fraulein gigolo

ah, the romance of berlin between the wars. so decadent. i like to imagine what i might be like, to live that sort of way, in abject poverty but with memories of greatness and a few trinkets of the past to keep up a sort of appearance of gentility.



and there is a magnificent sim, that recreates it. so i can be just as pretend unhappy, and then go off back into my regular comfortable middle class existence.

weimar fraulein gigolo juana wears:

Swansong blackflame outfit &
twisted Swiss stockings from RFyre
Vamp Blood Red ultralight skin by Nomine
CReepy Eyes by Negriposi
Clara bow hair by Helena Stringer
Shooting star pet cemetery hat by split pea
corded neck corset by ru
Anthracite skull earrings by deco
bloody bonehead bracelet by retox
allicagor pumps by stilletto moody
cigarette holder by Mika

at the 1920s Weimar berlin sim
listening to
Schoner Gigolo by Dajos Bela tanzorchestra
&
Kannst Du pfeifen Johanna? by Harry Hardins
tanzorchestra

graveyard heart

ah, cutea benelli...she just totally makes the most amazing things...

now perhaps if i can bribe her to make a tiny one to put in the forehead? a la frida kahlo?

the bereaved juana wears:

dollarbie pet cemetery hat by split pea (in the new elliott sim)
peppa hair by diversity hair
cruelty skin and inner graveyard heart by cutea benelli/grim bros
avalost dress by nomine
corded neck corset by ru
murder ballet gloves by snatch
skull ear spikes by mad about
hair rose wine by gfield
mayan dream tattoos (tinted red) by garden of ku
creepy eyes by negriposi

fashion sadhvi

i have always wanted to leave the world behind. the figure of the saddhu i have found somewhat fascinating. i was once very close to a friend of mine, rakesh. he told me a funny story about being on the way somewhere and encountering a saddhu, who scared him by stopping him and telling him what he'd eaten for lunch (chicken biryani) and other things. as much as i'd like a transcendent wisdom such as that, i don't think i could give up my love of things of the flesh....

and so if i really were a sadhvi (female saddhu) then i suppose this is the closest i would ever be. i dont know what happened to kesh, except that he is back in india and happy too i think. i have a vast collection of nicknames--he is the one who gave me my nickname of "indrani" and he is probably the only person in the world who actually called me that regularly.

the fashion sadhvi juana wears:

metal runes silks set top and pants by alpha tribe
machina eyes sky by negriposi
female shiva destroyer skin by illuminati
royal rajput gold ruby parure by mashooka
dread hair by bp

in an unknown buddhist sim
listening to
svetasvatara upanisad performed by
The Phillipe Eidel Mahabharata Group

julnar the mermaid

i was reminded of the story of julnar the mermaid in the thousand and one nights while visiting alpha auer's magnificent syncretia sim. its totally changed since i saw it last, or maybe i was in a different spot. but still.



and am very fond of tekeli'li though my lovecraftian knowledge is not up to par. this dagon parure is scripted to squirm. how cool is that? i know very little of dagon except from the story of samson and delilah. but i guess this means if i am a devotee of dagon i am now technically a philistine?

human juana julnar wears:

dagon hair, nautilus parure by tekeli'li
teal gloves and ma cher seadust by mimikri
dance of the manatee skin by lessthan3
creepy eyes by negaposi
boots by BAX

juana julnar the mermaid wears:

dagon hair, parure, belt and top by tekeli'li
teal gloves by mimikri
dance of the manatee skin by lessthan3
creepy eyes by negaposi
japanese mermaid black ash tail, ao,
and dance by kami-hitoe

at alpha auer's syncretia sim,
listening to mecca 1 and 2 from
the secret garden project

random ransacking

sigh. i totally need to find a better hobby. today, unaccustomed to having so much spare time, became very bored and started digging through the untamed (and uncataloged) inventory.....



i didn't realize i had this...its very courtesanish...from un jour, a place i really like.

