the notebook/fashion diary with an identity crisis.
Merveilleuse. [Fr. merveilleux, marvelous, exquisite] A fashionable woman under the Directory in France at the close of the 18th century, at which time ultra-fashionable people affected extraordinary innovations in costume. Hence, any new style in female costume.
the first thing i thought of when i saw the new skins from MadScience Labs was the flayed god, xipe totec. of course, i don't expect the rest of the world to be as pre-columbian addled as i am. the next thing i wanted immediately was a human skin ballgown (in second life of course) to go with the xipe totec theme. for those who do not know, the priests used to wear the flayed skins of sacrificial victims till they rotted off. besides, if you were skinless it seems that would be the perfect material to wear.
sadly, there were no human skin gowns that i could locate in sl. however amusingly enough i came upon a company in the real world that makes faux human skin garments. after some searching, i found an acceptable substitute, the cute zombie bloom dress from Rotten Toe. it is not a new release but i couldn't resist the human heart ornament and blood spatters on the dress. juana decided to get all julio cortazar as a tourist, and it was intensely hilarious to be at the Visit Mexico sim in this getup, bumping into honeymooning avatars on horses.
juana "jose cuervo you are a friend of mine" wears:
zombie bloom and visions of death eyes by rotten toe
mia hair by ploom
mad science [[skinnned]] skin by Rev Eponym
thigh high boots by j's
paperdoll necklace by i love 13
p bouc piercing by female paradox & alpha
skull mask by punkerella summers
bloody bonehead bracelets by retox
i just had to have the new nomine milkmaid dress...it is so gorgeous and sexy and it comes in several colors. juana has gotten several compliments wearing it, and i would highly recommend going out and buying all of them myself. amusingly enough when i donned the dress, it put me in a bit of a valentine's day mood, but in my case that means laughing at necrophilia. it did remind me a little of what a lonely girl working at a morgue might wear. or at least my idea of what a lonely girl working at a morgue might wear.
i was encouraged/joined/enabled in this jollity by the ever fabulous recidivist sideways, who volunteered to play the dead guy. we were also supervised very carefully by the diabolically fashionable Rev Eponym (who was observing off camera). i have mentioned before that Liqueur Felix has the coolest images and flickr site for browsing for new places, and it is there that i found the slurl to Ben's Morgue in the Wastelands.
special guest star recidivist sideways wears:
custom skin and accessories
by munchflower zaius of nomine
necrophilia valentine juana wears:
peach milkmaid dress, primrose virgin tart skin,
& heart repaired necklace female by nomine
latex gloves from dark dancer set by rotten toe
black boots (high) by j's boots
skull nose ring by avz
kitty eyes blood black by yukis devin
new 47 hair by W&Y
at ben's morgue, wastelands
http://mixoom.com/map/The%20Wastelands/96/250/76
"how deep is your love cover" by david choi (thanks to david choi for permission)
download at:
http://davidchoimusic.com/downloads/covers/
special thanks to Rev Eponym
for ensuring no corpses
or small animals were harmed in the
making of this fashion machinima.
if life is a dream, then second life is probably more a hallucination or delerium. it was very hard for me at first to describe this dream-like quality in second life properly, but my dear friend magenta bleac, who is australian, told me a little of the concept of the dreaming, or the dreamtime. i know it does not have the same connotation or the exact same meaning but i find the term "the dreaming" to give a good sense of what i encounter daily in second life.
the most fascinating thing for me is that like a dream, second life lets people create these amazing environments, completely free of all the pesky constraints in real life, like gravity, etc. and when i visit some of these places i very often feel as if i am stumbling into someone's dream. this is very much the case with the sim known as 03. it consists of a gorgeous desolate desert at ground level, with a kind of arena, like ancient ruins, and also a huge chain that tethers a floating object high above. if you ascend to the floating island, you will find an improbably beautiful scene of a snowy wood and a little cottage. in all it is splendidly beautiful.
