A little explanation of my prolonged absence

After weeks of attempting to get back into blogging mode and miserably failing at producing anything worth sharing, I’m just going to leave a little note here:

I have given up neither SL nor this blog, but health problems (still the same that plagued me back in June already) had all but eroded any creativity and patience in me for a good while. In addition, currently I don’t have as much spare time as I used to, which makes it even more difficult to come up with something.

However, I remain hopeful that both me and “Vintage Verwood” will be back on track soon.

Hybie’s Blogger Challenge

Just a quick drive-by-post, since RL has me in its thrall, but I couldn’t bear to have this picture sitting any longer in my flickr-account. It is a contribution to Hybrid Ansar’s blogger challenge, issued here.

I’m quite in favour of plus-sized avatars becoming more visible, and as I wrote before, I’d use a bigger shape myself if it didn’t come with a bunch of problems: prim parts of clothing don’t fit and sometimes cannot be modded enough to make them fit and a lot of poses are rendered unusable because of arms or hands sticking in tummies or hips…

I’m wearing Prelude’s Estelle dress in silver blue here, a beautiful 40s-inspired dress with excellent textures and great shading. Complemented by Evoke’s Slingbacks, some of the cutest shoes I have seen on the grid in a while, this makes for a very romantic outfit.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Summer Cocktails 6
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: ETD Juliana – Smoke

Outfit:

• Dress: Prelude – Estelle (silver blue)
• Stockings: *Sheer* Stockings 01: Nylon Black
• Shoes: Evoke Ribbon Slingbacks – Black Leather / Black Satin
• Earrings: Paper Couture Diamond Bow

Other:

• Pose: *TorridWear* – Geometry 06

Intoxicating Mixtures

(More pictures and credits below.)

Mothers, lock your daughters in, it’s too late to talk to them – the Verwood Sisters are in town and you are going to lose your last bit of grip on the young girls if you let them visit these concerts! On stage, they will intoxicate you with their velvety voices only, but well-informed sources claim that that the sisters’ singing and dancing is not the only thing which will get to your head and that they have a habit of inviting their most faithful fans to night-long hedonistic debauchery.

I was one of the lucky bloggers who received a review package for 5th & Oxford’s latest cocktail-themed release: 6 new skins, 12 dresses (2 different models in six colours each) and a retro-style bar set were released by Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot last weekend, and my high hopes have been surpassed even.
Not only does everything meet the high quality standards one has come to expect from the creators, but is also is a very inspiring and inspired colourful collection.

The diverse set of skins comes with lipsticks and eye shadows in different textures and – partly bold, partly subdued – hues, the linking element being the most lovely winged eyeliner. And since it’s 5th & Oxford, it goes without saying that the more demure make-ups look classy, not dull, and the more chromatic ones look vibrant, not garish.
There are two kinds of cocktail dresses: a mini with an asymmetric, gathered top and a longer v-necked dress with short (prim-)sleeves and an obi-like belt. Both come in six colours, all of which are shown in this post – three on the mini, three on the obi-dress.
I’m especially in awe of the longer dress, not only because it is a style I favour anyway, but also because the top part of it exhibits some great shading and wrinkles around the bust which create a very realistic and sexy appearance – the upper part actually makes a great top to go with other pieces of clothing.
Finally, there is the retro bar set that comes with a lot of accessories, which I couldn’t show all here: highball and martini glasses with drinking animations that actually empty, a cocktail shaker which dispenses new drinks to your friends, bowls of lemon slices and olives and finally something that promises to bring life into the dullest party, a soda siphon you can use to spray other people! The set is sold with four of them, so you can hand the three remaining ones to your friends.
The bar furniture itself are of an understated elegance that lends a timeless quality to the design, despite the reminescences to bygone decades, making it suitable to match a lot of different interior designs and tastes in furnishing. My only regret is that I don’t have a home in SL where I could rez these permanently.

Since I wanted to do a theme that did not feature the obvious (sunsets, swimming pools, the silhouettes of palms against the evening sky), I came up with the 1960s girl band idea – plus it was the perfect excuse to air all those beehive-updos I had bought.

The Clawtooth by Clawtooth-hair is not available in this very colour anymore, since it was a temporary offer only. It can still be bought in other varieties of black, though.

