Through the Eyes Of Others -- Featuring {{BSD}} from Cosmetics Fair, RD Style and Curves 4 Her from DOPE Fashion Week, and EMO-tions

About once every 10 or so outfits I style, I do so with the darkest skin option at Kyxe Skins & Shapes. I know that many models, and probably many SL-ers in general choose one skin, one skintone, and find themselves settled into that identity. I completely understand that. I was 5'3", slim, tanned skin, and red hair for a long time in SL, and I made my own clothes.

The reason I change tones, and it's not only to the Walnut darkest tone or Alabaster lightest gone, makes a difference to me in a way I would not have predicted when I first began to do so. I feel like I tap into different parts of my spirit, my interests, my understanding of the world around me and maybe for a moment, I have a glimpse into lives and cultures other than my own. I do much the same with hair color as well. I've eased a long way from an exact preference, and the freedom to mold and morph my 'me' into so many varieties fulfills me.

I love the diversity of the world around me, and not just the world in my backyard. I have met people from Australia, South Africa, Italy and Ireland. I've heard their accents, embraced their point of view and absorb it like it's a sweet treat and I wouldn't get enough if I tried a new bite every day. All of us find our life journey taking a path that we create. Our now, our current culture and technical breakthroughs make it possible to see the life journey of others as well, through mixed media, through email, voice conferences at work or home, and in that, we really do get to view a hundred or a thousand other life journeys besides our own and learn something from that exposure.

Kin used to mean the people in your immediate circle. Family lived within 20 miles of one another all their lives. I think it's great that now, my kin live all over the world, and I can see things through their lives occasionally. I might over simplify, with the whole styling concept, but it's neat to me. I don't think I'd cross over and try being male, but I also work hard to avoid the word never. For now, I enjoy the vast diversity of exposure, and experience, and appreciate Kyxe Skins & Shapes for making this little exercise that's meaningful to my life possible.

I find great joy in styling and this blog would not be possible without these contributors:

Featuring from Cosmetics Fair {{BSD Design Studio}} Spring Break Disco Makeup Series

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week Amelie Outfit RD Style

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week Curves 4 Her Bring It On Slip On Shoes

Featuring EMO-tions Vanya Set

1. Apple Spice Poses

2. [elika]: Breathe

3. Sexy Mama Sculpted Nails

4. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Walnut Skin Tone

5. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

6. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Adriana Lipsticks

Life's Tapestry -- Featuring Liv-Glam, *Les Petits Details*, BAOBA, Chop Zuey, Truth, and KaTink

I've done a composite photo, with two smaller photos added, as this is a composite styling that includes designers from all over the place supporting events of all kinds in Second Life. From Couturier's Docks, *Les Petits Details* offers Judith boots. At L'Accessories, you will find this spring welcoming hat from BAOBA.

If you take time to see who's invested time and craft into DOPE Fashion Week, you'd find this new mini from Liv-Glam - Waking Up In Vegas (sounds fun doesn't it!?). KaTink has new releases out that include the pose set Chasing Butterflies and the Backgrounds Pack Soft Blooms both of which are part of a charity drive called the EB Charity Event. Chop Zuey created a whole array of beads in Easter colors and gave them away last weekend to her group.

And last but surely not least, I have a special thank you to the one who sent me a gift card for Truth; I enjoyed the process of narrowing down ideas, til I found a style that suited me and the essence of this time of year, frolicking with butterflies. The more exposure I have to a diverse and free spirited group of designers, content creators, people who love and live a life of joy and value in Second Life, the more I embrace and treasure my experiences. We're all bits of fabric on a massive life tapestry.

