Roland Writes

Tonight’s contest was the third night of darkness. I missed the Vampire event on Tuesday and the field was quite small for tonight’s Faust Fest.

This was one of those curious quests wherein I asked the organizers for clarification on what constituted “Styling Devil.” There’s a couple of ways it could go — styling The Devil, as in dressing as Old Nick himself, or styling demonic, as in dressing like any ole devil, demon, or other scary dude. I was assured that the theme was to dress as Satan himself. Being a guy, I thought that might be an advantage.

There’s lots of ways to play this, but I wanted to be different. Anticipating a field of red-skin, pitchfork wielding, horned folk, I went with this 21st century Mephistopheles in a Sartoria suit. I arched and pointed the eyebrows and made a pair of horns that appeared and disappeared randomly.

The Results
The cliches won.

According to the judge, I was too classy and not devilish enough. I’ll chalk that up to a lack of imagination on the judge’s part.

I wasn’t terribly surprised. It wasn’t one of those contests I was going to win. Between the hardcore, RP-backed demonics, and the bare skinned babes, the likelihood that I’d place with that theme is exceptionally slim.

I knew it was a risk with a very low chance of paying off. Judging usually goes to stereotype, not archetype. But I got my two votes and it didn’t cost much to try.

What Would I do Differently?

One alternative would have been going with a red-skinned, black bearded devil. The judge picked demonic and sexy as “most devilish” and wasn’t terribly interested in picking the Satanic look-a-likes, proving once more that the advice we’re given is only valid until the judge scores the event.

A second alternative would have been to go with a “fallen angel” look with dark wings and black outfit.

Stuff
Suit: Sartoria Project in Green
Hair: MADesigns – David 2 DBIII
Eyes: E’s – Broken Doll – Silver
Shoes: Shiny Things – BoHo Sandals
Necklace: Ripped – Pirate Necklace.

Tonight’s contest is the first in a week of darkness. The stage will be a-wash in goth this evening and I predict a certain amount of emo as well.

Goth is not my strong suit. I didn’t even own a white skin as I began working toward this event last week. All I knew was “white skin, black clothes.” I learned that goth is sexy, sometimes formal, and always just a bit over the edge. I put together an outfit with the help of some great people who were willing to help me look the part, if only for one night.

Goth owes its existence to music. It began as a rebellion against the saccarine brightness of disco and grew with the darker musical influences of “Death Metal” groups like Slayer and Kreator. In the early part of the 21st Century more orchestal works like those of Dimmu Borgir added to the mix providing a stylistic texture which has informed the movement of today.

My outfit tonight was representative of the style — combining formal with a touch of edginess. The charcoal colored leather trench and black leather pants over pointed toe ankle boots provide the formal structure while the bare-chest, tattoo, and iron and ruby jewelry gave the edge. The Avenging Angel Iron and Ruby gave just the right touch of religious iconography that made it “goth” rather than something else, like “Vampire.”

The Results

Totally unexpected!

The judge was the winner from a weekend “boost the vote” contest and, as is the custom, was tapped to judge. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be on stage with us one night and judging us the next, knowing you’ll be back on stage again in a day or two.

The award was a surprise.

What would I do differently?

Hard to argue with winning, but I think I could have gone more formal. Goth has a certain formality and sexiness at its root and this outfit, while perhaps sexy in a rather crude way, may have been better served with – say – a Lapointe suit and some MADesigns hair.

Poses. I cleaned out my HUD and reloaded it with the poses I had. I picked poses that showed off the outfit while striking what I hoped were “gothy” poses. I think I could have done better with some pose upgrades.

A note on the Wretched Dollies Jet Skin: I love it. In looking for a pale skin for the contest, I was considering my budget and wondering how I’d get a great look and not go broke. I found several freebies, and I even had Eloh’s open source skins to make my own, but Titania Tigerpaw suggested Wretched Dollies. The make up was exactly what I was looking for. Crisp, clean, and alive. The body definition on a light skin is amazingly difficult and the WD Jet did a really good job with the face and collarbones, the only features I really cared about for this event. More, when I had some SL-related difficulty, Wretched Dollies owner Star Fairymeadow was very helpful in resolving the problem. Thanks, Star!

Stuff
Coat: Adam n Eve – Leather Trench – Charcoal
Pants: Lapointe Mens “warrior Leather” Pants
Boots: Evocative Boots – “Cuban Black” Ankle Boot
Necklace: BastChild Mens Avenging Angel Iron Ruby Necklace
Tattoo: Prozac – Hades

Skin: WD Jet Black Skin – Wretched Dolliles
Hair: Discord – Prim Hair [ REI ] White – tinted black with a few strands left white in the front for the streak
Eyes: [Eyes] Broken Doll – Silver (Eeron Killian)

Nose Ring and Iron/Ruby Ear Studs: Me.

