Dream Home dreams

I am far too cheap to buy land in Second Life for the foreseeable future, but I nevertheless have accumulated a lot of adorable furniture and an excellent Japanese-style prefab apartment from Cup of Crown. Much of the furniture comes from Bettiepage Voyager (whose shop is infuriatingly hard to find in Search), Grandma! and OverDrive, but it's all a miscellany and some of it was free, gathered over the past few years in SL. Thus, it's not going to be a highly organised 'where to buy' sort of post. So I sort of want to show you some pictures, just because I enjoyed setting all this up on a sandbox with a complete disregard for prim count. Shall we?


Here is the front door. I like my Welcome mat. Scale can be so dodgy in SL, can't it? Look at me, and look at that door.


Please do come in.


Now, because it's a Japanese-style apartment, there has to be a place to take off your shoes and put on slippers.


The first door on your right leads to the toilet, and as you can see, it's a toilet with everything, including spare paper, a book on the floor, and a creepy 70s Doctor Who poster.


The next door along opens on the bathroom.


The temple of Hygeia. I really need a nice showerhead-with-hose to go on the wall, don't I?


Here I am in the sort of intersection of the place. Horribly, I have not taken off my outdoor shoes! I love the TV.


Here is the compact little kitchen, complete with rice-cooker.


Here is the living room, extremely cosy.


If you want an orange, a tissue or a comic, I can help you.


My bedroom, finally, gives some hint of my occupation as a geisha. I've had my erikae now! Grown-up geisha!


Here you can see a traditional geisha's make-up table. Geisha are great collectors of kimonos.


And Johnny Depp, kimonos and Johnny Depp. The door to the left is a storage cupboard.


And so, although it makes my skirt look a bit peculiar, I lie down to sleep!

More of my thoughts about how SL should be

I know my point of view on these things isn't terribly valid, because it's not as if I know how to create anything in SL. The cleverest thing I ever did was turn a top hat into a wizard's hat by futzing around with the crown in a sandbox. Still, I have my ideas and here they are.
1. Someone should invent a thing, some kind of scripted dealie, that scans the contents of your inventory, detects duplicate items, and presents them so you can delete all the ones you don't want. For example, look at how many stores enclose an LM with their products - sometimes multiple LMs to all their locations. You only need one of each of those, and the rest are just taking up space and doing nobody any good.
2. It would be awesome if Inventory had a thumbnail viewing mode. Who knows what everything they own looks like? Why do I have an empty folder called PLAAKA? What about items whose names are in another language or just not descriptive, like all those hairstyles that have girls' names but no details like 'ponytail' or 'bun'? You see what I mean.
3. Like lots of people, I've been doing the grid-wide 'Ghost Busters' Hallowe'en hunt. Mostly I've been enjoying it. It's made me think about the ins and outs of placing items for hunts and quests. I think the secret is to be clever, but not TOO clever. You want it to be challenging enough that people get a sense of achievement from tracking the little squirt down, but not so hard that they become frustrated and bored and tell their friends your hunt sucks, or feel that you are just dicking with them. Things I've seen that I liked include placing the sculpted prim ghost in front of a vendor board and colouring him to match part of the picture, so you had to notice that he stuck out in 3D to see that he was there, making the ghost small and putting him on a shelf with ornaments, putting a script inside the ghost so that he actually moved slowly around the room, and placing the ghost inside an open-and-shut item that people had to click open to be able to see him. I haven't liked putting the ghost somewhere really hard to cam to in a big, multi-roomed store build, or making him so tiny it's pretty much a fluke if you DO see him. That didn't quite seem like fair play.
Anyway, soon I'll have finished the hunt (I'm in the 90s now) and will have a buttload of new inventory to sort through!

Fashioning a fairy - with freebies (well, some)

It's been a while! And I've been getting further into fairy fashion. Despite a regrettable tendency to call themselves 'fae,' a word with which I've never felt comfortable, Second Life fairies are rather nice people with pretty good taste in clothes. There are lots of fairies and fairy-tale-type people in Avilion, a very pretty and detailed fantasy role-play sim (or rather, set of sims - it's a big place). The pictures in this entry were taken there.

