Bowtique

Mix and Match – Kawaii Edition

Jaz Fashion, Reviews

I have a soft spot for cute… and then I just go nuts and keep tossing things at an outfit to make it cuter, lol

So here I’ve done my usual thing and just gone totally to town with everything except the kitchen sink. This first one is my unicorn look, with three major pieces from three vendors with three different unicorn patterns.

The Hawt jacket from Promagic comes in 30 prints, as singles and a fatpack, and is just for Maitreya mesh. I added some cute lace cuffs from Sweet Thing to it. The jacket fits just right to be worn without a bra or shirt underneath, if you are so inclined (as I am). The skirt is Brianna from CandyDoll, available in fatpacks of 10 solid light colors, 10 solid dark colors, and 30 patterns; or as singles, for all the major mesh bodies. It has a nice cut up one side with a long mesh tie. The shoes/socks are the Smexy Babydoll Heels by Candy Kitten, in fatpacks for 12 solids, and 12 patterns, for all major mesh bodies.

Now if you want silly cute, I got that too! The basis for this one is the Crazy Kawaii outfit from Envious. It is old school, for system bodies, but hey does that stop me? Not on your life! I use all the mesh bits and then add my own mesh top and skirt and there you go, one super silly (but cute) outfit.

The mesh bits of Crazy Kawaii come in five sizes and include the winged headband, arm and leg warmers, hoove boots, and backpack. I supplemented these with an applier top from Butterfly Design’s Pauline outfit; and my fave full perm skirt, Angel from Gunshot. For the latter, I textured it to match the knit pattern of the Pauline top.

To round out this round, here is a sweet-but-not-too-sweet ensemble built around the Celebrity Rebel leather jacket by Dirty Princess. This features exquisite detailing all around, and a proudly open front to display… whatever bra or shirt you might choose to wear. Or not. In this case I chose to wear (barely) one of my full perm bras from Cool Big Bird along with the Angel skirt from Gunshot which I textured to match the jacket’s color and patterns. The shoes are Candy Kitten’s Fairy Princess Heels that include the garters.

The jacket features a texture HUD of 20 pastel colors and a metal changer of silver and gold; it comes for Maitreya, Slink, and TMP mesh bodies. The shoes come with 14 styles in a HUD and are for all the major mesh bodies.

Who’s ready to come do some cute Kawaii-style shopping with me? Cheers!

Do It Yourself Part 1

Jaz Fashion, Reviews

Lately I have taken an interest in doing clothes texturing, using purchased full perm models that allow one to selectively edit texture faces. While I have pondered selling some of these, which is what most people do who work with the full perm models, so far I have just been tinkering for myself, in order to get unique looks and/or make outfits that reflect ‘me.’  The full perm models are not inexpensive, being in the range of 500L to 1500L typically, as the expectation is that one is selling your new creations and thus eventually recoup your expenditure. However, if the cost does not deter you… follow me on a little path to see what you can do 🙂

For this first installment I will focus on something simple (and very small!). The common component in all of these outfits below is the Angel skirt by Gunshot, which is also a very reasonable 250L. This is a teeny-tiny skirt that really doesn’t cover much at all (which… frankly, was my goal). 😀 Now most people would supplement this with a pair of panties but I chose not to.

The skirt contains three material faces that can each be textured in different ways. They can also be different between front and back but the design of the skirt tends more toward it being the same all the way around front to back. The Gunshot package for the skirt contains models for all of the major mesh bodies as well as four sample textures, a shadow map, and a UV map. All of these latter items can be used in an external graphics program to create your own textures, which can then be uploaded to SL and applied to the mesh model.

In this first outfit, I textured the skirt with an opaque white band around the top, and the two main layers all in lace, to match the lace top and the lace cuffs on the sleeves. This is an example of where I mixed and matched a ton of things, along with the custom pieces, to get just the look I was after, an innocent snowflake faerie (okay, maybe just snowflake faerie…)

For this one I wanted to match the skirt to the top, which is also a full perm model. Before I found the original model, I had purchased a version of it from a vendor who had made her own texture for it. As I liked that shade of blue I wanted to match everything to it, which I did with the Angel skirt and the full perm sleeves from another full perm creator. In this case the top two bands of the skirt are solid, and the small band along the bottom is a lace pattern that matches the lace along the bottom hem of the top.

Another vendor who took the Gunshot Baude top and created a nice texture for it is ArisArisB&W, who applied a pretty denim pattern. I created a matching version for the skirt across all three texture bands.

