Fantasy is Escapist, and that is its Glory

β€œFantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
[J.R.R. Tolkien]

Isn’t Second Life a place where we can escape reality? Isn’t Second Life a place to experiment and live visions and dreams? – To me it is!

I am not saying my way is the best or the only one, as Second Life is a platform where everyone can do and life what ever they want. It should be a place where you can do everything that you can imagine and dream of for yourself. As kids we played Barbie or enjoyed various roleplay like Cowboy and Indian, Robin Hood and the Lady Marian or what ever we wanted. To me Second Life is just an extension of that.

I can dress up with everything my mood is leading me to. Mostly it is something I could not wear in RL. Sometimes it can be casual as well but usually it has some twist on it to make it my own. Often I was told, you need to decide to a certain direction to set a trademark or make yourself a brand – I never could decide for one and why should I in a world that gives you like nearly unlimited options? I thought by myself if it could not be my trademark to not have a certain look or style πŸ˜‰

Since I decided about that, I felt so much more free to experiment and play with all kind of things. There is only a few things, I set as my own limits to myself. I never would do porn, as I personally think there is no need to do that on a virtual fashion blog, as you can do so much more with nudity or semi nudity in an artistic way and it is nothing that I would like to share with a wide range of people anyways. As well i never would touch any illegal things, that go against common sense or the law, I never felt the desire to do such at all. That said, I just have fun playing with several things and lately I do love creating my own sceneries and backgrounds or add something personal to places I do love to snap at.

One of my favorite sim collectives for fantasy themed pictures is the Ippos Collective. A consortium of 4 sims. Sylpha, Nymphai, Ippos and Pegasoi. Each sim has a certain theme to it and all of them are decorated in an amazing way with much love to the details. All of them are changing their seasons, which always gives new things and settings to discover. There are a few parcels that are rented, but as long as you respect their privacy you can even rezz some props and pose stands to make your perfect shot. The owners are extremely sweet and kind and always have an open ear if you need help or advice. Most of them do amazing pictures like for example Duchess Flux. I am very happy to be allowed to call her a friend. She was there, backed me up and trusted me in some of the darkest hours of my SL. I won’t ever forget that – Thank you Duchie β™₯

I only can give a rough view of the sims as no words I know would satisfy the beauty of those very special places. You need to wander all across the collective and even then you won’t see everything on your first walk πŸ˜‰

Ippos is mostly a residential sim. It has a beautiful landscape of a fantasy world, like a hidden treasure in the middle of a forest. No wonder that it is built in such an beautiful way, since well known SL bloggers and photographers call that palce their home and the parcels are really desired and not often open for new rentals.

On Nymphai you will find all the amazing events like the Enchantment or the Secret Affair as well as some main stores of fantastic and creative designers.

Pegasoi to me looks more like the romantic and sweet fantasy part of the group. You will find the Lady Garden Cabaret there, which shows monthly shows of amazing and creative artists.

Last but not least we have Sylpha, the water sim. Any desire you have for water based pictures you will find there. Weather you would like to do some peaceful island pictures or you actually would like to really swim in Linden water together with fishes and dolphins – everything is possible!

If you like more and detailed info about the Ippos Collective just take a look atΒ https://threadsandtuneage.com/ippos/

If you are in such an amazing fantasy environment you have to dress up to fit in there πŸ˜‰ This time I wanted to showcase one of the amazing hats from Spartin Parx. The “Milli” hat comes with a huge HUD. You can change the base to 6 different colors and the sweet roses on the top have a variety of 9 colors to chose from.

I thought a long time about how I could style it to not loose the focus on the hat but as well have a cute fantasy look. First I thought about something uniform based, I do not know why and I discovered very fast that this was not the way it would work out. The hat had a Victorian touch to me and finally I found a sweet doll looking outfit that just did the trick πŸ˜‰ For the boots I went with the “Kora” boots form UTOPIA@Design. I do have an addiction to over-knee boots, maybe because I do not often have the opportunity to wear them RL, as they would not fit into my everyday job most of the time ;). With the laces in the front, they totally matched the Victorian look, while the steel caps in the front added some strong, modern feelings to the whole look, which i loved a lot for the whole photo composition.

