A Meriken Boy

Today I'm getting nasty with patterns. And I'm making the rainbow my bitch. What bought this on? Just the discovery of pretty much the most interesting men's store EVER, Meriken Designs. It's owned by Yaszi Mornington, a Japanese designer who is a master of texturing. I haven't seen hand drawn clothing this good since Casa Del Shai. Yes, I'm daring to make that call. Bring it. I was teleported in by Voshie Paine, and when it rezzed I fell to my knees in awe and worship. Colours. Like you wouldn't believe. After I sprayed an obscene amount of lindens all over the walls I was left with a pile of amazing clothes that by no law of taste or physics should be seen together. So of course I put them all on.

I'm pleading with the men of SL to be more adventurous.Now... you can mix different patterns, textiles, textures and shades. The trick is to keep trying different configurations until you find one that isn't physically painful. This is where you scribble out the rules of what you know to be good taste, and just cycle through everything you have until it looks good. Even if it doesn't. You'll know when your eyes stop bleeding. No way would I have ever have thought vermilion would have looked this darn good with green, orange and fawn. That's before you toss in the melange of tartan, spots and stripes. In theory it shouldn't work. But - it does.

This mess of tones comes off as springlike and breezily casual. Part of that is the attitude, part the accessories, but mostly the “blorangeness” of it all. Because the colours are complimentary on the spectrum you get a fair bit of leeway with the clashing patterns. Whereas with this ensemble the madly pink spots have the odd yellow one, and that ties it in with the gold crocodile jacket. Keeping the pants a single solid shade this time means it's just on the side of good enough taste that I wouldn't get turned away at 7 Ultra. I think.

Not that I'd wear that there, I've been reserving this super-pimp-a-luxe Sesame suit in Vin for that. This is a pre-prepared ensemble, but it's so well toned together that I have no problems wearing it out of the box. The plum velvet has a Paui shell sequin detail on the lapel that ties in with the dotty shirt, and the different coloured buttons are interesting all on their own. I also bought the whole set in Noir as well, but to piece it up. These are the pants - and this is the pink python jacket that was originally teamed with the green spotty shirt in the first picture, but I wanted to tone it down, make it a little less outrageous and more stylishly wearable. Otherwise it be relegated to the back of my inventory as merely the 27^th pink jacket I own.

One thing I do want to add so it doesn't look purely as if I am pooing rainbows. The gold croc jacket was on the vendor with a pink shirt, and I bought that as I did so much else. When I took it home and tried it on it was only half the shirt, the midriff was exposed. I messaged Yaszi and mentioned that I loved his clothes, I had bought a buttload but it appeared that this set and one other I'd bought had just the half shirts included, and it looked to be a simple error, how could we fix this? As several of the other jacket/shirts I had bought at the same price were complete. I received a reply a few days later that the shirts were only a sample. And if I wanted the real thing they were for sale seperately. I can't say I was thrilled with this customer service as they had appeared on the vendor as a set. But I loved the clothes and the colours so I went right the hell ahead and blogged it anyways, with the shirt that was included in the Sesame Noir set. So that's a caveat emptor warning, just check what's actually included and that you are happy with it.

On the whole I am still gibbering several days later in a complete colourgasm, and I'll be stalking the store for all future releases. He also has an outlet at KMADD City, and a new one at the Starlust sim. I know I was a tad preachy in this post, but... guys. Step outside the black occasionally, okay? Don't let the Vampire be the only polaroid nightmare out there.

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I'm sorry, Zaara...

Elusyve and I were talking clothes - well... is there anything else to talk about? Oh, how rude - she's Canadian. Sorry. I'll start again.

Elusyve and I were talking aboot clothes when the subject of the new Zaara pashminas came up. All the girls had been sighing about how lovely they are, and I was raving about the beauty of the textures alone. I said to Elu that it was a shame I couldn't wear one. Her reply? "I bet you could."




So this is my first plain old "LOTD" post. Let's see if I can remember where all this is from.



I knew the key to being able to wear this beautiful shimmering scarf, the "Berry Blue" was to keep the shirt simple, yet echo the colour in my accessories, and match the blue trim with my pants. So I hauled out my wonderful Casa Del Shai jeans - made all the more wonderful because they were free. I also tinted my thankfully mod Richmond shirt from Badkatz a shade of cream rather than it's standard blinding white. I have enough lighting issues because of my hair, thank you very much. Shoes had me stumped at first until I remembered the Crimson Dublins that I bought from Jeepers Creepers two weeks ago and then tossed into the corner with a snarl because they didn't match my kilt. So they were allowed to live. This time. Strapping on my ubiquitous wrist cuffs, this time the ones that I bought in a 50% off fatpack at the FNKY! sale and still winced at the price.

So thar ye have it. I didn't have to upsize that poor pashmina too much, and it still retains all of it's original detail. Or I'd have buried the poor thing unannounced at sea. I'm sure Zaara will cry as is when she's sees her creation draped around a boy's shoulders...


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Hey - How You Dune?

Just a few of things I found over this last week that had me whimpering and reaching for my wallet.

Those who know me are aware of one of my hinky "things." As Elusyve once laughed at me - "Latex is your garlic." True. 93% of this is purely for it's aesthetic qualities... let's not go into that other 7%. Or I'd have to change the rating of this blog.



I found this at a german store named Latex Station. I shouldn't say "store," as it was a utopian steel vision of the future... complete with models that made me want to run my tongue down them to hear them squeak - *cough* sorry, where was I? Oh yes. Full of rubber fun for both boys and girls. And with some surprisingly classy and elegant designs. Stop laughing; I mean it. And this is the Tron suit. Cue fanboi squeeees at the name, which alone would have made me buy it. And a latex cape....! Every deviant Vampire's dream. Surely I'm not the only one?




