With the Jewelry Exposition running this week, it seems only fitting to continue the theme of the previous post and showcase more glittering goodies, as well as a lovely bit of new lingerie. Lingerie and jewellery is after all a hard-to-beat combination. This time the jewellery comes from ~flirt~. Their booth at the Expo had caught my eye, so when I was offered the opportunity to review two of their recent releases I was happy to say yes even though their style is classical and modern rather than history- or fantasy-inspired as the jewellery I wear in SL so often is. The lingerie that I decided to pair the jewellery with is one of two new releases from Ornamental Life, and I think a red corset also qualifies as pretty classical.

Gorgeous, richly patterned fabrics have defined the last few releases from Adam n Eve. First I couldn’t get out of Jura (found in the Boutique), and then I most definitely couldn’t get out of the gorgeous half of a dress called Gratis (also found in the Boutique). And then came Saathi, with an even more extravagant, oriental-inspired fabric.

With such a sumptuous fabric, I would generally be tempted to go for larger, more eye-catching pieces of jewellery. But given the oriental flavour, I just had to make use of the new Jade Longevity pieces from Eolande.

Before I get on with the gushing over pretty things, allow me to squeal. I won a contest! Specifically, SL Posers inaugural Flickr contest. My entries can be seen here and here. Now I will have even more fabulous LAP poses to play with. Poor Ran (he’s the photographer) will not get a moment free. ;) So, what’s on the menu today, other than showing off sexy poses? Well, a new fabulous dress from Adam n Eve (the colour is absolutely sinful), some more Tekeli-li jewellery and a skin reminder.

I have had my eye on Naergilien Wunderlich’s store for a while now. She is an RL costume designer who is reproducing many of her own designs for Second Life. Her store includes a lot of Victorian clothing, some Elizabethan outfits, and some outfits inspired by various period or fantasy movies. In addition to this, she has a separate store for modern clothing and she has also made a few photorealistic skins as well. Most recently she has added her first batch of period.appropriate hairs. It was this latest addition that prompted me to finally pick up a few things.

I was trying to be a good girl yesterday (at least in terms of not spending all my hard-earned Lindens too impulsively), but we all know what happens to good intentions, right? In this case, mine took wing and flew out the window as soon as I saw the forum post announcing a new jewellery set from Tekeli-li. Off I went to check out the new offering, and moments later I was teleporting back home with a much higher ARC than when I arrived. Oops. ;)

When I saw the Lord Edward suit at the Fleur-Nicky Ree Spring Ball, being worn by a model, I just had to get it. It’s perhaps the most gorgeous piece of 18th century-inspired clothing I’ve seen in SL. The brocaded waistcoat, the big buttons against the green stripes, the aged lace, the knee-high stockings—just utter perfection, precisely the thing to suit this particular avatar (based on a roleplaying character I’ve always supposed existed in a sort of broadly 17th-18th century sort of setting). Alas, Nicky hadn’t gotten it into her store then, so it was an anxious few days until I could finally get my hands of it.

What do you get if you mix a limited edition fantasy makeup from Skin Within with a fae costume from Adam n Eve and some gorgeous accessories from Tekeli-li? A pretty striking result, if I may say so myself, but do read on and see if you agree with me.

Lately, Ran and myself have started to develop a slight addiction to silent sparrow. We’ve had an interest in hyasynth Tiramisu’s gorgeous Victorian and Gothic offerings for some time, and picked up a few pieces (as well as many very lovely freebies), but it has been the most recent releases that have had us eagerly opening up any notecards from her group to see what is on offer. Today the Beloved suit arrived, available in a male and a female version, and we realized we just had to get ourselves a matching set. 

