Merovingi Fashion Awards

Okay, I know it's been a really long time since I've blogged but I've been sooooo busy! Not only did Mr. Coolname and I decide to add garden apartments to our offerings for our business but I have been attending MODA and doing all the stuff that goes along with that.

One of those things is that I will be participating in my FIRST Runway show with other MODA students and Spotlight Models this next week. The shows begin at 8pm each evening Monday through Friday with a Gala to end the event on Saturday.

I will be walking in Tuesday and Thursday nights fashion shows and I can tell you the beautiful clothes that I and my fellow models will be wearing are simply wonderful :)

Please consider joining us to see these wonderful fashions and also suppport a worthwhile charity at the same time.

Please see MFA website for more details.

If you have a moment I will try to post some pics of some of my outfits but if not, come see me at the shows :)

I'm in! I'm in! I'm in!

OMG! I hadn't mentioned this cause it was something I really wanted and mentioning it was like jinxing it or something.

But, I applied with the FACES sl modeling agency and have been crossing my fingers and toes and doing visualization and stuff and I'm in!

I'm an official FACES model.

You can see the list here.

Party time!

Lost in Wonderment

This is gonna be a quick post and yes, I know I'm a slacker for not posting more but we all can't be the lovely and posting-lots Alicia. ;)

If you, somehow, are perhaps brand new to SL or perhaps don't follow the fashion scene at all - then you may not know about the SL Relay For Life Clothing Fair, to benefit the American Cancer Society. You can read about the businessy side of things at the SLRFL site. You can read about all the amazing items produced for this event on any blog with the remotest interest in Fashion. I recommend that you check out the What's New blog to see even more new items being added all the time, and also the Fabulously Free blog which has a sim by sim rundown if you are interested in the freebies at all.

What I want to say, is simply this.

T H A N K Y O U to every single one of the people who has worked on organizing, advertising, designing, creating for this event. Walking around seeing all the work that has gone into this is, for me, a humbling and very moving thing. I lost two of the dearest people in my life to Cancer and it runs in both sides of my family. I keep crying when I think about it or look around at all you have done to help the victims of this overreaching disease. Anyone who can truly look at Second Life and say, "oh it's just a game about sex and whatever", has no idea what they are talking about. They have only to look at you prodigiously amazing people and what you have wrought to know this isn't true.

I happened to be present when ONE KIOSK slipped over to an amazing 100,000 Linden dollars. You read that right, One Hundred Thousand. Multiple that by, as an estimate since I don't have an exact figure, around 3.50usd (Linden Labs do take a cut when you cash out regrettably), yeah you get the picture. The total of donations is even more jaw-dropping. So T H A N K Y O U also, to the generous donors who have opened those Pixel Wallets and dropped in whatever they could spare. It is not going unnoticed, and it WILL make a difference.

Today, I am very happy to be one pixel girl in our incredible pixel world. *Hugs*

Of Fashionista Totem Poles and Really Cute Shoes

This is gonna be a mega supah deluxe post cause I have so much to catch up on and just not a lot of time to do it in. I hope anyone reading who doesn't wanna read all of this will just skim by because every attempt I have made to put a cut in this thing just screws it up royally. Yes, I am lame. In fact, I may just split this up, yes, I think I will.

In case any of you were not aware, there is a hunt going on at Skin Fair and I meandered over there yesterday evening to take a peek. Whilst there, I ran into quite a few pixelettes and at least one pixelman. Scar Ayres astonished me with her Shoulder Sitter Skillz and then Whimsy Winx, Sai Pennell, Phinn Boffin, Hepzibah Beaumont, Gary Beebe, Tesa Jewell and even the fabulous Celebrity Trollop arrived to join us in the attempt to hold the record for most people standing on heads, at Skin Fair, at least.

The following two shots were taken by Miss Tesa, I played with them a little but you can hardly see me standing about midway in the stack. ;)



Clicky for an, as Whimsy might say, "It's beautiful, Jesus would like it," enlarged view of the proceedings. (Quote from a gesture Ms. Winx uses, lol )



I also took a roaming view around the Cassiopeia Isle Sim, home of LVS, where a dollarbie hunt is going on. Most of the items are for the ladies but gentlemen will be pleased to find there's a noble gent's outfit (medieval looking) to match the noble maiden's and some tee shirts to match the one I'm wearing in these pictures below for 1L each.

