~SHAG~ Fabulous Furniture for Fabulous Virtual Living

This Doll has been busy building a brand new store and brand new furniture to go in it. I dubbed my precious new project ~SHAG~. (Hopefully all of you will come by and decide to get Shagged By Shyayn.) ~SHAG~ furniture can be purchased individually or certain displays can be purchased at a discount (from the shopping bag vendors near the display.) The furniture is fabulous and there are NO POSEBALLS! Since poseballs are FUGS and unnecessarily suck up prims needed for doll houses and such, my Doll put in a little extra work and put many fabulous poses in the furniture. Just right-click and sit. Here's a little taste of what you'll find at ~SHAG~:

Raid Juju's Closet for a Fresh Take on the Little, Black Dress

I was lucky enough to run across the Black Ribbon Dress (left) by Juju's Closet the other night on a shopping expedition. The Black Ribbon Dress from Juju's Closet has given my Doll's own closet a much-needed, fresh take on a timeless favorite, the little, black dress. The lines on this piece are simple and clean, while the overall design of the piece is stunning. The textures and prim-work put into Juju's Black Ribbon Dress are attractive and understated, making the doll (and not the dress) the show-stopper.

Can You sey Cute?

My Doll just picked up the new Girls School Hair by Panache and is currently refusing to remove this adorable head of hair (left.) As it turns out, that's not such a bad thing. These short pigtails, bundled under a color-changing sculpted beanie hat, were screaming for an equally cute outfit to match. My Doll seized the opportunity to piece together some of her new favorites from sey to create a casual, urban look that is nothing short of feminine.

My Doll decided to pair her new sey sleeveless hoodie with sey's yaya jeans in blue (below.) Sey's sleeveless hoodie is most definitely something to write home about! The textures are right on and extremely detailed. The letters on the front and back of this piece give off just the right reflection and shimmer, giving this sleeveless hoodie a very authentic and realistic feel.

The sculpted hood attachment is just as detailed as the textures and lettering on the hoodie, right down to the tiny, colored, clothespins on the left side of the neck portion of the attachment. The hood attachment doesn't have a lot of the issues as other sculpted hood attachments out there, specifically it doesn't look too bulky.

While at sey, my Doll also picked up the yaya jeans in blue (right.) Although the yaya jeans lack the magical prim attachments that the sleeveless hoodie is blessed with, they manage to make a case of their own. The jeans appear to have just the right amount of wear and tear on them, again creating a very authentic look. And maybe my Doll is a little bit too bootylicious to be hanging signs on her rear, but who can resist a pair of jeans that say "Follow Me!" on the back?

My Doll finished off this casual look with Shiny Things' Ribbon Boots in black (left.) As I'm sure you already know, these boots are terribly fabulous. They apparently inspire even lofty, lawyer-types to kiss your feet.

This Doll Does It For Her Country

The veteran in my life didn't think twice about reminding me that today was Veteran's Day, so my Doll donned her very favorite Army girl look in celebration. Agent Orange, this one is for you! My Doll's favorite Army girl look is comprised primarily of the Camolicious outfit from Alkaline Designs (left.) The Camolicious outfit is hardly new to Second Life, this outfit happens to be one of the first (of many) Army girl outfits that my Doll purchased. But alas, the sexy Camolicious outfit has withstood the test of time and endures as one of my Doll's favorite ensembles. As always, the devil is in the details, and I wasted no effort in selecting the perfect accessories for one of my Doll's favorite looks.

When suiting up for one-arm push-ups (below,) my Doll's legs are strapped with the Dual SIG P229 handguns from the fine weapons makers over at The Omega Concern and her favorite camo leg warmers from MPS. And you might notice that this little morale officer happily bears the pain of battle in Zhao Shoes' Fyre stilettos in black.

My Doll's tummy happily bears one of the many superior tattoos created by the one and only JanderSunStar Vendetta for Design Vendetta. My Doll thinks this hand-drawn piece of wearable art complements her Camolicious outfit perfectly. The look is completed with a gas mask from AMBUSH that emits smoke particles when turned on (above) and some fabulously messy hair from Hair Solutions. Happy Veteran's Day!