The following designers offered an array of frolicking fun and helped create this look:

Featuring KaTink Soft Blooms Background Pack for EB Charity Event Donating 50% of Proceeds

Featuring KaTink Chasing Butterflies Poses for EB Charity Event Donating 50% of Proceeds

Featuring Liv-Glam Waking Up In Vegas from DOPE Fashion Week

Featuring BAOBA from L'Accessories Delicacy Blue

Featuring NEW from Truth Harriet

Featuring Chop Zuey's Easter Gift - A Wee Bit O Easter Beige Pieces

Featuring *Les Petits Details* Judith Boots from Couturier's Docks

1. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Papaver Skin Tone Makeup 1

2. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

3. Candy Nail: Resort Sunset

On the Go -- From DOPE Fashion Week -vibe-, [CA], and From the Cosmetics Fair blackLiquid

I went over to Image Essentials Props and Poses early in the day or late in the night. Which one is it, if it's 2 a.m. but you haven't slept yet? I love going over there because Kay Weston set out to create a whole sim suited to photography and art, and put her touch on so many little mini-settings. I go over there from time to time just to see what's new.

When I pan back on a shot, it's because I just feel the energy and warmth of a place I visit, and want to show more than just a girl in a dress and leggins. There's something special about tapping into one another's imaginations. I get to dip into hers, and when I put on designs from people around the grid, I get to dip into theirs as well.

DOPE Fashion week is now at it's midway point. I've showed a few items and have a few more I hope to get out before it ends this weekend. It's great because its for Urban Wear and it's a theme I don't do a lot with otherwise. When I get a few pieces, from those who are participating, I've had fun pushing the envelope, and pushing myself just a smidge as well.

I don't think any of us would enjoy life if we found ourselves living in a rut. I cannot stand boredom. I think it's a cardinal sin, if there is such thing as a cardinal sin. The moment I even think I'm in a rut, I'm rushing around in my head to find something fresh, some new direction, and of course, always a new way to touch the world around me as much as it has touched me.

I am grateful to the designers who are represented here for their contribution to this style:

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week -vibe- On the Go Spring Leggins

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week [CA] Flower Dress Grape Mix

Featuring from Cosmetics Fair blackLiquid Eyewear Feline

1. Truth: Soleil

2. Gaeline Mesh Lashes: Divina

3. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

4. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Papavar Skin Tone

5. SLink: Elegant 1

6. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Nail Appliers

7. lassitude & ennui: Nostalgia Mesh Boots Purple

8. In-Pose!

9. Demise of Flight Poses

Setting Goals and Reaching Them -- Featuring *Living Imagination*, **Feel** and Pink Acid from DOPE Fashion Week

Winning and accolades come randomly. I really didn't know I was entered in a contest during the SAVIAD Spring Fair. I felt so honored to be included, it was a sense of acceptance, and a feeling of growing up into this image of myself that I wanted to be some 2 years ago when I began this leg of my life's journey in fashion and modeling in Second Life.

I had a specific idea where I wanted to go, and worked at it diligently. I knew that everything takes time, and steps are small at first, and then you learn to run. By the time I was recognized by the team at SAVIAD along with two other amazing bloggers, I found myself right where I wanted to be, and such a sense of wonder and comfort simultaneously for getting there.

I've received a few items to blog since SAVIAD ended, including this amazing dress - Silent Flowers - from Living Imagination. The privilege to work with the designers who participate in Couturier's Dock makes me smile. It's a culmination of so many specific decisions and activities. There were Linden involved in the win, but that has never been a goal of mine, nor will it. I just wanted to find my niche in this world, an acceptance that tells me what I do has value to others, helps in some way, and fills a need. It's a process, a determination, and so when I found myself here, putting together the style for Living Imagination, I just exhaled with delight at the opportunity.

I know that in many ways, I've only begun to grow, and know there is so much more to know. Life is like that. By the time we get to a goal, there's a new destination just off on the horizon, beckoning us to come, and we listen to that far off voice and know that it's just a process. One step. Another.

