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

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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)

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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

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