Tonight’s contest was “Styling Asian” which opens the door to a lot of possibilities for creativity. For the geographically challenged, Asia stretches from Istanbul to Tokyo. It includes India, Russia, China, Japan, and about 30 other countries. “Styling Asia” is a big canvas upon which to work so the results from tonight are curious.

Before I get the cart and horse confused, here’s my entry for this event.

My assumption (valid it turns out) was that most people would pick kimonos for “Asian.” That seemed rather boringly uncreative, and keeping recent lessons of ‘fashion over performance’ in mind, I picked a different interpretation of “Asian.” I looked at a lot of RL contemporary Japanese fashion and discovered that it has a flair and flavor that’s colored by Western influence but still maintains a look that’s unique. So, I picked a current Asian designer in SL whom I thought represented that look the best and put together an outfit based on contemporary Japanese pop culture.

Everything in this outfit except the sneakers is from risey Arai and I got it at the :sey main store. The challenge was finding the right shirt to set the stage. I was really looking for something more “otaku” looking with layers and a sense of nerdiness, but soon realized I liked this look much better in terms of bringing contemporary Japanese fashion to the stage. The red silk shirt has some great iconography printed on it and it went great with the red-striped soft jeans. The belt is actually from a pair of leather pants I bought during the same trip but didn’t really have what I wanted to go with them. The hat with hair combination was the perfect finishing touch to the base outfit. After that I needed to accessorize so I added a very nice jade-disk and crystal necklace, a turquoise leather bangle, and a fanny pack. Keeping Coco Chanel’s admonition about accessories in mind, I took off the fanny pack.

The Results

Keep in mind that the models who participate in these competitions are regularly told, “You need to be more creative in your outfits.” The management places great store in talking about creativity. I’ve written before about how little creativity seems to count when it comes to the actual competition, however, and tonight was no exception. In a field of fifteen models who were tasked with “Styling Asian,” at least 10 were in kimono. They ranged from very elaborate and very expensive to something less expensive but still elaborate. A couple of models wore qi-pao style Chinese dress, one was dressed as an oriental character from a video game, and one was dressed in an Indian saree. So, creativity points should have gone to the woman in the saree, and me. The qi-pao dresses looked more like b-girls than fashion and the kimono clad people were quite lovely but hardly what anybody could call “creative” when it comes to the broad canvas of Asia. The video game character is up for grabs. It’s an Asian style stereotype, but I’m not sure it’s based on a real Asian game. I’d give her the benefit of the doubt.

Who won? The two most elaborate kimonos and one of the b-girls. That’s nothing against the winners. They were all very nice. The first and second place winners did good solid performances on the stage, but I didn’t see the third place run, so I can’t comment. I assume it was similar. In all honesty, however, I just do not understand the results. Feedback from the organizer had me with a very respectable score and the note that I’d done very well on stage. Nothing more. The score was not sufficient to place, so maybe I had another fourth place finish. I just don’t get it. It was a good look. It was fashionable. It was “Asian” and tied RL fashion to Grid fashion and honored one of the premier designers. I hit my marks. The poses were good. It wasn’t a cliche. It should have placed. I’m not claiming a win here, but I’m extremely confused as to why this didn’t make it into the top three, considering the competition.

These “near misses” are very costly because of the rules change that means that every time I get a contest place, my position in the pageant is improved by participating in the end of month styling show. Missing even one means cash out of my pocket to recover that position, not to mention the amount of money I spend to put the contest outfits together. If the results were more evenly distributed, this would be less important, but when we have one person who places in better than two-thirds of the competitions, that skews the field in a major way. It’s good for her, but tough on the rest of us.

So, I’m left in a quandry. The results of the contest did not match the criteria going in. Again. This isn’t the first time, and I’m pretty certain it won’t be the last. (Having the winner of Wednesday’s contest succeed by doing exactly what the contest organizers told us not to do was an amazing slap in the face to the models who were trying to follow the theme.) Looking ahead to the contests next week, I see “Styling Goth,” “Styling Vampire,” “Styling Devil,” and “Styling Short in Blue Jeans.” I’m left scratching my head over what those might mean. What’s the difference between goth and vamp – other than fangs? And does styling devil mean “Styling Satan” or “Styling Anything Devilish like a Demon?” And what is “Styling Short in Blue Jeans” mean? We’ve been told we have to be at least 7’6″ tall, so do we have to shrink to 5′ and put on jeans? Or are we talking “Daisy Duke” territory?

More troubling, if we ask, will we get a straight answer, or will we be mislead again?

What Would I Do Differently?

I could have added some glasses. Some kind of shoulder bag is as much a part of the style as the billed cap, perhaps more so, so that would have been a great addition, too.

