Xen's Pen
Fashionable ramblings from Xenobia Foxclaw's virtual pen.

Yula Finesmith of FineSmith Designs has designed five new collars and honored them after four of her stylistas. Don’t make the mistake of looking at any of the collars and think that is what they have to look like because they can be larger or smaller; they can be retextured with different metals and/or different gems; they can be colored; they can glow or be shiny; and all of these features are controlled by a menu. You’ll have way too much fun playing with the different looks you can have from a single piece of jewelry. What’s more, Yula has promised there are more to come, and I can hardly wait.

ARISIA

Inspired by Arisia Ashmoot

ARISIA 1

Also inspired by Arisia Ashmoot.

BLACKLIQUID

Inspired by BlackLiquid Tokyoska

ELYNA

Inspired by Elyna Carter

SCARLETT

Inspired by Scarlett Loxingly

Style Sheet

All Jewelry: FineSmith Designs

Skin: Al Vulo – Sugar (pink 2 pale)

Hairbase: Amacci – Hairbase Tattoo (Onyx)

Hair Attachment: Amacci – Hair Attachment Rona (Onyx)

Eyelashes: Miamai – No Alpha Lashes No. 6

Eyes: Bower Bird – Everyday Eyes (Wedgewood) (Bower Bird is currently closed; however, if you like the eyes, drop a notecard to the designer, Charm McAndrews and she will respond)

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

It started a short seven weeks ago with a list of weekly challenges–

Week 1, October 8, Steampunk Winner: Scarlett Loxingly

Week 2, October 15, Kitsch Winner: BlackLiquid Tokyoska

Week 3, October 22, Manierism Winner: Xenobia Foxclaw

Week 4, October 29, Surrealism Winner: Leah Portland

Week 5, November 5, Classic Winner: Rissa Friller

Week 6, November 12, Avant Garde  Winner: Elyna Carver

Week 7, November 19, Fetish Winner: ???

Week 8, November 26, White Winner: ???

Week 9, December 3, Contemporary Winner: ???

Week 10, December 10, Fashion Icon Winner: ???

Week 11, December 17, Final Competition Featuring Each Week’s Winner, Theme To-Be-Announced

Want to join the challenge? Find out how here: http://finesmithjewelry.blogspot.com/p/finesmith-jewelry-style-about.html Then join us each Friday morning. The styling is fun, and seeing how everyone else interpreted the theme is even more fun. Even if you don’t want to enter, come watch those who do. Here’s your limousine.

All photos except No. 6: BlackLiquid Tokyoska

Photo 6: Xenobia Foxclaw

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

Week 3: October 22

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.

Manierism - a style in art and architecture from about 1520-1600, one of the features from this style of art being elongated forms, sometimes unrealistically elongated. I chose as my inspiration the Mavis gown from designer Agnes Finney that I think makes me appear taller. Knowing that wearing a single color adds to the illusion of height, I chose a very pale skin from CUPCAKES that has sepia tone makeup. I continued sepia color onto my scalp with a hairbase tattoo from Amacci and a hairdo of my own design that continues the elongated form and encorporates a silver band.

The silver band was added to my hair only after I selected my Finesmith jewelry. – in this case the GLANCE Collection. I love the elongation and layering aspects of both the necklace and the bracelets. They are reflect the layers of the gown.

To complete the look I added white tights from Sheer and white shoes from G Field. All-in-all, I think I’ve interpreted manierism in a great, up-to-date style. I hope you agree.

Unfortunately, I won’t be competing next week or the next or the next. Fortunately, it’s because I won the last styling! Now I’m eligible for the finals on December 17th. I can hardly wait to see what the theme for that is. In the meantime, the theme for this week is surrealism. Not quite sure what that is? Google it, study it, and adapt it to fit you.

Credits

Week 2: October 15

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.

No one did kitsch better than the ladies of the 1950s wearing mass-marketed clothing pieces that were sometimes garish and didn’t always match. Many of the pieces in the outfit could be great pieces, but when added together, the sum was much greater than the individual pieces–and not always in a good way.

Credits

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 love the steampunk style even though I don’t get to wear it often, so I was pleased to see it was the first theme. I began my quest by going to Finesmith Jewelry and looking at the jewelry styles that might be appropriate for a steampunk look. With that information in mind, I went to my favorite location for steampunk wear, Grim Bros.

