World Fashion

Iris Ophelia's World Fashion Tour

  

Ten wildly diverse locales, ten altogether fabulous ensembles-- one universally glamorous avatar.  Armed with reader tips and her own personal itinerary, NWN fashion correspondent Iris Ophelia fearlessly explored the grid, and returned from her whirlwind tour with her hair still perfectly coiffed-- and a breathtakingly dazzling travelogue in hand.  Where in the world did Iris go, and who was she wearing when she got there?  Find out after the break!

Iris Ophelia's World Fashion Tour - Written, Modeled, and Photographed by Iris

I love to travel, and I have pretty elaborate plans for a future of real world globetrotting. But until I finish my studies, I’m more or less pinned down in one place. But with this vast virtual world at my fingertips it’s pretty easy to satisfy my wanderlust... and be well dressed for each location, naturally. Of all my favorite locations and the awesome locations suggested in the open forum, I whittled the list down to ten and sorted them alphabetically (since I’m already playing favorites enough as it is.)

First up is Casablanca, a Moroccan themed sim. I made several versions of my shape a few months ago to represent different ethnicities, and my favorite of those alternate Irises is definitely the one I affectionately refer to as “Bolly Iris”, who gets used when someone releases a lovely new sari for me to fawn over. 

Her skin is a darkened version of the Spotlight Girl Alina Muted Taupe makeup from Naughty Island. The dress shown is, however, not exactly a sari, but rather a Thai gown called a sampot. From Vlintuition, it comes with shoes and jewelry. The bindi is from Nora’s Itty Bitty Bindi collection, and the hair is the Creepy Bun from Rita Groshomme’s new brand, Curio.
So what’s up with my hodgepodging of international couture? I have a very romanticized and idealized impression of Morocco as an annex of trading in the Old World. A little bit of everything from every end of the continents. The sprawling marketplace in Casablanca certainly didn’t discourage my perceptions, either.
Downtown is one of my personal faves for this article, because this is my element. It's a relatively new urban-themed business sim, complete with a running subway. It’s a great place to spend an evening and a few thousand L$, without a doubt.

I chose the sweet but wild Mofumofu hair from Shop Seu as well as the irreverent but irresistible tartan-print Headphones by Michelle Rall. The skins shown is one of the Spring Skin Series releases by Starley Thereian of Celestial Studios, Vernal. The top is a layering of Dylan from Tuli Asturias’ recently rebranded line, Tuli, and the corset from a dress named Zoe, from Shine. Another new brand by an established designer aided this look; the jeans are Soho 38 low cut from Keishii Roo’s new urban clothing line, Zona Cero. The belt is Nico Rotaru’s Fringe Belt in black from her store, seven bridge, in Shinagawa. The look is topped off with a pair of Sensual Casanova’s Buckled Leather shoes for women. Edgy but clean cut, welcome to Downtown!
Gypsy Moon is a sim built just to support one store. Now, I would have probably avoided it for this sort of article, but the sim itself is so beautiful and well-done that I was compelled to shoot. Eerie streams of purple light, rolling layers of fog, and burbling gas vents make it like no other sim on this list.

The skin is Lashes, by Helyanwe Vindaloo of Deviant Kitties, with Wild hair from Cake, and the Butterfly tattoo from Little Rebel Designs by Jonquille Noir. The jacket, skirt, and wrist cuffs are from the Femme Fatale outfit recently released at Last Call, while the ripped stockings are from BareRose. What is the most important for this setting, though, are the demonic elements: Antlers from Wilted Rose, mismatching demonic prim eyes from Window to the Soul by Dismay Wilde. The crown jewel element are the hooves, by Leana Meyer of Infinity, but I do not recommend that anyone easily offended or without a sense of humour go to her store, as it’s a pretty... interesting... experience.
Intemptesta Nox is one of my favorite sims, and I openly admit I look for any and all opportunities to take photos there. I had taken pictures there before with Menno Ophelia, wearing the beautiful Marie Antoinette grown by sachi Vixen of Adam’n’Eve. I’m not one for repeating myself, so I called sachi over for a consultation on what I should wear. She handed me both the Venetia gown, and the Highwayman gown. I was torn between two locations on the sim anyway, so I opted to shoot Venetia on the Operahouse, and Highwayman in the lush village setting nearby.

With Venetia, I’m wearing the Antoinette hairstyle by Curl up and Dye, pearls by Caliah Lyon of Muse, and the Devilish 02 makeup from Canimal’s older Innocence skin line.

With Highwayman, the hair is Imaginary, and the skin is Spotlight Girl Alina in Glimmering Angel Pink, both from Naughty Island, with Caliah Lyon’s pearl earrings making another appearance.

In the open forum, there were comments made about business where for the professional avatar on the go. This is pretty fertile territory that I intend to dig into deeper in the near future, but for now I thought it would be nice to set aside a slice of my travel fashions for businesswear.  The Metabirds sim is devoted to Japanese business and Japanese content (one of many, but I’ll get into that later), which is very clean cut and likewise photogenic. I borrowed the ever-willing male model Vasean Talamasca for this shot.

