And now for the final part of my RFL adventures - the formal wear section, with a minor stop in the lingerie department. Some of these would work well in fantasy as well, however I think they're a bit more modern than the other things featured in the Fantasy bits.
For some reason, Blogger decided to break its formatting options with this post, so the names of each sub-section aren't over their images in some cases as they were in the prior RFL posts. I'll try again later to fix that.
A Bunch of Nonsense
This little number was another Devlish Cupcake contribution. The dress is a bit weird for my tastes, but it wasn't a whole lot of Lindens, and they were going to charity so I decided to snag it early on.
While it looks pink, this is actually the red version of the dress. I had to try on the pink version just to assure myself that this was red, and compared to the pink, it definitely is.
A little unnatural, that jagged change into the white skirt area is apparently intentional. I adjusted the skirt prim several times before finally getting it to look alright with the rest of the outfit. This is another outfit that I'll keep on hand in case I end up going to a rave-themed club or something similar.
This is available at Devlish Cupcake's RFL booth, though I can't recall which of the four sims it was in. Their sign is really noticeable, so you can't miss it if you are looking for it.
The hair used in this image is another Goldie Locks creation, this time its Lynn appearing in Russet Red. I've got a large amount of Goldie Locks hairstyles, if you hadn't noticed already. There was quite a lot of it that I liked, and it was largely inexpensive compared to some other hair places I found near my rez day.
They Called Her the Wild Rose...
Generally, I avoid florals like the plague. Mostly because they usually entail some sort of pastel colour scheme, which is so not what I tend to wear. This outfit, however, was for charity, and for once it was all about dark colours and flowers. I really like the way the skirt for this dress looks too.
Presented by Awesome Design as their RFL contribution, this takes the little black dress and fancies it up with a fresh wreath of roses around the top of the bodice and the upper arms. The arm roses are actually prims, while the bodice has roses painted about its top.
I really like what was done with the skirt of this dress. Black chiffon fading into a nice dark red tone, uneven due not only texturing but the layering of the skirt itself. I'll probably end up making or finding a few additional bodices for this skirt, just because I like the way it turned out.
In hindsight, I probably should have worn the black Gladiator heels I have from Shoe Fly, but I really was digging these boots still. They're just not quite the same as a fashionable pump shoe with this dress, though I suppose I know now for the next time I wear this dress.
Lil Club Princess
I'm a huge fan of Bare Rose. It was one of the first stores I was taken to, and I've come to adore the quality work for a decent cost. Especially for male clothing - everything on the male market seems to be quite pricey compared to its female counterparts, but Bare Rose has some great male looks at the same price a lot of their female wears are sold.
This is Cassis, an outfit that makes me think of classic princesses being modernized for a night at the local dance club. Clubs have about the same kind of drama that noble courts used to, when you stop to think about it, so its only fitting. The front looks much like the gathering used on some of the more famous princess dresses, though a friend did say it looked more like a reverse bustle to her.
I didn't quite have the kind of hair I wanted for with this dress, but Hyacinth in Russet Red from Goldie Locks was a decent fill in. I thought I had one of their hairstyles that had roses in it, but I think that might be on the one of the alt accounts I have. At least it looks good with those Gothica boots - they're turning out to be quite the favourable addition to my non-existent shoe collection!
So I'm picky about shoes...I can't help it!
She had fire in her soul...
Something about Digital Darkes' Goddess Heart gown makes me think of the Santana/Chad Kroeger song Into the Night. Its got that same kind of style that a lot of sensational flamenco dresses have, though quite a bit more edgy than most seen on the actual flamenco dance floors in Spain. I actually went and watched the music video, mostly because so far I've only heard the song randomly, oddly enough, in conjunction with a particular person.
The neck may look a little odd to most people at first. It actually is just a simple ring encircling the neck, with the fabric of the dress threading through it once before twisting back down the body. This helps create the dramatic keyhole effect down the center of the bodice area of the gown but it causes a bit of uneven texture around the neck itself.
