A Trip Down Memory Lane

It’s rather late for hopping on this bandwagon – waiting any longer, and I might only see the red rear lights of the train. But I actually enjoyed Sophia Harlow’s bloggers’ challenge and the results it generate on the feeds a lot, so here is my belated contribution.

This first picture still makes me cringe and laugh out loud at the same time. It was taken the very first day I entered the grid in December 2007, and prior to this I had not noticed that my hands were bigger than my head.

A little more than two weeks later, in January 2008, I was living in freebies – but nice freebies. I’m still partial to the *ICING*-dress, and even though the look itself is a bit outdated, at least i don’t have to be ashamed of it.

That one is from April 2008, and by that time I had long arrived in my Vivant skins (TaP had just become Fleur then, I think), which still look very lovely in my opinion. And I was so in love with this hat by Tesla – which now is available  as a freebie at the store.

Finally, a recent picture. I would be two years now had I not left in between, and I’m wondering if the difference in another two years will be just as dramatic as the one here (even between April 2008 – when I had already shed the newbie-look – and April 2010 there already is/will be a huge difference).

Credits for the last picture:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Summer Cocktails 2
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Tiny Bird – Into My Arms – pepper [edited some of the hairpins out to give it a vintage look]
• Jacket & Blouse: Sugarcube peplum jacket & ruffled silk shirt
• Earrings: Eclectica Medallion earrings

Goodbye 2009 – Welcome 2010!

2009 is officially over here in Europe, and I wanted to wish all of you a good start into the new year!

I will not attend any SL-festivities, but if I would, this dress would probably have been my choice – it’s one of Ingenue’s recent releases.  “Kerria”  is a very sexy yet elegant gown with a sweetheart neckline and a single strap on which a big prim flower is pinned. Very reminescent of the classic Hollywood divas of the 1940s.

To emphasize the elegant side of it, I paired the dress with a pair of 5th & Oxford’s new leather gloves, which I tinted slightly to match the dress better.

All promotional items are marked with a bold “R” for “Review Copy”.

Body:

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

Outfit:

• Dress: Ingenue ::  Kerria :: Egyptian R
• Gloves: 5th & Oxford) Leather Gloves – L *purple* [tinted]
• Earrings: Paper Couture Faceted Golden Sapphire Dangle

Other:

• Pose: [LAP] – Chub – Doin Right [from the 2009 Poop Hunt]

World AIDS Day, Pt. II – or: Unexpected Consequences of a Blog Post

Whenever we make a blog post, the words are “out there”, accessible to everyone worldwide (at least in theory). Yet, with the Second Life community being one of a limited size and the musings of its members being of no particular interest to anyone outside of it, it’s all too easy to forget that those words can be carried away from the intended audience. It happened to me with my last blog entry on Sunday.

I stand by my words and do not wish to take back any of it. I spent quite a while debating the pro and contra of publishing the entry, but in the end, decided to go for it because the topic is important to me. After all, people can choose to not read it if it bothers them, and I believe that HIV-awareness should be higher than it currently is, for a lot of reasons.

According to the WordPress statistics, this particular post brought a few people from outside the SL-community to my blog, but not significantly more than any of my other posts. There are always people googling for pictures of real-life vintage fashion or seemingly completely unrelated things who end up at “Vintage Verwood”. However, one of those visitors wrote a blog entry herself and decided to quote parts of mine (you can find the links and my elaborations in the comments on the previous entry), and I find that it bothers me – not because my words are used, but because they were taken out of context and are leading a life of their own now and the same incomplete compilation of them appears in various syndications of articles related to World AIDS Day.

What bothers me most is that my original blog post was made in the form of an avatar “speaking” to other avatars, and published together with comments about virtual fashion. Within the context it appeared – on a Second Life-related blog and syndicated to various Second Life-related feeds – it made sense. Being singled out as “the voice from Germany” in between real life-blogs by real-life people, not so much – not because what I wrote isn’t true, but because the real-life me has a lot more to say on the topic than “Aderyn Verwood” put into the original post.

In the end, I guess I would not have minded as much had I known about this before. The topic is a very serious one to me and my original point was not so much detailing why I care about it or that I love my friend and care about his well-being, but to consciously take a break amidst the holiday troubles and remind myself of all the people living with HIV (other than my friend), and to give the readers of my blog a little heads up on it, too. At a time when the number of people who underestimate the effects of a HIV-infection is on the rise and at a time when there are voices claiming the use of condoms is a sin, and when the vast majority of the population of the Western world believes that there is no danger from HIV anymore, or that it is a problem restricted to so-called Third-World-countries, at such a time, I wanted to send out a signal. No less, but also no more.