la belle manuel wears:
la vie n'es qu'une comedie outfit (with chair) by un jour
autumn chignon coffee by bp
the rise of lolita ophelia skin by violent seduction
nose piercing by avz
sugar skulls and roses tattoos by otaku designs
carpe noctem boots by nightshade designs

violent seduction

this little industrious fit is due to my unaccustomed leisure....while bored and circling flickr i came across the proprietress of a place called violent seduction. naturally i am like the last person to know about it. but still.

she was wearing an outfit featuring a version of an anatomical cameo corset. this of course is a quite famously done piece, with examples in real life, and in mourna biziou's iconic blog post. but i like it precisely because it is a different spin, and the bone cage crinoline skirt is really a fabulous idea.

i was also sold on the bone tiara as well. and oddly enough when i changed the red tinted tattoos and cutea benelli's cruelty skin carried over, and they seemed to look just fine. so i just left it like that.

anatomical juana wears:

necromantic dress (tiara too) by violent seduction
cruelty skin and dia de los muertos platforms by cutea benelli/grim bros
peppa hair black by diversity hair
skull nose piercing by avz
his embrace gloves by self expressions
bloody rawbones bracelets by retox
mayan dream tattoos by garden of ku (tinted red)

the sim where the store is located is absolutely adorable. its creepy yes, but lolita creepy. which means childishly bloodthirstily kawaii.

it is made to shop, with inviting little areas full of gorgeous stuff. i wanted to buy everything of course but i restrained myself. i did get a different outfit, and a skin.

i am very fond of cage crinolines. i have worn hoopskirts many a time in my earlier SCA days, and to me the caged ones are like the skeletons of hoopskirts. and so it makes me giggle to be wearing their remains.

i did however pass on the top. and while fiddling around for accessories stumbled on a cool outfit by un jour that seemed to go pretty well with this ensemble. another plus--the skin came with a notecard that had a preset specifically for the skin. oooo. chichi.

ero loli juana wears:

ero loli outfit and the rise of lolita ophelia skin by violent seduction
la vie n'es qu'une comedie hat, gloves, stockings, and choker by un jour
murder ballet top by snatch
autumn chignon by bp
mayan dream tattoos (tinted red) by garden of ku
skull nose piercing by avz
boots by j's boots

perhaps next time i will pay more attention and actually accessorize a little better. :)

cruelty

i am on vacation....and of course this means i am just doing what i want...all day :)



and so today i indulged myself a little. not to mention the fact that one of my fave designers had this amazing dress and skin out. its so freaking majestic....she had quoted les liaisons dangereuses as captions to her images of the dress. it reminded me of what a medici queen might wear...that and coupled with the amusing conversation i had with m. lippmann about a village of homicidal hungarian wives made me die laughing. and so i looked for a palace, because although its bone, it is a very regal outfit.

to my amusement the palace i found had a wedding chapel. i won't go off what i think of SL "marriage" but suffice to say i was in a very entertained state the whole time i was there.

the remorseful juana borgia wears:

cruelty set (and skin) & belle mort shoes by cutea benelli/grim bros
his embrace burgundy gloves and stockings by self expressions
dreads purple by bp
skull nose piercing by avz
mayan dream tattoos (tinted red) by garden of ku

in an unknown french wedding chapel sim listening to
"hildegarde on ice" from the secret garden project

abney park concert.

....starring.....the band abney park

and appearing as spectators:
dancien graves, rev eponym, and moi.

so my exhaustive study of steampunk fashion culminated in the abney park concert in dallas, at the venerable goth club, the church. seeing as i had never had the chance to study these creatures in situ, i was of course intensely interested. and the proceedings were even more enhanced because i had the pleasure to meet in real life, two very interesting people of my second life acquaintance.

dancien graves is a very well known and influential second life fashion blogger. he was in "steampunk jihad."

he wore a shemagh (i totally had no idea what that was till he posted it on plurk) with british aviator goggles. (this provoked probably the most hilarious comment i have ever seen in flickr, composed by grady echegaray: "Smiteth the anti-fashionista unbelievers and ye shall have 72 supermodels in paradise!") in the days leading up to the concert, dancien advised me to go to a military surplus store. pretty good advice. i think it gave us a very orientalist flavor, especially when we were holed up in the patio smoking my hookah.

i didn't ask but his shirt appeared to be handmade, or perhaps a poet shirt. (and what happens when my friend poet wears a poet shirt? but i digress) and his boots were very cool as well. i thought he looked very dancien of arabia, ready to lead some rebels. :) and i will say here that in person he is very charming, very considerate, and quite the gentleman, and i was very impressed by him.

rev eponym is a former member of the legendary second citizen forum, and also a builder/libertine/inventor/mad scientist/forumist.

