I Felt That

*Originally posted on InStyle Blog by Cherie Parker

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re not in Kansas anymore? Well, that’s how I felt yesterday when I was wandering around, minding my own business, teleporting to and fro and found myself at the doorstep of *pop feel*. Sitting in the middle of KyuKaruizawa, beside a flowing river, in a quiet little Japanese sim is this small bold red building with three walls and no roof. That’s *pop feel*.

Inside, one wall is filled from top to bottom, every available prim space occupied with as much retro modern wear as can fit. The other wall is brimming with a decidedly different look, Japanese kimono wear created with a twist of modern fashion. *pop feel* has that magical appeal towards both modern and traditional and has married the two nicely together in a 1152sq meter area. You know right away when you enter that *pop feel* is a different kind of shop. The items are neatly displayed, not a lot of hype, the ad work clean and concise, it just makes you feel easy and ready to shop.

As I do in most stores, I scanned the walls to see if anything jumped out at me, grabbed me by the throat, screaming buy me! buy me! I admit once inside *pop feel* I was under a great deal of stress as most items on the wall of retro modern were throttling me and demanding my attention. Mustering my self control and watching my dwindling lindens as I made mental purchases one after another, I finally decided upon a sweet little retro orange jacket that had gained my attention and current control of my wallet as I quickly clicked that baby into my inventory. At only $150L, it didn’t really hurt that bad. I couldn’t wait to get home and try it on.
This jacket in fall colors of orange, yellow and brown has the most amazing texture. I can’t believe I’m not wearing a real boucle wool jacket when I slipped this on. The prim collar, wrist prims and even the short babydoll type hem fit perfectly and without adjustment, that’s a rare thing on me. For $150L you get seven pieces, the jacket and all prim attachments, plus a contrasting turtleneck undershirt and some short pants. I paired my jacket with my favorite flap pocket cords from Luminosity in charcoal and my trusty Old Laceup Boots in reddish from Shiney things. Perfect for a day outside, all warm and snuggly in my new *pop feel* boucle jacket, cords and boots, I’m ready to take the dog for a walk, a walk in the park or horseback riding with friends. This jacket ensemble is a great addition to my inventory, I can see pairing it with a number of items already. Thanks *pop feel*, I think I have that lovin feeling. ;)

You can find *pop feel* at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/KyuKaruizawa/103/29/23

REVIEW: Reasonable Desires

Recently Austie Pegler co-owner and designer of Reasonable Desires dropped on me a pack of items so full it took me days to go through it all. This being my first evaluation of items someone has willingly given me for review, I was quite thrilled to dig thru the boxes discovering in them item after item. Quickly I noticed a theme in the content of the folders she sent me, and at first was a bit disappointed because most of the items appeared to be costumes. I’m not much of a costume girl, I don’t really go out, dress up as Seven of Nine, or Lizzie Borden very much, so I developed a big lip and sat down to finish going through things with a heavy sigh.

However, once I started opening files, and trying the outfits I’m not sure exactly what happened, but with each piece I put on I felt myself having more and more fun. I mean come on, how can you not have fun when you’re trying on “Reindeer with Rudolf option!”? That’s a classic!

Those antlers, that nose, that cute furry little tail, all included! Even a matching pair of fur lined booties! Oh now that was fun. And not done badly at all. I’m not going to tell you that all the seams are flawless but who cares. I know a lot of haute couture designers whose seams aren’t flawless either. This is a very cute design, perfect for the holidays and just plain fun.

Next I tried on “Christmas Cutie!” a full Christmas outfit complete with a super mini skirt, belt, fur lined booties with prim buckles, Santa hat, a couple of different top versions and all the fur trim you could ask for. This adorable little outfit is very sexy and will surely make your partner, boyfriend/girlfriend or significant other say ho! ho! Oh yes!

Along the same lines is “Christmas Cape and hood w/lingerie”. Same textures as on the “Christmas cutie” but this one comes with a full length fur trimmed cape, stockings, garters, and matching lingerie. This design is a bit more suited for the private party you may have at home alone with that special someone by the fire, sipping hot apple cider, allowing them to reach over and unlatch the prim clasp on the fur cape. Ahem… anyway.

