Tag: Second Life Women’s Clothing

UPDATED: Fantasy Faire in Second Life Runs from April 18th to May 7th, 2024

So, it’s a very lazy springtime Sunday morning, and of course, I have my main Second Life avatar, Vanity Fair, slow dancing with my main male SL alt, Heath Homewood, at the LOVE romantic dance club, dressed up as a medieval queen and her knight—you know, as one does. 😜 It sure beats just turning on the radio while you’re doing laundry! (Hey, don’t judge me; we all have our obsessive little hobbies to help keep us sane in these trying times.)

This is my rather roundabout way of saying that it’s Fantasy Faire season once again in Second Life, and this year there are no less than 20 regions, each with its own unique fantasy theme. Roleplay opportunities abound, as well as hunts and quests, auctions and shopping, arts and entertainment, a literary festival, a film festival, and a grand masked ball. Something for everyone! There’s even a special radio station!

Fantasy Faire (running from April 18th to May 7th, 2024) is Second Life’s annual fantasy roleplay festival and shopping event, and a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society:

Celebrating its sixteenth year, Fantasy Faire 2024 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world, bringing their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.

Fantasy Faire is one of the megaevents of Relay For Life of Second Life. RFL of SL is a part of American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fundraising. You can visit their page of the Second Life Teams to see how much various SL events have earned for Relay For Life during the year.

In 2023 Fantasy Faire ranked 12th out of 40,000 Relay For Life Teams worldwide in terms of money-raised. In addition, Relay For Life of Second Life was the 8th highest RFL fundraising community event worldwide.

Participating stores usually have several special offers on merchandise, with the proceeds going towards the American Cancer Society. For example, Heath’s wonderful Caelan armour (with its Tree of Life motif) and chain mail suit are available at the Poet’s Heart store at Fantasy Faire. The Caelan armour is L$300 for a fatpack of 13 different colours, including the green shown below, and the chainmail is only L$100 for a fatpack of 19 different colours. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of these items during Fantasy Faire goes to the American Cancer Society. I don’t know if you’ve ever been shopping for armour in SL, but I have, and I can tell you that L$400 for a full fatpack of armour and chain mail, is an exceptional deal! You can easily spend up to ten times that amount, on just one colour of armour!

The armour and chain mail comes in the following male and female sizes, and includes everything except the helmet and whatever weapons you choose to carry:

Sizes for Male Mesh Bodies:

  • Belleza Jake
  • Inithium Kario
  • Meshbody Legacy male body

Sizes for Female Mesh Bodies:

  • Belleza GenX Classic
  • Belleza GenX Curvy
  • Maitreya LaraX (but since you are probably going to alpha out your entire body underneath the full-body chain mail anyway, this would likely fit Maitreya Lara 5.3 or earlier versions as well; please get a demo and check first, though!)
  • Maitreya Lara PetiteX (and probably older Petite bodies, for the same reason)
  • Meshbody Legacy female body
  • Meshbody Legacy Perky
  • eBody Reborn
The Caelan armour (in the Tree of Life motif), and the chain mail are available at the Poet’s Heart booth at this year’s Fantasy Fair (please note that the helmet is not included; I picked up this one a couple of years ago from the 10th anniverary giveaway at Eleran’s Crafts, as part of complete set called Faraam, and tinted it green to match the armour here).

Here’s a closer look at Vanity Fair’s magnificent (and, I must confess, rather intimidating!) outfit:

Full style credits below

Madame Noir has a store at Fantasy Faire (SLURL), but you’ll have to go to their mainstore location to pick up this gloriously over-the-top Queen ballgown (please note that the main store location is rated Adult, as it also stocks festishwear, as you might have guessed from this tightly-corseted gown!). I believe the Madame Noir store is currently undergoing a renovation at the moment, but trust me, it’s worth a visit! The proprietor seems to have gone of her way to rig for the new Maitreya LaraX mesh body, and I see so many amazing things that I want to buy there!

Madame Noir has a free group join, that gives you a bit of a discount on your in-store purchases, as well as a lovely selection of free group gifts:

The group gifts wall at Madame Noir

The Imperium head chainmail and the matching Regium crown are from Unholy (SLURL). They can be used together or separately, Both the crown (unrigged; resizable) and the chain mail (rigged) come in sizes to fit male and female avatars, and each has a HUD with many options, including ten different metal textures for various parts of each item. I decided to choose a silver metal tone to match the metallic sheen of the outrageous sleeves and collar of the Madame Noir Queen ballgown!