Rev appears in the "Punchcard Networking Engineer"ensemble. the provenance of these things he is wearing is unknown, but he did tell me he was going to a second hand shop to look for something to wear a few days before the event.

i thought it very wonderful, and to me it gave him a very dashing dangerous sort of "strelnikov the revolutionary" kind of look. and of course that soul patch...what can i say....tremendo! in fact i think rev seems to have that whole bad boy cool thing down pat.

but, that is just my opinion, you know.

and then there was me, in the final version of the steampunk nilufer outfit.

although i had vowed not to wear a top hat, a calamitous attempt at a tarpush convinced me otherwise. luckily there were goggles at the bazaar and so i bought them and some seamed hose and fishnet gloves. i wore my spanish mantilla as a hat band, and wore laboriously braided false hair. interesting factoid but the hair added a little bit of bulk to my head and helped the hat stay on better, though rev did his part and assisted me in achieving a rakish angle that had previously eluded me.

as i dressed myself in the hotel room i wondered what people would say or do, as i was in the fairmount, a swanky hotel. but they didn't notice, or at least the bellboys did but they told me i looked "crazy" and "wild." upon further reflection i realize that i probably looked like a hideous mashup/collision of early madonna and generic romance novel cover vague victoriana. but vanity was satisfied because i was complimented a few times, and photographed too. the oddest comment was from a very drunk woman in the elevator as i was returning to my room. she told me i looked very unique.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

at times the profusion of creatively dressed people was staggering to me, a condition probably aggravated by my advanced state of inebriation. and where else do you get into a conversation with a girl about corsets, and end up feeling each other's corset bones????

one word. HOT.

interesting.

rev noted her different interpretation

steampunky nilufer?

so, i am going to see abney park in dallas. i had to have a steampunk outfit. this is not a style dialect that i am familiar with. in fact, i spent tons of time in the SCA *avoiding* victorian-era gear.

after tons of hair-pulling, i think i know what i will wear. and refreshingly it won't entail all that much, just some alterations i think.

btw, please be amused at my highly charming bathroom--i have mirrors in this place but they are in the weirdest places. :)

i am thinking the aggresive gloves might look nicer, and i do have a fishnet shrug that goes with it perhaps. but i think this is what i am going to go with, give or take a few things. its funny, i'd made myself nuts making another jacket, which i tried on today with corset and i was completely swimming in it.

it would look sharp, but its vast. as it is the yelek i am wearing is also way too big. (i have it pinned up in the back) its gratifying but sort of annoying too. the choli just fits, though i broke a few beads on the fringe yesterday while trying it on. i am thinking that it will be more like a rom-ish look. i have a white coin hip scarf somewhere, if not i might buy one. not sure for the hair. i have a long length of uzbeki silk, perhaps i can tie a little turban with it?

or go more with the turkish and wear a little fez and wrap the silk around it?

pre-columbian neko

i have never been a neko before. until now. and naturally i wanted to be a pre-columbian styled neko too.



i actually would never have bothered but i was looking for something else and found the los muertos neko set--roses and skulls, totally up my alley. and the hybrid prod waspoid skin is one of my very faves, though i don't wear it as often as i should.

pre-colombian neko juana wears:

his embrace black by self expressions
hybrid prod waspoid skin female by hybrid productions
los muertos neko set by subtle submission
realia hair by gauze
skull nose piercing by avz
dead doll eyes by deviant kitties
cenobitie's claws by tekeli'li
rivet kitteh boots by dv8
mayan dream tattoos (modded white) by garden of ku
skull collar by mad about...