Done with Christmas items and finding the boxes empty around me, I started in on the more “adventurous” outfits as I deemed them. “French Maid Version DEUX!”, “Alice” and “Blistering Black Pirate”. Each of these is a complete outfit with almost everything you need to tie together the look. The only thing missing from Alice and French Maid are the shoes but RD has supplied everything else for a thorough look down to the white stuffed rabbit or drink for Alice, the feather duster for the French Maid and the eye patch and dagger sheath for the Pirate. They seem to have thought of every detail in these costumes and I can’t tell you how much I would appreciate that if I were a costume party freak not having to run around trying to accessorize the outfit. These costumes are really good. The detail and content supplied makes them just perfect for the slacker in me. No hunting around for pieces to accessorize they already thought of it and in most cases, included it.

Next I tried on some of RD’s lingerie and must say I was quite surprised to see that it’s done rather well. My absolute favorite things now are the two pairs of French Knickers Austie sent me. OMG they are adorable! They come in black or white lace with little flowers strategically placed and in my opinion are perfect and we all know how hard lingerie can be to create.

Included in the items Austie sent was a note card with a bit of history and detail about Reasonable Desires. Austie indicated that while they’ve been in business since 2006 Reasonable Desires has been virtually unheard of in the blogging community. I found that to be extremely odd, so I decided to take a trip over to check out one of the stores. I chose the Reasonable Desires Island where I found a very large and accommodating shop with not only costumes but lingerie, casual wear, formal wear, silks, hats, wings, swimsuits, boots and accessories. It’s open and inviting, all the items are easy to see and the detail on the advertisements is exactly “what you see is what you get”. My one gripe if I had one, would be some items didn’t have prices on the ads, you had to click to get the price but I digress into petty on that one. With their prices being so reasonable I can surely overlook that.

The RD collaboration is a combination of the minds of Austie Pegler and Martini Joliat. Between them they have built this business from a small 6 item shop to one that has over 300 products, almost 100 vendor locations, and 3 main stores including an island named Reasonable Desires. The island not only contains the store, but a rather cool pyramid maze/puzzle designed and scripted by Martini Joliat that btw, I could not get past like the second puzzle in…dang it.

I wish I had time to blog about every costume and outfit they sent me because each one was so cool. But to do so would push this into next week and by then, well it’s Christmas and I really must be at the table “reviewing food” if you know what I mean.

I have to sincerely thank Austie and Martini for dropping these items on me. I was pleasantly surprised and genuinely had a great time trying on all these outfits that I find to be well done and extremely well priced, really rather a bargain for the amount of items you get with each outfit. I’m not sure how they can afford to do it for so little but these two clearly have the costume niche covered and covered well. It’s not haute couture folks but it’s not meant to be. It’s good clothing, well done costumes and excellent prices, a value from my perspective.

I’m adding Reasonable Desires to my list of favorite stores not only for the well priced items but simply because I love the fact with this store you get what you pay for and more. Thanks again Austie and Martini.

You can find Reasonable Desires by doing a search or take this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Reasonable%20Desires/132/204/27

French Maid Version Deux! $150L -Blistering Black Pirate $250L-Alice $199L

Christmas Cutie! $175L-Christmas Cape and hood w/lingerie $225L
Reindeer with Rudolf option! $125

High Stepping

You know there are only a couple of things in Second Life that makes my virtual heart beat faster… shoes and hair. Let me qualify that. Good shoes and good hair. When I first came to SL the only decent shoemaker I could find, and believe me I searched, was Nikki Clayton of Minx. I probably own about oh, 95% of Nikki’s shoes… so shoot me if I don’t like wedges. Thankfully now the times they are a changing, and good cobblers abound. Not only is Nikki still cranking out the stylish hoof accessories, but now there’s Zhao, Tesla, Enkythings and Insolence just to name a few. But please no more! My shoe budget just can’t take another good designer!

