The new Alon tuxedo for men—there’s a matching outfit for women, Alona—caught my eye with its beautifully textured coat and the great sculpted collar and scarf. Part of RFyre’s Goth Coture line,  there’s something very stylish about the cut and texturing of the coat.  With the usual optional layers, plus a bonus grey shirt, there’s quite a lot of value to be had. My only complaint—and unfortunately this is an old one—is that it’s all no copy. As I tend to have a number of different shapes, and as many of them are quite a bit smaller than the norm in SL, this makes no copy sculpts a bit chancy to work with. RFyre is pretty much the only clothing maker I’m willing to tolerate this from . . . but I admit, I wouldn’t mind it if Raven Pennyfeather reconsidered this particular decision.

The couch the luscious Freyja is reclining on is the brand new Requiem for Poe sofa from Alchemy’s Attic. It’s an amazing piecing of work—the sculpting is as good as you’d expect, but the poses… wow! 42 poses, ranging from individual male and female poses, several sets of couple poses, and several two couple poses (that’s one couple relaxing on the couch and another hanging out on pillows that rez on the floor). There’s some great props, such as the cup of Amontillado seen in the picture and a book filled with 22 notecards containing stories by Edgar Allen Poe (it can also “read” them out, sending blocks of text over a public channel). I was most impressed by the ease of adjusting and recording pose changes, with a large prims rezzing which can be moved around to change positions—very handy.

Here’s one of couple pose sets, decorously sitting at either end of the sofa, regarding one another. You can see the metallic hands extending from the arms of the chair, a nice gothic touch. Purchasing the sofa includes lifetime upgrades, and plans for the sofa include introducing themed sets which will allow texture changes for the upholstery and pillow cases, as well as additional poses. The Scheherezade edition of the sofa, if purchased by the time of Alchemy’s Attic’s official grand opening on Wednesday, will get you the Desade edition (with “intimate” poses, as you might guess from the name) free of charge.

The new Siren skin from Adam n Eve isn’t quite ready to be released, but it’s only a matter of time now. If you’ve been watching the feeds, you’ve seen some high praise for sachi Vixen’s latest Portia skin, and I expect Siren will draw as much—if not more—attention. She’s an exotic beauty, and it seemed only right to pair her with the Mohan male skin which is decidedly ethnic and (I think) very good looking indeed. I should also call attention to the M110 shoes from Damen Gorilla, my absolute favorite formal shoes in SL (and very affordable, to boot).

The Whiskey jewelery from Balderdash compliments Freyja’s styling, and I admit I’m inordinately fond of how the hand jewellery in particular comes off—it is, for lack of a better word, sexy. So, too, are the fishnets she’s sporting from the amazing Annyka Bekkers of Blowpop; not only can she paint beautiful skins (aside—*psst* Male skin! But I digress…) she also manages to make basically seamless fishnets. That’s no easy feat, given the horrible inequities visited on creators by the sub-standard mesh, but she well and truly managed it. The fishnets haven’t been released quite yet, but look for them soon.

Before wrapping up, I should briefly mention the location these pictures were taken in. The Hacienda Maria prefab from NotSoBad (an understatement if I’ve ever read one) is simply a gorgeous piece of work. The designers have shown a rare talent for full-on texture baking in a 3D renderer and then importing the result into SL, breathing an amazing amount of life into their builds. The glimpse of wall and tiled floor are just a taste of what you’ll find. Besides this prefab, NotSoBad has a wide range of sculpted, baked furnishings which are certainly worth a look.