The fiery fade effect lends even more of a dramatic effect to the Goddess Heart gown, though I think it would have been a bit more eye catching if it drifted into a golden yellow a bit more than just slightly about the edge. I really didn't have the shoes needed for this, so the Shoe Fly cork wedges filled in again - I need a vibrant pair of shoes for with this outfit, as black heels just didn't look quite right.
I also need to find hair to match it. The one pictured here, Style 4 in Red with Blonde Tips by Wrong, just doesn't quite have the vibrancy needed to handle this dress. I may actually see about finding a darker skin for with this dress, and using Style 4 in Black instead, since I have it for my Tifa outfit.
Interview with the Vampiress
Mmmmm, underbust corsets. I've dressed in a manner very similar to this in RL, however the corset wasn't mine so I had to return it. Now I have my own, in SL at least!
This was from LVS & Co's RFL booth, and I just couldn't resist it in the slightest. Its called Formal Evening Together, and it actually has the dress, then a corset/thong/garter set with it for an entire evening's use. The stockings that came with it are fairly nice, plain with a sort of embroidered top edge...not that they're visible in this image.
In order for the outfit to look right, the skirt has to be adjusted down to just below the edge of the black corset, which is on the jacket layer. Once it is lowered - or raised in some cases - it makes the corset look even more realistic, seeming to flow out from beneath the black material. The skirt itself is rather full, and the patterns on it make it appear to have more layers than it actually does. The skirt hides any shoes unless moving forward quite a bit, so boots or heels will work with it. I think I might find some ankle boots, like the Victorian buttoned kind, for with it though.
For this outfit, I chose the Style 4 by Wrong in black. Though not really like anything she wore, the outfit reminds me of Mina from Bram Stokers' Dracula and the subsequent novel Mina that goes into what happened to Mina after the familiar story ended, after all, she did still have quite a bit of vampiric taint within her. If you enjoyed either the films or the book itself, I suggest reading Mina though it can be a pain to find sometimes.
All for the Kiss of a Gypsy
When I found Evie's Closet for the first time, this was the dress style I wanted the most from the shop. I have a massive thing for all things Gypsy in RL, especially after most of my friends compared me to them prior to having the rheumatoid arthritis kick into overdrive because I rarely stayed in the same place for more than six months at a time. I've been to every continental state except for the Dakotas (and after the drama incident in EQ2 involving a South Dakota boy, I don't wanna go there!), which apparently isn't something a lot of people can say.
For RFL, Evie's Closet released an alternate textured Romany Kiss dress as a gift for anyone who visited the booth. As far as gifty items go, this was a steal because of how gorgeous a dress this is. It took all my will power not to buy all four colours of the dress when I walked in and realised what the shop was.
The skirt was slightly confusing at first. I put it on with just the glitch pants, and it didn't look right compared to the promotional images; if you don't put on the special leg prims, it doesn't get the same effect. They're darker, like the glitch pants, which helps create that darker burgundy colour in the center of the skirt. I'm often amazed by how different techniques create different effects the same way they do in real life, which gives me hope for some of the things I've thought about trying to create.
I used the slightly messy short style Native by Damselfly for with this dress, though I want to find a messy braid or partially tied back hair for with this - something that looks like its been tussled by the wind. I might find one that would work with all five colours of Romany Kiss, because I want to eventually own them all.
The Kitsuneko Doll
Well, not quite. The various attachments for this costume and my nine tails don't get along quite yet, though I'm working on various other attachment points for the tail. Aradia Hextall coined the phrase Kitsuneko because I have nine foxtails but tend to run with a Neko style and crowd outside of Cyria.
Ironically, I was just at Passionate Neko Dreams the other night, debating on getting some of their other fashions. I wasn't much in a doll mood that night, but this was a special Relay For Life Dollie costume so I decided to snag it for later use. Unfortunately, SL and I decided to have an argument at that point, as it did not dispense the requested item. Saur Holt got it squared away quickly, though I'm not surprised the typical vendor bug hit RFL at all.