Complete Styling Notes

Vanity Fair is wearing:

  • Head and Makeup: the new LAQ Era2 female mesh head (UltimateHD version)
  • Body: the new Maitreya LaraX mesh body
  • Skin: LAQ Susanna UltimateHD head skin and matching Next Level Maitreya body skin (the Susanna head skin fatpack is currently one of the gifts at the Bellisseria 5th Anniversary Gift Plaza)
  • Crown: Regium crown by Unholy
  • Head Chainmail: Imperium by Unholy
  • Gown: the Queen gown by Madame Noir
  • Shoes (not shown): silver Heidi pumps by Garbaggio

Heath Homewood is wearing:

  • Head: Catwa Daniel mesh head
  • Hair: Boy Next Door by Exile
  • Body: Belleza Jake mesh body
  • Skin: Blaze head skin and matching body skin by Birth
  • Helmet: Faraam helmet (part of a complete knight’s outfit) by Eleran’s Crafts
  • Rest of Armour: Caelan armour and chain mail by Poet’s Heart

PRO TIP: Looking for free weapons? Jomo has a small stone building next to its main store (exact SLURL), where you can pick up dozens of free swords, shields, spears, staves, axes, and other weapons. No group join is required, and everything is free!

Please note that these are not scripted weapons, but they can be resized and modified as you wish. I use them with a very handy HUD I purchased from Antaya, called the Unisex Roleplay HUD, which offers a variety of static Bento hand and arm poses for use with unscripted accessories such as the sword I picked up from Jomo. Here’s the exact SLURL to find the roleplay HUD at the Antaya store.

Of course, most roleplayers would probably use some sort of scripted weapon attachment, part of a system which allows you to draw and sheath a sword using special keystrokes, etc. (there are many such systems already well-established in Second Life). The Antaya HUD is used more for static items, or for photography in SL.

Jomo offers a treasure trove of swords, spears, and other weapons—all free!
The unisex roleplay HUD from Antaya offers a wide variety of useful hand and arm poses, to use with accessories such as books, lanterns, purses, and weapons.

Be sure to explore the many different regions of Fantasy Faire; some of the best landscape designers in Second Life work their hardest each year to wow visitors, and each region has a different fantasy theme. Even if you don’t buy a single thing, it’s great fun!

UPDATE April 29th, 2024: Ava Bloodrose Delaney has informed me, “[Fantasy Faire] got extended to [May] 7th by the Lindens at the Jail & Bail event on the 19th.” Thanks, Ava! I have updated my blogpost accordingly.

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Ryan’s Quick and Dirty Guide to the 2022 Holiday Shop and Hop

Yes, I am still percolating, but of course, the holidays wait for no one! This year, the annual Second Life Holiday Shop and Hop covers 16 sims, simply groaning with discounted items for sale. And each vendor booth has a free Christmas present for you—and a few have more than one!

I have spent the past week scouring social media for information to learn which stores are participating in this year’s Holiday Shop and Hop, and what gifts each store is giving. Then I drew up a draft list, loaded up Second Life supermodel Moesha Heartsong, and hit all 16 sims, to pick up, unpack, and inspect each gift from that list. As more information came in, I edited and updated that list, and it is now at version 3.0!

This final list consists of my picks for the best gifts from this season’s Shop and Hop (mostly fashion for female avatars, but also some male fashion, as well as any offers of gift cards or free store credit). Each item on the list includes an exact SLURL, so you can teleport directly to the gift, pick it up, and head on to your next score! Having all one sim’s gifts grouped together means less teleporting back and forth between sims, a factor to consider early on in the event, when some popular sims get congested with avatar traffic.

I have posted that detailed list to my own Second Life group, called the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group (just search for “ryanschultz”, all one word, under Groups in Search, and you will find it easily). More information on the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group can be found here. The group join fee is only L$50, and you will find it money well spent, as I often share many bargains and freebies throughout the year, which never make it to this blog!

As an alternative to my list, or if you really want to make sure you haven’t missed any gifts that I skipped over, I still feel that the single best way to tackle the Shop and Hop events is to watch Naria Panthar’s videos on YouTube.

Naria always posts one or two videos where she unpack every single gift from the event, both non-wearable items and avatar clothing, and shows you what they look like. Watch the videos with the audio at two times normal speed, and keep a pen and paper handy to note the stores which have gifts you want (Naria herself recommends watching and listening at 2X speed, so it doesn’t take as long!).

