Today I planned a trip down Rodeo Drive for a little retail therapy. Shopping in SL has become one of my main priorities and jobs along with browsing the fashion blogs for any new goodies that I can find or new places that I had never heard before. It’s amazing that I find myself dressing up specially just to go shopping. Being in this fashion industry has certainly taken it’s toll but that’s no matter because I’m definitely not complaining! Here’s just glimpse of my day-to-day outfit out on the town. I love dressing in casual yet chic, modern and elegant clothes that give off an air of sophistication without being too stuffy and buttoned up.

Top: House of Hucci – Jalston Jumpsuit Black (top)
Bottoms: The Secret Store – Flared Pants cream
Shoes: R.icielli – plastic set shoes (Previous TDR)
Hair: Exile – Camille (Previous TDR)
Necklace: Mandala - kagetora necklace
Ring: Milky way Ring (ring only)
Gloves: The Secret Store – Fine Gloves White
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 Prima Donna Couture was started by Teyonce OHare. By simply making a Tee-shirt for a baby shower, her designs and style soon transformed to bold and fashionable.

Recently featured in a well known magazine DOPE MAGAZINE in the June issue, Prima Donna Couture will soon be opening a new store in a new location featuring more collections and styles including but not limited to women's fashion, maternity, children's, and very possibly men's clothing as well.

The current collection we featured is her Untamed Collection which was originally The Go Wild Collection. This collection is based around a jungle theme utilizing beautiful prints and wild animals as the subject.

Our Models For The Show Was:
MaHyeRi
Alethia Bonham
Koko Diabolito
Secrets Baily
Shaza Denver

They Was rocking some wonderful outfits..If you miss the show..below is a review of what you miss!










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So there’s something that I wanted to discuss today and it seems like I’m not the only one with this issue and topic on the brain. If you haven’t heard yet let me be one of the first to fill you in right here, right now. Linden Labs has reported that they will be disabling the search in V1 based viewers. What does this mean to you as a user and resident? Well it’s quite simple, this will, in effect, cause all V1 viewers of LL or third party viewers to become pretty much useless and unusable. Why is LL forcing these changes on the residents when it has become clear that people are still not happy with the upgrades or satisfied with all the new changes even after a year of it’s initial release? One of the many reasons is that they are planning to introduce MESH into the grid in the coming months in rolling phases.

What is Mesh and how is it an improvement to your second life experience? Well this will not only cut down on the usage of prims and as a consequence the lag that we go through daily, it is also much friendlier to those with lower graphics cards. Take a look at the youtube video and it’s brief introduction on Mesh in second life.

A Brief Look at Second Life Mesh Support

So to those that have refused to go to team V2, it soon looks like you’ll have no choice. But wait! There have been some people that refuse to bow to low to these new changes and the Phoenix team is one of them as they recently have released their new Firestorm 2 Beta which is so good that it could be an official release. In my personal opinion Firestorm is a combination of everything I loved about v1 in phoenix and the old LL viewer along with v2. While you can’t change the look (although skins are available to change even if they are not stable at the moment) you can adjust and customize the interface much more than you could with the LL V2 viewer. Below I took a picture to give you a glimpse into the Firestorm Viewer.

Outfit Credits:

Dress: Crissy Designs – *Sonya* Denim
Shoes: P10 – Serenity Heels Denim (free)
Hair: Exile – Kumiko
Skin: [Al Vulo!] – Ninni Shine cocoa
Tattoo: [AvB] – Night Fever
Bracelets: BND – Black Ethnik bangles
Ring: [Mandala] – Milky Way ring & nail (ring only)

I liked the interface of the LL V2 viewer but I hated how it looked cluttered with the sidebar that would not go away. With the firestorm you still have the option of keeping the sidebar and the options can pup out at the sides or you can completely undock them like in the phoenix viewer. My favorite aspect of the 2.0 viewer is that the notices aren’t so noticeable! I always hated how it they would pop up and there was no way to hide them but not with the V2. The buttons below are customizable as well which is another thing to note. I can move them around or hide them with a simple click of the mouse as well as resize the chat bar however I want depending on how much I use it.

Another thing you may have noticed if you were looking closely enough was that Firestorm has an embedded Animation Override. Below you’ll find a tutorial on how to customize it however you need. I found that there were a few bugs when I sat down because it didn’t automatically switch to my sitting animation. Or it would switch to it and then pop back to my standing animation which annoyed the hell out of me and I’m starting to think it’s more trouble than it’s worth to even use it. Hopefully with the next release they will have fixed this problem.

Be sure to take a look a the videos below to get a better idea of all the different aspects they are offering in this release. I think this offers the best of both worlds in the V2 and V1 viewers. I also want to make a note that this is probably the most stable I have been in second life, especially compared with my previous use of the LL 2.0 viewer. I probably crash about 3 times a week, if that, and I’m definitely not using a high powered computer. It works so well that I actually run smoothly even when I move my graphic setting is moved to ultra for more than 15 minutes.

Firestorm Public Beta Video Tutorial/Orientation

Firestorm AO – Part 1 Importing

Firestorm AO – Part 2 Customization

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Now this is such a long overdue post for the fashion conscious males of second life. I sincerely apologize for neglecting you and your interests in this creative world of fashion and am making up for it with three great outfits that are all under L$100 except for the skin which was L$300 if I’m not mistaken and came with an outfit of it’s own which I’m not displaying just for my personal taste. I have recently been exploring the world of male fashion and how you guys go about finding your great purchases. It felt a bit alien to me if I was to be honest and being in a male oriented store and stuffing all the male gift items made me feel even weirder. But that’s all in the past and it paid off because I came away with some great items. A few of these are hunt items, others are gifts, and others still are bargain finds from my time browsing and perusing the markeplace. Modeling Credits go to Tacitus Cortes. Thank yew for being my inspiration!