I thank those who contribute to my world, the designers who make this blog possible:

Featuring Living Imagination Silent Flowers from Couturier's Docks

Featuring **Feel** Triple Diamond Necklace and Earrings

Featuring Pink Acid from DOPE Fashion Week Wet Slick Gloss

1. {{BSD Design Studio}}: Shoetopia Surreal Silver

2. Candy Nail: Qween Rose Spring Pink

3. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Alabaster Skin Tone

4. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Innocence Pinks and Teals

5. Truth: Harlow

6. .::Shellac: Smudged Liner Black

7. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

Deeply Felt Gratitude -- Featuring Silken Moon and Maxi Gossamer, Also from DOPE Fashion Week RJB Jewelry

One of my all time favorite builder/creator continues to manage several sims and add items to them from time to time. I have no idea how she created all that's for sale in her world, but if you've never visited the properties of Julia Hathor, you really should. I go back there month after month, for different seasons, different reasons, always to find another beautiful nook to pose, and enjoy the surroundings. The only down side is that you cannot run scripts. I often use a complicated but useful face light for photos, so I have to set it at home, then port over and take my pictures.

I met a designer from Robin's Jewelry Box, (RJB Jewelry) who's entered some of her pieces in DOPE Fashion Week. She had me over to her personal property, and showed me a whole array of things she'd made. Some were pieces originally crafted for friends and now being sold to any who'd find it interesting. Other pieces she created for the sake of having her own jewelry store. I was particularly fascinated by the chain (on my throat, bracelet and anklet) as she explained she'd had commissioned the link for a special someone. Getting to meet new people in this wide world of fashion remains one of my favorite parts of this thing I do, and I was glad I got to meet her. She told me while I was there, "You're the first blogger I've ever met." I shared with her a few things about me, and about how I've seen different designers make use of the blogger, and hopefully we helped one another out in the sharing.

Malicia Py sent me a little set of feisty fun pieces that are all black and all a little on the "be careful I'm dangerous" side of things. I love this. It's easy for me, and maybe anyone, to get into routines, a specific style that suits me, and I trip easily into those styles and don't think twice. I need to think, to be stimulated, to be encouraged. I played with the details and still have a few things of hers to share. There never seems to be enough time to show all that I want to share, but I hope you see the tidbits of value and creative design through my eyes and realize how wonderfully diverse and interesting these people are whom I have the privilege to work.

This world of fashion and play helps my physical world more than most realize, and makes a difference in a positive way. All of you, every friend, every fellow model, every designer, those who just poke me to say hello, all of you make a difference and in the cacophony of music that is your voices, your touch, your part in my world, I'm healthier and more stable than I'd ever be were you all absent. In case I haven't said it lately, I'm grateful. For the details. For each of you. I'm grateful.

Nothing I do would work without the support of designers, sponsors who make my blog possible:

Featuring Silken Moon Rock Romance 

Featuring Maxi Gossamer Swallow Wings Red/Black Lashes

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week Robins Jewelry Box (RJB) Jewelry Ladies Cuban

1. PoseWay Fiero Set

2. {{BSD Design Studio}}: It Girl Shining Black

3. Candy Nail: Rosey Black

4. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Pearl Basic Skin Tone

-- Fierce Brow Black Option 2

-- Glamour Ombre Nude

-- Shine White Silver

5. Hairoin: 10 Hour Hair

6. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

Are You Imagineering? -- Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week "B.I.P.", Maxi Gossamer, and Kyxe Skins & Shapes

It's rare for me to wear a swimsuit. I haven't been to a beach party in I don't know how long. When I was new to the virtual world, pool and beach parties occurred non-stop, along with all sorts of other ways to celebrate and make sure people wore the clothes you wanted, "Best in Beachwear" or "Best in Blue" didn't matter, just a whole lotta strangers, and a few Linden to make it worth the time, even if you didn't meet a someone special in the process.

I work at a much different point of view within SL now and those sorts of parties feel so far away in the distant recesses of my history. It's weird how 8 years has the ability to feel like a lifetime. Many things have evolved. The very look of SL certainly has. These photos, with the waves, and the water's reflection, and the high quality sculpted pieces used to make the props as well as the buildings in the background all accentuate how much they have.

