ganguro

i have never ever worn this style before. it's called ganguro, a look that's past its time already. according to the all-knowing wikipedia, it peaked around 2004. it makes me think of a character that would get killed in a horror flick, so i visited the carnival of doom. while i was wandering around i met a few carnies dancing in a barn, all blood soaked, and i laughed at the utter contrast of it all. they were nice though, and i promptly changed into something more gruesome looking.

i think it's an interesting style even if it's already dead and in its grave, because this is what japanese schoolgirl rebellion looks like apparently. it consists of a deep tan, with white lipstick and eyeliner, bleached blonde hair, and loud bright colors.

i have to admit it took me a moment to adjust, because it looks weirdly like a kind of racist blackface at first. i did love the face gems, and this was the first time i have worn false eyelashes in SL. it's funny, just like RL i had to shorten them and adjust them to fit my tiny eyes.

the loud clashy colors took some getting used to. i hardly ever wear this kind of thing in SL. i searched all the images i could find and i was unable to really implement it on my SL body farther than this. but the skin is very lovely, and the eye jewels too, both from Gauze, which is one of the holy trinity of my favorite visual kei-ish stores--those being Gauze, The Black Canary, and Blue Blood.

the rebelliously attired juana-ko sports:

ganguro ginger skin, Corvinus hair, and heart face gems by Gauze
eyelashes by DrL
Frog tee by Meriken
Skull mini skirt by amplify
Flour corsage from 64 set by KS
tropicana hair flower by artilleri
purple legwarmers by BP
blackstripe leg socks by LaynieWear
jeweled satin cuffs from murder ballet set by snatch
absynthe oshun collar by dark eden
ving boots by shiny things

at the carnival of doom, and the china sim

dream of the crimson chamber

i have never read the dream of the red chamber, but i want to someday. i visited the land of illusion sim, not knowing what it was, and the little i know now is that at least some of it is based on this novel, but it's actually by two people named lily and honglei, and it's something like her memories superimposed on the grounds of the house from the book. so interesting...almost like wandering in someone's memories.....

i wandered the house and grounds, laid out in the traditional manner, each wing representing the seasons. and as i wandered i listened to guqin, because i think it pretty, and it seemed fitting for my mood. there were strange little surprises, images visible on one side and not the other......

i'd been shopping at blue blood that evening too, and it happened that the outfit i wore was called crimson. i apparated there, in the store, and a disembodied chat voice behind me told me i looked gorgeous. i turned and it was ghanima uriza herself, a beautiful green loli fairy perched on a chair. she was sweet to me, and gave me several skins to go with the gowns i had bought.....this one seemed very fitting though as it is with all things, i ended up changing what i was wearing midway.

the crimson dreaming juana wears:

crimson outfit and skin by blue blood (ghanima uriza)
collar and curlicue undershirt chichi set by cutea benelli
dreams noir hair by red queen
black widow and carpe noctem boots by nightshade designs
studded leather pants by digit darkes
forbidden 19 skin by lionskins

in land of illusion sim, listening to the guqin.........

to live and to die....tattoos by bakersfield kidd

today (april 26th) i talked to bakersfield kidd, who made the glorious "to live and to die" tattoos. it's a tiny world, i recognized his name because i saw his picture on achariya's flickr photostream. so i saw he had a flickr account and left him a note. he was really nice, and told me something interesting--he hadn't sold very many of those sets. which i can't imagine, because they look so freaking cool.

they are my very favorite tattoos as i said, and have significant memories associated with them too. i was wearing them in the strange citizens post on strange pixels, that grady made, which was a very very huge honor for me.

bakersfield left a really nice comment on this outfit. it was one of the ones i wore for dia de los muertos, which is really like my christmas. i was standing outside the katatonik store, having just bought her dia de los muertos dress, with the matching jewelry by violet voltaire, a custom burnt bones skin made by munchflower of nomine, shoes by gfield, hair by deviant kitties, raven pennyflower hat by nonna hodges, and mask by i forgot right at this second.

another notable event where i also wore them was when i was being sacrificed at my dia de los muertos party, but that's another story. (both these pictures were taken by my friend zorena deckard.)

the reigning cyprian

it makes me laugh, because maybe people forget that "actress" meant also "courtesan" for most of history, and so our modern idol worship of them is sort of funny considering.

second life exists to make the impossible happen, and so for an hour or two my little alter ego was transformed into the celebrated (and most probably unwashed) mrs. juana baddeley, actress and reigning cyprian. it sounds demented but i love reading about the lives and times of these grandes horizontales and so i spent my few hours flitting from 18th century sim to 18th century sim just being mrs. baddeley.

but without the leeches, purges, bloodletting, surgery without painkillers, and useless visits to the baths. oh and without blackmailing feminine companions. mrs. baddeley of course would have to go rehearse her play, and so she did. but sadly nobody was there. it's just as well because it was getting way too histrionic i think. perhaps she'd fight about her salary or something. and avoid her pimp of an ex-husband.

being short of money she might pay a little visit to charlotte hayes' nunnery to moonlight for some pocket change. but very discreet of course....wouldn't want to end up on the list of covent garden ladies.

