That’s the name of the store, not my attempt at humor

I came across Big Booty, Big Money whilst TPing around searching for something new (to me). Like a lot of folks, I too tend to fall into the comfort of the designers I favor…but the grid is a big place so I try to remind myself to look beyond the obvious from time to time.

BBBM is owned and operated by Evelyn Edelman, and is not a shop I had heard of before. She has a rez date of late 2006, but I honestly have no idea how long the shop has been around. At any rate, all the items I found there were $95L so even if you’re not in love with the whole piece but think you can use part of an outfit, it’s all good. I actually think there are a lot of very interesting styles. I also like that Evelyn clearly has a sense of humor…

For one thing, BBBM has the best names for outfits that I have seen on the grid. For instance, “Let’s do Kafka” and “Coke Party Dress” made me LOL…

I chose three pieces from what was on display: The JK, NP and Strict dresses. Presumably JK is “just kidding” and NP is “no problem” - but I dunno to be honest. I tried to choose styles that were very, very different than what you typically see in SL fashion. The results below…

The JK dress is loud in purple plaid with a crepe skirt. The outfit comes with dress pants, sash (on the jacket layer), dress top, dress undershirt (good layering options all around), purple prim bow and plaid prim skirt. Now, purple is not a color I really wear often in SL or RL, and I definitely am not a purple plaid lover, but I have to say I really liked this dress for being completely unashamed of what it is. It’s actually quite fun and though I didn’t accessorize properly here at all, I suspect you could do a lot with this if you’re into mixing and matching. Who doesn’t need a big purple bow for example? I do have to point out that this dress does have a couple issues - specifically, the straps don’t match up where they meet at the top of the shoulder (shirt layer). If it were a more expensive piece, I might have been concerned, but it wasn’t so I’m not :P.

The NP dress is actually my favorite and unlike above, this is a much more subtle - but still kind of “left of center” - piece. NP comes with dress pants, top (3 layer options), sash (jacket layer), prim bow, prim sleeves and three prim pieces for the skirt. The best part for me is the very well done ribbon stitching all the way around the top and plunging back, matching the sleeves. The front of the top is purposely uneven - exposing slightly more boobage on one side (another detail that I appreciate because it really goes with the whole theme of the dress). Overall I think it’s completely insane but actually quite smart

Finally, the Strict dress. It’s a tiered, “nubby” wool number with prim shoulder puffs and shiny buttons down the front. It comes with two prim skirts for the tiered effect, pants, top and prim sleeves, which you’ll need to adjust if you choose to wear them. I suspect you could accessorize the hell out of this dress depending on the look you’re going for. I should mention though that there are also issues with this dress - namely that the textures on the prims seem to have been stretched so the sharp wool feel you get from the top is inconsistent with the prims. That might be a deal breaker for some folks but you can choose to drop the shoulder prims or one of the skirts (as shown below). Plus again, it’s only $95L.

You can find BBBM next to Marly on the Envy sim. Visit BBBM.

Skin - Sin Skins; Hair - Deviant Kitties

A week or so ago I saw a notice for a “new to me” designer, Lux Yao and her shop Amaretto. I TPd over and was very impressed by a couple of the designs in both concept and style. In addition, she has a great shop design, which makes shopping there easy…like in RL, I find it hard to shop anywhere where the aesthetics of the shop aren’t good. Anyway, I digress…

I chose two pieces from Amaretto: the Nastasha and Boytrap dresses. I am definitely attracted to designers who don’t do the “same old, same old” in SL and I think Lux may be one to watch, as her ideas seem fresh. I do believe she also won the “shop of the month” at ETD, which should give her some great visibility in SL.

My favorite of the two would have to be the Boytrap dress, which is very late 1960s or early 70s inspired. Cute little minidress accented with a belt…the skirt needed fitting on my shape and didn’t seem to work well in certain poses, but I do love the dress and if I got better at fitting prims, I might not have a problem :P. Boytrap is priced very reasonably at $200L.

Next up is Natasha, which is a daring green jersey dress with prim belt. It’s a system skirt but it’s well done and I think, very flattering. If you can’t handle the site of your AV’s arse in a system skirt, try making a copy of your shape and setting the bum to 0. I didn’t do that here but I think it’s still fine. You’ll likely need to fit the belt as I had to, but it’s copy so if you mess up (why oh why do things jump around as I try to resize them???), you can have a do-over. My only nit with this dress is that the edges seemed somewhat unfinished on the back of the top - though the front is fine. The Natasha dress is also $200L.

After I was done at Amaretto, I walked over to Cherry Tokyo Kimonos to sample some of the wares. I had never heard of this shop before but I suppose since I don’t typically sport kimonos in either life, that might be why Cherry brings us some very beautifully detailed patterns in her designs, and though I didn’t purchase any of the true kimonos, I did pick up the Indian Kurtis outfit in blue. The outfit comes with jeans, shirt, shirt bottom (skirt layer) and belt for $400L, which I found a bit pricey.

