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.

A little further along in this post, I will get around to drooling over the Catalyst boots from the Abyss, but first some brief ramblings about SL contests and about shapes.

As recent posts may have revealed, Ran and I have a thing for entering contests in SL. Partly, we’ve taken a liking to it because so far we’ve done very well, sometimes thanks to putting a lot of effort into piecing together costumes and sometimes thanks to a lot of luck (like being the only entrants in a very lucrative contest arranged by the Second House of Sweden). Lately, though, its been mostly photo contests that we’ve entered, and that’s all me being a show-off and Ran liking to take pictures. ;)

So, of course I had to enter a couple of model searches for magazines, specifically Glam and Homme (for some of my submitted pictures, see my Flickr), even though I know very well that my shapes are anything but traditional model material. They’re all supposed to be good-looking (though, perhaps not traditionally beautiful) and I am personally quite happy with the results, as each of the shapes has a pretty distinctive look. Including, in some cases, rather strong noses, which cause all sorts of problems with masks, veils and similar attachments.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to the problems you face when squeezing an atypical body into prim clothing or, even more so, prim boots. I’ve put a lot of effort into making my shapes as realistically proportioned as SL will allow and to make their builds relatively normal (but still idealized to some degree, of course). So, they’re quite short by SL standards (5’4” to 5’7” with the usual eye-height measure, meaning they’re actually a little taller than that) and they have a bit of meat (and muscle) on themselves. Most prim skirts can be made to fit fairly well (except very short ones that end up too long when stretched to accommodate the hips), but boots? That’s a different story entirely.

And that is what brings me to today’s featured item, which ended up being the centrepiece of and the inspiration behind the outfit I used for the aforementioned contest pictures.

Before I move on to some pretty pictures of the gorgeous Valentine’s special from Adam n Eve and the stunning Airen set from Alienbear, I feel I need to comment on another matter to keep people from potentially getting the wrong impression of us. Yesterday, Ran and I were taking part in the big Valentine’s hunt that has been all over the blogs these last few days. Everything went as expected until we got to to Style Your Destiny, where we found that we had been banned.

Now, since I don’t think either of us has actually been in the store before and since our only contact with the owner has been via this blog entry, we can only assume that the person in question banned us because a) she didn’t like being disagreed with, b) she didn’t like it that I was offended by some of her remarks and told her so, c) she thinks that I have plans to copy her whole store because I disagreed with her on the matter of making hair no modify or d) a combination of some or all of the previous reasons.

Of course, she has every right to ban whoever she wants and for whatever reasons, but in case someone takes a look at the ban list at her store we didn’t want anyone to think we had actually done something nefarious. Other than, you know, disagree with her. Personally, I think its a pretty unprofessional response from someone running a business, but that’s just my opinion. I will note that I have banned her from commenting on this blog, as I have no interest in engaging in further discussion about this matter with her.

Now, on to the pretties.

One of the first places I came across in my hunt for period and fantasy clothing was Stone Keep. They’ve got quite a few things on offer in their castle, not the least the scripted SpellFire combat system and weapons to go with it, but its their gowns that have made its way into my inventory. I’ve decided to show off three of these (the fourth suffered from the disappearing system skirt bug i Windlight and wouldn’t allow itself to be properly photographed), in part to chronicle the evolution of the store since I first came across it.

Turning towards a more rigorously historical bent, there are a few delicious outfits for the oldfashioned gentleman out there. Featured below is one particular example that I fell in love with on first sight, Medieval Designs’ Gustav in Red. It’s one of the most impeccable historical costumes I’ve seen in SL.

The talented Tuli released yet another gorgeous and unconventional gown today, somewhat in the same vein as her Caliah gown from the opening of the Muse sim. Actually, she released two very pretty and girly gowns, but the one that really captured my attention was Yvette. Moments after she had announced the release, she also sent out a copy of the Yvette gown in a special colour to her update group, and I ended up squeezing into the gift while running over to take a look at the three colours that were put up for sale; blue, eggplant and mauve. Since I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, I ended up with all of them. At 500 for three, its a steal, but if you decide that one is enough that will only be 250.

Now the other side of the harem, the gentlemen who want to get into it. Adam n Eve has turned out a pair of beautiful, Middle East-inspired outfits for men. Wearing them gives an exotic, mysterious cast to any male avatar, and I’ve had enough compliments in them to know that they’re certainly eyecatching. If you want to feel like Aladdin on his carpet or the legendary sultan Haroun al-Rashid, take a look at these.

Today, we’re visiting a harem straight out of 1001 Nights with the help of a few gorgeous pieces from Adam n Eve. First, I am starting off with an example each of the four newest silks in the store. All of these come with both a skirt and a harem pant option as well as a choice between panties and full-length pants to go beneath. As far as silks go, these feel very classy, and they definitely make me think harem more than Gor. They’re absolutely perfect if you like wearing your silks to all sorts of places and for all sorts of occasions and if you like wearing something sexy with an eastern fantasy flair.

I don’t quite remember the process by which I first came across Gaslights Emporium, but I’m glad I did. The main thing I remember about my first visit (and many subsequent visits after that) was the remarkable Mechanical Gentleman avatar (which I really should photograph some time), which proprietor Vincente Shepherd made available in a lucky chair (don’t worry, the individual pieces are also available for sale at a very reasonable price). I methodically collected the pieces with the help of Freyja over the span of a month, and promptly won a costume contest when I had it all assembled. Since then, I’ve been a rather devoted shopper at the store, and you’ll see why shortly.