The Victorian Closet

New "Novembre" 100L ball gown out now

2011-11-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire Clothiers presents "Novembre," a seasonally themed Victorian ball gown in copper leaf velvet and accented with autumn flowers and ribbons.

Each month MNC presents a specially designed ball gown corresponding to the month's holidays and seasonal inspirations, at the bargain price of 100L. Our "Decembre" gown is available now too!

I hope you enjoy this gown and have fun at the many Harvest and Thanksgiving balls and events that are planned around Second Life.

"Le Peignoir" Victorian nightgown set now available

2011-10-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire Clothiers presents "Le Peignoir," a ladies robe jacket, nightgown and sleep cap set in pearl, ivory and onyx.

This peignoir set is appropriate for most 18th-20th century boudoir settings. The sleeveless chemise and pantaloons can be worn under most dresses (sans the lace sleeve cuffs).

The set also comes with a lightable candle holder, to help you see down dark hallways. Simply touch the candle and a glowing flame will light your way.

As a new release, "Le Peignoir" is 50% off regular price through next weekend, at our main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village (just 100L!)

Nature's Hunt: Haunted Forest 2 launches today

2011-10-25T03:02:00.000-07:00

Today marks the launch of Nature's Hunt: Haunted Forest 2 and Montagne Noire's contribution is "Le Chaperon Rouge," a Red Riding Hood and Woodsman costume set for women and men.

In keeping with the theme for hunt, Montagne's Noire's heroine Red Riding Hood is seeking escape from the haunted forest, with the Woodsman not far behind, his axe and clothing covered in blood.

The question is, whose blood is it -- the Wolf? Red's grandmother? Is there something more sinister to this scene? That is for you to decide! (though from the expression on Red's face... she may be running for a reason)

Nature's Hunt: Haunted Forest 2 Hunt runs through Nov. 25. Happy Hunting!

La Mariée Fantôme - ghost bride Halloween costume

2011-10-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire Clothiers presents "La Mariée Fantôme" (ghost bride), a haunting wedding gown in white brocade and satin, accented with a rose crown veil, white bouquet and a ghostly mist (emitted by matching shoes).

The bridal gown set comes with two pairs of shoes, one with the mist function, and one without, for times when you've entered a laggy sim.

All pieces are mod/copy.

I hope you enjoy this gown and have fun at the many Halloween and All Souls Day balls and events that are planned around Second Life... Happy haunting!

The Victorian Shopkeepers Association -- join us!

2011-10-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

I've recently taken over ownership of the Victorian Shopkeepers Association, an update group for both merchants and shoppers with a fondness for all things 19th century Victorian, Steampunk and Gothic. Founder Otenth Paderborn has decided to move on to other projects, and has kindly selected me to "replace" him.

So as the new group owner (I really need to come up with an appropriate title) I'm here to extend an invitation to any and all SLU merchants and residents with similar interests to join the group.

For "discerning shoppers," you'll receive notices from a wide variety of merchants specializing in 19th century fashion, furnishings and other items, all in a single group. Shoppers will also on occasion receive special gifts from merchant members.

Shopkeepers can reach a targeted audience for their sales and special events. Merchant members don't necessarily have to have a shop on a Victorian sim, nor do you have to have exclusively 19th century Victorian/Steampunk/Gothic products (though they should be a prominent element of your business). For posting privileges, contact me to have the shopkeeper role added to your membership.

The VSA is planning a number of new incentives, among them sponsorship of a Victorian hunt, a website/blog, and a Victorian Visitor Information Centre. We're also planning to host a merchants meeting on a regular basis to discuss issues of interest to VSA merchants.

To join us, simply open chat history and paste the following link there:
secondlife:///app/group/8a1da22e-a0c3-71f0-b24a-844b7fb5a2ea/about

Click the live link in your chat, and then the "join" button on the group information box that pops up, and you are ready to enjoy the membership benefits of the VSA!