Body:

• Skins: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Summer Cocktails 1, 3 & 5
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: fri.day – Allison – Paranoid Black; ETD – Roslin (smoke); Clawtooth by Clawtooth – Sweet Whispers – Softest Black [only available in other black tones]; ::69:: Model hair 01 – offblack -

Outfits:

• Cocktail dresses: (5th & Oxford) Summer Cocktails *RED CRUSH*, *CHEEKY MONKEY* & *BLUE LAGOON*
• Cocktail Mini: (5th & Oxford) Summer Cocktails Mini *COSMO*, *APPLETINI* & *PURPLE HAZE*
• Stockings (with long dress): *Sheer* Stockings 01: Nylon Black
• Patterned Tights (with short dress): *Sheer* Tights 11: Vines Black
• Shoes: [hoorenbeek] Stilettos [colourchangeable]
• Earrings: Paper Couture – Round Diamond Circle Drop Earrings

Other:

• Furniture, Drinks etc.: (5th & Oxford) Cocktail Bar set
• Poses: First picture = [LAP] Bolly9, DQ – Cam Hoor Too & BB – Fierce; second picture = inbuilt female sit from bar stool & *ELISA* melting icecream 6; last picture = pose built into hair

Pier Pleasure

(Credits at the end of the post.)

Of all the decades featuring in this blog, the typical 1920s silhouette is the most difficult one to recreate in Second Life®, especially when you don’t use an outfit right out of the box. There are only few items available that look right – but it doesn’t keep me from trying.

Today’s look is a very informal outfit, fit for a walk along the beach or – with different shoes – outdoor activities. White was the most popular shade for such attire, worn either purely monochromatic or, like here, with a few accents of colour.

I like the striped cardigan very much and with its low hemline and the deep v-neck – additionally accentuated by the only partly closed buttons – it is essential for pulling the ensemble together: it lends the necessary elegance to what otherwise could have ended up looking frumpy.

Everything else works along the same lines: even though carefully coifed, the hair looks like being touselled by the wind, and the shirt’s collar just emphasizes the relaxed feel. The hat comes with a colour-change script, so you are not  stuck with just one hue, and a little detachable bow for the hat.
The sequined hem of the skirt is something that would only have appeared on more formal outfits in the Twenties, but I decided that it was unobtrusive enough to pass. The prim part of the skirt has been lowered a tad to create the desired shape.

The shoes by “1-800 Bettie’s” finally are the most accurate model of vintage flapper shoes I have seen in SL so far, and the only one that does not sport t-bar straps (which I love, but a bit of variety is always good). They contain a resize script and are available in five different colours (black, white, cream, brown and red). There is no demo available at the shop, something that always makes me hesitate as you never know what you are buying, but in this case I was lucky, because the shoes turned out to be looking great on my feet, too.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Fresh Freckles 2
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Clawtooth by Clawtooth: Love Letters (black beauty)

Outfit:

• Shirt: (Armidi Gisaci) Cambridge Cuffed Shirt Top – Aufren White [worn without cuffs]
• Skirt: *ICING* Fields of Bloom [part of outfit]
• Cardigan: *Thimbles* Jim Jones Bumbleberry Kool-aid
• Stockings: [1-800 Bettie's] Stockings by Bettie’s – nude
• Shoes: [1-800 Bettie's] Flapper Shoe (white)

Other:

• Pose: *Luth* vintage 4 (Reel Expression)

La Bella Figura

(Credits at the end of the post.)

Summer 1960: hemlines are creeping up to the knee, outfits become simpler. Only a few years later Mary Quant will present the mini skirt to the public and fashion rules will be completely overturned. The Golden Age of Haute Couture is coming to an end and at the end of the decade, the street will rule over the catwalk.

We tend to think of the 1960s as a decade of revolution, not only socially, but also in terms of fashion, and often forget that they also contributed many staples to classical wardrobe. Change did not come with a big bang, but was achieved gradually when the highly refined and complicated wardrobe of the 50s shed many of its decorative elements in favour of more slim-lined cuts.

When I received a notification about the release of Couture Chapeau’s Sophia Loren retrospective some weeks ago, I was immediately intrigued by the idea, but unfortunately an illness kept me from logging into SL for a longer period of time and afterwards it took me a while until I found the opportunity to poperly check them out. I’m glad I did, though, because I immediately felt drawn towards some of the hats, and so it came that the “Napoli” model inspired this look.