Dreamy Doll Clothes at D-Factor Exclusive

The Italian Contingent, RIKKI Bayliss & Co., gave my Doll some premium LM junk after a stern talking to about her (poor) decision to wear some eye jewelry that apparently looked like something else splashed across her face. (Ewwwww! And I'm sorry, I was getting overly emo, they were supposed to be tears!) The LM junk blew my mind with the first hit, D-Factor Exclusive. Once I landed I realized that I had to quickly choose and leave the store (despite the siren calls of the reduced-price items on the second floor,) or risk blowing my whole wad on the fabulousness at D-Factor Exclusive. My Doll opted for D-Factor's short, sexy outerwear (left) and a super sweet disco dress (below,) both in black.

D-Factor's textures and styles would rank high with any fashionista. My Doll certainly wasn't disappointed. The designs are simple, elegant, and uber-sexy. The textures and photoshop work aren't far behind. Case in point, the sequin textures on the black disco dress (below.)

A Doll's Best Friend: The Fashionista Closet

After a long hiatus from the blogosphere, going blind on presidential elections and tiny prims, and a trip to see my Italian Connection for some good LM junk, I decided that it was again time to wrestle with my inventory demons. So today I went into battle with my very favorite weapon, The Fashionista Closet. The Fashionista Closet is a genius invention by Sparkle Skye and the creative minds over at Allure, designed to combat the inventory beast and keep a diligent fashionista's inventory somewhere within the realm of reasonable. The Fashionista Closet allows the owner to store (and purge) any items he or she does not want to carry around 24/7, so long as the items are copiable. The best part of using the Fashionista Closet system, aside from purging thousands of items from inventory after a good session, is that you end up with an enormous collection of well-put-together outfits that are available to you at the click of a button from anywhere on the grid. Read on, my fellow dolls.

My closets are well-established and each holds different types of items that I need to store (e.g., prim hair, objects, clothes.) The actual objects that serve as the closets are extremely low-prim and modifiable. You can see from the following photos that I changed the textures on my Fashionista Closets to something a little more Shyayn than plain 'ol wardrobe textures. To use my favorite weapon and faithless companion in the battle against an out-of-control inventory, I first assemble an attractive outfit from my inventory and take a decent picture of my Doll (above.)

Then I store the copiable components of the outfit in the Fashionista Container (right) and texture the Container with the photo that I took of my Doll in her newly-assembled outfit. In this case, I created an outfit called "Celestial Studios Tank and Zaara Jeans Outfit." After moving the outfit from my inventory into the Fashionista Container, prim hair, skin, jewelry and all, I rename the Container appropriately. The Fashionista Containers are "smart," and give you a warning that you can't miss if you happen to accidentally place non-copiable items into the Container.
Left, the green text indicates that everything I've put into the box has the correct (copy) permissions. After my outfit is stored in a Container and properly labeled, I take the newly-named Container into my inventory and then move that Container into the Fashionista Closet that I'd like to use to store that particular outfit, accessory, or object (right.)

After all of my outfits for the session have been put together, photographed, and stored in their respective closets, I click on/touch each closet to get a menu (below) that asks what size HUD I'd like the closet to rezz (small, medium, or large.) Since I'm just partially blind at this point, I opt for the medium-sized HUD which rezzes on the ground in front of the closet after I select "Medium" from the menu. Once rezzed, I take the HUD into my inventory.

The all-important HUD allows me to see what outfits I have stored in a given closet and gives me access to any of those outfits from anywhere on the grid. To access the outfit I just stored, I wear the HUD from my inventory and locate the outfit (either by photo, search, or flipping through the pictures on the HUD) and select "GET!" from the HUD interface. Once I select "GET!" from the HUD, the closet sends me the requested outfit (below.)

Then I simply wear the folder given to me by the closet and my whole look can change (without all that bulk in inventory.) And you can change your look again, in seconds, at the click of a button (below.) I can't decide if this is as good as not having to carry all of those outfits around in your inventory. Lemme know what your dolls think.

My First Time

There are few Second Life experiences that I remember as vividly as I recall the first time I was lucky enough to wear Ms. Melanie Zhao's super boot, the Trinity. They arrived in a folder simply labeled "BLACK no name." I opened the folder, selected wear and things were never quite the same thereafter. I (and those around me) immediately took notice of the fabulous, thigh-high boots gracing my Doll's legs. "WOW" was about all anyone could muster. I told Ms. Zhao that the boots were a bona fide work of art. I didn't lie.

