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.