In addition to the tee shirt, I'm wearing the Fedora from the ETD hunt as well as one of the pairs of shoes. My hair is from Armidi as is my skirt, and my flashy green nail polish is from The Body Politik. Fatpacks for the win ;) The tattoos are a dollarbie gift from Etchd in honor of St Patrick's Day. I'm also sporting one of the pairs of earrings given out by Alienbear, and if you have not gotten the third gift from Alienbear and Sparkle Skye, today is the last day to do it.

Okay, now we has picatures.



I was a little sad to see that the fedora does not fit my admittedly slightly oversized head too well, and that it does not stretch. Nevertheless, I thought it looked pretty darned kewl.

There are three choices in this tee shirt as mentioned above. I got a kick out of, "If you pinch me, I will punch you," but that seemed a bit militant for this blog. Sooo, I went with the "Play with my Lucky Charms" one instead.



I want to take a moment to say thanks to all the many, many generous designers who give out freebies on holidays, during special events and just every day. You really help make SL what it is and that's much appreciated <3

I am in love with these shoes and quite hope that Elika Tiramisu is able to release them in tons more colors. Even a new (male) friend of mine mentioned, "Cute shoes!" No, he did not ask me if I wanted to adjourn to the bedroom pose balls afterwards either!



To see more of my "Irish Day" pics, click over to my flickr page.

I have lots more to talk about. MODA, applying to fashion agencies, participating in contests, putting in a free changing room for our "Five Units in One" Luxury Skyhomes as mentioned here. That will have to wait. Now I need some fortifying lunch and those pink hearts and green clovers just aren't going to cut it!

Doh! This shows how busy I have been, I have not been getting my regular dose of fashionosity as I didn't realize the Hampton Wedge *Was* released in tons of colors. Sheesh, send me some fashion iv stat!

Skin Fair! and Rue D'Antibes

This is an incomplete list and I do not have slurls because SL mapping has decided to be borked. However, the Skin Fair is being held at Vanity Universe and can be found there if you just log in to that region.

These are the gifts and bargains and tips which I know from personally finding them or being told about them directly by the designer. They are there so please don't im me that you can't find them. Be patient, go wash dishes or something and wait for stuff to rez, I dunno.

Adam n Eve. This is a stellar box which contains demos, free skins for both male and female, manicures, pedicures and I don't know what all. It is FREE. In the center of the stall is a cute pedestal with an apple on it. The floating text above it says "Buy me for 0L for a taste of Adam n Eve". You can't miss it.

Chai Skins. Chai is selling their skin gift cards for 18percent off the regular price. In other words get their skin for 1k rather than 1200 or whatever it usually is or get three for 3k etc. The more you buy the more you save. If you are a fan of this skin this is a great time to buy them. They are also right next to Adam n Eve and you can walk right through.

Darkes Sisters Skins. This kiosk or stall is almost directly across the main concourse from Adam n Eve. Just walk across and you will see it. Once you are inside, you will see a little pink sign on the bottom left corner of the back wall which reads 1L and the box itself is an adorable hat box/powder puff box right there. I don't know if this is the same gift as the member gift given over the weekend and haven't had time to check.

At a couple intervals along the concourse there are pass through areas to even more skins. There are changing rooms in these pass through areas and seating areas for resting those pixel tootsies.

If you go through one of them, you will see on the left as you come out a circular display which has three different skin makers on it. One of them is giving away a free oil layer. The name is Dreamy something. Another skin maker, Wax Poetic, has a free skin box. (dollarbie actually)

BiancaF has a free skin which she may change each week. Her little kiosk is to be found right before Ars Nova so look for it!

Fleur had a great skin called Marni which I believe is released especially for SKIN FAIR when I was there. It was regular price though.

Celestial Studios was displaying the entire seasonal Vogue series so if you like these skins which I do, and missed them, which I did, you should grab them. And I will!.


