Week 4: October 29
Yula Finesmith is sponsoring a weekly competition in which she challenges models to use at least one piece of her jewelry in an outfit to fit the theme of the week. You can read all about the competition and how to enter here.
I was unable to enter this week’s competition, but my inability to enter was a good reason–I won last week’s competition in Manierism that I blogged about in my last entry. However, my ineligibility to enter did not keep me from dressing appropriately for the theme that this week was surrealism. I had to read to learn about what surrealism was for sure, and while reading, I discovered my inspiration.
My surreal outfit was inspired by my favorite surrealist artist—you may think of him as an author and illustrator of children’s books, but many of his illustrations, as well as his other works of art, are definitely surrealistic—Theodor Seuss Geisel—known more popularly as Dr. Seuss. Coming dressed as a simple human or even completely as an animal wouldn’t be surreal, but coming as an animal with a human face and body—that’s surreal.
What inspired my choice of a butterfly was the hair with the antenna that I found at Love Soul during a Crazy Arse Hair Hunt. It looked as though it had been spirited out of one of Dr. Seuss’ illustrations—color and all. I spent some time searching for wings and never found exactly what I wanted—something with heavy black lines and two or three bright colors. However, I found this great pair of purple wings at Material Squirrel.
To fit the Seuss theme I couldn’t go with a plain black body, and I didn’t have a skin that matched the hair, but it seemed more Seuss-like to wear a skin that was a different color anyway, so I chose a light green skin called Fern from the fantasy skins at CUPCAKES and added red eyebrows from the CUPCAKES London skins. Then I added green eyes from Avantgarda Creations to reflect the green color of the skin. Of course, no surrealistic butterfly would be caught dead without her eyelashes, and mine came from Miamai.
Real butterflies don’t wear clothing, but a surrealistic butterfly would wear something unexpected. So, I donned a black swimsuit from Nicky Ree, over-the-knee black boots from Thalia’s Fashion Collection and above-the-elbow gloves from the Empress Gown from My Precious. Since we all know that butterflies love flowers, I added the perfect necklace and earrings—the Forever Bride Set from FineSmith Designs that just happen to be the prize in the Pumpkin Hunt—and those completed the look of my surrealistic, Dr.-Seuss-llike butterfly. I suspect Dr. Seuss would have loved Second Life.
Next week’s competition will be Friday, November 5. The notecard is due to Yula Finesmith no later than 6:00 a.m. SLT on that day and the runway competition is at 9:00 a.m. SLT. (See the link in the first paragraph for specific information about what is needed.) The theme for next week is Classic. Hmmmm, now I wonder what that means in the art world and how that translate into fashion. If you don’t know either, I’ll see you on Google.
Photographer and Model: Xenobia Foxclaw