His hair is Shun from H2L, his skin is Dante from Naughty Island, his suit is by X2 Exotica, those polished loafers are from FNKY, and his smart briefcase is by Daniel Luchador. On myself, I’m wearing Lustre Natural skin by Joannah Cramer of Pixeldeep, the hair is Fresh by Imani Moseley of Fetish, my glasses are Manji’s Square Glass by Manji Nishizawa, the earrings and necklace are the Ethereal Set from Anjo’s Adorables, the pantyhose are by 1-800-Betties, and the shoes are Eva Pumps from Lassitude and Ennui. The blouse, belt, and skirt are a little bit exceptional however. Made by Tohru Kanami and called Rei, they are actually inspired by a video game character, but very snappy nevertheless, and perfectly suited to the Metabirds sim.

Next up is another case of me bending the rules a little.

ROMA is a roleplay sim built to resemble the city of Rome in the glory days of the Roman empire. Who better to drop by Rome for an unexpected and fashionable visit than Cleopatra herself? I’m such a Senate-crasher!

The skin is one of the Cleopatra makeups from Canimal’s heavily discounted Fetish skins (250L$ for an amazing skin, whose going to argue with that?), along with the Lucy hair from Naughty Island. The amazing headdress and bracers are from Masks & Feathers by dzogchen Moody, and actually come with a complete Egyptian Queen avatar. Aside from luly Lulu’s Wood Wedge Sandals, the rest of the outfit comes in the awesomely detailed and criminally underpriced Bastet set from BareRose.

A large part of my research time with this article was taken up by an eye-opening look at sims including and surrounding Metabirds and Ameba. Amazing creators that are painfully unpublicized pack these areas. Shimokitazawa is attached to Metabirds, but with a completely different vibe. It also features many of the creators I was electrified by when I was touring the circuit around Ameba/going broke (most of whom I have implanted in this article.)

For Shimokitazawa’s Japanese suburb feel, I brought out the Asian incarnation of my shape, and slipped into the adorably genki Ganguro Girl skin from Panjen, as well as the Yuzu Wig from the charmingly named store Pig in Slop. The uniform and bag are from elleair Plasma’s shop, Monaca, the long legwarmers are from Shop Seu by seu Ahn, and the charming little ballet flats are from ETD by Elikapeka Tiramisu. It’s also worth noting that is can be a little tricky to find some of the shops mentioned from areas like Shimokitazawa, so please don’t hesitate to ping me for a landmark.

The sim sick is part of a pretty neat, anime-esque project by VersionBeta, complete with YouTube trailers and a website. This sim is only open on weekends, and has a vibe like Midian City meets Suffugium.

I started with Sultry Plain makeup from Sin Skins, along with Kin Keiko’s Cyberpunk hair (goggles included). Grease smears, Forearms Claws, as well as the collar, bracers, and breastplate I’m wearing are from Bitter Thorns. The shirt is composed of the Localhost top and Fishnet Tank, both by Jun Kuroda of S9, and the pants are Isabeaux Leather Pants by Launa Fauna. Add Fetish Boots by Compulsion Overdrive of C-Shoes, the Gunbelt from Novum Inc., and a deadly DaeWalker Blade by phantom Kaos, and I am ready to kick some futuristic ass.

Well, that was a little intense, how about a little surfing at the Weather sim? The weather sim has areas for surfing, skiing, and biking in their Epic Conditions sims. Summer’s coming, and I was jonesing for a little bit of fun in the sun. Unfortunately, it was raining, so I had to hide out in the surf shack until it passed, but conditions clear up pretty quickly in the Weather sim, thankfully.

My hair is the lovely Trish by Wilted Rose, skin is Candy from Tête à Pied, the charming Heart Bikini is from Chic Boutique, and the sandals are Geta Hanatsumi by koto Yalin of Kaguya.

I end my tour in West of Ireland, a sim that also has a beach with waves, but not really the way most of us would recognize it. There are rocks and pebbles rather than sand, something that made looking into the water a very striking and different experience than looking into the water of most sims.

Mossy rocks, coarse grass, and ruins on the horizon didn’t scream bikinis and flipflops to me, so I opted for the Ruby Shearling Coat and Tweedledum Pants by Shai Delacroix of Casa Del Shai, along with the Old Boots from Shiny Things. The necklace, named Tail & Foot of Mermaid, is by Yukirei Greene, the hair is The Poynter from Armidi, and the skin is Scarlet from Nora by Sezmra Svarog.

If you’ve gotten a bit of a travel buzz from this yourself, I encourage you to visit all these places to soak in the local colour... and take lots of pictures, of course!

All images by Iris Ophelia.

Visit her pose store, Orchidee-- direct teleport at this link.  And read more from Iris at her blog.