Switching over to the Rue D'Antibes Sim opening. As of this writing, La Sylphide's sim opening gift is still there as are the gifts from Silent Sparrow (in a cute blue bottle on the table outside) and Mimikri. No idea how long they will be there, so go go go.

Silent Sparrow also has a very nice outfit reduce to 100L for the event and there are other freebies in the area.

Edit: The Fleur outlet at Rue D'Antibes is selling the boutique line for half price. This will continue until Roslin logs on and has time to change them.

In Defense of Stiletto Moody Shoes

This is an Opinion. It is only an Opinion. Your Mileage May Vary, Please Drive On.

"Opinion," says Wikipedia, "An opinion is a person's ideas and thoughts towards something. It is an assessment, judgment or evaluation of something. An opinion is not a fact, because opinions are either not falsifiable, or the opinion has not been proven or verified. If it later becomes proven or verified, it is no longer an opinion, but a fact. Accordingly, all information on the web, from a surfer's perspective, is better described as opinion rather than fact."

Comments are welcome, but rudeness will be deleted and since it's my blog, I'll decide what's rude, mkay?

I love to read other people's blogs. I am an avid reader of several, some of which you can see listed on my blog roll to the right. I discovered GogoLita at some point in the last few weeks and I spent some time reading not only the current posts but the previous ones and I stumbled upon one there about Stiletto Moody Shoes. After careful consideration of not only the post but of the comments, I decided I have some things to say about this "issue" if it is an issue.

Before I even talk about the shoes, I want to bring up a few points around the whole argument.

Very few of us, in Second Life, are seeing ONLY brand new never before seen, totally came from the mind of the designer, designs. Photo sourcing is an everyday part of SL, for example. You see it in skins, clothing, hair, shoes, houses, everything. One of the most popular and expensive stores in SL, which shall remain nameless, is exclusively photosourced content.

Let's look at what photosurced means. It means that the creator either bought copyright free photos or found them through google search or some variety of the two, and then pieced the content of those photos together along with perhaps some hand drawing and heavy photoshop work to create a garment in Second Life.

Where did those photos come from? They came from real life. Whatever route they took on the way, they came from real life. And chances are they came from someone's copyrighted work.

99% of gestures, a very popular item in Second Life, are sound clips from songs, movies and tv shows. Do you suppose the people who made those gestures paid a fee to the creators of those songs, moves and tv shows in order to use that copyrighted material? I'm thinking that answer is no.

Furthermore, the idea of knock offs is very prevalent in the real world. Most department stores and certainly lower end stores like Target are carrying copies of copies of copies of that designer item that maybe was on the runway a couple seasons ago. Shoe and handbag designs in particular are usually knocked off almost as a matter of course.

These are a few examples of "copying" a designer's work from real life for use in sl and from real life to other items in real life, and doing so is taken as a matter of course. There are probably dozens more but I'm not willing to dig that hard. Please note, I'm not pointing the finger of blame or guilt or anything like that at anybody when I mention these examples. I'm simply saying, it's okay over here; why should it then not be okay somewhere else?

I know that there's a group of people who say rather loudly, nothing should be copied from real life. I wonder if those people have any photosourced items when they say that.

Then there's a group of people who say, does it really matter? To some extent, I don't think it does, depending largely on my own feelings of how much material harm it may or may not be doing and sense of fair play.

There also seems to be a school of thought in SL that a designer's work must be entirely his or her own work. Well, photosourcing, clearly by definition, is not the designer's own work and yet that's okay. Yes, I know that photosourcing takes a lot of work from the designer, even though I don't really understand it. I'm taking that part on faith.

What about furniture or prefab makers who buy textures from someone else. Surely the item they make is still the item made by them? What about gestures, surely a song clip and chat line from "The Simpsons" is not their own work? Sure, they made the gesture, took the time to make the song clip, but that's not their voice. That's the voice of Lisa Simpson. What about shoe makers who buy shoe parts, or even learned how to make shoes at a class. Does this somehow change the fact they took the time to assemble the parts, texture it, etc?

I am not so sure that I'm convinced that this school of thought, that the designer's work on a sold item should be theirs and only theirs, particularly when so much of what is sold is not really any designer's total work, is correct. Only people who can claim that are hand drawn artists who then make the clothes or furniture or whatever themselves. The number of people who do that, compared to the total number of reputable designers, is fairly small. Hand drawn meaning no photosourcing of any kind.