New release "Tunique" Greek/Roman toga set

2011-10-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Fresh of the virtual sewing machine is "Tunique," a classical Roman/Greek toga set for roleplayers. You may recognize the "pearl" variation, but I've added two additional colors, ruby and onyx:

This set includes full outfits for both women and men, and is modify/transfer, so you can buy it for yourself, and transfer the second outfit to your partner! Even better, through next weekend this set is 50% off, just 100L.

Enjoy!

Trick or Treat at the Spooky You Halloween Event

2011-10-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire has set up a small Halloween cart at the Spooky You Halloween Event, which opened earlier today. Content creators from all over SL are displaying some excellent Halloween decorations and merchandise, and each of us has a "Trick or Treat" cauldron dispensing a special Halloween gift between 1L-10L:

Spooky You runs through Oct. 31.

Ghouls, Goblins & Ghosts Hunt item - "La Sanglante"

2011-10-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire's not-so-secret location in Clocktower Mall, on the Rag Dollz Videos sim, will be participating in the "Ghouls, Goblins & Ghosts" sim hunt. The hunt runs from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31.

Our hunt gift this year is "La Sanglante," a ladies bloody nightgown and pantaloon set.

I'm not entirely sure whose blood she is wearing -- but I hope you'll find this gown useful for the right roleplay occasion.

New undergarment set - "En Petit Tenue"

2011-10-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire Clothiers presents "En Petit Tenue" ("scantily dressed"), a ladies corset, chemise and pantaloon set, in pearl, ivory and onyx. The set retails for 100L.

Designed on the underwear clothing layer, it can be worn under most dresses (sans the sleeve cuffs). This undergarment set is appropriate for most 18th-19th century boudoir settings.

As a new release, "En Petit Tenue" is 50% off regular price through next Wednesday, at our main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village (just 50L!)

New Halloween slippers

2011-10-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

Just for Halloween, this cozy pair of fuzzy black fur slippers feature a black widow spider on the toe -- perfect for wearing with lingerie or with a robe, curled up reading a book by the fireplace in your decaying gothic castle!

Find them at the new "Halloween Spotlight" display on the main floor, (through the right side arch at the new main entrance), along with our 100L "Octobre" ball gown and new "Bewitched" party gown, and other seasonal goodies.

"Grand Re-opening" Halloween Hunt

2011-10-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

What? Montagne Noire remodeled? When did that happen?

Yes, we've expanded the shop, and to celebrate, we're having a 10L Halloween Hunt!

The new picturesque canal side main entrance:

The new building is about 1/2 size larger than the previous shops across the street from each other in the NE corner of Caledon Oxbridge Village. Both clothing and furnishings are now under one very large roof! It's also been designed so that if you happen to use the previous landmarks to teleport, you will still arrive inside the building.

Meanwhile, there are TEN items in the shop which have been reduced to **10L** (regular prices are 100L-250L!): four on the first floor, three on the second floor, and two on the third floor.

This mini hunt will continue through All Souls Day, Nov. 2.

Sixty Linden Weekends sale item for Oct. 8 & 9

2011-10-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Sixty Linden Weekends deal is our equestrian themed outfit "Le Redingote," in emerald:

"6 Popular Fashion Trends (That Killed People)"

2011-10-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Cracked.com isn't normally a site I associate with fashion design (I go there for a sundry of other lulz).

However, recently Emilly Orr, on her The Trainwreck Love Life blog, shared a link to a classic Cracked article I'd not seen before: "6 Popular Fashion Trends (That Killed People)."

As usual, Cracked has hit the nail on the head, doing so in their trademark style.

We forget how fortunate we are in the 21st century to be liberated from the oppression of past women's fashions -- the Cracked article mentions steel crinoline skirts and tightlacing corsets, as an example. Some feminists have asserted that fashion -- the styling of restrictive clothing, hair, makeup, etc. -- has long been a tool to control or distract women from other more heady pursuits, i.e. things men do.

