A Little Bit of Style by Zoe Demar - Hair Fair

Smell that?  A lot of sculpty twisting and contortion has occurred to bring us the latest Hair Fair.  As you've most likely seen by a lot of others, the Hair Fair opened to the public today.

I've made my rounds fighting the lag and crowds to find some favorites and hope to go back after checking out the demos that intrigue my senses.  I've already played with a few purchases in some photos shown below (click photos for credits in my flickr).  I plan on doing more that capture my eye.  Enjoy!  Love, Zoe.

PS the dress worn is the latest from Icing, Miko dropped a copy onto me today.

A Little Bit of Photography by Zoe Demar - Depth of Field

Sometimes persistence pays off.  I named this photo after that word for the fact of how much time it took to grab a snapshot.  It is strange that I have a more difficult time with my new computer to pull off high res images than it was with my old computer - but I am tossing more technical things at it now.  A picture that looks simple can be much more technically challenging.  Something to remember when checking out photos.

The image shown here was taken with Kristens Viewer S20 with the settings at ultra which allows for both shadows and a new feature called Depth of Field aka DOF.

What is Depth of Field?
This is the short Wikipedia definition: 
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, the depth of field (DOF) is the portion of a scene that appears sharp in the image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions. Eyes have DOF naturally, when you focus on your finger in front of your face the rest of the scene behind the focus becomes blurry.

The effects work very smoothly on my machine but as soon as I try to save a snap - forget it!  Even doing a typical print screen wasn't working at the time to I went to my Fraps program to grab a screenshot and post-editing in some shadows (I was 100% out of sunlight in this shot) and highlights this is the result.

Can I do pictures like this?
Yes, but you do have to have the machine to do it on first and foremost.  With my old video card I didn't have near enough technical power to get shadows let alone this new feature - so prepare to be disappointed.  Otherwise if you have a decent computer and video card, prepare to have patience and persistence when SL crashes or other random things seem to come up in the process.  And if you have an ultra computer - good for you!  Hopefully you don't have near the problems as I have had in order to snap 1 photograph.

I will say however, it was worth it - I do enjoy the potential of having more time to snap some pictures with the DOF options in Kristens Viewer.  I hope that playing around with settings will allow me less time to grab a shot in the long run.  It brings another element of reality to the Second Life world as well as saving me time in photoshop.

I don't spend a lot of time on my blog to talk about SL photography because I like to keep it mainly focused on SL fashion.  Here and there I'll bring up snippets but that's about it.  I guess I've decided to change up my format a little bit more for the new year.  I do wish I had more time to spend in Second Life for photography and other things but time is limited.

Enjoy!

Love, Zoe

Quick Credits: 
Hair by Lamb
Necklace by Paper Couture 
Skin by Glam Affair
Dress by Icing

Zoe's Quick Pick - Icing

Ah the holidays!  Sometimes sparkling up the night is the right way to celebrate.  I'm in love with the Cloud 9 release from Icing.  Check out her store over at Mischief Cove for all 6 colors.

Credits: 

Dress by Icing

Hair by elikatira 

Skin by Tuli

Shoes by LeLutka

Pose by Diesel Works 

Ballroom image (stock) by vueiy visarelli

A Little Bit of Style by Zoe Demar - Betty

In honor of having Mad Men back on the air with season 4 - I'm showing off the two very different sides of Mrs. Betty Draper. The first being a very memorable moment with some neighboring birds. The second hitting more of the glam model side that she fronts when out meeting Don Draper's clientèle.

The inspiration started this morning with the announcement of new 69 hair by Kumii Yoshikawa. The BE style reminded me of Betty's hair and is one of three new releases which is only open to 69-VIPs until August 2nd. I'm happy to say she now includes a resize script for her hairs which I can appreciate as they've never fit on my head without adjustments.

Originally I was going to go for more of her everyday looks, but my husband brought up the time she had with the BB gun and thus this look was born. I headed straight to Artilleri to pick up the Wilma dress in yellow that reflects the time period extremely well with the button down styled top which you will see Betty wear numerous times on the show.

I wanted to find some yellow shoes to match, but as usual - color isn't always easy store to store so I picked up the Tuli pumps in steel and choose the golden bow texture from the menu option to match it with shades of the dress pattern. Shiny Things hasn't been producing a lot of shoes lately but it still definitely has the quality you expect from shoe makers of today.

The cigarette from FNKY is an oldie but a goody. The smoke is scripted to be turned on or off by touch and comes with a variety of other in-hand, mouth, or on land options. The shotgun was a freebie that I found on xstreet by Cisco Lane that is originally huge as it is supposed to be for Tank Girl - but I scaled it down to fit the image of Betty.

As far as marriage bling, I choose one of the best looking diamond rings I have seen in a modern style by Yabusaka. I stuck with the League's Taylor skin in blonde but in a new make-up called Angel - seemed fitting! I really like it on my shape and find it harder to switch it up. My other faves made it back are the LeLutka Reflection eyes in glory and Silhouette lashes in Au Natural (I wear these in both looks).

For the more dressy Draper, I was actually going to try to not shop at Icing, because that felt too easy - but after shopping in another store I decided enough and pulled out another fave from Icing called, Evening at the Opera. I paired it up with another of Icing's creations of the glam stole that includes an AO as well as 2 ways of wearing it - wraparound (shown) or over the shoulder.

Again, I was hunting for something other than Paper Couture because again, I like to challenge myself - but in the end - I came back to pull out the sparkling sphere set. The closer to neck feature fits Betty's style of not being too flashy - but definitely having a wow factor. It kinda reflects her personality, trying to draw somebody in but rejecting them in the end.