Now, let's talk about Stiletto Moody shoes.

One of the "complaints" I've seen is that Stiletto didn't make every single prim herself. My response is, so? As I've already shown, lots of things in Second Life are not made exclusively by the person whose name is on it. And how do you even know that the designer who made that dress actually drew it? You don't. Anybody can upload a texture and apply it to a prim. We take that part on faith. I don't really see all that much difference. Another very lovely designer's partner made some sculpties that she then applied to an item she had for sale. What's wrong with that?

That's really all Stiletto has done except she has paid someone, probably very handsomely, to create sculpties for her. Considering that I doubt I could understand the dynamics of sculpties, I might have to do that too. Understanding our limitations is the first step towards greatness, after all. Or at least, that's what my Mom says, lol. Obviously, Stiletto has not tried to hide the fact that someone else made the sculpties when it would be very easy for her to do so. All she would have to do is apply the sculpty map to the prim herself.

Another complaint was that someone didn't get their shoes during the sale. From personal experience, I can tell you that there *was* a problem with a number of the vendors caused by Linden Labs breaking a script protocol. If you wish you can check the Linden Blog for the week prior and find the post concerning the same. I believe the broken script protocol was later repaired. However, if the person or persons who did not receive their shoes, did not bother to follow up with Stiletto and her staff, then that's their fault. That person is the one who knows she didn't get her items. Not the staff. It took me a couple of extra days to get my shoes but I did get them and I don't blame Stiletto and her staff at all for something that was unavoidable. I, however, did not expect anyone to have their mind reading glasses on and followed up assiduously and had the privilege of talking to the scripter involved as well as with other members of the staff. In all, I bought five pair of shoes at the sale and I love all of them.

Yet another complaint was that the shoes bling or they make walk sounds. Okay, people, this complaint is pure and simple bs. The notecard which comes with every pair of shoes specifically tells you how to manage your bling and walk sounds with a simple click on your shoe. The left one I believe. If a buyer doesn't bother to read the notecard, this is not the fault of the designer or her staff. That's that person's laziness. (Incidentally, Zhao shoes uses a similar system only it's the RIGHT shoe)

One more complaint was that some of the designs are reproductions of real world styles. In the first, place get real. Every pointy toed pump in SL is a reproduction of a pointy toed pump in real life. Every sandal, every ankle strap, every sneaker, are reproductions. For that matter, to some extent, every pair of jeans, every halter top, is a reproduction. Why? Cause we make what we know. As someone famous once said, Shakespear I think, "There's nothing new under the sun." Paraphrased heavily, of course.

True, a few of Moody's styles are closer to real world shoes than others. My response is, So? I have boots in SL that look very similar to boots I have in RL. So? In fact many people *Try* to imitate their RL wardrobes in SL by looking for Doc Maarten style shoes or chucks or converse or whatever the thing is they want. I think this complaint is simply something to complain about.

Someone said that all the shoes were just for strippers, and blinging disasters. I don't recall the exact quote but it was along that line. It is true that some of the shoes do look as though they were made for dancers or with dancers in mind. Even the advertising mentions a pole. ;) However, this is not, by any means, the sum total of the styles within the walls of the store and to dismiss a store based on one assumption is pretty hard judgement. The strippery ones were not for me, but I found plenty of others to like.

Someone else said that the shoes don't fit well. I have to say, that when I first put mine on, I was severely disappointed because I thought that too. It turned out, though, that my shoes had not rezzed totally. Once they were rezzed completely they fit fine. I did adjust the ankle strap, according to personal taste but that's it. Otherwise I wear them straight out of the box and if they fit me they will fit anybody with size 0 feet.

