Upon hearing the theme I had an immediate picture in my head. A baroque gown with the front panel missing and very Avant Garde accessories. The first thing I did was get some demo and cheap baroque gowns. I immediately ran into problems. Either the dresses were all one mesh piece or the entire skirt was one sculpted prim. There was no way to remove just the front panel.
The next thing I thought of was to use the top from one of the sculpted prim dresses and a cage skirt. This lead me to the idea of doing a female version of the Marquee de Sade. I found a black baroque gown with a sweetheart neckline with a plunging V at the point of the heart down to the waist. I was then able to find a black cage skirt, which fit perfectly. I found a pair of black spiked shoulder pad with chains; which I attached to the shoulders of the top. I then found a pair of huge black spike shoulder pads, which attached to the top of the cage skirt to give that wider top of the skirt like the baroque gowns. I then took all the various bows off the baroque outfit and placed them on the cage skirt. For under the skirt, I had black leather panties, with black leather garter, black nylons, and black leather spiked knee high boots.
Then a notice came out in the MMI chat that sent the entire group into a buzz of questions. Someone asked what they should search for inspiration because when they put baroque in as a search parameter all they got was furniture. The head of the contest suggested "baroque fashion 2015 or baroque Avant Garde high fashion 2016." When I put that into my search engine to see, I was agast. It was not the baroque style from the 17th century done in Avant Garde. It was modern day fashion done with baroque textiles with Avant Garde accessories.
Now what do I do? Start over? Continue with what I have started? I decided to continue with what I had started since there was so much time and money already invested in it. I continued on the dress until I thought it was done. Then took it for a walk. OMG! Everything on the skirt was moving with every step I took. I tried to link the objects with no success. The items were linked to various parts of the body and moved with the body. I then decided, to go with the same basic outfit and add music related item and bows I created myself with builders kits. I tried attaching and linking various types of music notes. Still no success.
I was never so glad that the chat that sent things spinning might be my saving grace. I immediately started looking for things with baroque patterns. I found two dresses that I thought would be perfect. One was 350L and the other was 800L. Being I had already spent a lot of lindens, I went with the 350L dress. I tried working with it, but couldn't get it to look high fashion or Avant Garde. The whole time ideas kept popping into my head for the 800L dress.
Out of frustration and desperation, I finally bit the bullet and bought the 800L dress. The dress has a sleeveless, jewel neck top with a gold baroque pattern and a high-low solid black mini front to full length back skirt.
Because of the simple elegance of the dress, I knew I needed to accessorize with everything Avant Garde. I found a pair of great shoes, they are black with gold skinny stiletto heel, gold chains across the front and has what looks like gold flames coming from the front. I added gold bangles inter-twined with a black bangle. I tried to add a necklace, but every necklace I tried kept falling under the dress. I tried adjusting the necklaces, so that they would show, but then they just cut through the neck or were too high above the shoulders. Next, earrings. I was able to find a large pair of dangle earrings that were black and gold with chains like the shoes. I found some Baroque Rococo make-up with gold filigree around the eyes, rosy cheeks, and ruby red lips with gold filigree. Because of my darker skin, the make-up was a little hard to see. During the Baroque Period the aristocracy would powder their face. I couldn't find a powdered face, but I did find a Geisha base. I then added an exaggerated Baroque Style with gold hair picks that looked like a crown.
Trying to find a walk for this outfit was very difficult. Every walk I tried, except one particular geisha walk, the legs broke through the back of the skirt. The only problem I had with this particular geisha walk, is that every time I stopped or turned into a mark my arms would drop down straight to my side into the dress and would then come up to the default pose. I don't know if this is legal or not, but the only way to stop the arms from dropping was to have a default pose very close to the selected default pose on all the times. With this second default pose on all the time, the walk would transition smoothly to the default pose. Why this works, I don't know. But, at competition time, you do what you have to do to make it work.
Finding Avant Garde pose was also very difficult. Just about every pose broke prims. Either in the back with my legs and shoes coming through the skirt, with earrings coming through the top, or with the top cutting the arms or the back.
The whole time I was trying out poses, all I heard was my husband say how much he hated the hair and the geisha base make-up. He said the hair was just ridiculous stupid. He said the geisha base was too much of a contrast from my own skin and his my beauty. I had thought about going with a lighter skin, since in the Baroque Period, the aristocracy was very pale and powdered themselves to look even paler. There was a comment said early on in the competition, that this competition is about us and that they didn't want to see radical changes in our avatars. If our hair is brown stay in the browns don't go blonde. So, I figured that probably went for skin too. The challenge was Avant Garde, which means everything usually goes out the window.
After the initial feedback and my husbands comments, my confidence was shook. I was second guessing and doubting everything as the day of the walk came closer and closer. I finally broke. I removed the geisha base and went with a smaller updo. Just as I did that and finished adjusting things to not break prims with the poses, Cy posted in the MMI chat, "Never ever second guess yourself." OH SHIT! What do I do now? Go back to my initial look or keep what I have? It was already very late and the competition was the next morning. I was exhausted and stressed out. I decided to keep what I had.
Style Card for Final Outfit
Outfit
Dress - Kelini - Baroque Wedding - Black
Shoes - The Rove - The Evil Shoes
Gloves - Dressed by Lexi - Dressed to Purr Black Gloves
Bangles - Phoebe - 7 Gold
Earrings - The Rove - Maca
Avatar
Hair - Hair Addictive - Bridal - Updo - VJBlack
Eyes - IKON - Sunrise - Azure
Eyelashes - WoW Skins - Lashes 2
Make-up - Madrid Solo - Full Face Designs - Rococo - Full Set
Shape - [eStyle] - Quartz - Modified
Skin - Akeruka - Blanca - Tan Cleavage Mk1
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