At Disney, they call almost all of the artists on staff, from the artists who work on the movies, to the ones who create elements for the Magic Kingdom and Disney's other properties and investments, Imagineers. I like the notion of an Imagineer at work, always trying to imagine more and bigger and more interesting, and more fun. I don't know how much the people who created SL put into updating and upgrading the experience in their game, their second world, our Second Life.

Maybe it was their responsibility in the past and now they rely on all of us, the avid users, to embrace the tools we're given to create beautiful new experiences. For fashion, that means pushing the edge of all that is 'normal', figuring out how to import the things we love from the world around us, but also finding ways to create worlds that could never exist within our physics.

I believe the only way to overcome some of the frustrating steps that fashion faces, with the eternal lag, is not to continue doing the same things, but find new ways to do things, and new things to do. Each of us can be Imagineers. We have it in us, even the ones who read this and shout, "I don't have a creative bone in my body." I beg to differ. You probably do. You just haven't tapped into something that released it yet. It's there. Find a figment, and figure out how to translate it to the outlet we share in SL. I know you can. We all can be Imagineers.

Nothing I do would be possible without those who Imagineer every item I style:

Featuring from DOPE Fashion Week "B.I.P." Staxx High Waist Shorts Outfit

Featuring Maxi Gossamer Eyelashes Party Inverted Crown

Featuring Kyxe Fierce Black Brow

1. AIDORU: Dream Tiptoe Feet

2. VicE: Powder Pink Silver Bangles

3. AIDORU: Downtown Glasses

4. **Feel** StarDust Nails

5. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Pearl Skin Tone

6. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Innocence Spring

7. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Captivate Bubble Gum

8. KMADD/Moda: Mesh Eyes

9. [[j'adore]] Poses

10. EMO-tions: Harley

Daft Punk Got Lucky! Can I? -- Featuring [Angels and Demons] from Couturier's Docks, Gold Digger from DOPE Fashion Week

This year, I was introduced to the group Daft Punk via one of the Music Awards shows. I knew the song, "Get Lucky" but didn't know anything about how unique these artists were or how they did not reveal their identities. Sometimes, they look like robots, or perhaps spacemen from the future.

When I got this wonderfully interesting head piece, as soon as I put it on, I felt like I was a floral version of one of the Daft Punk artists. I might stay up all night to get lucky too, while remaining incognito. You can get this headpiece at Couturier's Docks.

DOPE Fashion Week kicks off Monday 21 April and run through the following Saturday 26 April. Gold Digger created the Heart Breaker casual dress, bright lime with black hearts. Wearing this brilliant color certainly attracts attention!

Second Life never leaves us without something to do somewhere, and in fashion, that's ever true. There are events all over the grid, ready to introduce you to a whole array of items and styles. I know working with DOPE, I'll learn a little bit more about urban fashion and that niche of the fashion industry. I hope you do as well as you follow my explorings this next week.

Today's designers include some I've never shared before, and I hope you enjoy as much as I have:

Featuring [Angels and Demons] from Couturier's Docks Hidden Primrose Black Headress

Featuring Gold Digger Heart Breaker Lime from DOPE Fashion Week

1. {{BSD Design Studios}}: Python Heels

2. Kyxe Skins & Shapes: Alabaster Skin Tone

3. SLink: Elegant 1

4. Angels and Demons Black Rose Belly Piercing

5. .::Shellac: Nail Appliers Polka Dot

DOPE Spring Fashion Week 2014 Is Coming Soon!

Only 30 Designers have been accepted as part of 2014 DOPE Spring Fashion Week. 10 of those Designers were handpicked by the fashion team at DOPE Magazine.

A week of fashion that you will not soon forget begins with an Expo on 21 April. Events through the week will celebrate all the new and beautiful things designers have in store for Spring releases. 

Fashion shows dot the week, sure to be informative as well as entertaining!

Watch my blog for more details as they are shared, and be prepared for FABULOUS-ness!