A new shop - Elegant Fashion - came across Fashion Consolidated tonight, so Beetle and I eventually made our way there once I was to a break point in one of Guild Wars: Eye of the North's main story arch quests. I absolutely love the expansion, but the quests are about 5 - 6 hours long straight through, with cities about once every 2 or so hours...which is sometimes a pain in the butt.
The promotion images seemed to center around haute couture, so I made a quick outfit for the evening. It was a completely impromptu idea to go, and Ms. Beetle was needing to go to bed soon, so this was the best I could come up with. The hair is an old ETD style called Phoebe, and the burnt fire colour matched everything else the best. The corset and gloves are from LostHaven's Dark Moon collection while the skirt is part of the Nicky Ree Nadia set. The shoes came from ETD as well, and they're the most awesome pair of Mary Jane's I've found.
Of course, you'll rarely see me without my two EarthTones necklaces, though they may be switching attachment points once the damnable bug not allowing me to switch item attach points stops. Its lead to a lot of problems with HUD attachments in particular, and some clothing attachments (which is why you'll see this Kitsune without her tail sometimes). Oh, side rant, whoops!
Something that wasn't quite noticeable in the image I took in Elegant Fashion was the eyes from Onigiri, which is quickly inspiring an anime kick. They're rainbow coloured, from Maegen's second style pack and you can see them fairly decently on the inset in the lower right corner of the image.
The highlighted fashion of the store is the Glamour Gown, which has matching shoes for every gown colour. The shoes are a nice stiletto pump, with a very sharp curve along the arch of the foot. I really liked the bodice and detail work on the Glamour Gown, however I don't like the particular skirt style all too much in RL or SL. It really is a gorgeous dress though, personal style aside!
I totally almost bought this just for the bodice, digging through a lot of my inventory to see if there were ways to hide that it should be a continuous design. I may give in and get it anyways but I decided to pass and get another design instead.
Still, anyone looking for a sleek gown should take a look at this one. It comes in a lot of different colours, with matching shoes that you can purchase as well, and the detail on it is fairly pretty even up close. It might look even better with a pair of black gloves to off-set all that red, but I'm fairly into balance like that for fancier stuff.
The second design was a traditional skirted ball gown with a mid-range corset top. As you can tell from the image, the skirt is slightly sheer for a very dramatic satin chiffon effect.This was again one of those moments where I almost bought the whole gown just for the corset. Its a little hard to see in the image, but its a very nice lined corset that I think would look great with a ball gown skirt or a pair of jeans. I was way into gothic fashion when I was younger and going out constantly, and the whole corset/jean shorts/fishnets thing is still a favourite or mine.
The skirt is very full, compared to some flexi dresses around. It definitely gives this a modern princess feel, and I'm sure with the right accessories it would definitely look like something out of Enchanted. Based on the outfit I bought, I'm guessing these are tailored towards mid-to-tall avatars, so I'd suggest snagging a similar coloured pair of the Glamour shoe to go with this.
Elegant Fashion isn't just about the ball gowns, however one might miss that just passing by the shop. Here is the tamest toned salsa ensemble that can be found against the left hand wall, just past the Glamour Gown.Now, I say tamest toned because like the salsa itself, the corsets for this outfit are all in lively tones - bright and dazzling. I like the way the tiered skirt turned out...I've seen a few of them done the past few days and a lot of them really didn't turn out all that spectacular.
I don't know why, maybe its the skirt style mixed with the hairstyle, but this promotional image reminds me of the movie Dirty Dancing. Cliche of me, I know, but it really does - I think it is the hair now that I stare at it long enough....
And here is the one I fell in love with, though sadly they don't have the Cyrian colours available for it. I sttled for the nice charcoal version of the Laura Evening Gown.I liked how the inset on this corset was lower, and the angle that the lacing crossed over it. The skirt isn't too full, but its not stick straight either, a happy middle ground that I like quite a bit. The only downside is that I have to chose between the glitch pants and my usual undergarments from Nomine. A tough choice, but testing thus far has shown that the skirt is generally sufficient enough for any glitches that occur due to animations.
I think I may go with a darker shade of Phoebe for this dress, however, just because it is a very subdued outfit. Now I'll just have to find either a clutch purse or a nice fan keyboard override to complete the ensemble.
And yes, I'll probably be caught wearing this corset with a pair of jeans or something else like that. I was actually contemplating that with a white button down the front shirt on a jacket layer already, for that casual elegance kind of look.
^.^
The last stop was to Damselfly to check out the latest unisex hairstyle. More hair, hah hah, like Beetle, Zan or myself really need any more hair!Initially, based off the promotional images, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this hair at all. So far, I don't like primarily sculpt hair, though that might just be because I have such long hair in RL. I put on the promo to take a screenshot, and aside from one tiny poke-through flaw the demo had, I decided I did like how it looked after all, and bought myself a copy in Ruby Twilight. For those who haven't been to Damselfly, each individual colour pack actually comes with several tone variances aside from the basic tone which makes matching them with outfits a lot easier!
You can really see the rainbow eyes from Onigiri well in this image. I love them, though I do wish they came in the Neko style so I could use them more often. All the anime eyes at Onigiri are really noticeable, so if you're tired of your boy (or girl!) forgetting what colour your eyes are, I suggest them - if they don't notice...they're just plain blind!
And yes, the ever present mouse, Gwen. Get used to Gwen, folks, she's not going anywhere any time soon except maybe the other shoulder when the dragonet wants to come out and play! Think of her as an accessory, like those silly mini-Chihuahuas that were popular amongst the elite and the stars. ^.^