One of the other items that stopped me in my tracks was this crown called the "Shai Hulud - Kwisatz Haderach." Again... I geeked out all over the name alone. It also comes with another configuration, the "Shai Hulud - God Emperor." Included as well is a glowy set of melange eyes - blue for the uninitiated. For those of you who don't know, this is from the Dune series by Frank Herbert. It's not vital to be a fan to fall in love with the opalescent textures and seamless spirals of this beauty. The poor team of designers at Dark Goddess Designs have had to listen to me rave on in breathless tones about this for DAYS. So much so that they gave me another set of cybernetic horns to shut me up - but I'm using them in a few days for another outfit so... deal. They also created the hostess's avatars at the "In Darkness" events last week; so if you were impressed by those check out the rest of these devilish delights.

This one has been on my Flickr page for a few days now, but I had to spray it about here as well.






Earthquake skin by Nikita Fride. Any other Australians thinking about burnt pavlova at this point? My bestie Noodle rocked up in the goriest, most realistic fighter skin EVER, and I begged - no, demanded to be taken to it's point of origin. Everyday and fantasy skins for men and women. And the most interesting conversations on voice from fellow shoppers - I learnt more about vibrators in half an hour from the team of skanks cruising the aisles than I have in 4 years of internet porn. So if you want to look like you went 11 rounds with Mike Tyson - whether that be in a boxing ring or at a beauty pageant - then come check out the fighter skins. Or if you want to have a frank and open discussion about which batteries have better staying power, then turn on voice and keep a box of tissues close at hand.


For the tears of laughter, you sickos.


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Wasting Paper

So I was a participant in a discussion about Paper Couture a month or so ago, and group consensus dismissed them as totally ENC. (That's "Emperor's New Clothes" for the uninitiated.) But then they released the Fall line. What unmitigated gall. One look at the new releases and I had to undo all my well thought out arguments. Colours! Feathers! Prim ... well, interesting bits!




What amazingly well thought out tones on this, the "Comfy Suit." The Lu Sisters got it very, very right. Just enough feathery floaty bits to create interest and break up the lines, yet not enough that some Momma bird tries to stuff worms down my throat. And I was informed that I look like a glam Rock Star in this so it's definately on my personal win list. Usually I avoid brown but this shade has a great sheen on it - and that leg seam is very realistic. These pants feature the Fall motif of bird's eyes, a design they've used throughout the collection on both the male and female lines.

You can see this also on the "Learning Suit"



Yes. I'm pretty sure it was meant for the ladies as well. It had a big poofy collar and dramatic cuffs all in cream. And it looked fantastic as long as you didn't... move... an... inch. I tore all the extraneous sculptery off it (sure, that's a word) and I find this configuration to be very wearable. A kind of Sunday morning lounging suit. I'm sure the Lu's will weep when they see how their masterwork gets molested, but... if I wasn't meant to mess around with it, it wouldn't be mod, right?

There is also a silver set named the "Silver Pied" and a brown one named "Leather Scales" but not only do I look dreadful in brown -yes, Copacetic, I'll capitulate- but Lucas Lameth has done a great job of covering them already.

Oh yes. And no birds were harmed in the making of these Paper Couture outfits.




..... but my shoes are made of cute baby seals.

Introduction and Manifesto

Hello children - let me introduce myself to the class. I'm the Lord Winter Jefferson, vampire partyboy and general nuisance. I've been blogging for Rezzable for a few months now; but I've been persuaded to clutter up the feed with a broader example of my fashion train wrecks. So here I am in all my Undead glory, and with a word of caution. I don't have a whole lot of shame.




Here beginneth the lesson. The stereotype is that Vampires must be made of doom and gloom and emo red, black, black black and black. Skulking in the shadows, sulking in the shallows. It's my manifesto to bust that myth wide open. Not just the perception of mine own bloodsucking kin, but to urge everyone to play against type. Don't conform to expectations. Only - make sure you DO do it once in a while, then no one will be expecting it. Find your Second self. Work out who you are; settle upon your personal style, define the animus that is you. Discover and confirm your identity. Get comfortable inside that pixel sheath. Conform to all the established rules and guidelines of style, taste and formality. And then the very next day break all of this down and step out of that comfort zone. Hair grows back, and skin regenerates itself in a matter of seconds. A pill makes you big, a pill makes you small. Even an amputated leg can be fixed with the click of a button. This the beauty of SL. You can find the real you by stepping outside of it.




This blog is going to be whatever I feel like doing on the day; learn to live with that. Some days it's going to be an LOTD, others an education on events/items in fashion, occasionally a showcase of stores I discover and spend all over and sometimes it's just going to be showing off cool shit I found that week. Don't ever be scared to comment, as I am a fully fledged attention hor. And feel free to disagree or critique, I shouldn't go TOO Keyser Soze all over your ass. And yes, I'm also quite aware that my photos suck, thank you for pointing that out.




Just as a pingback to what I was referring to - one person who seems to realise that vamps just wanna have fun is Amerie of Amerie's Naughty. Can you believe this coat? The "Vampire Jacket." Tartan, feathers and chains. I know it wasn't actually created for me... but it may as well have been. And a man can dream.

I'd say - here endeth the lesson. But the best thing about it is that nothing ever truly ends. Not in this realm. SL is best enjoyed with open eyes, mind and heart. It's constantly evolving. My best advice to offer here is sit down. Strap yourself in. Hold on tight. And when you puke, try get it all over the person behind you. Odds are it will accessorise nicely with what they have on anyways.

~Winter