Three Twisted Knots

I did mention that I’d heard Evangeline Miles was here at the Faire, with her shop, Evie’s Closet? Oh, what beautiful finds I made there! I mean, it’s no secret that she makes some of the most beautiful clothes in all the Realms, but finding that she had a shop here at the Faire was enough to make Bran (my steward, for you “blog” readers who might come across this and not know him) shake his head and start juggling account books. And Bran is not a good juggler! Things fell everywhere. Besides Sidhe are much too regal to juggle. Once I reminded him of this, he cut it out.

This dress is such a perfect Spring Fae dress, don’t you think? Such a shame we’ll be moving into summer soon and I’ll be compelled to wear even less! (just kidding, but not really just kidding). Evie calls the dress Chryseis. Chryseis was one of the women of Troy, and I forget the whole story, but I think she ended up with Agamemnon as a slave and the mediaevals turned her into Cressida, the faithless woman of Troy. Because she was a slave, you woman-haters. Sigh. Anyway. Gorgeous dress, and I love wearing it; it makes me feel like I can do anything, swim anywhere, weather any storm, just by having this fabric on me. And the boots! They come from an artisan with a shop called Paper Moon, and I giggled when I saw the name “Huck Boots”. They are magical and can change to different colours. I don’t often wear boots in Faerie, but it was fun to put them on at the Fantasy Faire and dance around with my feet hitting the solid ground. Fun fact: when I am wearing shoes, flowers do not grow where my feet touch the earth!

There is a serious side to the Fantasy Faire, even for me. The Faire is an opportunity for mortal and immortal and everyone in between to help cure a dreaded disease. Cancer doesn’t exist in Faerie, but of course I remember it from my life in other Realms, and I probably even knew someone who had it when I was a child in London in the twenty-first century. This dress was made especially for the Fantasy Faire, and all the proceeds from it go to help fight cancer.

I mean, obviously, the reason I bought the dress was that it is such an amazeballs shade of purple, but it made me feel good to give some of my infinite supply of fairy gold to charity as well.

As with most of Evie’s dresses it comes in a selection of colours, and I couldn’t resist buying them all! I think I mentioned before that she can make even brown look beautiful. With absolutely no irony, I can say that this dress is called Caoimhe. Caoimhe means “beautiful” in Irish. I know this because my mortal father once chaired the committee for a peace conference at Goldsmiths, the university where he and my mortal mum teach at in London, and Caoimhe Butterly was their principal speaker and guest. She came to our house for dinner, and my little brothers were horrible, but she didn’t mind. She is a peace activist, someone I really admire. She really made an impression on me: I guess I was about sixteen when she came to visit us, and all anyone wanted to know about was what it felt like to be shot by an Israeli solder while standing in the way of a tank and saving children, but I loved that she told me her name meant “beautiful”. I was so in awe of her. Maybe I still am.

I don’t think I am brave enough to walk into the face of an Israeli soldier to save a Palestinian child. But I am brave enough to wear two colours of this dress at once! They are all complementary, so you can put the purple corset over the red dress, or switch up the gloves.

How, you ask? How can I go from talking about peace working in Israel and Palestine to talking about two beautiful colours of a dress that means beautiful put together in a beautiful package?

I’ll tell you the answer: Magic. Sidhe queens are made of magic. And the Seelie queen is made of love. I can love a dress and then love an activist. I can love a cute kitten and then love the hawk who hunts it for dinner. I can love a King, a Vampire, a Gypsy, a magical man from the future. I can love peace, and I can love beauty, all in the same paragraph.

And speaking of beautiful Gypsies, you won’t believe me when I tell you what happened next!

Style Cards:

A Storm in Vallacia:
Dress: Evie’s Closet: Chryseis, in Cobalt (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Wings: Evie’s Closet: Chryseis, in Cobalt (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Boots: Paper Moon: Huck Boots (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Hair: Analog Dog: Amber (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Skin: Curio: Kai in Moondrop
Ears: Mandala, Steking Ears, Season 5
Bracelet (left): Posh Tale Sylmae Bracelet (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Bracelet (right): Tabloid: Sea Story Leather Cuff in Blue
Circlet: Wimey: Celtic Lunar Crown Gold (Luck of the Irish Gacha)

There is a serious side…
Dress, Slippers, Wings: Evie’s Closet, Caoimhe, in RFL (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Hair: Analog Dog: Other
Skin: Curio: Simone in Moondrop
Makeup: MOCK (natch!)
Ears: Lumae: Leevi Long Ears
Circlet: The Plastik: Everilda (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Necklace: The Plastik: Everilda (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Earrings: The Plastik: Everilda (Available at Fantasy Faire!)

All other photos:
Dress: Evie’s Closet, Caoimhe, in RFL, Purple, Blue, Red, Green (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Wings: Evie’s Closet, Caoimhe, in RFL, Purple, Blue, Red, Green (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Slippers: Evie’s Closet, Caoimhe, in RFL, Purple, Blue, Red, Green (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Hair: Analog Dog, Sola (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Skin: Curio: Simone in Moondrop
Makeup: MOCK (natch!)
Ears: Lumae: Leevi Long Ears
Tiara: PoshTale, Sylmae (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Choker: PoshTale, Sylmae (Available at Fantasy Faire!)
Collar: The Forge: Linmaer

Spiffy photo taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. Go look at the web page. Yes, I know they’re expensive. If you want to take amazing photos in SL, they’re worth every Linden.