Roland Writes

The gowns are off and the ties loosened. A grueling almost five hour marathon session has come to an end.

In the end, the event itself was a bit anticlimatic. We had the normal problems with changing clothes in heavy lag. Some didn’t rez. Some didn’t look right. Mouths got warped, smiles were turned on for no reason. Normal, heavy lag circumstances.

DJ meka Chaffe was on hand to keep the stream going and to read the texts from each model aloud. It was a lot for one person to do, but she did a yeoman effort to keep up with it. She does have a great voice and I’ll confess I’m a fan of her music picks. She has stuff I don’t hear everywhere.

The various components of the event were largely uneventful, and that’s really what one might want, I suspect. Having made up my mind that I’d be somewhere in the bottom tier, I went through the event giving it my best shot, but largely satisfied with my lot. The other models are amazing. I probably didn’t tell them that enough while we were working together, but they are. Coming in last against a field like that is no shame.

And oddly, enough, I didn’t.

When the dust settled, I was given a very respectible 4th place finish. I’m not sure why, frankly. It was a good look, and I was pleased with the final application materials. My three outfits worked as well as I could have hoped and I practiced to be able to hit the mark on that very long catwalk where the finale took place. I went in with the idea that, I might not win it, but it wasn’t going to be because I didn’t do the best I could. I was happy with my performance. The usual “What Would I Do Differently?” section isn’t going to be on this one, because I did exactly what I thought I needed to.

Oh, The Question: “As the only male model, what’s your strategy for winning this competition?”

My answer – weak in hindsight: “Work as hard as I can to try to do twice as good as any other model, and then throw myself on the mercy of the judges because this field is unbeatable.”

I’m not twice as good. I’m not half as good, I suspect. One of the realities of novice thinking is that novices always overestimate their knowledge and skill because their frame of reference is skewed to what they know — and they don’t know what they don’t know.

I have no illusions. In this game, I’m a novice.

The Results

8th: Angelsmiles Seetan
7th: Xenobia Foxclaw
6th: Arica Kaestner (Ms Photogenic)
5th: Arialee Miles
4th: Roland Zepp
3rd: Georgia Quicksand
2nd: Haidyn Inglewood
1st: Jillian Convair

So, I made it into the top half. I have no idea how or why. The dice rolled and I must have made a saving throw for charisma or something. It was a nice surprise.

I’m going to leave this post at that. I wrote what I wanted to about the experience yesterday, before the event, and tonight I’m tired.

I will close with a thank you to the judges for their effort, and another thank you to The Organizers. I’ve been critical — sometimes very critical — but they do an amazing job at running this enterprise. With multiple pageants, regular contests, periodic special events, they do an amazing job of keeping all the balls in the air, and a level of engagement in their community.

So, thank you to Anrol Anthony and Steve101 McCollough. Whatever else I may write about my experiences there, I will freely confess that I learned a lot in my time there and I applaud you for your energy and enthusiasm for doing what you do.

In addition to the swimsuit and the formal, the Hollywood Walk of Fame Pageant has a “creative outfit” competition. In this segment, the models have to find some outfit that means something to them and, presumably, demonstrates something of what we’ve learned about style, fashion, and execution.

The subject matter is wide open so I chose a genre that has long interested me but which I have not had much opportunity to explore yet – Steampunk.

In Second Life one’s dreams take flight – and sometimes that flight is by airship. The Steampunk genre has a firm foot hold in the metaverse with numerous regions dedicated to it and a plethora of talented builders, designers, and scripters working to create a virtual world of steam and cog, leather and brass. With that in mind, I wanted to create the Steampunk Adventurer for the event this afternoon and I started with one of the premier artificers — Drack Diesel.

My outfit is based on several pieces from Drack’s Arcavim line starting with the highly detailed Sky Sailor boots in black. They’re perfectly designed for working around the airship and feature many color change parts. The Nautical Trousers carry a delightful chart-like texture and set the tone for the rest of the outfit. On
top, I layered Drack’s Noble Shirt and Tie in forest green and gold under the Noble’s Vest in slate and covered it with the sumptuously textured Noble’s Jacket.

No self-respecting adventurer can head off into the unknown without some equipment. My belt compass and steampunk Explorer’s watch are from Grunge Depot and I fell in love with the richly detailed — if totally non-functional — instruments.

As important as instruments are hat and goggles. Leaving on an adventure sans chapeau is unthinkable and goggles are required equipment when working on balky airship engines. The typical Steampunk hat-of-choice is the venerable top hat and, while useful for storing one’s lunch and an odd candle or two, the topper is just not my style. After failing to find just the right acoutrement, I resorted to a bit of artifice myself and crafted this hat and goggles in the best steampunk tradition. The wide brim keeps the sun off my neck and out of my eyes, while the googles provide both protection from the drying winds aloft and a certain level of magnification when adjusted properly.

The shape is my own but the skin is LeLutka’s Absolute in a suntan tone. Uncle Web Studio’s Ilias hair in a coffee color holds my hat up. The gloves and ear stud are items I made to fill in where I needed something.

I better get moving. I left the dirigible double parked.

Stuff
Boots: Arcavim – Sky Sailor (black)
Pants: Arcavim – Nautical Trousers (black)
Shirt/Tie: Arcavim – Noble Shirt (green and gold)
Vest: Arcavim – Noble Vest (black)
Coat: Arcavim – Noble Coat (black)
Compass and Watch: Grunge Depot
Hat and Goggles: Roland Zepp

Hair: UW.st Hibiki Coffee
Eyes: E’s Gleaming Forest Green
Skin: LeLutka Absolute Tan

The finale for the Hollywood Walk of Fame Pageant is Sunday at 3pm and I’ve got my outfits lined up.

formal_roland7, originally uploaded by roland_zepp.

The formal is the final outfit and I wanted to give appropriate recognition to Swaffette Firefly’s SF Designs. I didn’t want to wear a straight off-the-rack suit for something as important as the final, but I also didn’t want to bother a high-profile designer like Swaffette. This Morning Suit started life with a cranberry vest and tie, but it lacked something in terms of formality for me so a fast run to SF Design’s High Society Store at Penryn gave me the severe black tie and vest that I was looking for.

I understand it’s common for women to get designers to custom create a formal gown for them for these events. I suspect there’ll be a few of those on Sunday, but when I actually think about it, when it comes to men’s formal wear, there’s not much “custom” that’s really allowed. Perhaps I’m mistaken on that – as I’ve been about so much else in fashion here – but it seems like women have a lot more leeway.

It would have been interesting to try out one of SF Design’s Celestial’s or perhaps a Hamiltonian Tux, but I picked this one because it felt right to me in terms of formality, elegance, and sophistication.

Outfit
Suit: SF Design – Morning Suit
Shirt/Vest: SF Design – Vest, Shirt, Tie (black)
Gloves: SF Design – white gloves
Shoes: Evocative “Cuban” Ankle Boot (black)
Boutonierre: Essentia Groom Boutonniere Red

Hair: UW.st – Ilias Coffee
Eyes: E’s – Gleeming Forest Green
Skin: LeLutka – Absolute (tan)