There are various freebie/newbie fairy outfits around, like that fugly pansy one you've probably seen if you've been in SL any length of time. Here you can see some dawg trying to sell it for L100 when it's a pretty widely distributed freebie. It's not at all hard to find boxes full of free wings of varying design and quality - try a quick search for Yadni's Junkyard, for example, and don't forget to check the freebies on SLX and Shop OnRez. If you want to look really pretty as a fairy, though, you will need to spend a little Linden cash. Isn't that always the way?
For example, an appropriate AO (animation overrider) is necessary to really look the part. I recommend the gorgeous Kami-Hitoe Dreaming Butterfly AO, which offers you a choice of walks and sitting poses and has lovely smooth stands. It costs 600L, which is pretty good for such a detailed doodah. K-H is also a great place to get mermaid costumes and AOs. I love the tropical clownfish mermaid set!

But not everything good is expensive! You can get a beautiful set of flexi wings from Fancy Fairy for nowt. They're called 'Teasel Mint' and they're a luscious green with a natural, insecty style, more like dragonfly wings than butterfly ones. (Um, well, I realise butterflies are insects too... but dragonflies are MORE insecty!)

(Purely by chance, the AO stand I was in made it look as if I was pulling my ponytail out of the way to give you a clearer view of the wings. Rokkin'.)
While you're there, look around and see some of the best fairy fashion I've seen in Second Life. I love the Dew Petal Dress in Lime, which also comes with a longer skirt version...

the Olde World Faery gown in Forest, inspired by the goblin and fairy art of Brian 'Labyrinth' Froud (omg I wish this creator would make Sarah's dress from the dream bubble scene!)...

and the Azarelle dress in Green, with a glorious leafy bodice.

Each of these comes with a co-ordinating set of wings, so they really are good value for money and allow you to change your look, as indeed fairies love to do. (I haven't worn the wings that come with Azarelle in these pictures.) Join the update group and you will sometimes get new wing designs for free, too. They also have gorgeous things like the Queen Bee fairy avatar, rose-petal lingerie, and special skins.

Another shop that I like very much is Caverna Obscura. They have some excellent shoes (I like the Leather Sandals that lace up your leg - I'm wearing them in all these photos) and the Brimstone dress, which appears to be made of cabbage leaves, is adorable. I always think fairy dresses should look a bit organic and ragged and as if they've been dragged through a hedge backwards at least once. Brimstone comes with lots of mix-and-match pieces, so you can put together looks different from the one I show here, including a more formal ballgown sort of style. I really love the flower belt and sleeve details.

My fresh-faced fairy look is created with the Innocence shape and BettiePage eyes blogged earlier, Tarali's Swertia skin in Pearl (L1400 - sorry), and the Jasmine hair in Copper currently available for 1L at Frangipani Designs.

The butterflies in my hair came with the free YIPs 'anouska' set at the GNUbie Store, repositioned from their original spot on the belly. Being a freebie hound often means you have half a squillion things in your inventory that you can use for other purposes.

One last thought... I can understand why people like to RP as childlike or actually juvenile fairies or pixies. It's pretty, playful, youthful, sure. But I don't understand why so many of them play with a typed speech impediment - especially the one I can only describe as 'Elmer Fudd.' 'Hewwo, I'm a wittwe faiwy.' I find it grating rather than cute - it makes the chat harder to read, sometimes almost unintelligible. When a real child speaks indistinctly, it's not annoying because you know they're learning and doing their best, and you just try to model clear speech and give them lots of props when they improve. When a presumably grown-up Second Life player laboriously types out a lot of cutesy-poo tosh (they usually don't say anything interesting in itself, because they are working so hard to project this performance of cuteness), it's jolly irritating to me. I'm not about to pick any fights over this, but it strikes me as extremely unnecessary. Surely it's possible to 'talk' with a childlike vocabulary and syntax without resorting to Fudd-speak? I don't know if anyone who does this will read this blog, but if they do, please take on board that it may not be having the endearing effect you intend, and consider at least cutting down a bit.