The Shaken by not Stirred hair by Clawtooth is an instant fave - I wanted to go there to see if there was a more reflective style to Betty's hair and when I saw this I knew it would fit well. It probably could pass for a Jane style, but I thought still appropriate for Betty. So a lot of good hits for Tableau sim tonight as both Paper Couture and Clawtooth are located there.

Finishing off the look was Maitreya's Neyya heels in Pearl Leather. The right sheen to blend in with the top of the dress as well as classy enough to pull off with the style.

The pose used in the gun happy Betty style was a custom made by my husband today specifically for the blog. The pose for the Betty glam style is one of Dove's (of LAP aka Long Awkward Pose) 365 poses project. I highly recommend stopping by to check them out if you haven't recently.

Enjoy!

Love, Zoe

PS Comment who is your favorite Mad Men character!

Please note that the Gun Happy Betty image has been photoshopped - the Glam Betty is unprocessed.

A Little Bit of Style by Zoe Demar - Holloway

I am a big fan of Mad Men after catching up with the series on DVD. We're nearing the start of the fourth season and thus I thought it would be fun to bring to life some of the Mad Men fashions to Second Life. Joan Holloway is the inspiration for today's look.

I knew straight away that I could find a dress that is suitable to Joan's curves at Icing. One of my all time fave stores on the grid, Icing has always offered a niche to the vintage style. Ultra feminine is this dress called, Femme en Noir. The pencil style skirt signifies a sensually elegant feminine figure which is accented by the stunning dragonfly pin.

No dress especially back in the 60s era would you be caught without some form of hosiery. I made a trip to pick up a thigh high lace-top stockings set from Blowpop. Seen here in sand.

The LeLutka Saffron pumps in nude are a bit more of a modern twist on the look. I opted to stay away from the typical black and stick with a neutral tone.

Joan isn't the type to over accessorize as she always tends to find the proper balance in her style. I kept the jewelry to a minimum with these earrings from the Antique Pearl Choker Set from Paper Couture.

Also being in the type of job she is she is constantly needing to keep an eye on the time. Thus this look would not be suitable without a proper watch. This watch called Naomi is from YV (by Yvette Vultee) and ties in a classic strap style with bracelet twist. And for future use there is a ton of scripted color options (black and white are sold together and are totally tintable).

Funny how it works out sometimes, but Truth's Zoe - which I have assumed was named after me (and even if not I'll say it is) really ties to how Joan keeps her hair. Maybe he had that in mind when designing it but it really fits well to how she wears it. I do hope that is a reflection of my own type of style - I do adore vintage styles but I know that I'm not alone! Truth certainly has not stopped creating - you can find new styles weekly which is quite an impressive feat on its own, especially if they weren't as good as they really are!!



I also decided to try a new skin brand called Mynerva. I saw Carissa Crimson blogging about it and went to check it out. I was pleased to see the different shades of eyebrows as well as cleavage option included with the skin. I wasn't crazy about all the make-ups but a few did catch my eye which I might go back for later. I really liked the glossy lips, and though typically Joan uses a darker shade - I thought this was still suitable. I did opt for the cleavage version because it didn't overpower the look. I do find that having cleavage options is nice but I also find there are outfits out there where no cleavage is necessary. The set I bought from is in a back room btw. There are also some tattoos for sale as well as elf-style ears.

Other tid-bits - I modded my shape to give a lil more curves to what I consider already curvy shape. The set that I used for background is by Click by Flix Saiman. I also reused LeLutka's Reflection eyes in Glory as she is a blue-eyed lady. One other thing that my hubby was mentioning, was that the actress that plays Joan Holloway, Christina Hendricks is not a natural red-head but a blonde! Huh!

I hope you enjoyed traveling back in time with Holloway!

Love, Zoe

A little bit of style by Zoe Demar - Products Named Zoe

It isn't every day you have something named after you OR have a product that happens to have your name by chance by one of your fave stores.

Leah McCullough in Plurk had peeps sign up their name if they wanted her to use it when naming products for her Naive store and so I put my name in there and it was my turn on the list for one of her designs. It turned into being a very pretty feminine floral dress. But even cooler she did a collaborative effort with Mouse Mimistrobell of Dark Mouse to create matching jewelry. The cake topper was that Maitreya released new hair and one of them is named Zoe. This gave me the idea to blog stuff that had the name Zoe in it - or close to it.



To start - the inspiration is the very pretty Zoe floral dress by Naive shown in two colors. Blue on the left and Green top on the right.

Hair was the other inspiration with the brand new release of Zoe by Maitreya in Ash Blond.

One of my earliest skins are by Naughty Designs but I didn't own any of the Zoe skin line till yesterday. I picked out the Matte Pink lips skin in light. I still tend to go back to wearing Naughty skin as an old standard as it tends to fit my shape pretty well.

The matching Zoe jewelry by Mouse Mimistrobell of Dark Mouse. I decided to mix up the metals like she does in the bangles from the set. The pendants/gems of the earrings and necklace are color change by touch, so I mixed that up too with green and blue.

The jacket and pants (on the right) are pulled from the Zoe outfit from Icing. Miko named it after me when I won a photography contest back in 2007. That was a really cool part of the prize.


I did find some shoes named Zoe on Xstreetsl, but the Avanti Flats from Celestial Studios were too cute to pass up for the style. I picked them up awhile ago in a couple of color packs.

And last but not least, I ended up not even looking for eyes with my name but at least it has a, "Z" in the name. They are the Zbilja eyes in Green by Exodi that I also blogged with last time.




I would love to see other bloggers do this to see what they have out there in their name. Also if you are a designer with a product named, "Zoe" let me know - curious to see what all is out there!

Thanks for reading!

Love, Zoe