I preferred the outfit without the belt and shirt bottom as neither really suited my shape all that well. The belt was also no-copy (but all transferable) so careful resizing, which you will very likely need to do (the snaps show that I didn’t do it very well but SL hates me so this will have to do). I love the top - very rich, shimmery, and well detailed. I will definitely be wearing it again. I’d love to see Cherry release some of her tops as singles or packs, giving customers the option on how to pair them up on the bottom. Overall, definitely worth a look for something new and different.

Visit Amaretto and Cherry Tokyo Kimonos both on Boracay Island, right next to each other in keeping with their “East meets West” theme

Skin by Cake; Hair by ETD; custom “Key to his heart” necklace by Xessories (D’nel DaSilva)

I asked Blue Hair (Adec Alexandria) to help me with a post focused on men’s fashion (though I would definitely wear some of this myself). I have one alt and she’s a she…as well as no time to mess with making a male AV…so here we are.

First, I asked Adec to pick out something he liked from what we’ve seen out there; Then, I picked something I would like to see on him. The results of this experiment are below.

Me first

I chose the amazing Luna Suit from Casa Del Shai (yup, on a Shai kick, but can you blame me?). I knew I would love it on Blue Hair as soon as I saw it: classic, sophisticated, and yes, expertly crafted. It comes with dress pants, jacket, two shirts (tucked and untucked), lower shirt on the underpants layer, dress socks and suit tails. I liked it better without the tails, but definitely try them, as your guy’s shape might be better suited than mine My favorite parts have to be the detailing on the shirt - summery, light and airy - and the little handkerchief in the jacket pocket. I’m all about the details The Luna Suit is $600L.

(Click on the pics below to unfugly :P)

To show more detailing on the top and jacket…

Adec is sporting the Boho Sandals in brown from Shiny Things (though obviously a dress shoe would be good); Hair and Skin from Naughty.

Now for Adec’s choices….

We visited Truth Designs by Truth Hawks for his picks. He chose the Truth Underground jacket and Day Trader shirt (in pearl). He paired them with the Saguaro jeans from Desert Moon. I think the Day Trader is shirt is excellent - crisp and well shaded, slightly rumpled - and I know Adec will be wearing it for the next few weeks (because you know, some guys are just too busy to change 9x a day). Of course, it comes in other basic colors as well (including a very yummy powder blue). As for the jacket, I’ll admit that I didn’t love it on him without a shirt underneath (as it comes) but liked it a lot better with a shirt underneath it. Just a style preference on my part. Day Trader shirt ($125L for singles; $285L for the pack), Underground Jacket ($185L).

Jacket shown with and without the shirt…

Hair and skin by Naughty; Dog Tags by Xessories (Dnel DaSilva)

Visit Casa Del Shai and Truth

I have blogged before about how much I adore Shai Delacroix and her designs. I know I am not alone here. I’ll say again that when I was very new early last fall, Shai’s designs were the first that I really adopted as a staple in my virtual closet. She was also one of the first designers who I got to know - and she was extremely generous, helping an awkward noob like me.

Just like in RL, I am a fashion chameleon. I can wear a pretty, girlie dress one day and something far more edgy the next day. I work in technology (on the marketing side though), so there’s a lot of leniency with regard to what I put on every day. I take full advantage of that to be sure. I mention this only because I feel like Shai has been able to leverage that facet in all of us in her designs - there really is something for everyone or most moods anyway lol. Oh and I have a lot of those too

From time to time, if we wait long enough, there comes along something of the “very special” variety of SL fashion. Something that reflects not only the deep talent of a designer, but something about the person who made it. The real person. I think Shai has revealed some of that in her recent Filipiniana series. These are really very special. Even if you typically don’t have reason to wear pieces like this in SL, it’s sometimes enough just to put them on for yourself and admire them.

I picked my favorite from the series, the Imelda Terno. I remember all the press about the former first lady and her shoes back in the 80s, among other things. I have been accused of shoe hording myself but I’ll leave those details in my RL. At any rate, Shai includes some information about the dress in her blog saying, “Inspired by the glamour of a glittering former first lady, this terno is an embodiment of how she moved the dark & powerful decade of Philippine History with her style. Imelda Marcos popularized the Philippine national costume with butterfly sleeves and stylized column serpentina skirts. Each public appearance was a work of art. She was keenly aware of Filipino cultural constructions of the lady as the icon of national tradition, and used these insights to achieve her nationalista goals. Everyone secretly loved her fashion sense.”

As you can see (click to enlarge the picture), the dress is very daring and beautifully made. It’s just so different than what you typically see in SL. I adore it…the system skirt; the blended fabric at the base; the sparkling lace at the bottom that you can almost hear rustling; the sculpted sleeves; the amazing detail on the back. Again, very different and deeply beautiful. I even love the green and green is not something I typically wear in either life.

While this is the only piece that I happened to pick up, Shai introduced three other beautiful dresses as part of the series and also offers the Imelda dress in ivory, which is also stunning. Prices on the Filipiniana series range from $800-1,000L.

Visit Casa Del Shai in Deco.

Skin by Lovey Darling; Hair by ETD