Then, use this handy list which Linden Lab has provided to find your Shop and Hop store by name, teleport in, and snap up your present! (Note that, in some cases, a store SLURL from this list might accidentally stick up behind a wall or, in one case, on top of the roof! This is another good reason to join the RyanSchultz.com Steals, Deals & Freebies group—I have tested all the SLURLs, and that should not happen!)

The Holiday Shop and Hop event is on now, and runs until January 2nd, 2023, so you have plenty of time to pop in and scoop up some fabulous freebies for yourself!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Gifts from the 9th Anniversary of the Kustom9 Event

At the ripe old age of 19, the virtual world of Second Life has a thriving in-world economy, and part of that ecosystem are the regular shopping events, which SL’s store owners often use to showcase their new releases. One such event, Kustom9, is celebrating its 9th anniversary with a treasure trove of gifts, if you join the Kustom9 group for free.

The rechristened Moesha Heartsong is showing you two of these free gifts in the video below. The animation override (AO) is by Body Language, and has a youthful, cutesy, kawaii air to it, don’t you think? (What I usually like to do is reuse only the animations I like, adding them to an existing AO, and discarding the rest. I mean, how can you go wrong for free?)

The dress Moesha is wearing is the Kustom9 present from the Luas booth. It’s a special Hallowe’en edition of the Sena dress, which comes in the following sizes: Maitreya Lara and Petite; Meshbody Legacy and Perky; INITHIUM Kupra; and eBody Reborn.

The gift from Apple Blossom is the Shay minidress in a champagne colour (sizes: Maitreya Lara and Petite; Meshbody Legacy and Perky; and INITHIUM Kupra).

One fun unisex gift is from Spoiled, and it’s this highly configurable heart-shaped Cheeky balloon, with comes with a variety of full-body and arm-only Bento poses (the arm-only poses mean that you can use it with your existing AO).

There are 3 separate Bento hold poses for each of the right arm and left arm, and you get a HUD with endless colour options for the balloon itself, and even the string! There are also many options for the quote on the balloon (most are birthday related), or you can turn the text off completely, as you can see in the black urban angel picture above.

Now, this is my opportunity to tell you about one of my pet peeves in Second Life—HUDs with text so small that you cannot read them! You cannot tell me that, on this huge HUD, you couldn’t have made the quotes section larger, and actually readable?!?? Despite this admittedly minor quibble, this is a very generous gift, and I expect I will trot out all my SL alts to pick one up!

The ninth anniversary round of the Kustom9 shopping event runs from October 18th to November 8th, 2022, so you have plenty of time to swoop down and sweep up some fabulous freebies!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Spend L$98 at Beauty Factory and Get 296 Items of Womenswear!

If your female avatar likes to wear pink, then do I have a bargain for you! Every October, the Beauty Factory womenswear store has an event to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and this year, they are giving away a big pink box stuffed to overflowing with pink outfits. Baby pink, hot pink, and every shade of pink in between! Just teleport to the Beauty Factory store, join their group for only L$98, and click on the big pink box in the centre lobby to pick up your copy (see black arrow):

Find a spot with build rights, and unpack the big pink box. Inside are five more boxes, and inside those five boxes are a total of two hundred and seventy-four items of clothing! You’ll have to unpack each item separately, which might take you a little while, but it is so worth it!

Dresses, gowns, jumpsuits, rompers, tops, pants, leggings, fishnet, you name it—if it’s pink, it’s in there!! All items fit Maitreya Lara and Lara-compatible mesh bodies (e.g. LucyBody Atenea and Kalhene Analexa). Most items also come in a size to fit the Meshbody Legacy body, and a few come in sizes to fit Belleza Freya and INITHIUM Kupra.

Second Life supermodel Vanity Fair models just a few of these outfits (please click on each image in the gallery below to see it in a bigger size):

Emma dress
Deby top and shorts
Beatriz dress
Lux top, Adore leggings
Ashe jumpsuit

If you were not already a member of the Beauty Factory store group, your L$98 join fee nets you 274 gifts from the big pink box, PLUS another 22 group gifts from their spacious Gift Room, on the opposite side of the wall where you picked up the big pink box (exact SLURL). That’s a total of 296 items for only L$98, which works out to L$0.33 per item—a deal by any measure!

The catch is, you need to act quickly, because this bargain only runs until noon (Second Life Time/Pacific Time) of Friday, October 21st, 2022. So hurry down!