Shop review - Grandma!

One of the endearing things about the Japanese, of course, is the way they adopt English vocabulary and use it in their own quixotic way. There are websites devoted to the 'Engrish' that results. Often it's not quite clear why they choose the words they do, or whether they realise what they evoke to a native speaker of English. I would not expect to find cute clothes for young women and girls in a shop called Grandma!, but there you go. (In fact, at first I misread the name as 'Grand mal,' as in epileptic fit!) On consideration, I think the name is meant to indicate that the clothing is vintage-styled, but don't worry, it will not make you look like a nanna, unless you mean your nanna when she was young and foxy and turning heads at the Saturday night social.

The Grandma! main store is in Broadmead, a Japanese-built sim based on London. As you walk around, it really does look and feel like a relatively affluent part of London - maybe Knightsbridge? I need to spend more time in London to be certain.
The concept of the shop is what's so adorable: according to the Picks in creator Hanae Nishi's profile, 'This shop imitates a vintage bookstore. You are a cute girl, who lives in the bookstore...' Well, I LOVE vintage bookstores, and I LOVE to be told I'm a cute girl, so this was clearly right up my alley.
So I dressed myself, cutely enough I hope, in a blouse and capris from GiGi Couture, and went! Click on the pictures to see the full versions.

You can see an authentic London Underground sign in the background - there is an entrance to a Tube station near Grandma!, but it's currently blocked off with warning tape, and a cautious peep suggests that it's under construction. In any case, what need have I of public transport? I live in the shop. I'm like Bernard Black, but a cute girl.

Unlike Bernard, though, I keep a clean shop. When you enter Grandma!, you'll find a cash desk to your right. If you click on the till, you'll get an LM for the shop, and if you click on the little pink bag speckled with butterflies, you'll receive a free pack containing the floral apron (on jacket and skirt layers), armful of books and duster shown here. You'll have to turn off any AO you wear to carry these correctly. And you'll be all set!

You can sit yourself down behind the desk (the stool has an embedded pose) and await customers.
'Are they real leather?'
'Dey're real Dickens.'

Grandma, whoever she may be, likes to leave little notes. That refers to the SL goods - I can't imagine a second-hand bookstore lasting long without occasionally buying books back, or at least allowing trade-ins.

After sitting at the desk for a while, you may begin to wonder, is there a staff loo?

Of course there is. Notice the cute pink bow on the back of the staff apron! I can see now that I should have waited a little bit longer before snapping this, because the peeling paint texture on the wall hadn't quite loaded.

Don't worry, I have my pants on, I'm just demonstrating the dunny pose. Grandma's left another of her little notes.
This, likewise, didn't seem to want to load completely, but if you squint you can read 'Don't bring the stuff in. Please.'
Grandma evidently knows me well; if I am not expressly forbidden to vanish into the loo with a slightly foxed novel, it will be hard to get me out of there.
One flaw in the otherwise delightful attention to detail is that there's nowhere to wash your hands, so it's a good thing I didn't really pee.
Incidentally, while I write this up I'm watching the BBC's new Robin Hood, and while I love the continuing tribute to Tim Curry that is the Sheriff, the anachronistic costumes are constantly bugging me. Why does Sir Guy of Gisbourne constantly wear an Old West duster coat? Such coat technology simply did not exist in mediaeval Europe! Let alone the obviously machine-sewn seams on Robin's shirts. Oh well.

The bookshop's heater doubles as a little stove, so I can make a hot drink or cook a pot of something bubbling. Num! Hanging on the rail over the heater you can see the first samples of the vintage clothes on offer - some very sweet little coats. I like the blue one at far right! Now, where does that ladder go? There are no more shelves up there.