i must confess, one thing really confounds me. how the hell can you pursue this line of work without getting your heavily pomaded and half rotten 'do from getting irretrievably wrecked in the course of discharging your duties? (yeah i said discharge lol) i mean, it just doesn't make sense. perhaps they knew something special that we don't know anymore about having your hair did so that it lasts.

maybe having exerted herself maybe she might eat something, somewhere fashionable, and then speed off to a very august address, for a very private visit to meet one of her benefactors.

another incredulous modern interjection here: all this without antibiotics? and all sorts of omg disgusting venereal disease floating around everywhere? ewww. ewww. not to mention the whole pregnancy and childbirth without painkillers and aieee back alley abortions from hell. i guess these ladies were just made of sterner stuff that we pitiful cossetted modern girls.

sigh. now time to go home and drink a pint of gin and laudanum, and sleep till noon.

the notorious mrs. juana baddeley wears:

jabot, cuffs, jacket, pants (i made them breeches) and tails valerian suit, and caged bird gloves and stockings by silent sparrow
curlicue undershirt from chichi set , shoes mme renaud by cutea bennelli
black pompadour and mourning tricorne by nonna hedges
snow white skin by i forgot.
giltterati earrings by violet voltaire

death card.

sometimes when i am upset and unhappy, and find the world futile and the future uncertain, i put on my finest clothes, put on fresh makeup, and smooth my hair. sometimes i go out to dance and to drink, and to flirt.

but sometimes i just want to be alone, struggling in the grip of a strong emotion. i often find myself suddenly far from home.

then i just wander around in a daze, walking through darkened streets, staring at people.

in second life nobody sees your rumpled hair or runny nose, and the clothing that you wear can be as insane as you want it to be. and nobody notices or cares either if you wander around. you will meet all sorts of people in all sorts of conditions and it might be a fleeting thing or it might be a messenger fated to meet you in that moment.

i don't know why but to me this is a dress to be angry in. it is so very furious and standoffish, all prickly like a porcupine and sticking out on all sides like a personal force field, keeping everyone away. how lovely it looks in the dreamworld, where prickles don't sting.

the only pain you feel here is mental.

the shoes do not come with the dress, but are from the same designer. they totally feel like they are possessed with a murderous spirit, with daggers for heels and barbed wire decorations and anklestraps. in second life you can look daggers at someone with your feet.

this is the only way to meet destiny, to defy the death card and not feel that you are its slave, no?

grumpy juana wears:

chichi dress and platform dagger shoes by cutea benelli
zydratic complication eyes by tacky star
misa stockings by sugar
forbidden 19 skin by lionskins
dreams noir by red queen
rose hairpin wine by gfield
skull nose piercing by avz
candybleeding heart tat by mia
black gauze armwarmer by gauze

atonement in insilico and at tunnel of light haze club

la tour juana

it may be time for me to flee the palace. but it doesn't matter, i have my compulsions and they make me happy, even if all i have is a blank wall to sing to. and so afterwards i fled, still in my party dress, to the dreamworld eiffel, and stood there, architectural and alone.



and still later, after having been in the sun, and the air, i entered the dreaming again, to the mysterious cathedral, to find atonement. nexus is gone, and hangar liquides is gone, and yet insilico is there. and in her streets i will set my wandering soul.

la tour juana wears:

dress: a matter of truss by grim bros/cutea benelli
skin: forbidden 14 by lionskins
hair: torn noir by red queen
tattoo: artilleri
stockings: misa set by sugar
shoes: carpe noctem by nightshade designs

in sl eiffel tour and atonement cathedral in insilico,
listening to petit blonde de boulevard brune by manu chao.

meiji schoolgirl

LONG HAIRED AND PREGNANT --
Mixing Elements of Seasonal Fashion
in Japan
Originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba

i have been making myself crazy looking for images of meiji-era schoolgirls. and i have only succeeded in finding this one image, and she is pregnant lol. so tomorrow i will try to find another.

it makes me laugh because apparently the meiji-era schoolgirl was considered pretty wild and naughty in their little hakama. from what i understand too, this type of uniform is sometimes worn for graduation in japan. (blogged from flickr:LONG HAIRED AND PREGNANT --Mixing Elements of Seasonal Fashion in Japan Originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba)

i like the mixture of western and japanese elements too.

i am very fond of nonko romankan kimono. they seem to have a sort of antique vibe going. i am still pretty shaky as to what differentiates meiji from taisho, but these antique style elements seem to be pretty influential in today's fashion.

the brash schoolgirl juana-ko wears:

skin: willow pale smokey by eat rice!
hair: yuuki by zero style
hakama set: Nonko Hakama set 01 by Nonko Romankan
hair ribbon: TAISYOU_HAKAMA A Ribbon by tesuya volmar
april hair ornament: april kanzashi by mameha's
shoes: miriel granny boots by illusions (siyu suen)

at any rate, i own several outfits from nonko, but the one i wanted to wear today was the hakama set. i have an affinity for hakama anyway, since i like heian era clothing, and hakama (i guess more properly nagabakama) started out as heian era women's underclothing.

and the lure of the cherry blossoms is to strong to be ignored.