Thursday, December 20, 2007

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

2 comments:

Xtabber said...

Some of those outfits are soooooo sexy, but I am biased. Great write up and good info on an unsung designer.

Unknown said...

Pretty good! Congratulations