That's where the shop-girl's little bed is! All right, it's a bit minimal, a mattress with an afghan and two cushions, but I look comfortable enough, don't I? I absolutely love this, I've always ALWAYS loved bunks and high platforms and tree-houses and anything that lets me climb up and peep down at people. Perhaps in a previous life I was one of those cats that like to get up on the top edge of doors and pounce on people's heads as they enter a room.

I've been seeing this method of displaying clothes for sale more and more recently, but only in Japanese or Japanese-influenced shops. Why don't more people do it? It's so cute! What, you may wonder, is beyond that curtained doorway? Why is the floor tiled?

Why, it's the shopgirl's little bathroom! I had to put up the CLOSED sign before undressing and hopping into the water, though. Don't want customers popping in while I'm in the altogether.

Washed and refreshed, I'm back on the job and on the lookout for customers. Come on, ladies and gents, who wants a 1958 Bunty annual in fair condition?

Sim review: JAPAN DREAM KENJIN

I've thought of something else I'd like to do with this blog - review sims that I've found interesting, fun, impressive or odd. I'm beginning with JAPAN DREAM KENJIN, which I found by chance by clicking on a brightly coloured poster in a store in Broadmead.
On beaming in, you find yourself standing by the sea wall of a colourful, cheerfully tatty Japanese small town. There's a bus shelter, some junk like broken down bicycles and wooden crates, a small shop selling stuff like inflatable swim rings... and four unlabelled magenta poseballs.
If you sit on any of these poseballs, your avatar will promptly squat behind the sea wall and pee.
A short distance away is a yellow ball actually marked 'pee' (which causes you to pee in the upright, masculine manner) but those magenta balls really took me by surprise, and made me wonder what sort of place I had wandered into. I noticed that I had a little heart-shaped health monitor in my menu bar - do people fight here? Do they pee fight here?
There's an unusual atmosphere of bright and cheerful grunginess, as if this sim was designed with a lot of nostalgia for somebody's crappy hometown. It's like being in a somewhat run-down Miyazaki movie. You can wander past backyards nodding with sunflowers and into houses filled with shabby, lived-in furniture. Nothing appears to be for sale, even the stock in the liquor store/tobacconist's. Old advertising posters, cracked concrete and rusty corrugated iron are everywhere, yet all the colours are super-saturated and cheerful. The purpose of all the structures wasn't immediately obvious to me, but then, I'm not Japanese.
It's a strangely immersive environment. The only sounds are of the wind and the lapping sea. I was able to figure out that the place was made by someone called clubkenjin Loon, who unfortunately speaks only Japanese. Who knows what's going on there? It's quite fun to poke about. Various shops and stalls offer poseballs allowing you to mind the counter. In one place is a dustbin labelled 'DON'T touch me' - if you click it it will explode, noisily, and take about 10% off your health (though this will come back within seconds). And that's about it!
No pee fighting.

A skin bargain which impresses me

I just discovered a lovely little pop-Japanese-influenced shopping sim called Cherry Buttons (I don't know whether that is meant to evoke Apple Bottoms...). I certainly recommend it, and right now I want to particularly big-note a shop therein called GiGi Couture (that link goes to the main shop in Broadmead; the Cherry Buttons outlet is easily found thanks to a teleport-links signboard at the sim's beam-in point). The clothes are gorgeous, with highly realistic textures, and quite reasonably priced (most things are L150 or under). The thing that really got my attention was upstairs - the skins.