Hair: Jaryth’s Barber Shop – Clipper Cuts – Sabastian Black
Skin: Zyra – Donato
Outfit: **GizzA** May Group Gift (Male)
Shoes: HOC Industries – Skoochers 2 (brown)

Hair: MADesigns – Gili – Dark Brown V (Men’s Stuff Hunt)
Skin: Zyra – Donata
Pants: Black Capris DS (marketplace)
Shirt: -Phoenix Rising- Push (Grey)
Shoes: HOC Industries – Skoochers 2 (black)

Hair: MADesigns – Gili – Dark Brown V (Men’s Stuff Hunt)
Skin: Zyra – Donata
Outfit: **GizzA** Avenue Group Gift

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I’ve recently been exploring the art world of second life as a way of broadening my horizons as I also improved and expanded my ever-increasing wardrobe. I just recently visited the Gruntled Gallery by Alexx Fenstalker (aka Thomas Griffith) and wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I steped into his surreal reality. I happened to come across his work through the Showcase SL search and it states, “Apartment 5B is an art installation by Artist Alexx Fenstalker. The installation is meant to be a comtemplation of how mental disorder and family dysfunction affects the lives of those it touches. All aspects of the installation are handmade, including all of the texturse which were painted in gouache.”

I also decided to dress up for the ocassion and gallery viewing with a beautiful dress from | Aleida | that I came across while browsing through the online marketplace for some inspiration. They’re having a closing sale apparently so I’d advise to get your last minute buys while you still can. When I stepped into the so called “apartment 5B” which resembled a small house rather than an actual apartment I was initally confused until I turned on the music and just soaked up the images that my brain attempted to process. I found myself near tears within 10 minutes of visiting and whether it was the inspirational piano pieces by Michael Bartels warbling over the speakers or the desolate and painful images scattered around the room is unclear. But to have something affect me as no art has ever affected me has really brought a new perspective to me and my view on art. If you have the time or the inclination I’d suggest taking a peek at this art. They also have it on sale for a bargain considering what I think it’s work but definitely something that will inspire the senses.

Hair: Amrita – Sedna Blackolive
Belt: *Baiastice – Dita Corset Belt Red
Make Up: BOOM - Love my eyes Liner & Mascara
Skin: Al Vulo! Skin – Ninni – cocoa shine
Dress: | Aleida | - China Doll – noir/rouge
Shoes: P10 – Amara Heel SnakeSkin VIP Gift

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Wow. As I write this I feel a little like sleeping beauty or Rip Van Winkle. It’s been so long since I’ve been back to second life and I’ve finally found my bearings again. Due to do some RL complications I had to take a sabbatical so could not do any postings but now that things are a bit calmer I plan to get back into the blogging game. I really agonized over what I wanted to do with my first post upon returning to the website and it took me a few days before I finally found the idea. I was reading through some RL fashion magazines as I’m wont to do during my downtime at work and came across a lot of ideas about color. It was the prevailing theme in the magazines I ran across and it really resonated with me deep inside.

Color is such a wonderful and creative thing and yet a lot of us fear it when interjecting it into our own wardrobe whether it be second life or our first lives. I found that I was guilty of this as well. I love color, especially when I am decorating my houses and dealing with interior design projects although I tend to stay with more earthy tones with pops of color. But in my wardrobe I can sometimes be more conservative with color, afraid that I’ll make a mistep with one risky move and instead of being something revolutionary I create something that is disastrous. It has happened time and time again as I’ve seen with many others and I didn’t want to fall prey to that same beast but I’ve decided to be a bit more daring with color and not fear it as much. I wanted to showcase a few outfits that I found that really display the beauty that color is. You’ll find the others in future posts as I finish processing them but I wanted to start off bold.

A tip for those that may be more afraid of playing with color than others would be to start off small. Play with your accessories and their colors first. Learn to add pops of color here and there to create dynamic looks that work for all sorts of occasions. Once you get more confident try playing around with a piece of clothing at a time- a bright shirt with subdued bottoms or vise-versa. Color is all about experiment and I sometimes laugh when I hear how some people think that females must have some special gene to know how colors go together. We know what looks right and what may look wrong but it’s also a matter of personal taste with a touch of societal and fashion trends that determine the way our style can go. It’s something that everyone has to experiment with constantly to make it work so do so. If you’re really a color-phobe then check out full outfits that showcase color in a stylish way that appeals to your senses as I did here. Blue and yellow isn’t something I would’ve originally thought to put together in such a bold way but it worked with this outfit so I had to get it. Buying full outfits in this instance is a way to immerse yourself, dipping a toe in the pool, before you decide to take the plunge.

What I loved most about this outfit wasn’t just the colors although they are eye-catching but the design and cut of it itself. I called it my hobo chic and while it’s not something I would classify as an everyday part of my wardrobe the individual pieces themselves could work with any other number of things I have in my inventory which is something I really look for in full outfits- whether they can be deconstructed later to be put into creative use with pre-existing pieces.

Outfit: *{ SeVered GarDeN }* Mina * Blue
Shoes: AZOURY – Les Bottines Lilium
Hair: TRUTH – Joanna Reds
Skin: [Al Vulo!] – Ninni – Cocoa

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