with a pretty ribbon of silly. As events go, it's one of the longer ones and inspires a cavalcade of unusual clothing and accessories. That sheer variety is on display all over this month's event - clothing crossing several ages, accessories for many different types of avatars, and some wonderful celebratory items to decorate homes and accentuate parties. Nowhere is this more obvious than this dress from Blue Blood, a fluffy confection that combines an elegant Mandarin collar with puffed lantern sleeves and bodice reminiscent of Fifties' cocktail dresses. It transitions smoothly into the wide, ruffled skirt, and the combination of the catch along the collar and the dividing line down the center of the dress adds interest. It comes with a fatpack of colors divided into light and dark, twelve options in all, and each of them combine two tones of color - a brighter, shiny half, and a slightly dull, leatheresque half. Clever use of materials adds to the sense of texture and shine on the dress, making the tentacles seem embossed into the surface as well as making each half seem like a different type of surface. In addition to my eternal favorite, tentacles, there is also a skyline version of the dress which you can see me wearing in my DDR post.
Goth1c0 also blessed us with colorful fatpacks, offering up a wide variety of textures on these charming zippered heels with the platform base. Unlike a lot of fatpacks, where the different textures are color variations on a theme, these boots include this fun, blue embossed pattern, animal print, a fun spiderweb, and even some skulls and crossed bones - ten options in all - and four metal colors. The shapes of the openings are wonderfully fun, each zipper hanging free off to the side. I love the silver detailing along the base and the pipe-shaped heel with it's cute, rounded center. One of the things I love about the SLink high feet is that they offer up options for cut-out, boot style heels that show off the smooth foot beneath. The style of shoe also let me show off my fantastic nails to good effect - another Genre offering, this time from Sense-able Fashion. I chose one of the puzzle nails, an interlocking pattern of blues which seemed made for this overall look. There are two other sets, all of them brightly colored and fun, a valuable way to bring your celebrations all the way to your fingertips. And just in case you want to celebrate down to your marrow, The Stringer Mausoleum made an amazing set of starburst eyes in a variety of shades - each one eerie and pale, and yet somehow compelling. There is a wearable demo in gray in addition to the purchasable colors, and each comes with such incredible options - petite eyes, mesh eyes, legacy eyes, and a system layer - that even the pickiest eyeophile would be pleased.