You see, outside the store when I first visited was a signboard for a model search, and one of the conditions was that you must be wearing a GiGi Couture skin in your entry shots. 'Rip-off,' I thought, 'this is an attempt to trick us into spending L1k+ on a skin.' I went upstairs and to my joy and surprise found totally good-looking skins for L50 or L25 each. They have palm prints and at least a suggestion of genitals and everything, and really interesting makeup. The reason for their cheapitude is that they're mods of Eloh Eliot's 'another skin,' which you can get for free from Another Shop. Yes, completely free, and they are really lovely skins with pretty makeup, available in dark brown, tan, fair and pale shades. And each one comes with multiple makeup options, and the choice of freckles, and omg they will be another entry all to themselves. Does everyone in the world know about these already? Seems like they should!
But right now, the GiGi Couture skins. In these shots, I'm wearing Charmy Gray eyes from Annerose, okappa hair from *BP, and the Innocence shape mentioned in my first post.

This is the Ganguro Girl skin, for loitering in Shibuya texting on your keitai, crouching in the middle of the street laughing loudly with your mates, trying all the free samples in the 109 department store and picking fights with Kotobuki Ran. The hair is completely and utterly wrong for it (ganguro gals bleach their hair as light as they can get it and then add funky colours like candy pink and baby blue) but I couldn't be bothered to change.

This is 'Dramatic Eye,' which I love for its lashings of smoky eyeshadow and faint freckles. It's a good skin for an early 60s Priscilla Beaulieu kind of look.

This one is sort of equal parts Gothic Lolita and Venice Carnivale, and it's based on the GiGi Couture logo. There is also a symmetrical version, with 'lace' over both eyes in a kind of butterfly shape, which is totally spooky/sexy and you should wear it if you want to score with Batman or Gomez Addams.

And this one is called Marylin, which I think must be a typo for Marilyn, as it's a classic 50s glamorous makeup style. Wear it with a big skirt and pearls. As you can see, with the right haircut it can also pass for flapper style. I shall wear this combination if I ever wish to pass for Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.
So those are the delightful and cheap skins of GiGi Couture, and tomorrow, if I get my act together, I'll show you the Another Skin freebs.

In which I presume to dictate to those more talented than I

'Those more talented than I' being people who actually know how to make good clothes and items for Second Life and can get it together to run a shop.
A few things that I think are really, really important for running a Second Life shop WELL:
1. Unless it is so small that one can stand in the doorway, turn on the spot and see everything for sale, make it absolutely piss-easy to navigate in your shop. Have a map at the front door with YOU ARE HERE and everything clearly labelled, and make sure you keep the shop organised that way (if you reorganise, update the map). Classify items very clearly by type. If your store is really big, like Simone or Bare Rose or something, have teleport points around the store where your visitors can click a button or signboard to be taken directly to different departments. Simone does this (or did the last time I was there) and Bare Rose doesn't, and it's hard to think of a shop that needs it more than Bare Rose. B@R rocks my socks, but only if I'm randomly browsing; if I'm actually looking for something in particular, even something which I KNOW they stock, it is far too frustrating.
2. Offer a freebie or two, and make them good - as good as the stuff you are charging for. I know you may feel reluctant to give something really good away for nothing, but it generates a lot of goodwill and encourages repeat visits, if my own behaviour is anything to go by.
3. Offer items in a range of prices, so you can attract people of varying budgets. People who can only spend L10 at the moment will remember how much they liked your shop when they have L1000 to spend.
4. If you make clothing, try to create separates that mix and match well, and show them worn as such on your vendor boards and in the general decor of your shop - if they look good as an outfit on your models, people will be encouraged to buy more than one thing.
5. If your vendor pictures show models wearing outfits including pieces from other creators, it's a nice touch to include a notecard detailing where the rest of the stuff came from. Perhaps other creators will do the same for you. Consider making a deal with someone whose style complements yours.
And... and that would be really nice.
On an unrelated note, in the last scene of Run Fatboy Run Simon Pegg wears a turquoise jumper and it makes him look like Tintin.
If it were possible for Tintin to age into his thirties.
Which it isn't.
Simon Pegg looks like him.

