Tuesday 26 June 2007

identity for women

I am very happy with my mens line of clothes and have been aching to make my womens designs a second reality. I have sketches in my notebook and have been experimenting with shapes. This dress is a pattern I have been playing with and wearing to see if it works as I wanted.


Felicity womens suit

I was asked to make a special suit for a lovely lady named Cerebal. I based it on the mens black suit, but there are so many changes in shading and the creases that they are not comparable. I was thinking of Marlene Dietrich as I made this, trying to capture the style and sexines. With fine tailoring and finish, it will become a year-round favourite.


identity ties

After many days work I have made about 20 ties, too many to show here! Here is a small sample.


Nine new open neck and casual shirts

Here are nine casual and open-neck shirts for wear with one of my open-neck jackets or just with jeans or trousers.


Making a suit

For me, making a suit is quite a long business. I start by making the material and this is usually six or more layers in photoshop. I try and give the material a micro-texture with slightly different colours thoughout. When lit in SL, the various colours are picked out and give my suits a soft look with different colours in the shadows and highlights.In contrast most SL suits are made in a single flat colour or with noise added and look dull or flat.


Once I have the material I cut the suit using Fireworks, a vector painting program. I check the cut using the Avatar preview program and go back and forth making sure all the seams line up. Using a vector based program allows me to make pixel fine adjustments to the positions of each part of the suit.


Once the cut is correct, I fill the cut with material and add a layer of shading (not shadows). The shading is generally dark around the waist and bottom of the legs, getting lighter on the shoulders, bottom and knees. I texture the shading to give a richer look to the material underneath.


I add pockets and trim, then the shadows and highlights. After I add the buttons and buttonholes.



A detail of one of my suits showing the completed texture.

Four new suits

I just put my suits in a new simpler and smaller package with just pants, jacket and one shirt. My large packs remain on sale and these have ties or extra shirts included.


The British Cut suit is a single breasted shapely suit with thin lapels and medium gorge and is subtly shaded to enhance your body shape and made to hang well. The suit is drawn to suggest a fine wool, like cashmere, catching the light.






Saturday 16 June 2007

Seraphine at Betria

Waiting for the fashion show to start. Seraphine (shown on left) organised a show at Betria Prims and the Boutique has been given an opportunity to show a few clothes. The main players are Nicky Ree, who makes amazing clothes but is not well known, Starsong, Diva, Insolence and Casa Del Shai.
I am wearing clothes from Marzipans Closet and feeling a bit formal.
It has started!

P.S. The Boutique are:
StarSong - Business Separates for men AND women (also here on BBI)
Marzipan's Closet - Businesswear for men AND women (also here on BBI) - suits, shoes and formals
Purple Rose Jewelry - Business friendly jewelry - pearls, chains, men's watches and more (also on BBI)
Gracile's - Accessories for women - shoes, stockings, eyes and skins
Fido - Feminine business and after hours dresses

Other people in the show
DIVA Designs - Businesswear and dressy casual for women AND men
Head to Toe - Menswear - formal, business and dressy casual
First Impressions - Businesswear and accessories for women
Cay's Skyshop Hair - Business hair styles for women AND men

Later: Am very impressed with Casa Del Shai, huge improvements since I last saw them and the best swimwear I have seen.
Loved Gracile's shoes as well, beautiful design and well made.
Marzipans Closet come out very well, distinctive classic design but executed very well.
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Thursday 14 June 2007

British cut, navy blue mens suit

A fine quality British Cut suit, longer lapels, medium gorge and 3 buttons.


This is a suit that means business with a strong classical cut that is elegant and timeless. It includes pants, buttoned jacket and seven shirts. Also includes matching socks.


Three cream shirts and three blue shirts with three tie patterns each. The seventh shirt is cream and designed for a flexi-tie which can be bought at my store in Dutch Business Park.


The suit has over 80 photoshop layers to give a good looking suit.


The material is micro-coloured to catch the light so that as you move there is a subtle play of colours across the suit, much like a fine quality fabric. Look at the many shades of blue on my photographs to get an idea of the effect.

Betria Prime - Summer Romance fashion Show

Seraphine has a Summer Romance Show and I am one of the lucky people chosen to exhibit!
I will be showing a mens Navy blue business suit.

Sunday 10 June 2007

Dressed for Tequlia and Hamish's wedding

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Here I am dressed for the wedding of Hamish Stuart and Tequlia Tapioca.

From top to bottom hair is ETD Janae - blonde, ETD Heart barrette, (CS) Vogue skin - champagne (Green-light), dress Last Call: Toscana (celadon), Shiny Things: zig zag shoe - cream, Burroughs jewelry, eyes by Asp Grelling, animation override by Asp Grelling with walk by Beauvoir Roussel (available at Maitreya), stand poses by Luth Brodie and Beauvoir Roussel.