For the last few days, I have been sauntering about in rather less than what one probably ought to wear in public, but I simply have had too much fun wearing the new Crochet silks from Adam n Eve to take them off unless I am going somewhere .... well, respectable. ;)

Now, silks from Adam n Eve are generally of a style than you can wear in most areas, as they tend to feature full skirts and tops that amount to a bit more than pasties. The Crochet silk is from a similar cut, with one of the four bottom-half options being a full skirt (the other are a mini-skirt, a loin-cloth style skirt and harem pants), but as the name suggest the material isn’t all that covering.

Thanks to Ornamental Life, I was alerted to the one-day sale at Tekeli-li on the 2nd of April. I had been curious about their rather unique-looking fantasy jewellery before, but I hadn’t actually checked it out. Silly me. As soon as I got over there, and found a large collection of full sets of stunning jewellery at incredible prices (incredible even before the sale price of 47% off, mind you), I knew that the cleaning out of my inventory I had done a few days earlier would be all in vain. Now I’d get to clean out some lindens instead. ;)

I somehow managed to not buy every set in the shop (though in addition to the 7 that I did get and will be showing in this entry, I also picked up some fantasy weapons), but it was not without some effort. I went back several times to pick up more sets, after trying on the previous purchases and finding them even more stunning than their pictures showed them to be. They are beautifully crafted (but yes, quite prim heavy, so probably nothing to wear at the next fashion show) and the scripted colour-changing makes for amazing variety. On some pieces, there are as many as 5 different sections that you can change individually. That means that for between 200 and 400 lindens, you get a set of jewellery that you can transform in an awful lot of ways.

I may be very much into fantasy outfits, but fantasy skins are a new thing for me, since my avatars all tend to be human rather than elves or anything along those lines. However, I just couldn’t resist showing off sachi Vixen’s Adore-able drow skin after seeing just how well it suited me. I also couldn’t resist the new Vanessa outfit from Bare Rose (I am starting to amass quite the collection of outfits from them); as soon as I saw it on their blog, I knew it had to come home with me. So, the end result is, I think, one very pretty drow in a charmingly naughty lace outfit.

I really should be in bed by now, but something came up that has kept me awake a little longer than intended. More specifically, what came up was a sale on selected silks at Solange (how’s that for alliteration at 2 am?) and new absolutely gorgeous make-up for one of my favourite skins, Pixel Deep. That was more than I could resist, and the results of my late-night shopping expedition have now been documented.

After a long period of pulling long hours to get everything together, sachi Vixen and Damen Gorilla have released their new collection of casual clothing, along with a new store build to house much of it. But for the men out there, almost (but not quite all) of the new offerings of particular interest is to be found in the usual Menswear section of the main store. There, you’ll be greeted with about half a dozen different outfits, sold in a number of unique, attractive colors. Below, you’ll find two of the looks discussed.

When I saw this blog post from a shop I’d never heard of, Zaara Indian Couture, I immediately teleported over to Zaara Kohime’s booth because the depicted clothes was just that eye-catching. I was even more floored, and Freyja with me, when we saw her gorgeous, affordable Indian fashions for women that filled the booth. I zipped off a notecard asking her about one detail at her booth: the fact that she offered a recoloring service for just L$30 (this goes even for some of her deliciously-intricate pieces). She had me hook, line, and sinker, and when she promptly got back to me and discussed how it worked, I soon settled on the fact that I just needed her Jodhpuri outfit in black with silver threadwork ("zari", as she’s noted it’s called in India).

One of the stores catering to historical garb and fantasy wear that I remember visiting early on in my Second Life was Silver Rose Designs, and a few outfits from the store made it onto my list of things to buy when I had the funds to do so. As it happened, I didn’t actually buy any of those outfits, even when I did come into sufficient funds. I believe most of them were older, non-flexi designs, which probably was what led me to deciding against getting them after all. However, the store stuck in my mind as I had liked what I had seen of her designs. A little while ago, my attention was once again drawn to the store, as I spotted a very appealing Arabic-inspired outfit on one of the blog feeds. This turned out to be the first in a line of such outfits from Silver Rose Designs, a departure from the Victorian outfits that appear to be her main focus.