Untone Quilt

Phew - it's been a little while since I posted. Since my last blog, I've had my misedashi, or maiko debut! Yaaaay! (Imagine me flailing my arms like Kermit the Frog introducing a guest star.) It was a successful evening and I'm very grateful to everyone who attended, especially my onee-san (mentor/big sister) Theodote Carthage, who goes by 'Waka' in the geisha world. I do invite you to have a look at her shop, Cartunno Couture. I was also honoured by the attendance of Xuemei Yiyuan and Gee Nakamura, the oka-sans (manager/mother) of Little Yoshiwara and Satoharu geisha houses. It was so encouraging to see them there! Rock on. \m/ (^v^) \m/
Continuing my love of Japanese sims and fashions, here are some adorable items from Untone Quilt. No, I don't know what inspired the name. Untone Quilt. Awesome.
(My hair, skin and shape are still the same as in my first post. Only real difference there is that my eyes are 'Charmy Gray' from Annerose, because I got tired of the slightly bloodshot look of the BP* freebies.)

First up! The 'madrigale green dress.' This is a soft, flowy, swishy sundress, with a gorgeous layered skirt that flutters sweetly as you walk. It has a very springlike vibe, and I'm wearing the hell out of it. I've teamed it up with Orchid Dreams' 'SaSa Wedge' shoes in Spring Dots pattern, and a peacock feather necklace (on a Jacket layer) that I acquired in a freebies package somewhere, some time. On investigation (I love how the new-style Search feature enables this), I think it can be found in a place called Tableau. Look for a box marked 'Yay freebies (girls).' The little green ribbons in my hair (they're tintable, so I changed their colour to match) came with a 'Pigtail Braids' prim hairstyle bought many moons ago, whose provenance is difficult to establish (the seller didn't enclose an LM), but it MIGHT be from Empyrean Emporium.


Next, the cutest little denim overalls. These come with plain legs, or legs with a schweet embroidered pattern.

Only hitch is, they don't come with any shirt, and the bib of the overall won't cover your nips unless your breasts are very low-slung. Accordingly, I've wriggled into a freebie 'cutsew' top from Bis-Daisy==casual wear. I think the lace edge on the collar is very pretty.

You can also get an overall 'capri' prim set, to roll up the legs! Ideal for paddling.

If you want to be more girly, try the overall dress version, which comes with tights with little Bambis on them. Again, no top included, so you will need to put on an undershirt or shirt for modesty. (The overall bibs come on shirt and jacket layers, to make this easier.)

These are the 'puchidenim' (puchi is a Japanese transliteration of 'petit') shorts, which have cute prim puffs around your legs. I have the flower style - there's also a striped denim style with a blue waistband.

And finally for this post, the 'puchidabopan' trackpants, which can be worn layered with the puchi shorts or on their own!

You could also leave off the ankle puff prims to wear them as leggings. Sporty and versatile. (Although they don't look quite right with these shoes!)
That's just a sample of the Untone Quilt range, so if you like the look of these pieces I warmly recommend that you pop along to the main shop and see what else is in stock.

Making a Maiko

Mai=dance, ko=girl. In the classical tradition of Kyoto, Japan, a maiko is an apprentice geisha, a highly stylised figure of youth, beauty and innocence, on her way to becoming a fully rounded entertainer, hostess and artist. It's impossible ever for me to be a maiko IRL, because I'm a) not Japanese, b) not in Japan, c) unable to speak Japanese and d) too old now, but in SL, you can be anything your avatar can portray. This post is a guide to the accoutrements of a maiko in Second Life, with where-to-buy advice. If it helps a few people to get set up, yay!
If you want to become a maiko, you'll need to sign on with one of the in-world okiya, or geisha houses. I'm assuming here that you want to focus on the performing arts/entertaining aspect of geisha, not using geisha as a code word for 'Oriental-styled prostitute.' Subtle sexuality or eroticism is part of the profession of a geisha, but they're really and truly not hookers.
My okiya is the Mitsuba (just like Liza Dalby!), and I've also had good experiences with Little Yoshiwara and Satoharu. There are several other okiya and ochaya (teahouses) in SL, and you should investigate carefully before deciding to join one. Some will charge you a fee for your training up front; most will require a percentage of your tips/earnings (like an agent). Try to find a place where you feel comfortable with the attitude of the people running the show. I, for one, don't respond well to the very authoritarian style of management present in RL traditional okiya, so I know I have to avoid an oka-san (mother of the house, manager) who is RPing an old-school RL oka-san!
In most cases, you'll have a probationary period called 'minarai,' in which you are expected to carefully observe working maiko and geisha - minarai means 'learning by observation.' If you're still into it after that, you'll be promoted to maiko and assigned to an onee-san, 'big sister' or mentor geisha. She'll teach you, correct you, and cover for you if you mess up :) And you'll need to get all equipped! So...