I'm inclined to agree, to a certain extent -- in RL I've simplified my "look" over the years, partly because as a tall woman, it's hard to find clothing that fits well (you'll find my closet full of men's clothing, and my favorite pair of shoes were purchased on the men's side of the shoe department).

What I've discovered in the process is that I've freed up an awful lot of time to get more things done.

Of course, the irony doesn't escape me that part of that free time is devoted to creating historical fashion in SL, fashion which IRL caused women physical discomfort and damage. An odd juxtaposition, wouldn't you agree?

And yet that is the attraction of Second Life for me: we can enjoy the cosmetic beauty of previous eras of fashion without having to endure the real pain and restrictions they caused women. An amazing concept, indeed.

New Halloween party gown is here!

2011-10-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire presents "Bewitching," a seasonally themed party gown in spidery black satin and accented with a half veiled witches hat and black widow spider.

Each month MNC releases a specially designed gown corresponding to the month's holidays and seasonal inspirations, at the bargain price of 100L. Look for our "Octobre" gown too!

Both "Bewitching" and "Octobre" can be found in the Montagne Noire virtual store on the SL Marketplace.

I hope you enjoy this gown and have fun at the many Harvest and Halloween balls and events that are planned around Second Life!

Boobiethon 2011 starts today!

2011-10-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

This year is the fourth annual BoobieThon event in Second Life -- a week of events and fundraisers to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a charity near and dear to my heart -- I was the recipient of a grant by the Komen Foundation last year during my breast cancer treatment, which helped my family purchase groceries and other household necessities.

I've put my "Dans le Rose" Breast Cancer Awareness gown into a Boobiethon vendor in the entry alcove. All sales benefit the Komen Foundation.

The Boobiethon runs Oct. 1 through 7. For a complete schedule of events visit The Realm of the Red Rose blog.

50L Friday featured item - one day only! (Sept. 30)

2011-09-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

It seems like my internet provider keeps having extended outages on Thursdays/Fridays lately, so the 50L Fridays item -- "Fleur d'Automne" day gown and hat, in ruby -- is finally out on display at our "secret" satellite location in Clocktower Mall.

There are a dozen merchants participating this week, so be sure to check out their offerings as well!

"Creepy Classics" hunt gift preview

2011-09-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween, Eclectic Dreams is hosting the all new "Creepy Classics" Hunt, and I'm excited that Montagne Noire is among the shops selected to participate.

Halloween being my favorite holiday, and Edgar Allen Poe being a favorite author, I decided to create a gift based on the Poe short story, "The Masque of the Red Death," originally published in 1842.

"Le Mort Rouge" features gifts for both women and men: a ball gown in red and black, and a "cloaked stranger" costume.

For those not familiar with the story, it follows one Prince Prospero as he hosts a masquerade ball in his castle, where he and other aristocrats have taken refuge from a plague called the "Red Death."

A masked stranger appears among them... well, Poe tells it far better than I ever could. You can read the full text here.

"Creepy Classics" starts Oct. 1 and runs through Halloween. Visit the Eclectic Dreams blog for more information on the hunt and participating shops.

Me and my big mouth

2011-09-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I devoted a blog post to an ongoing controversy surrounding a "citizen watch group" in Second Life called Justice League Unlimited.

It seems that this group of SL residents has for some time been dressing up as superheroes and patrolling the grid to intercede in incidents of griefing, usually occurring in public sandboxes and welcome areas like Ahern.

The crux of the current controversy is the "wiki" belonging the JLU that was leaked a few weeks ago, which allegedly contains real life information on SL residents the JLU has deemed "griefers" or sympathetic to griefers.

I've said before I don't condone griefing -- but I also don't condone the collection of information on residents by a resident group who has set themselves up to be a kind of law enforcement entity, one that has not been vetted by Linden Lab to do so.

