More Than Tête à Pied

Those who are familiar with the Nouveau sim may have noticed a cozy cottage that was once nestled in at at the end of our little pond. I was happy to call it home for close to a year but I had to give it up to make room for our Vivant line. It didn't take long for me to miss having my own little spot. Unfortunately, we can't spare too many prims and I'm too spoiled by Nouveau to find land somewhere else. After some begging and pleading, I did manage to convince the Renaissance man of SL, Mr. CJ Carnot, to build a smaller, lower prim version of my old cottage so that I could squeeze it onto a little 1024 plot in our sim. This sweet little English cottage is just 67 prims with a 20x20 m footprint that includes the terrace. The cottage also comes with a fireplace with both particle smoke and fire. I think most will agree that CJ's years as a first life architect and SL builder show. His textures are almost entirely hand drawn and have lots of great character. Since we've been receiving a number of requests to purchase some of CJ's builds, we are setting both the cottage (and the tea house should be next) up for sale in the little green house next to our main shop. Even if you aren't in the market for a prefab, I think it's worth a trip to just appreciate his lovely work.

Stars In Your Eyes

The inspiration for this week's skin, Céleste, comes from a few different places. The theme for the jewelry expo auction items is celestial which reminded me that I've been wanting to create a skin with a face tattoo like tattoo artist Kat Von D from LA Ink. I've been seeing a good number of bloggers covering Dutch Touch (not to mention the suggestion of a good friend to check it out) and I found the clothing there to be helpful in shaping the makeup look. It was shortly after that I remembered the Escape necklace that Lucas Lameth of Earthtones had just created and I paired with with my favorite Deviant Kitties hairstyle, Katya. I created Céleste in three different variations but all share the same semi-moist lip paired with softly smudged black liner and a hint of color swept across the crease. Mr. Carnot was kind enough to create the stars that run along the side of the eye.

Unleash Your Inner Sex Kitten

As soon as I saw the Kats Meow coat over at Artilleri, I knew it had to be mine. It conjures up visions of 1960's sex comedies. Depending on how you wear it, the coat could really go either way, coy kitten or naughty kitten, you decide. As soon as I put on the coat, I reached for ETD's Tasha. It's like they were made for one another. Wide part with side swept bangs that almost completely obscures the left eye, a perfect combo of sexy and sweet. All of these elements inspired this week's new release, Chaton a perfect combination of sexy and sweet. The lip has a very sexy high gloss but a natural nude color. The eyes have a cat's eye liner paired with sensually applied shadow available in three different colors.

Just Following the Crowd

I never do this sort of thing but thought it was too cute to pass up. It's official, I'm not a nerd and I'm UBER cool. Yay me.

This Week's Release: Covering You Tête à Pied

When we were planning the Vivant line, CJ and I did some brainstorming about how we could make this range different and special. We wanted to focus on the makeup but this week, the makeup isn't as much the focus as another part of of the skins, the shading. When I read that Ginny Talamasca of Last Call had drawn inspiration from Gautier's Fall 07 couture collection, I decided to go back and take a look. I really liked some of the makeups and this one in particular stood out. It is a unique twist on the cat's eye as it doesn't continue across the lid as is traditional, rather it stops short just shy of half way across the the lid and there is a bit of highlighting that meets it. There is very little other makeup on the face, just what I call in my mind geisha red lips-right red, almost pink. It took CJ some convincing that we could do yet another cat's eye and the two of us are so used to putting a lot into each look, it almost felt too easy. That's when we decided to put in cheekbones. It's not a permanent change to our shading, just something to try on for a change. We in the biz would call it contouring. I think it does add that extra little something to the look and hopefully you all agree. The look is called modèle, french for model of course. It is available in three variations, one with a lip like in the inspiration photo, another a deep wine, and the third makeup has a deep, red-brown, lip that is a bit vampy. The necklace in the ad pic is Chatelaine Shoulder Brooch and Chain by Caliah Lyon of Muse, hair is Alexandra by ETD, and dress of course is from Last Call,Arachne.
We have a few other new releases as well this week. We thought some socks and tights would be a nice addition to all the fall wear that is coming out right now. We have two sets of tights, one opaque and one with ribbing and we also have a set of over the knee socks that come in a ribbed material. One thing that is very neat and might be fun to play around with....pairing the tights with our socks or those of someone else. The tights are two pieces, an underwear layer that goes down to the ankles and a sock layer. If someone were to wear a sock with the underwear layer, it would have a perfectly layered sock over tights look which I think is VERY cute.

The last part of the release are our gloves. We've had customers asking for different colors for the pair in the Janvier outfit for ages but we never seemed to find the time to do it properly. I wanted to make sure we did more than just different colors. We finally have found the time and we've made them in 3 lengths, I'm particularly excited about the long ones which would be considered opera length. Gloves are huge in first life fashion this season. I suggest all of you take a look at the fall shows on style.com or pick up the september issue of the bible, er I mean Vogue. *swoons*

Calendar Girl: Septembre

September has always been one of my favorite months, the warmth of summer lingering and slowly giving way to the crispness of my beloved autumn, the promise of a new school year, and with it, new school clothes. The septembre outfit makes me think of the kind of thing that would be perfect for the first day of school. I personally always liked to dress up just a bit on my first day. This outfit is the kind of thing that would work just right. The short sleeves and skirt cool enough for late summer but with very fall colors that will transition nicely into fall and winter. When you feel like wearing a more cool weather look, the outfit will look adorable paired with knee socks or tights and a sweater.

The shirt has sculptie sleeves with a bit of fullness to them, a square neckline with a ruffle and some ruching on the bust which has an empire seam. The line of the skirt is fitted from the high waist and some soft fullness from below the hips, a definite 40s vibe to it. The buckle around the belt is a nod to nouveau though. The outfit comes in 3 color palettes and as always, a limited release skin. When September is over, the outfit stays and the skin is gone forever. This month I've decided to create 3 makeups to go with the 3 outfits. I didn't intend for it to work this way but while I did create a makeup to go with each specific outfit, I noticed that they all work with more than one of sets so don't worry about wearing it 'right'. I've also been thinking about writing a bit about real life makeup and offering some tips from time to time. Anyone who reads this, please leave a comment and let me know if it might be something you would be interested in. I have been a bit reluctant to post about anything not strictly related to Second Life fashion because of the Fashion Planet aggregator.