What are we to do with this coltish contemporary kid? How can we shape her into the model of a modern maiko? First, she has to learn to stand like one!
To successfully wear a kimono in SL, you'll need an appropriate animation overrider. Poses in which your feet spread apart are no good, as they will stretch out the texture of your kimono skirt and make it look dreadful. (IRL, they would make the front of the robe gape open and show your legs OMG! scandal.) Here I'm using the Endless Dreams Geisha AO, which goes for L300. I bought it before I knew about the ugokiya busidou woman's kimono AO, which doesn't have the elegant hand gestures, but also allows you to hold your head up so you don't always look up at people from under your brows. And it's L50. I report, you decide :) The main thing is that these AOs keep your feet together when standing and give you a walk that doesn't mess up your skirt.
Hmm, what's next in our maiko makeover... those tracky-daks have got to go.
An off-duty maiko will usually be dressed in a simple blue and white cotton yukata, the most basic and casual form of kimono. The one I'm sporting here is a freebie made by kimono craftswoman Rumi Simpson, available at the outdoor bathhouse in Nagaya. Rumi's other kimono designs are definitely worth investigating, but not suitable for maiko/geisha wear because the structure of their sleeves doesn't look right when you dance in them. She also makes scripted musical instruments, including shamisen that are a must for SL geisha. Your onee-san or oka-san will probably help you with the purchase of these bigger-ticket items, sometimes as a gift, sometimes as a loan to be paid off once you are earning.
Now that our maiko is in her yukata, she needs to head for the hair salon to get styled.
What a transformation! IRL, maiko are required to grow their hair long and have it washed and set into this style weekly. During the week, they sleep with their necks resting on a leather-padded wooden 'pillow' so that the style doesn't get squashed. Maiko hazing by mean 'big sisters' can include sprinkling rice bran around the 'pillow' so that if her head rolls off to the floor, the bran will stick to the camellia oil used as pomade and the whole hairdo will have to be unpicked, washed and reset.
The style is called 'momoware,' or split peach, and is built around a section of hair very firmly tied at the crown of the head. Over time the hair roots of this section are damaged by the strain and maiko develop a little bald spot! Nowadays this can be fixed by cosmetic surgery, but for old-school geisha it was a badge of honour, a sign that you'd made it through the discomfort of maiko training with your faculties intact.
Once a maiko graduates to geisha level, she is allowed to do what she likes with her real hair and sleep much more comfortably, as geisha wear custom-made wigs when entertaining.
For us, of course, it's as easy as attaching a prim hairdo. I'm wearing the maiko hairbase 2.4 from *booN, which is the best I've found. Others available in SL include Del's Mikiko from Delectica, and Orchid Dreams' Simplicity and Regal Maiko Hair. Mikiko comes in ornamented and plain varieties, so you can add and subtract decorations as you please. However, it isn't quite as pretty as the 2.4, in my opinion. I haven't worn the Orchid Dreams hairdos, but they look good on the vendor pictures and are L150 each. Flower & Willow has maiko hairdos too, and like the rest of Hatsune Yoshikawa's work, they're lovely.
She's starting to look more like a maiko, but there's something vital missing...