Finally, the price. It's true. $900L or $1000L for one pair of shoes is a lot. It's more than I can pay without a sale. It's more than I can justify to myself to pay without a sale. I'm sure there are many of you in that same boat. Judging by the crowd that was at the sale the first day when I and Mr Coolname went, that was the case for many shoppers. And/or, they, like one lovely woman at the sale have a partner in a position to spare no expense for her to be well shod. ;)



There are a few considerations however when one thinks of the price. For one, you have a lifetime right to updates and or replacements for every pair of shoes you buy from Stiletto Moody shoes. That's right, all you have to do is go back to the vendor and click it to get a whole new copy of the pair you bought. This means if your inventory goes nuts, you still have shoes without even having to ask the store. Plus, any time the shoes are updated, you get a new copy. That's some extra service that has to get paid for somehow and to me it's worth the probably extra 150 or so linden I pay above what I'd pay for other sculpty shoes at a sale.

True, I wish Stiletto's shoes were priced closer to 600L than to 1000L but I am willing to wait for a sale to buy them. I think they are pretty, well made, and make me feel special. That's all I ask of any garment.

Incidentally, here's my pink moc croc elegant slingbacks. The designer gave them to me in honor of my buying so many pairs in spite of the difficulties with the vendors. I also bought the red elegant slingbacks that were on valentine special bringing my total up to seven pairs.

Modeling, Revisited.

A quick update here to be fair to the lovely people at MODA Modeling. Mirrabella Schumann got in contact with me yesterday afternoon while I was out of world and hopefully as soon as classes begin, I'm there! There was a mix up with even though there was a script error she still got my applications, yay! Plus, SL is playing silly buggers it seems and hiding people in the people search. They can be found, however, in the all search. Thought I'd mention in case some of you are having trouble finding people through the people search.

By the time I got back online, my messages had capped and I missed Mirrabella but also Licentious Malady mentioned one of the MODA models had seen my blog and passed it along. A comment was left also for follow up, and thank you very much Licentious.

So, first steps accomplished! Since I'm young still, -only 4 months- I hopefully will have an interview today.

I blogged about receiving this gown as a gift in a previous grid filtered post so here is the picture again. The gown is by Nicky Ree, hair by ETD and shoes by Aphrodite Creations. Tasha skin by RAC.



This pic is viewable in larger size on my flickr page. Click through to the all sizes option.

Isn't Insomnia Grand? And Modeling?

This is a post I was planning anyway but I was waiting for tomorrow. Technically it is tomorrow so I guess that'll do. Since the delightful and lovely Ms. Alicia Chenaux asked me were I and Mr. Coolname still seeing each other. Let me just put that to rest by saying that yes, we are, and more will follow on that soonish.

Over the course of my time in SL, I've become really fascinated and intrigued by the notion of Sl fashion models. I love the fact that there is such a profession in SL because it's one of those fantasy professions for many of us, I think, and I would be willing to guess it's much harder to do than it might look in videos or at shows. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I wanted to do that. (I've thought about getting a job more than once to help offset some of my spending but since I don't want to be a stripper or an escort and I'm still working on content creation, I wasn't sure what direction to go in).

But, I've decided I want to make a serious attempt at modeling and so, my first step was that I went to the Moda Fashion Showcase to apply to the Moda Modeling School. My guess is that a school can teach me a lot and also according to the MODA info, I'd end up with a portfolio, etc. However, I've applied twice and both times I get a script error that makes me think that my application is floating around in the digital world somewhere and not reaching the intended recipient.

Here's me applying the second time. I think I look svelte and glamorous!



I dropped a notecard on the Director of Admissions at MODA but I never got a notification that it was accepted and now I realize, she probably gets 84985308644570965793 notecards. I also know I'm a little bit young for their admissions limits but I'm determined on this and I'm in a quandary for what to do to see that my application gets where it needs to go. I'd like to at least maybe get an interview!

Meanwhile, with the assistance of Alaska Metropolitan (of Metro Models) I got the names of several photographers who might be willing to take some shots in order to have something to show in contests and so on and the name of the extremely talented and lovely Ms Ryker Beck (of Rykerized.com) popped out at me. She is every bit as nice as you might think and she took the following shots for me. I am so impressed.

I resized these to fit on my blog but you can see them in their full glory on Flickr.










The last photo is my favorite but I really think all of these are wonderful and I'm so happy Ryker was willing to take them for me!

This is just so i can add this tag to my blog

Nothing to see here, just need this so I can filter onto iheartssl.com as recommended by the wonderful Ms. Creamy Cooljoke.