at temple of bubastis at lyre @ lyre sim
listening to "mass for four voices" from
secretgardenproject.com

juana a la turque

i love hammams. ever since my adventure at the grand mosquee de paris i have loved them. imagine my surprise then when i found one in second life. i was so amused i had to tell troy and he teleported right over.

while we were amusing ourselves, a very bewildered looking romanian guy in speedos showed up. naturally this semi-soap operaish kind of spectacle appealed to me.

i'd been shopping at nomine, because a certain blog post excited my interest in the new rom themed clothing that was out. (giggle)

while i was there i was trying things on and i realized that some of the items reminded me very very much of turkish clothing. and so i started rummaging in my inventory and found a few little accessories.

and voila. juana a la turque. or at least, juana in a fantastically lame ass orientalist version of a turkish woman's outfit. this is the danger, although i thought it looked pretty, i have no earthly clue what i am saying with this outfit, to those who know.

i mean, maybe it makes me look like a kurdish cleaning lady.

and a la turque is a euphemism for....

but i digress.

second life is infamous for having forms of "ethnicity tourism" where people can pick and choose their ethnicity and race and gender...and i suppose i can count myself one of the major criminals committing this particular sim.

and cleaning lady or no, tedi still pushed me in the bosphorus.....

nilufur juana a la turque wears:

skin, mala vida yelek, skirt by nomine
woman's fes plus hair and coin necklace from folklor set (unknown)
top from egyptian black dress set by fumi
babuchas (moroccan slippers) by unknown
nautilus belt by tekeli'li
zydratic complication eyes by aura falta
yoru lingo ring by nonko (that was accidental)

at the second life hammam, and at mission home store.

fortuitous steampunk cinderella

it is amazing when a series of perfectly timed coincidences happen in a series...i suppose technically the word for this is synchronicity...



right now its my mania, and i have just gotten tickets to see abney park in dallas. and how eerily the sim seemed to match, though it was mostly brazilians there, and unfortunately i could only very faintly understand the outrageous flirting that seemed to be taking place.

steampunk cinderjuana wears:

eyepiece and shoulder piece from the
cuprum copperbot avatar set, copper rose tophat,
fusty rusty bangles, archaic choker,
& ironspine steampunk
by cutea benelli/grim bros
dreadlock purple hair by BP
rusted caged dress, coffin ring,
& boots by schadenfreude
egyptian black dress by fumi
doll house skin 25 by lionskins
mayan dream tatoos by garden of ku
apneatic embrace stockings by blacklist

at tepura sim
listening to Wieniawski Mazurka
by Eugene Ysaye
using the chouchou hud

we'll make castanets out of your testicles already

if i had half a brain i would have busted out the flamenco dance instead. mais non.



my excuse is that i was too overcome by the hilarity of the scene to be witty. i didn't really expect to be pirouetting with the bloody remains of discarded meat puppets.

music box dismembered meat puppet ballet dancer juana wears:

cuprum copperbot avatar, copper rose tophat,
singing saw pants, ironspine steampunk by
cutea benelli/grim bros
stoli nekomi hair nekomi &
rusted caged dress by schadenfreude

at mismera county sim
listening to delayed motet from
secretgardenproject.com
using the chouchou hud

private eye

i am very fond of koinup....they have the most interestingly cool things there. i rely on it most to find new and interesting sims. and by extension i end up learning new and ever more obscure factoids. like enka, a style of japanese music.



this sim is apparently a kind of red light district prevalent in japan before wwii. i was wearing a newly acquired accessory from a designer i like but who has appeared to be inactive for nearly 2 years. its apparently for photographing ghosts. if there are any in second life, i can't say i have seen them, but it made me think of private eyes snooping around. and i wandered around but found no ghosts to speak of.

juana p.i. wears:

egyptian dress by fumi
peppa hair by diversity hair
trophy skulls hat by i love 13
neck corset by ru
hair rose wine by gfield
skull pendant, coffee bangles, & armlets by grim bros
apneatic embrace corset & stockings by blacklist
carpe noctem shoes by nightshade designs
dollhouse skin 25 by lionskins
camera obscura, heaven's tears eyes, and pose by tohru

in the akesan sim
listening to Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe engestelt
sung by marlene dietrich