Most of you who are reading this probably did not come here to educate yourself about HIV. Maybe you believe your knowledge about it already is sufficient – before I learnt about my friend’s HIV-infection, I thought the same, only to discover that most of what I knew was incomplete or not up-to-date anymore. In case you feel like updating yourself, here are two links I found particularly helpful back then, and still do:

http://www.namlife.org/cms1254847.aspx

http://www.aidsmap.com/cms1038153.aspx

World AIDS Day 2009

December 1 is World AIDS Day, and on this occasion I would like to do a blog post to raise awareness of a condition we all know about, but – for various reasons – choose to largely ignore in everyday life.

A very dear friend of mine is HIV-positive, and he also is the person who first introduced me to SecondLife® in December 2007. Without him, I wouldn’t be here, writing this post.

Like most people, I knew about HIV, but the role it played in my life was too insignificant to ever become more than a distant, abstract threat that seemingly did not belong to my environment. Now, no day goes past that I don’t think of it consciously, that I don’t hope for improvement of already existing therapies or for a breakthrough in scientific research, so that a cure might be found.

At a time of the year when most of the Western hemisphere has its collective thoughts on either upcoming or past holidays, I would like to take a break for World AIDS Day and for all those who are infected with HIV – regardless of age, race, gender, sexual identity or social status; regardless of whether their infection was a risk they took, an accident, or fate; whether they were born with it or not.

To my friend, I’d just like to say: I hope that many decades from now, we will sit together, old and wrinkly, laughing about the times when we were young. I love you.

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

Of course, the red ribbon I’m wearing is very anachronistic, but in this case, I really don’t care.

My outfit is a new-ish release by Ingenue that I love so much that I’m not yet willing to change into something else. Both the high-waisted “Jane Jean” and the “Marguerite” sweater have a playful, pin-up style sexiness which is never really out of date, so even if vintage or retro fashion are not usually your cup of tea, you still might enjoy these two items. The quality is, as always with Betty Doyle’s creations, very high, so there really is no reason why you should hesitate to get one of the many colours she offfers.
If your balance is currently low or you still need further persuasion, there’s a red version of the Jane Jean available through a Midnight Mania board at Ingenue – just touch the board and with a bit of luck, you’ll receive a free copy at midnight SLT.

Since I recently joined the “iheartsl.com bloggers”-group, I will from now on note all promotional items I received through them with a bold “R” for “review copy”.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Summer Cocktails 5
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: >Truth< “Ashlynn” espresso

Outfit:

• Sweater: Ingenu :: Marguerite :: Coal R
• Jeans: Ingenue :: Jane Jean :: Blue R
• Shoes: Maitreya “Verve” black
• Red Ribbon: freebie from the SL HIV Prevention and Education Center, here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Snowlion%20Mountain/149/126/25

Other:

• Pose: [LAP] Wonder Girls II – The Zoe

Autumn brings (a) New Look

In order to re-familiarize myself with blogging, I’m going to visit the 1950s again, and what would be better than wearing the “Doriane” coat by L’Abel on that occasion? Not only does it offer a splash of colour I’m often missing at this time of the year, but also it does have the most wonderful “New Look”-shape, with a tight-fitting bodice and a wide skirt. Accentuated with a black collar, black cuffs and matching accessories, the outfit remains classy while still making a statement.

Body:

• Skin: (5th & Oxford) FAIR Audrey Summer Cocktails 5
• Eyes: (Miriel) Realistic Eyes – Strong Green [not available anymore]
• Lashes: (Miriel) Lashes – Feather [not available anymore]
• Hair: Kin -Joan- [black]

Outfit:

• Coat: L’Abel – Doriane coat
• Shoes: Maitreya Group Gift Pumps black
• Stockings: *Sheer* Stockings 01: Nylon Black
• Earrings: ~Muse~ Claris Pearl earring in Gold
• Gloves: Fleur Gloves Short Black
• Hat: Tesla hat “Joan” [free]
• Bag: (P-K) Vintage Petit Sac Noir

Other:

• Pose: *TorridWear* Drama 08

 

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. 🙂

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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