There is a cape that comes with the set, however I didn't want to wear it. I'm finding that I generally don't like capes in SL, but then again, I'm extremely picky about my cloaks in RL so that's not too surprising. The corset for this costume comes on two different layers, which is always a plus in my book because of the tattoos.
Now, I haven't worn too many doll costumes before, and I wasn't expecting the bows on the skirt to be stationary. I noticed as I tried finding a pose for the costume that the skirt was floofing without the bows, and couldn't help but giggle at how odd it appeared at first. Seeing this does help with several things I was trying to do with various prims and flexi prims though, so I'm glad I noticed it. I'm not sure how often I'm going to use the skirt, since its not exactly my normal style, but I am quite impressed with how full and tu-tu like it is.
Lacking conventional doll shoes, I'm using ETD's Triple Strapped Mary Janes again. I've looked at a lot of flat soled mary janes, and just haven't found any that knock my socks off. Maybe its just because I don't like flat shoes in general, or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong shops. Personally, I'm all for running around barefoot constantly, however in the cold of winter where there is actually snow, that doesn't work quite right.
I didn't have much that would work well with the hair bow that was included with this costume, so I used the closest thing I had - Ceridwen in Russet Red from Goldie Locks. It still didn't match up exactly with the bow, so if I can't find any suitable hair, I'll be moving the bow down from the crown. I'm not sure if I like the bow that much, but only because it reminds me of the ginormous bows my mother used to put in my hair when I was a little kid. I was a tomboy...with a giant chiffon bow holding my hair up, it just totally went against the image I was going for.
A Little Italian Lace
This brings us to the last of the formal outfits I bought during my 'official' RFL trip. Designed by Haute Style & Co, the particular black lace pattern over the satin used to create Ginnalli reminds me of a few dresses I saw on an Italian fashion school's website. Several different dresses, one of them sort of like this one, used a similar pattern of lace over various pieces of the designs.
I used the Jasmine hairstyle from Sirena, though I think it would look better if the style came in a darker shade. The downfall of red hair that is unless its close to the same shade as a piece of clothing, it will look discordant and out of place. The other downside is that most reds are split into two or more packs, and you either end up with the brighter set or the darker set, or having to buy both.
Ginnalli actually looks really good with the Gothica Boots, though that may just be because the skirt largely hides the rest of the leg. I might try wearing the black Gladiator heels with this dress, though I don't much like exposed calves. I might also try wearing the bodice with something else...like jeans; I really like the way its cut around the chest and neck area.
Naughty Nymph
Lastly, one of two lingerie purchases at RFL, though my inventory started having issues loading so I don't have any images of the other RFL set. I've been searching for a black bra that was cut in a fashion I liked, and I just happened to find it at the clothing fair.Persona had a set by the name of Greta available in black. It has the classic demi-bra cut that I like, a matching thong and it was at a reasonable price for two pieces of under clothing. Its surprising how expensive even just a set containing a bra and thong can run in SL - it makes Victoria Secret look cheap!
I couldn't just do a straight bra and panty image without feeling a little ah...Playboy bunny-ish, so I decided to show off the new belly dance jewelry I bought at the Dark Eden booth. It came in a couple of different tones, but I liked the Goddess Chant set in silver the best, and most of my other gypsy stuff is silver.
Wind-blown hair suddenly looks like a bed-tussled bob when the Damselfly Native hair style is paired with a set of lingerie like this. I was really surprised by how my perception of the hairstyle changed after looking at this pose in the Greta set since I'd never thought of it that way before. Now I look at the Native style and just giggle slightly whenever I see it.
And that concludes my trip to the Second Life Relay for Life Clothing Fair, at least the time there that I officially set aside for blogging. I still am running back to the fair to grab a couple of things as I give in to temptation, and have to alt it up a bit to snag a few things I saw that are better suited on a different avatar.
Right before I logged, the count for Lindens made this RFL season was just short of five million Lindens. I hope that they pull in over five million before everything is taken down, but I'm fairly sure they will. Not everyone could rush to the fair during the work week, so there's still plenty of Lindens to be donated.
And who knows, maybe you're helping a fellow resident receive the treatment they need to fight cancer.