It took me a few minutes to spot exactly the right Grim Bros. dress with moving gears and lots of piping and matching shoes (Construction Heels Coppersmith). I did some editing to get the gown exactly as I wanted it, and I substituted the Finesmith Nerrative Necklace and Earrings for the jewelry that came with the gown. The necklace and earrings were second cousins to the gears in the gown. To help them fit in, I used the menus to change the size of the earrings so they didn’t sink into my shoulders and rotated them to fit my ears a bit better. i also turned off the shine so the pieces fit in with the rest of the outfit.

Then I added a hat I’d found several months ago on a steampunk hunt (Arundel Designs: Brown with Emerald Geers TopHat)–with moving gears, it was a perfect addition. I selected  an Amacci Hairbase Tattoo in black coal that worked well with the hat and did not interfere with the earrings.  Finally, I selected a skin (CUPCAKES Seduction V2 in Copper/Kona) and eyes (Avantgarda Creations : Inwoods) that complimented the metal of the gown.

I remembered to send the required notecard to yula Finesmith by the 6:00 a.m. Friday deadline, but somehow I didn’t quite understand that I needed to actually show up for a 9:00 a.m. show. Maybe it was the 9:00 a.m. time, maybe I was having a fibro-brainfog moment, maybe I just didn’t read carefully. In any case, I didn’t win because I only halfway entered. However, I had so much fine trying to fit the theme, that I just had to try it the following week.

I apologize to the pose designer, I neglected to record which poses I used.

Photographer and model: Xenobia Foxclaw

The Stevie Wonder lyrics “Isn’t she lovely, isn’t she wonderful…” come to mind when I see the February cover of Avenue Magazine. She is indeed lovely, and Ms. Janina Scarmon makes a wonderful My Precious Queen. In the magazine, you can read the story of how Agnes Finney, designer and owner of My Precious, came up with the idea for the competition. You’ll see some wonderful photos of Queen Janina, and read the words of Roland Zepp as he tells the story.

Stop by My Precious to get your issue. While you’re there, click on the sign that gives directions for entering the February competition. There is a competition each month, so if you miss February’s deadline of the 20th, you can always enter in March. If you don’t win, don’t give up. The entries each month are judged by a panel who have their own opinions about what makes the photos the best. Study the pictures of the winners, see if you can figure out why they won, and try again.

Talia Lefavre of The Graceful Lily is having a competition, and the more people who enter, the bigger the prize!

The rules are pretty simple. Basically they are: Buy a current outfit from The Graceful Lily, take a photo of the outfit, upload it to the Flickr account, send a notecard to Ms. Lefavre with a copy of the picture with full permissions and a list of the dress name and any accessories. Be sure to check the directions for the way to name the card before you send it. You can enter up to three pictures and, although the rules don’t make it clear, I think she would like each picture to be of a different outfit.

Touch The Graceful Lily competition logo above for a limousine to the store. You’ll find a copy of this logo on a sign in the store, click it for the exact rules.

Style Sheet

Gown: The Graceful Lily–Dot Mania (450L)

Boots: Decoy–Jully Boots (Onyx) (285L)

Skin: CUPCAKES–Seduction v.2 (Copper/Obsession) (800L)

Eyes: InSight Eyes–Stars (75L)

Eyelashes: Miamai–NoAlpha Lashes No3 (150L)

Fingernails: CCD–Long Nails Manicure (Magenta) (100L)

Hair: Audacity–Despair (Night) (300L/Naturals Pack)

Poses: Striking Poses (50L/pose)

Model and Photographer: Xenobia Foxclaw

January 2nd was a busy day for the lovely ladies vying for the title of My Precious Queen. Each had won the right to compete after winning the monthly title of My Precious Royal Princess. They appeared in two rounds. First they modeled a cocktail dress designed by Agnes Finney accessorized in any way they liked. When they were in front of the judges, they explained what they would do to represent My Precious if they were chosen Queen. During the second round, they wore gowns designed by Agnes Finney accessorized in their own style. Each contestant answered a question that related to My Precious. When the judges made their final decisions, the ladies were called back to the stage where the winners were announced.

My Precious Queen 2009 Janina Scarmon

2nd Place Winner Julia Brand

3rd Place Winner Ireland Anthony

Judges for the event were Will Finney from My Precious; Alienbear Gupte owner and designer of Alienbear Design; Sykao Adamski, owner and designer of Entre Mares Designs; Mui Mukerji, of Alienbear Design; Rusch Raymaker, Founder and CEO of Avenue, Inc.; Jesika Centepomi, Chief Market Officer of Avenue, Inc.; and Agnes Finney, owner and designer of My Precious. Providing music for the event was Jezzika Debevec, one of the best DJs in SL.

Interested in entering the event for next year? It’s never too early to enter…the January entries are being accepted now. Pick up a set of the new rules at My Precious today.