  • Top: Nicety top by ArisArisB&W (the model is the same Gunshot Baude top as I used in the Snowflake image above)
  • Skirt: Angel Skirt by Gunshot
  • Boots: Tessa Denim Boots by M&M; stockings from applier for Mishell outfit by Brii
  • Hair: Cheri by Dela
  • Accessories: Dragonfly necklace by Pixel Box; Elaine Belt and Garter by Nanika; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena  (Marketplace store);
    Arm Harness by L’Emporio
  • Pose: THR33 Classics Pose 4 by Lumipro

And finally, back to lace, this time with a rose tint and a slightly Victorian look (is not sure the Queen would approve). Here I used the actual Gunshot Baude top with the Angel skirt, modifying the lace pattern from Snowflake to be a little softer in color (as well as a bit more see through… blushes!).

  • Top: Baude Top by Gunshot
  • Skirt: Angel Skirt by Gunshot
  • G-String: 5K Thong by DB Cultura
  • Boots: Winter Lolita Boots with Socks by Zenith
  • Hair: Heloisa and Bangs Set by Truth Hair
  • Accessories: Jabot collar by Cog & Fleur; Lolita Lace Cuffs by Sweet Thing; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena  (Marketplace store)
  • Pose: The Irie Series – Four (m) by an lar (closed)

While these examples of re-texturing have been pretty simple, they’ve been fun in allowing me to make things that are just right for what I want. 🙂 In future installments of Do It Yourself I hope to show you some more complex examples.

Back to Photoshop! More lacy and frilly things await! Cheers!

Starry Starry Night

Jaz Fashion, Reviews

The stars are out! Well I feel like a star anyway, in this cute confection I concocted. The central part of the outfit is the Kokoro Symphony dress by V-Tech, a gothic lolita style accented with lace. The perfect match for it was the Kawaii Doll Boots from Candy Kitten.

 

Kokoro Symphony comes in eleven single colors as well as a fat pack, while the Kawaii Doll boots include twelve colors that can be mixed and matched among the heels, laces, bows and trims, and socks (or no socks).

 

I supplemented the main items with full perm ribbons colored to match, along with lace applier gloves, and some cute neck accessories.

 

From the back, one defining feature of the Symphony dress is this huuuuge ribbon with the shiny heart! There is a matching ‘necklace’ with ribbon to go down one’s back but alas it does not really fit one’s neck terribly well, even when resized. So instead I turned it into a hair accessory! Which I think actually works much better. 🙂

Are you ready to fly away with me, my friends? Cheers!

 

Dolly Daydream Delights

Jaz Fashion, Reviews

Second Life is a world where we can be just about anything we want to be. One popular variation of this is to turn back the clock a bit and be a young girl again, with all the innocence and joy that represents. While one can do so with the widely used mesh bodies like Maitreya Lara, there are also more specialist mesh bodies for this as well, such as Tweenster. Here I would like to show you some adorable dresses from Dolly Daydream, who have a delightfully warm pastel color palette to their offerings. Their products are primarily oriented toward the Tweenster body but they have also recently begun adding Maitreya versions, as well as V-Tech.

The Elizabeth dress comes with a 20 texture HUD and also a pair of panties with its own 10 color HUD. I think I’m ready to step into the carriage and be whisked off to a fantasy world of pink!

  • Dress: Elizabeth Dress by Dolly Daydream  (Marketplace link)
  • Shoes: MaryJane with High Socks by NYU
  • Hair: Honey Whisky by Magika
  • Pose: Female Pose v31F by Lumipro

Elizabeth also comes with both opaque and sheer versions of the dress, which is giggly-cute when the panties are showing through. Hmm, wonder what came in this giant doll case box?

  • Dress: Elizabeth Dress by Dolly Daydream  (Marketplace link)
  • Shoes: MaryJane with High Socks by NYU
  • Hair: Honey Whisky by Magika
  • Pose: Female Pose v33F by Lumipro

The Summer Florals dress is my favorite, with such happy patterns including these butterflies! And pretty lace sleeves too! The dress includes 12 textures and nine sleeve textures, with the option to turn the sleeves off. The dress also includes cute little shoes with tall leg strappies, in seven colors, though here I used my fave boots, the Candy Lolita.

I think it’s time for a girls slumber party! Kettle corn and pillow tossing and lots of giggles! Who’s in? Cheers!