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: Violent Seduction – “Madame Chevaliere” (Maitreya,Gacha – Bra, Corset, Paudrons & Skirt)

Gloves: Maddict – “Starlet Gloves” (Maitreya)

Shoes: UTOPIA@Design – “Kora” (Maitreya)

Hat: Spartin Parx – “Millie”

Collar: Zombie Suicide – “Willow Collar”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: No.Match – “No.Call”

Makeup: Slackgirl – “Kam” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Chooli” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Props: JIAN – “Wolf Pack & Companion” & Moon_Sha – “Cinderella’s Pumpkins” (Gacha, Ultrarare)

Location

The Ippos Collective

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

 

 

 

 

Envy and Jealousy are incurable diseases…

Those who enjoy their own emotionally bad health and who habitually fill their own minds with the rank poisons of suspicion, jealousy and hatred, as a rule take umbrage at those who refuse to do likewise, and they find a perverted relief in trying to denigrate them.

[Johannes Brahms]

It never stops to make me sad to see how some people try to make others life miserable for no reason. Not that I would not know it does exist but that does not mean I do understand it. The world is so huge and there is place for each and everyone. Some humans seem to believe, they do have to try to make others look bad and it does not want to get into my brain why. Do they feel better as others? Does it give them a “I am the better one” feeling? Does it give them any kind of satisfaction? Do they get up in the morning and the first thought is who they could trash today? If it would not be such a bad thing I would say I feel pity for those who cannot just enjoy their life by using all energy to make something out of themselves. But since it always involves that others get hurt by that, I can’t feel pity at all. I always try to figure out what kind of people that are. It cannot be successful ones as those would not need to put a bad light on others. They cannot be very self esteemed, as they probably suck all their power from others pain and sadness. They cannot be very creative as then they would use their energy to do something. They always try to justify their doing with the try to convince someone that they do it for law and order, while they are just doing it to feed their sick addiction of enjoying the sadness and pain they cause for others. There is even no way you could tell such people that they are wrong as they are so deeply caught in their addiction – like drug addicts, they never would admit they are addicted until they have serious physical problems.
Since we cannot do anything against it, the big question is how we deal with it… I guess there is no general way how to deal with it and everyone has to decide personally about how to handle it. First of all you have to find a way to not let to close to you. That is probably the hardest part as we are all humans and if we get attacked, it hurts. But that is exactly what those folks want and what we should not give them. It is only human nature that you instantly think you have to justify yourself, but you do not – especially if you did nothing wrong! It seriously is senseless to respond to such tries, as you never will get down a point against those trolls – they simply cannot see it (remember… addicts!) They will twist every word you say into something that works for them and against you. Anyways how you react or what you will do – it is just pointless.
The best is just to ignore and forget about them… in the end you must have done something right or spectacular, otherwise those people would not have tried to come after you.
After venting, I would love now to get a closer view on my todays look πŸ˜‰

Today I do not have one special item to focus on, it again was one of those lucky days where different things all of a sudden resulted in a whole.

[Gos] released an amazing combination of leather pants and funky ankle boots for the current round of UBER & FaMESHed. The “Liz” ankle boots (UBER) and leather pants (FaMESHed)!

Again Gospel Voom amazed me with his design and texture skills on both creations. The leather pants have a perfect shine if you use the materials version and the booties fit perfect with the leather pants. It is always hard to find matching shoes for long pants without getting any mesh clipping problems. I chose black for both “Liz” creations, because they reflected the light so amazingly.

Shoes often do not ge the spotlight they deserve and that is why I included a close up with different colors, just in case the dark green swallows too much of the shoes πŸ˜‰ The shoes again come in all popular body sizes and with the 3 amazing HUD options that lately are standard for [Gos]. The Boutique, the Blueberry and the Metallic HUD. AS well you have the choice for a materials enabled version and one without.

First I thought, To wear some gloves but then I found the amazing “Rallen” set that has makeup, lipstick and that amazing arms applier. That worked so much better than any gloves I found πŸ˜‰

The cool and funky necklace was made by Zib Scaggs as well. I really do love her crazy and funky designs as they always ad a extravagant touch to every style.