In hindsight? I’d find the most cliched ninja/samurai outfit I could find. It seems apparent that, while the stated theme was “Asian,” the unstated reality was “Style Classic Japan.” Unfortunately that doesn’t help in deciding what to do next time because I don’t know if this interpretation of theme is coming from the judge or from the organizer. I have to assume it’s the judge because the organizer has repeatedly told us that she has to respect the wishes of the judge when it comes to scoring and that the judge is the final arbiter of the standings. I’m not sure I believe it, but I have no way to dispute it because the judging process is blind to participants.

On the other hand, one significant factor that fed my choice to go with contemporary Japanese fashion is that I’m getting tired of buying stuff that I’ll never wear again. At least tonight, I got more than the two votes and a major league case of frustration.

I got a nice addition to my wardrobe, too.

Stuff
Shirt: “aoi”shirt [enji] – red silk – :sey
Jeans: Soft Jeans-[A] – :sey
Shoes: Hocs Sneakers – Male – HOC
Hat/Hair: :Sey x FA=B mesh=[Neo Black]

Belt: :sey CLP.belt[no fur]=medium=
Necklace::sey necklace”edokin+shinkoukaihou”
Bangle: :sey leather bangle “turquoise” [Guys] XSmall

Coco Chanel has been quoted as saying, “Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.”

In honor of April Fools’ Day, tonight’s contest is “Styling the Opposite Sex.” It would be easy to do the vulgar, the camp. The easy course would have been to put a blocky body in taffeta and pearls, a bearded skin over a flowing gown. But Coco had the right of it and this contest is about fashion first and the challenge is finding the line between conversion and impersonation, between faux and fashion.

The challenge is to style the opposite sex, which means that just going out and getting a female avi isn’t really going to cut it. On the other hand, while the women in the competition can easily wear men’s clothing, I soon discovered that male size zero feet are too big for women’s size zero shoes. Also, if I were going to wear women’s clothing, I should be able to add padding in appropriate places and use make up to style my face and I approached it from a basis that I think Coco might have appreciated.

“Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.” –Coco Chanel

The basic body is actually my own, with the “female” button flipped to keep my face and basic shape, but re-proportioned into what SL would consider my female shape. I made only minor modifications to reduce breast size and shape. The skin is a dollarbie from A Taste of Candy.

Because I wanted to channel Chanel in this effort, I knew I wanted some kind of dress and style that would have been appropriate to the 40s — something that Coco Chanel would have approved of, if not worn herself. The cloche hat was a freebie from Tesla called “Kerry” that I modified to give a taller crown and re-textured to give a richer black. I grayed the hatband and gave it a bit of shine to more closely resemble ribbon and to provide some contrast. The platinum hair is “Disturbia – Glow” (with the glow turned off) by Sheltered Heart and I got that in a treasure hunt at the new Bewitched Hair/House of Heart store over the weekend. The close cut and style fit perfectly with the 40s feel I wanted.

The gown is Discord’s JEN-DOU by Orange Meili and I got it in a Lucky Chair. I liked the nouveau pattern in the texture and the flapper feeling to the cut. Under it, I added a lace bodice from a freebie I picked up at WAvE – Love Dress Black by Miraiwave Iwish. The extra edge of lace covered what a more modern style would have left exposed. I bought the 20Den Black Seamed Stockings from No.9 Nylons but the shoes were another Lucky Chair win. They’re “Jane” heels in black from Tesla.

But what’s an outfit without accessories? The clutch purse came from “Redesigns” by Monyo Kararan and the pearls are the Tahitian Pearl Set from Body Politik. Following Coco’s advice I took off the last item accessory I added and removed the bracelet.

The only other problem – and the most expensive part of the outfit – was the pose-set. The walk was easily accomplished with a freebie SL Stiletto Walk but the poses were another matter. It’s one thing to dress like a woman, but I really needed to model like a woman. A half price sale at KS Creations, a few dollarbie poses from Strike a Pose, and a single full price pose from Matreiya gave me enough poses for a good routine with the gown. [Disclaimer: Yes, I needed to shift a couple of skirt prims so that my leg wouldn't stick through.]

The result:

Disappointing but predictable. Men in dresses aren’t generally regarded well.

At least I got my two votes.

What would I do differently?

Bought a better skin. Annie 1 is a nice skin for what it is. It has good shading on the collarbones and a pleasant make-up, but it lacks the definition one would get from a Redgrave, or a Soul Skin.

Stuff

Hat: Kerry – Tesla
Dress: JEN-DOU – Discord
Stockings: 20den Black Lace – No.9 Nylon
Shoes: Jane (night) – Tesla

Clutch: (MN) Clutch A01 [p-black] – redesigns
Pearls: Tahitian Pearl Set (white) – The Body Poliltik

Skin: Annie 1 – A Taste of Candy
Hair: Disturbia – Glow – House of Heart
Eyes: Dark Blue (Group Gift) – MADesigns