The iconic maiko makeup. This skin comes from Orchid Dreams, and it's the junior maiko version, with only the lower lip painted red. Senior maiko also have the upper lip's Cupid's bow painted, and less pink contouring powder around the eyes and cheeks. You'll notice that the white foundation is not blended away at the hairline; this is deliberate, the makeup resembling a mask or doll. The ears are left bare. The effect is of little flashes of naked skin appearing through a very stylised, elegant façade, and yes, that's where the subtle eroticism comes in. Again, after graduating to geisha you no longer wear this elaborate makeup, except on special formal occasions. The geisha look is overall much more subtle, understated and natural than the maiko style, and reflects the fact that a geisha is a mature woman of the world, rather than a pretty doll. Maiko's looks are played up because they are not yet expected to have the advanced social skills of geisha, yet a top geisha can outshine the most glamorous maiko simply by being so damned elegant, vivacious and fascinating.
*booN also carries a maiko skin, and so does *Sakurako* Skin and Shape. There used to be nice ones at Tête à Pied, but they seem to have disappeared in the changeover to Fleur. As you might expect, your maiko skin will be one of those big-ticket items. It is not cheap to set up in this biz. Do try on demos to make sure you are happy with the skin before laying any money down.
Her coiffure needs one last touch.

The aesthetics of Japan are very closely linked to the seasons and the different phases of nature. The choice of kimono for any occasion - fabric weight, pattern and colours - is clearly dictated by the month. (You can read more about this in Liza Dalby's excellent book Kimono: Fashioning Culture.) Likewise, maiko wear a special kanzashi (hair ornament) for each month, showcasing seasonal flowers, greenery and even insects. This is the March kanzashi from *booN, with cabbage white butterflies and canola blossoms (aka rape blossoms, yes, there's really a plant called rape, but who wants it on their head?). You can also get monthly maiko kanzashi from Flower & Willow, but I prefer the *booN designs. Both collections are works in progress, with new designs coming out at the beginning of each month, and should be complete by the end of this year.
Now let's get dressed!

Now is the moment to say: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Flower & Willow kimonos. They are soooooooo boss. Each one comes with your choice of maiko or geisha-style collar, obi and sleeves, they have lovely vivid clear textures, some are available in floor-trailing hikizuri style, they just show so much attention to detail! They make me gush! This is the Jade Koi design, which I chose to complement the vivid colours of the canola kanzashi, and to evoke the green of early spring. There are lots of good kimono stylists in Second Life; F&W just happens to be my favourite. You should also check out Giorno Brando, Aoharu and Cherry Tokyo. An excellent place for kimono kaimono (shopping) from a variety of designers is Jocko Domo, which is conveniently close to the Mitsuba teahouse.
Geisha and maiko wear their kimonos differently from normal Japanese women. Most noticeably, the collar is loosely draped at the nape of the neck, creating an effect of 'back cleavage' which is considered most stirring. Geisha wear white collar liners, while maikos' collars are lined with silver-embroidered red. Once again, maiko are fancier but geisha are sexier.


When a maiko approaches, you're supposed to notice her makeup, kanzashi and swishing sleeves, of course, but the outfit is really designed to be viewed from behind, with the sumptuous display of the long hanging obi, the 'back cleavage,' the voluptuous 'split peach' bun, and the flash of naked skin at the nape of the neck. Phwoar, eh?
Maiko kimonos tend to be in bright colours, with vivid, busy patterns. Geisha dress in quieter shades, with more plain silk and less area covered by dyed or embroidered patterns. Because they're cool that way.

The other sign that a maiko is nearby is the chiming. Maiko wear special platform versions of zori sandals, called okobo, which have little bells inside that jingle at every step. These came from Orchid Dreams. You can also get plainer-looking okobo that actually chime at Nakamura-ya.
And that's about it, for now! I hope this information is helpful. As I've said, it's not cheap to equip yourself as a maiko, but you can console yourself with the thought that it's a mere fraction of the cost of doing the same thing IRL!