as usual it was a kind of happy accident that i seemed to be wearing something that matched up very well with my surroundings. i have an unabashed love of i love 13, and this is one of their new releases, the moon dress (night). i am a great fan of that new look i see emerging, a kind of wispy broken doll gothy look, that seems to be a kind of merging of goth loli, and regular goth, and horror, and god knows what. the leading designers in this style seem to be i love 13, violent seduction, rotten toe, and aura falta of tacky star. the hair is from W&Y, which is now my new hair obsession. the skin is from rotten toe, and i'd like to mention it as it is very much one of my favorites, being a dollskin but one that is decayed, and comes with three distinct stages of rottenness, and also a set of pus eyes, though i am wearing the gazing ball eyes from miasnow.
the dreaming juana wears:
i love 13 perfect moon dress (night)
j's boots black
immaculate heart by tekeli'li
neck corset by ru
w&y hair new36
may buried pus stage 2 skin by rotten toe
hair rose by gfield
gazing ball eyes by miasnow
at 03 http://slurl.com/secondlife/REZ/130/9...
it is interesting that in second life there is not always the chance to make a sentimental journey--so often things vanish without a trace, without warning. there are some places that seem to be imbued with a kind of eternal specialness, even when they are broken beyond repair. i would say that the city of nexus prime is one of those places. two years ago it was lost, in a kind of uniquely second life catastrophe.
roaming the city now, watching it rebuild, is kind of like seeing it heal, and also a bit like visiting ancient ruins. the idea of the place still remains though. for many people this second life city had a very profound impact on their lives. i can't say that i was one of the people who knew it well, but i did love the place, and it carries a fateful significance for me.
normally i would be dressed in some sort of commemorative attire but i was summoned there by a very dear friend, and i arrived in what i was wearing, which was the new rottenesque outfit by rotten toe (and various other rotten toe items) plus my habitual j's boots and tattoos and eyes from Tacky Star's charity (Haiti) offering. i admit i feel somewhat facetious relating what i wore in these circumstances, but i suppose life must go on, even in a pretend world.
juana wears:
vika hair, jane skin, visions of death eyes,
rottenesque outfit, and neck ruff by rotten toe
spiderfae sleeves and gloves by nomine
thigh high boots by j's
birdie bye bye and satin button eyes by tacky star
skull nose piercing by avz
the nexus haiku by grady echegaray
i've not been to Mexico, DF. it is one of my dreams to visit, someday. it seems so interesting--apart from the sheer intensity of such a crowded place, there is the unusual geographic situation, and also the weight of history. the residents there are supposed to even have a special character, and have a charming (and from what I read, perhaps derogatory in some contexts) nickname (Chilango). btw, as a completely off-topic aside, i keep up with a particularly hilarious blog called "effective swearing in d.f." which should help me a great deal should i ever get to visit the real Mexico, D.F.
so i thought it very interesting then when i was looking at Liqueur Felix's flickr stream (always the most gorgeous amazing finds and pictures of different places to visit btw) and saw this image of the ciudad de mexico sim, which is apparently a roleplaying sim run by brasilians. upon visiting it in person, i found it really quite lovely, though the observer tag is distinctly hideous to wear (it looks like a fishbowl over your avatar's head). when i was walking there parts of the city reminded me vaguely of nexus prime in 07, and a little of hangar liquides before it moved to insilico. there are three levels to the city, with interesting and mostly empty buildings to look at, but take care. while i was doing my research and exploring the sim, i happened to touch a transport button and it teleported me into an arena on the upper level, into what i think was a beauty pageant that was in progress while i was there. sadly there is no photographic evidence of this caper, as i was so completely flustered i ran across the room and jumped off the building. ah well next time. and now you know this amusing little anecdote.
i was really at a loss what to wear--however there are shops when you first teleport in, and i found a really unusual outfit from rfyre, called providence. of course i pared it down a little to suit my purposes. its really quite striking on its own, but i liked very much how it seemed to combine so well with the deconstructed trenchcoat from nomine. i had also found the amazing mirror hair from paradox and alpha, along with their interesting facial piercings in my earlier travels. as it is this outfit turned out to be a collection of new things and my favorite standbys, as you might recognize the rest of what juana is wearing from other posts.
juana the wannabe cyber chilango wears:
providence house of rfyre
deconstructed trenchcoat by nomine
aztec sample bracelets and armlets by otaku designs (group gift)
bone queen bonus skin cutea benelli
mirror c14 hair and P_Stras piercings by Paradox & Alpha
ving boots by shiny things
mayan dream tattoos by garden of kuu (tinted red)
cybermacahuitl by cortech enterprises