The amazing veil, was made by a very dear friend of mine. She does create for quite some time now and it is amazing to see what fierce ideas she comes up with. Anyways if makeup, headpieces or accessories, she has that little ‘something’ that make her creations very special. The “Shell Veil” comes with a huge HUD for the veil itself and the ruffled flowers on the top of the head. You get all kind of color and texture options with that πŸ™‚

I hope after my little venting at the top, I could do satisfaction to all those creations πŸ˜‰

Thanks a lot for reading and maybe you have your own experiences and ways, how you deal with trolls and all those who try to make others look bad and want to share that in the comments πŸ˜‰ Have a wonderful time and enjoy the happy side of life!

 

Outfit & Accessories:

Top: .:PULSE:. – “Proclivity Top” (Maitreya)

Staps: ::GB:: – “Body Belt” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Pants: [Gos] – “Liz Leather Pants” (Maitreya) – NEW @ FaMESHed

Shoes: [Gos] – “Liz Ankle Boots” (Maitreya) – NEW @ UBER

Rings: Meva – “Victorian Bento Rings” (Maitreya)

Headpiece: Spartin Parx – “Shell Veil”

Necklace: Zibska – “Syra”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Opale – “Yunjin”

Makeup 1: .AiShA. – “Be Dramatic Eyeshadow 3” (LeLutka Applier)

Makeup 2: Zibska – “Rallen Makeup” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Rallen Lips” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Arms: Zibska – “Rallen” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: Poseidon

Signs: *paper moon* – “City Ord. Signs”

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

“I don’t use a hat as a prop. I use it as a part of me.”

How a hat makes you feel is what a hat is all about.
[Philip Treacy]

Do you know the feeling if you get something to blog and it even comes from a long time friend? Exactly that happened to me with Spartin Parx. Spartin and me go way back and I even remember one of our first shoots. The more I got excited when I saw the box with her name on it πŸ˜‰ When I opened the box, I found 2 amazing hats in there and you all know how much I do love extraordinary, huge headpieces :p

I wanted to give each hat the spotlight that it deserves and that is why I only will have one of the hats for today πŸ™‚

The “Izumi Kasa” hat was my first choice as it instantly gave me a vision for a picture.

The huge hat covers most of your head and face and a long lace hangs down from your chin. A HUD provides you many options for the top of the hat and as well for the huge round part with different colors and patterns.

What else you can wear to such a great hat than a little bot of nothing?*grins*

But if it is a little bot of nothing, it has to be a great one πŸ˜‰ The amazing detailed harness from Salt & Pepper is a perfect example how strong little things can be. Together with a bra from Devious Mind and sexy panties from Opium’s addiction it makes the perfect outfit for the huge hat.

To get even more focus on the hat and the shoes, I decided to go with a black and red contrast. I love to have a single color to pop out and red against black is something that is not very rare, but it always works πŸ˜‰

The cool shoes I am wearing are from UTOPIA@Design. Elisabetta Hyun never stops to surprise me with her shoe designs. Always when you think THAT is the best shoe I ever saw, her next release tops it again. Exactly that happened with the “Zafira” boots again. The cool front, which is highly decorated with straps and buckles gives a wonderful opposite to the clean backside.

The shoes have the awesome HUD, that comes with all the UTOPIA@Design shoes. With 9 presets you can have a quick fit and with the Multi texture HUD you can change several parts of the boots. The special again are the 5 different glossiness levels you can choose from if you have advanced lightning enabled. The boots come with fits for Maitreya, both Slink and all 3 Belleza sizes.

It is really interesting to base styles on certain accessories – It always feels like an adventure, where I never know what I will end up with when I start it πŸ˜‰ You really should try that sometimes – just pick one accessory that you stuck to and see what happens if you add certain things πŸ˜‰

Outfit & Accessories:

Bra: !dM – “Lara BondageBra” (Maitreya)

Panties: Opiums’s Addiction – “Alexa” (Maitreya)

Harness: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Tam” (Maitreya)

Shoes: **UTOPIA@Design** – “Zafira” (Maitreya)

Hat: Parx Design – “Izumi Kasa Hat” – NEW@NEO Japan

Bracelet and Rings: Codex – “Maristel” (Maitreya, Bento)

Nails: Meva – “Bento Nails 3” (Maitreya, Bento) – NEW@Easter Egg Hunt

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

Morgan Le Fay

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