The outfit consists of Armidi’s “Primavera” mini-trench, worn without the prim sleeves for an authentic appearance, and the “Simplicity” prim skirt from /artilleri/, one of those basics I couldn’t do without in SL. Of course, I had to mod the prim parts of the trench to fit on my avatar (and over the system skirt), but in this case the task turned turned out to be surprisingly easy – a rarity when it comes to prim-clothes.
Black mid-length gloves by 5th & Oxford and black pumps by Maitreya lend an elegant touch to the ensemble, while the necklace by (luc) adds just the splash of colour to prevent it from looking too monochromatic. Tres Blah’s lovely bag finally has a design which matched my vision of this outfit perfectly, I only had to get rid of the bow – not because I didn’t like it (I do, very much so), but because there was “too much going on” in the outfit now. Fortunately, the bag comes with copy and modify enabled, so I could take a copy and shrink the bow to a size that you can hardly see it.

The hat is available in black and red as well and contains a resize script, so it should fit every avatar regardless of (head-) size; I’m wearing ETD’s “Roslin” underneath, once again modified to prevent some of the strands from poking through the hat.

“Why the cigarette?” you may ask. Well, I don’t smoke in RL and never would, but I found for a look from a time when smoking was the rule rather than the exception, when people were unaware of the health risks  and when stars did it in public without tabloids scolding them through a series of unflattering snapshots the next day, it would make an appropriate accessory. Even though the cigarette comes with particle smoke, it didn’t show very well in my snapshot, so I added the smoke in Photoshop.

And if you think that’s a cheap romance novel poking out of Aderyn’s bag, you are mistaken. She assured me that it’s a copy of Cocteau.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Fresh 1
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: ETD – Roslin (smoke)

Outfit:

• Hat: La Loren Napoli Chapeau – white straw
• Jacket: (Armidi) Primavera Mini Trench Bianco
• Skirt: /artilleri/ simplicity pencil skirt *black*
• Stockings: [1-800 Bettie's] Stockings by Bettie’s – nude
• Gloves: (5th & Oxford) Gloves Medium Black
• Shoes: Maitreya Group Gift Pumps – black
• Necklace: (luc) Gaea Necklace (coral/gold)
• Bag: -Tres Blah- Chic Satchel (black)
• Cigarette: PERSONA cigarette solo [freebie]

Other:

• Pose: Standing pose from [LAP]’s free basic AO in combination with the in-built holding pose of the bag

Sweet as Sorbet

(Credits at the end of the post.)

Some dresses are just made for balmy summer evenings spent outside, for Sunday afternoons in the garden or a stroll in the countryside. Prelude’s “Sorbet” is such an outfit. a cute dress, available in a variety of icecream-colours, with a romantic sweetheart-neckline and puffy sleeves, very reminescent of the 1940s.

I’ve been changing into and out of “Sorbet” for a couple of days before deciding to make it a little more demure, as required for vintage daytime clothing, and to wear Pink outfitter’s “Poppy” blouse in white chiffon underneath, tinted to match the dress. Its half-transparent texture compliments the diaphanous overskirt and sleeves and looks just airy enough to pass as a summer outfit despite the high collar. Thanks to a resizing script, you can easily fit the skirt and belt to match your avatar’s proportions.

Shiny Things’ “Brandys” cork wedges are among my favourite shoes in Second Life®, both due to the texture and the fine details, and the blue ones just happen to have the exact right colour to go with the pattern in the dress.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey English Rose GG [group gift]
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Kin – Jennifer (black)

Outfit:

• Dress: Prelude – Sorbet Mint
• Undershirt: [Pink Outfitters] Poppy Sheer Chiffon Blouse – white [tinted; without chest ruffles]
• Hat: Tesla “Melanie” hat [freebie]
• Shoes: (Shiny Things) Brandys – blue

Other:

• Pose: [LAP] – KB – Prissy

Great Minds…

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Fresh 2
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: ETD Juliana – Smoke

Outfit:

• Outfit: *ICING* Ashley
• Earrings: ~Muse~ Claris Pearl earring in Gold
• Shoes: [Decoy] Francisco II Wedge Navy
• Stockings: OPIUM Everyday L$1 Store – tan lace-trim stockings

Other:

• Pose: ..::DARE::.. Relaxed Hand over Head

Even though I haven’t seen the film yet, I had saved pictures of the costumes Nicole Kidman wore in “Australia” to my hard drive, as a source of inspiration and reference. Imagine my surprise when two new outfits were announced in *ICING*’s group messages and they turned out to be recreations of just these costumes.

Shown above is “Ashley”, a travelling costume in navy and cream that comes with a lot of different options. I’m showing the full version here, but you can also wear it without the jacket, for example, without the scarf but with collar, without collar but with scarf, both scarf and collar… The skirt looks good without the prim flounce, too.