If you have yet to have your first time with the Trinity boot, carpe diem. Ms. Zhao of Zhao Shoes has used the dog days of summer to do the impossible, improve upon perfection.

Ms. Zhao will be releasing these beauties in a host of new colors, including white, silver, gold, purple, cobalt, and red. As always, they come with the Zhao HUD which includes AO on/off, Bling on/off and 3 different heel click sounds with volume control. New features on the Trinities include resizing scripts so you can fit the boots to your avatar's unique shape, a higher heel, and a full bright option. (The boots make a statement alone, the full bright option takes it to a whole new level.)

Almost everything about these boots is sheer perfection, right down to the laces on the back of the boots. The textures are immaculate and the build is second to none. At over 400 prims a pair, these babies took some serious time and effort. Hats off, Ms. Zhao. (And thank you for creating another slice of prim heaven for my Doll.)

Fabulous Freebies at Shy Things

I've recently taken a small break from blogging. It turns out that I have a creative side all my own and have begun making "fabulous virtual furniture for fabulous virtual living." That's right, The Digital Doll is now the sole proprietor of Shy Things. There's a quite a few modern pieces, and all are what I would like to think of as utilitarian. Poseballs are almost entirely absent from my creations, so as not to suck up precious prims! Come by and see! And to celebrate my creative side gone commercial, I'm handing out freebies (via random prize giver at the Shy Things mainstore.) There's a "Bitchin' Hot Tub" which is my take on the ever-present Second Life hot tub. Not too shabby, I might add, as it has some nice poses and you can hide the poseballs when you finish your dip in the tub. Also in the freebie bag is a set of four (4) menu-driven beanbags, each having four (4) sit poses.

Doin' It (Well): Urban Threads and Hip Hop Glamour

Regardless of your take on the culture wars and the commodification of street culture, I think you'll agree that there is a particular style and aesthetic that can only be identified in connection with what the vast majority of us have come to accept as "urban." Certainly, many fashion designers and hip hop moguls the world over have tapped into the masses' desire to latch onto clothes that are as unique, provocative, and American as the urban culture and environment(s) with which they are so closely associated. It turns out that my Doll is not always so different from the masses in that regard. On Saturday, she set out to find some designer duds with a little flava.

My Doll was amazed at the attention to detail and quality in the clothing sold at Freesoul, where she picked up her very first urban essential, baggy pants (left.) The textures used on the pants are very well-done and the sculpted prim attachments that provide the baggy look in these pants clearly took some time and effort to create. Also note that the sculpted prim attachments used in these pants are tapered closer to the waist so that they blend with the garment fairly easily and seamlessly. These pants were a knock-out as baggy pants go, putting the others that my Doll tried on to shame.

While at Freesoul, my Doll couldn't resist channeling her inner Beyonce and grabbing a red-carpet-worthy outfit suited for hip hop royalty(right.) Freesoul didn't disappoint with this glammed up tube top and a low-rise satin skirt. Again, the textures were outstanding! Sequin adornments this attractive in Second Life are most definitely a rare find.

Even if your doll isn't looking for a little flava or trying to fight the culture wars, be sure to check out Freesoul. They have a huge selection of clothing, available in discounted outfits or as seperates, AND a huge selection of handbags and other accessories.

And if it just so happens that your doll is looking for something to wear to her next big meeting with the top brass at her record label, I might suggest Coed Threads' aptly named, Make Dinero suit in black (below.) Right down to the dangerously low pants and blingified cuff links, this little number says that you mean business about your next album going triple platinum.

Bedroom Couture by Zhao Shoes

It's okay, drool. That's precisely what I did when I donned one of Miss Melanie Zhao's latest to-be-released creations, the Moscou. These beautiful, fuzzy beauties pick up right where the Lisa left off, kicking the fuzzy, bedroom slipper up a notch (or ten) to something properly classified as "haute couture." If you didn't think that fuzzy heels to match your doll's lingerie collection could be high fashion, it seems that Miss Zhao has taken issue with that position and served up a few slices of prim heaven to help you think outside of that box. The gold texture applied to the heel is one that I'm sure will be coveted by many a jewelry designer and I haven't seen any furry bits that come close to competing with the ones you'll find on these little beauties. So if you needed a justification for more lingerie, here it is in all its glory!

Oh, I'd encourage all of you Zhao worshipers to take this opportunity to use the bookmark function on your browsers because there's more where this one came from. MUAH!