Otherworldly

Siyu Suen of Illusions may be best known for her masks, but she also creates a wide variety of other accessories, from jewellery to elf ears. Most recently, she has released a few designs that started out as commissions, including two different French hoods. Properly, these should be used to fasten a veil or a coif, but I think they look lovely (if not historically accurate) on their own as well. This, the Katarina French Hood, is the more elaborate of the two styles (the Anna French Hood lacks the stones and the outer pearl trim), but both styles are of course scripted for texture changing, allowing for a range of customisation.

Fairs and events have definitely come to occupy a central position in Second Life. Some love it, some not so much. My favourites are the themed ones; the odds are always good that talented designers will get really creative with those. Such as the World Goth Fair, running from May 15th to May 31st and benefiting the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Have you been to We Love Role-Play yet? This event offers a wide selection of clothing, accessories, weapons and props for role-playing in Second Life—or for simply taking photos that aren’t just about the latest fashion. For myself and Ran, it lets us indulge in bringing something that’s very much on our minds all the time into Second Life. Most of you probably know it as Game of Thrones, but for us it is always A Song of Ice and Fire. We have a particular fondness for the history of Westeros, not the least for the many colourful Targaryens from its past. Thanks to the Muses we now have all sorts of very appropriate clothing for portraying some of them. If you know a bit of Targaryen history, take a guess at who these two are.

You still have a couple of days left to check out the Fantasy Faire! The Faire has in fact been extended with a day and will run through the whole of Monday the 29th of April.

For this post, I sent Ran off to take some photos of himself for once, to show that the Faire is not just for girls. He vent off to the underground caves of the DragonSpire; it seemed like the perfect place for this scaly gentleman to hang out.

Sometimes, fate puts things together. Sometimes, it takes a little help from the wonderful creations available at the Fantasy Faire.

The Fantasy Faire is just a few hours away now! I have had a chance to look through the sims and they are, as they have been the last year, wonderfully creative. And, of course, packed with some truly great creators. I have so many great outfits to show—this is the faire where mesh has broken through big time among fantasy creators—and I will be starting with the Muses. The amazingly productive Nephilaine Protagonist offers four new outfits for the faire, two for women and two for men.

We’re getting closer and closer to the Fantasy Faire each day and that’s a good reason to feature two more outfits from the recent releases from the Muses; the Niniane gown and the Gwydion vest. The gown is one of three different styles featuring a mix of mesh and system layers; it can be worn both with and without the mesh kirtle, or you could just wear the mesh kirtle… The vest also comes in three different variations, some more rugged and some more elegant, and since this very much was the latter, Ran paired the vest with the Gerard shirt and the Etienne breeches from A.S.S.

Well, it is definitely Game of Thrones-season, because I am finding so little time for Second Life. But, with the Fantasy Faire just around the corner, I will be making time, come hell or high water. I will be blogging the faire this year as well—and I have been assigned some truly amazing creators—and you might consider this a bit of a warm-up even though what I am showing in this post has already been released. Then again, the blog is steadily becoming more and more true to its name, with fantasy and historical wear cropping being the focal point more often than not.

So many gorgeous new things, so little time. That continues to be my bane, though I imagine that is only too common. Plus, these things do have to come together naturally for me to be really pleased with them. Like this one, which definitely grew quite organically. I had had a number of the pieces sitting in my inventory for a while, and then this fountain by DECO showed up at Collabor88 for March and provided the (almost) final piece of the puzzle.

After offering several lovely gowns that Ran could just be jealous of (not that he wants a gown, as such, but something matching for male avatars), the Muses has now released three mesh robes for men. These are absolutely perfect for all sorts of fantasy/historical roleplay. Almost at the same time, the Muses also released three more gowns, but you’ll get to see those in a separate post. Instead, I decided to use the two new mesh gowns from Bilo‘s new line, Bilo Rani, as they also have quite a fantasy feel to them. In addition to that, I am showing two of the newest hairs from Wasabi Pills and we’re using the table, chairs and props from Libertine for the Genre event.

I am in fantasy-clothing heaven. First the Muses gave us the Rainha gown and now the Shieldmaiden has been released. It uses similar elements to the Rainha gown but instead of leather and chain mail you get leather and linen, for an elegant yet slightly rustic look. As with the Rainha gown you can combine pieces from different sets to mix up the colours and this is helped along by a hud that allows you to adjust the colour of the undergown on the mesh part.

I am also wearing one of the gorgeous new hairs from LeLutka—the hair net is such a fabulous detail—and the stunning knotted pearl necklace from lassitude & ennui.

When Nephilaine Protagonist dropped me her newest dress for The Muses (one of her little army of mesh shops!), I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. This regal mesh gown combines leather and chain mail for a fierce, warrior-queen look and when I put together the red gown with the black chainmail, it truly looked like something that Visenya Targaryen could have worn.

Yes, once again I am going on about A Song of Ice and Fire (which you may know as Game of Thrones), but that is because Ran and I have spent a rather crazy amount of time in Westeros lately, working on The World of Ice and Fire together with George R.R. Martin himself. Much of that work has concerned the history of House Targaryen since their arrival in Westeros and one of the most fascinating characters from the past is Queen Visenya, one of Aegon the Conqueror’s two sister-wives. She was a warrior and a dragon-rider, a wielder of the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. And I am sure she would appreciate the Rainha gown, though I think she would be practical enough to wear something beneath that chain mail. ;) Because there’s nothing royal about chafed nipples.

A couple of weeks ago, Tuli released a couple of previews for a new skin at the Dressing Room Fusion. Since then, I have been eagerly awaiting the full release of the Helena skin, as well as the return of some of Tuli’s previous skins in new and updated tones and with other little tweaks. This weekend, Tuli’s new mainstore on the Cupcakes sim finally opened, with four skins available in three tones each. In this post, I am taking a closer look at Helena, the new skin (the other three being new versions of previous skins).

The Body Co is having a sale on their skins at the Warehouse. Only single skins are available and they run L$500 for one tone and one brow colour.  There are also add-on makeups for the female skins and add-on facial hair for the male skins. They may not be brand new skins, but these are definitely still some of the best skins in SL, with diverse and interesting faces and gorgeous, detailed bodies.

I am not wearing much else, but the lovely jewellery set is from the Muses and you get seven pieces in several metals to play with.

Alchemy Immortalis is selling off four of their five sims, keeping only their mainstore to focus on creating more lovely products instead of maining their rental sims. While the prospect of more beautiful creations from Alchemy and Immortalis Cyannis makes me a little giddy, I will be very sad to see some of the most atmospheric sims on Second Life disappear, so of course I had to take some more photos at Empress and Hierophant while the chance still exists. I dressed up in one of the new mixed mesh gowns from the Muses, added jewellery from Alchemy Immortalis and a lovely new updo from Amacci.