Rounded up by a hat and little gloves, “Ashley” really doesn’t leave much to be desired and the most difficult thing for me was to decide whether I wanted to lean more into the 1930s or the 1940s direction: the film is set in the years between 1939 and 1942, and “Ashley” can actually go both ways. In the end, my interpretation turned out to be a little more 1940s-style than the original – Decoy’s Francisco II wedges in navy look as if they had been made for this very outfit, they just couldn’t be ignored.

5th & Oxford, formerly Fleur, formerly Tête à Pied

(Credits and more detailed body shots at the end of this post.)

It requires only a superficial skimming through my blog to notice that I wear exclusively skins made by Roslin Petion and CJ Carnot. Not that there aren’t other good skins: some look very beautiful – on other people. I have tried a fair amount of different demos from various brands, but none of them really looked like “me”, except those by Fleur.

My love affair with the brand began in 2007, with the Vivant skins, and upon returning to SL earlier this year, I fell head over heels for the Allure line. Needless to say that I’ve been anxiously folllowing the progress of this latest project, waiting for the release – now under the new name of “5th & Oxford”, which is not merely a rebrand of Fleur, but (with Roslin’s words) more of a “lifestyle brand” that will offer many more products besides skins and women’s fashion only.

As much as I was anticipating the new skins, there also was a bit of nervousness: would I like the new skins just as much as the old ones? Or would I like them too much, perhaps, so that I wouldn’t want to use the old skins anymore? Would I still look like “myself”?

I count myself lucky to have a chance at taking a look at the new “Audrey” line a little early and there was no reason to fear, as I know now; Roslin and CJ have treated their skins to a careful renovation without demolishing the whole look. The strong points of the Allure line are still there, complimented by new features. There are other blogs publishing their reviews together with a complete overview of skintones and makeups available, so instead of doing a visual documentation, I wanted to put my thoughts about this skin into words and use pictures only to illustrate my point.

“Audrey” launches in three skin tones – fair, medium and tan – and with 24 different makeups. The shading under the bust and buttocks is a bit more pronounced and some body parts look a little shinier than in the Allure line, but “Audrey” still is a very balanced and subtle skin – which counts for much in my book. I prefer skins that don’t show any of the intense highlights you often find in examples which are based on images taken under studio conditions, because they look a little too artificial. CJ & Roslin, however, got the balance just right: their skins look smooth, neither too flashy nor dull.
A few subtle moles on the torso add a bit of interest without being too obtrusive, and the freckles are really good: neither too dark nor too pale, they are splattered over the nose, cheeks, shoulders and cleavage, thus creating a very natural look. Usually, I don’t wear freckled skins, but the one pictured above stole my heart and I will probably put it on once in a while in the future.

A novelty are different lip forms and textures within the same kind of makeup, meaning that you not only pick a lip colour you want, but also the texture and, to a certain extent, the shape of the lip. The makeup is excellent, as always. Very detailed and nuanced, just as great as in the previous skin lines.

A bigger difference between their previous releases and “Audrey” is the nose – I don’t know how they did it, but the shading of the nostrils is excellent. I daresay I haven’t seen any better yet in in Second Life®. Unless you have selected a slider value of 50 or more to turn your nose up, the way the avatar mesh works creates “creases” on either side of the nose – a fact that bothered me to the extent that I have openly wished for prim noses to replace the standard one. With “Audrey”, it seems that I can stop wishing for a different nose, because the shading hides those creases almost completely; they are hardly visible now.

The brows have a great shape and definition, but make sure you are using Windlight settings that don’t crank the scene gamma values too high up, or the black brows will wash out and look brown instead. If in doubt, just play a bit with the slider values until you find a setting that works for you.

If you have loved Fleur or Tete à Pied skins before, you won’t be disappointed by “Audrey” either. If those skins weren’t for you, there are enough differences to warrant getting a demo of the new line. For pictures of the other makeups or skintones, please check the blog of Grazia Horwitz (“More Than Meets The Eye”, link is listed on the right) or the feeds. I’m sure the updated blog of 5th & Oxford will be available soon as well.

The release of 5th & Oxford’s “Audrey” skin is announced for Sunday, so keep your eyes open for more information.

