Rising Expectations

It’s been a while since I have blogged Phoenix Rising – and that’s unfortunate because the clothes are even more distinctive and fun. Take this lovely outfit called Motive, is there anything more fun that that lovely plaid corset with the wide sash and belt?

Pardon Me, I’m Dressing!

posted by Gidge Uriza

This chemise with garters is a sexy addition to your lingerie collection – of which I know you always need more. I chose the steele blue color because apparently I’m stuck on blue today but it comes in a rainbow of beautiful hues for whatever your favorite color might be.

Icy Noelle

posted by Gidge Uriza

Icy blue is one of my favorite colors for the holidays.  This release from Sysy is an elegant tafetta textured gown that I was in love with the first minute I saw it.

Quick Look: Maitreya & More

A mix of old and new bring this warm and cozy outfit together. For additional pictures and style notes, see after the cut.

Ode-worthy

Hart Larsson’s long-awaited July from PXL Creations is launched today at the Skin Fair @ Vanity Universe and it’s worth the wait. This is the sort of skin that could move a poet to write an ode. It’s a masterful demonstration of how light and shadow highlight, define and create beautiful skin. It had me scrambling to recall a poem by Pablo Neruda called Ode to a Naked Beauty. Don’t get too excited, though, my photos are better suited to a poem called Ode to a Bathing Beauty.

The line of your back
separating you
falls away into paler regions
then surges
to the smooth hemispheres
of an apple,
and goes splitting
your loveliness
into two pillars
of burnt gold, pure alabaster,
to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet,
from which, once more, lifts and takes fire
the double tree of your symmetry:
flower of fire, open circle of candles,
swollen fruit raised
over the meeting of earth and ocean.

from Ode to a Naked Beauty by Pablo Neruda

Fall Weather is Here – Get Out Your Tights!

Posted by Gidge Uriza

Since I never throw anything away, I had these excellent ribbed tights that were part of a funky disco outfit from Pixel Dolls last year. When I saw this sweater/skirt set at Honey Soul – I knew they’d make a great fall look.

Content Theft Hurts Us All

Content theft would fade as a problem if the market for stolen products dried up. Some folks think copying and theft and sharing stolen content is an acceptable part of the internet culture. After all, the Pirate Party has two seats in the European Parliament. People justify it as some sort of new frontier of share and share alike, or blame the victims as greedy corporatists or minimize the theft as mere pennies and meaningless. Not only are these justifications false, they fail to recognize that content theft hurts consumers.

I am going to list a few ways I think theft hurts those of us who are not content creators. I would not be surprised if some of you can think of others.

1. Distrust is I think the worst result of content theft. Even innocent behavior like standing still for 20-30 minutes in a store (taking a phone call in real life perhaps) can lead to suspicion as that is a common behavior of thieves who stand there copying content. What if you buy a lot of demos?  Lots of thieves buy demo hair, for example, and then delete the attachments.
2. Anti-theft measures that affect the shopping experience such as click to show you are a real person popup windows. The CopyBot Quit chat spam that greets you one arrival in a store. Yes, I know it doesn’t work. People still use it.
3. Anti-theft measure that affect content quality/convenience. This includes things like wearable items that disappear if you rez them. If you like to wear multiple items sometimes you might want to rez two wearable prims and link them to save an attachment point, but thanks to copybotters some designers add scripts that make things poof and disappear from your inventory if they are rezzed. The increasing use of no-mod permissions limiting our ability to edit our items to fit, our ability to link items to save attachment points and our ability to fine-tune our hair color to our liking.
4. Increased use of resize scripts for everything that needs fitting – which means increased lag and more difficulty in teleporting – unless you remember to delete the resize script (if you can.) Moreover, you know darn well that most people are not deleting those scripts which means more lag for everyone.
5. Linden Labs is planning to restrict the use of alternate viewers to those who they certify. This will  discourage innovation and improvements in the viewer experience.
6. Great designers quitting and leaving because they are discouraged. Mirai Jun of Ce Cubic Effect was such an innovator in clothing form and design that I eagerly awaited every release to see what new advance in sculptie use he would produce. Just one designer of many designers who have quit in discouragement at the level of theft, the acceptance of theft by residents and the dilatory response from Linden Labs.
7. Anti-Inspect Shields and the tremendous lag they produce. These are mostly worn by people trying to hide their stolen content. If it’s not true about you, well, that’s another example of the suspicion drawn on innocent behavior by content theft. However, since they produce tremendous lag, no polite and considerate resident would wear one anyway.
8. Loss of community. Content theft creates distrust and drama. It breeds anger and resentment. Friendships are lost, feelings are hurt and there is a huge emotional toll. Even the responses to content theft engender anger, drama and anxiety. This damages all of us.

So, fight back against content theft for a better community with more designers, more innovation and more fun and friendship for us all.  For information on how to respond when you find stolen content and how to recognize suspicious content, go to The Artist’s Voice or Step Up!

The Crows

The Designers United event is always fascinating. It’s wonderful to see the way creative minds percolate away, bubbling up with new and exciting ideas even when they focus on one central theme. This time the theme was crows and there were some truly fabulous designs produced. It reminded me, though, of a dress from Redgrave – this Cord Sequin Mini-Dress I bought several months ago, so I pulled it out to mix in with some of the Designers United pieces for a new look. The hot demi-gloves come with the Redgrave dress. The bracelets are from Zaara and Gabriel.

I’m No Ingenue – Or AM I?

posted by Gidge Uriza

I’m online so intermittently lately – sigh. I MISS everything. But I got sooo lucky that I caught this release from Ingenue. I can’t say enough about how much I always LIKE Ingenue when I wear it – and I should freaking blog them more.

I’m a huge fan of a well made system skirt with gorgeous, rich texture and this classic retrol styled GENE dress doesn’t disappoint.  This color or the red it also comes in would make a totally AWESOME holiday party dress.

Black Magic Woman

I got a Black Magic Woman.
I got a Black Magic Woman.
Yes, I got a Black Magic Woman,
She’s got me so blind I can’t see;
But she’s a Black Magic Woman and
she’s trying to make a devil out of me.

I’m not to proud to steal a comment from my Flickr photo of this dress. Harper left that comment for the dress and while I had not thought of that when I put the look together, I liked the idea. Actually, when i was putting it together I was thinking of Logan’s unfortunate outfit on Project Runway last week, the one with 40 zippers. Now, this dress from Exclusiva is a much better example of zippers as embellishment and a much hotter look, in my opinion.