Alas, awhile back I had the opportunity to visit a new shoe store before it officially opened. Quietly sneaking in I noticed a sign that spoke my language. Half price off, it screamed! (If you joined the group) Half price on shoes?? Oh baby you sure do know how to sweet talk a girl. With very little hesitation I quickly dumped another group from my, at-the- limit of 25, and joined up, thus being rewarded with half off the listed price for any and all pairs of shoes! Good thing too because half price on the pair I bought was around $485LD. I know what you’re thinking… $485 is half price?? Yes, that’s half price friends, not full. Evidently that didn’t deter me as I clicked that sweet pair of slingbacks into my inventory and was on my way. Days went by and I rarely took them off. I was sooo happy with my purchase. These shoes are not only hot they’re smokin’ HAWT! The texture and design is just so incredible. The heels make your virtual feet scream in agony just looking at them they’re so high, but omg can you live without them? I think not. It’s time to tell you what shoe shop owns the tile of “my latest Achilles heel”.

Stiletto Moody.

Stiletto Moody has only been around SL about a year now but wow, she’s clearly got a grasp on shoe design that makes my ten little piggies’ squeal with delight. There’s just this one little, teensy, weensy thing that bothers me though. It’s the price. Yes I know, I said I’m willing to pay for good design in previous posts and that’s true. But dang, $975 is by far the most expensive shoe I have ever seen in SL and I’ve seen them all. Are they good? Better than good. Are they creative and unique? Yes, that too. Are they worth the $975? Possibly. But it still hurts to shell out that much for a pair of shoes. While I have no qualms about going and buying more than one pair of shoes at Minx, and the likes thereof, I have to say I hesitate when I step into Stiletto Moody’s. However, I can see the border lights flashing, and feel myself propelled forward, if you don’t hear from me for awhile… someone please come look for me in the ankle bootie isle.

My friends, now that you know about Stiletto Moody’s, I feel certain I’ll be seeing you there on occasion, haunting the store for sales like I do. Drooling over the latest designs and breathing in the scent of the virtual leather. My only hope is that Stiletto will take mercy on us and bring back the half price sales, if not, you may find me yet again camping somewhere for shoe money.

Here are the details on her designs from the lowest price shoes to the highest;

Pumps $825
Slingbacks $875
Studded Pumps $875
Ankle boots $875
Platforms $950
Pumps w/ ankle straps $975

Fusion Show Cancelled

Sorry folks but the Fusion Fashion show was cancelled. I'm not sure what the reasons were specifically but, that's the way it is. Gladly there is always another fashion show right around the corner.

Fashion Show Weekend!

Just a quick blurb to alert you to a couple of fashion shows tomorrow you don't want to miss. Designers galore! Check the picture for the show information on Fusion's "Breathless" show! I wanna see some fashion faces there friends!

Next up is the FACES, Glam World & SOS Children Charity Event. Saturday 1pm & 7pm SL time. Everyone needs to come support this charity. We're talking about feeding hungry children here! Bring your friends, your neighbors, your weird cousin IT, but get them down to Glam World for the show and give from the heart!

Join FACES for a fashion showcase and charity event celebrating the grand re-opening of Glam World.
The show will benefit SOS Children's Village foundation for African orphans, with all donations directly assisting children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.(http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/aids-africa/)
SOS Children's Village is the world's largest orphan and abandoned children charity. Your generous donations this weekend will be used 100% by and for the thousands of children suffering from the tragic HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Kiosks will be placed on the Sim over the weekend. Please take the time to donate to this worthy cause.
Featuring the fine fashions of- Artilleri- Chez Fine Clothing- Insolence- Leezu Baxter Designs- Maitreya- MG Fashions- MM Skins- Nicky Ree- Serene Sensations- Surf Co.- Truth- Veschi
To cut down on the lag at our event, we ask that you please remove all scripted items, including AO's and radar/mystitool HUD's, and all prim items. We appreciate your cooperation with this request.Glam World Fashion Hall