Both Pictures:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Fresh Freckles 2
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Tiny Bird – Olivia (pepper)

Picture 1:

• Bikini: /artilleri/ Annalee bikini *purple*
• Pose: *Torridwear* Drama 08

Picture 2:

• Shoes: [Armidi Gisaci] Dhali Bow Platforms – White
• Pose (left): *TorridWear* Curves 06
• Pose (right): *TorridWear* Coy 06

No H8

Usually, I keep my personal life out of the blog posts, apart from the odd comment on the side. Who I am outside of Second Life® does not play a role in them. Today, however, I’d like to take a stand on a topic I cannot discuss without bringing my personal life up: same-sex marriage.

I have lived most of my adult life as an out lesbian, and these days I identify as a bisexual woman with a preference for women. The day my home country, Germany, introduced civil unions for same-sex couples is still very vivid in my memory. Back then, I assumed it would be the first step on a road to complete legal equality, but the process slowed down and there still are differences between marriages and civil unions.

Being a second-class citizen hurts – because that’s what you are if you choose to spend your life with a person who doesn’t have a different gender than your own. It hurts not only when you already have a partner, but also when you are single. Every day you are reminded that you don’t have the same rights most of your fellow citizens take for granted.

Those who oppose marriage equality often claim that marriages and families need to be protected, and I agree with them. However, they don’t need protection from gay couples, but from the hardships life keeps serving all of us. Allowing two people of the same gender to marry does not wreck heterosexual marriages. Allowing a person to be covered by their same-sex partner’s social security benefits does not harm children. Granting same-sex couples the legal visitation rights should their partner end up in hospital does not make the divorce rate among heterosexual couples go up.

Legally, it doesn’t matter if the person who brings chicken broth soup to my bed when I’m sick, who I buy a house with or who I travel together with is a man or a woman. We live in a time where equal legal rights are claimed for men and women – why, I ask, do so many people still insist that a marriage can only consist of a man and a woman, then?

In the Western world, marriage is only legal if verified by an official of some sort – you are not required to wed in a church, synagogue, mosque or temple. Why, then, apply religious convictions to a civil union? Why deny civil rights to citizens? The religious groups may hold the views they chose, even if they don’t agree with mine. But the law and the government should not distinct between people based on who these want to live with.

In my virtual disguise, I may look old-fashioned or conservative to many people, prancing around the grid in hats and gloves and demure attire. But my convictions are neither, and this is why I chose to support this campaign, even if I live in another country. Everyday life can be hard enough as a “non-straight” person, especially in the beginning, when you only start coming to terms with the realisation that you feel and indeed are very different from the majority of people around you. It takes time to process and a bit of courage to openly acknowledge this and guide your life against the written and unwritten laws of how you should spend your days. But it is possible, and no government in the world should be allowed to have a veto in the matter of such fundamental questions as the gender of the person you want to commit yourself to.

In 1776, the Virginia Declaration of Rights stated “that all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

We have overcome the legal discrimination based on social classes, based on gender and on race – it’s time to take the next hurdle in order to make this come true.

And for those who want to know:

• NoH8-attachments: available at the gallery ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cupcake/54/51/28 )
• Skin: Fleur Allure Alabaster Winter Nights 2
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Clawtooth by Clawtooth – “Timeless Glamour” (Black Beauty)
• Shirt: [Whippet & Buck] Cole Boatneck Shirt Alabaster

ETA: I completely forgot that those shots were supposed to be done wearing white shirts, so I updated it with a different image.

Bandana Day 2009

Body:

• Skin: Fleur Allure Alabaster Kitten 1
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]

Outfit:

• Bandana: .:StoRin:. – Hair Fair Bandana *chocolate*
• Bikini: /artilleri/ Annalee bikini *purple* [tinted brown; the purple version was a hunt gift and is not available in store]
• Bangles: Genesis – Aidan bangles

Other:

• Pose: *ELISA* burlesque 1 [not available anymore]

Since today is “Bandana Day,” I am not wearing the usual prim hair, but a bandana I purchased at Hair Fair, with all proceeds going to an organization which helps children suffering from long-term medical hair loss, “Locks of Love.” I have some experience with hair loss myself due to a thyroid disease, so it goes without saying that today I will wear a bandana in support of the case.

The outfit -if you can call it such- is vaguely vintage inspired and goes very well with the hot RL weather my neck of the wood is currently suffering under. Even though this is not a review blog, but rather a public journal on my fashion-related experiences in SL, I feel a bit bad that today’s look can hardly be recreated by another person: Miriel’s designs and ELISA’s poses are not available anymore; the skin will go out of sale very soon, when Fleur’s new skin line launches; the bikini has a colour that was never available in store (and is tinted on top of it) and Hair Fair will close after the weekend as well.

Still, it’s fun to do something different once in a while, and for me, this was different.