Indeed, the TOS states that third parties may collect information on SL residents. I don't have a problem with merchants keeping track of what I buy in their shops, or how often I visit a social gathering place. I've become accustomed to that in real life -- so why would SL be any different?

I also don't object to residents keeping their own notes on their interactions with other residents, particularly when that interaction becomes intimidating or threatening -- keeping track of dates and times of confrontations, which might show an emerging pattern or history of behavior, is an important support mechanism to use in tandem with the "AR" (Abuse Report) tool that Linden Lab provides to help residents protect themselves.

But I continue to be troubled by the emergence of the JLU as a self styled law enforcement group. Not only have they not been vetted by Linden Lab to conduct this kind of policing -- there's no evidence they've been officially trained in criminal justice issues or law enforcement.

I have never had the pleasure of meeting any members of the JLU, as I'm not a prankster, or a serial griefer. I probably never would have had any interaction with them otherwise, until I made the mistake of opening my mouth and publicly questioning the legitimacy of their group.

I also probably would have never had any interaction with a blogger named Prokovy Neva, who has apparently suffered greatly at the hands of griefers, and in his neverending crusade against them and their "technocommunist" sympathizers, has decided that I am a "fellow traveler" -- a term previously used in the 20th century to describe people who sympathized with the Communist Party.

Astolat Dufaux is another oversharer -- she tells you sadly that she has breast cancer and is getting chemo and that she used to work for a big British newspaper. She's another exemplary of the British left hating on Americans and the justice they wish to bring to the world against criminals that this selfsame British left would do better to loathe themselves because in fact they constitute a greater threat to that British left's freedoms than the overweening abuses of power of a vigilante group.

Astolat runs a Victorian store that I hope brings her income and relief from pain. Astolat may truly not "get it" because she's never seen a person traumatized by rape in cyberspace, which is really a soul-killing and awful thing whatever its remove from real-life physical trauma, nor has she seen sims groan and fall over under the load of tub girls and goatses, with her tenants moving out and costing her real money. This is all abstract to her.

There's more in a followup post, after I chided him for not doing his homework and proclaiming I was British -- I guess because I hang out in Victorian sims and sell Victorian clothing...

He was pretty easy on me compared to some of the other residents he seems to have longstanding antipathy for, who have also spoken out about the JLU -- though his most hurtful comments (viewable in other forums) have been critical of my personal decision to speak publicly about my experience with breast cancer treatment and recovery in the last year and half. All I have to say to that is "WTF"?

But back to the JLU.

I'll say it again: the JLU is not a company that provides a service, like Linden Lab or Google -- as users we agree to the TOS of SL or Gmail before we can use it. We understand that they collect information, because they specifically mention that in their TOS.

And while the JLU may be considered a "third party" under the TOS, they are not a technology corporation providing a service, or law enforcement, or private detectives, or journalists, or prospective employers, or even retail merchants. They are simply a user group within a service, who agreed to the same TOS the rest of us did when we registered.

Regardless of what your activities may be on the grid, the JLU simply has no business to be collecting data on residents. The files they are keeping on individual SL residents is nothing more than cyberstalking: "threatening behavior or unwanted advances directed at another using the Internet and other forms of online and computer communications." Their actions are really no more different than those of the griefers they have pledged to "protect" us all from.

However this controversy plays out, it comes down to this: What the JLU is doing may or may not be illegal, or unethical, but damn -- it is just plain creepy... and, for merchants, landowners and Linden Lab itself, it is just plain bad for business.

"No Strings Attached 3" hunt gift preview

2011-09-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire makes its debut Oct. 1 as a participating shop in the popular grid wide dolly hunt "No Strings Attached."

I've been broadening my horizons design wise this year and trying some new themes out -- living dolls being my latest design experiment. Here's a preview of our NSA3 hunt gift, "Marionette":

In keeping with the theme for the third NSA hunt, "The Lost, The Broken, The Unclaimed," Montagne's Noire's dark Lolita dolly has seen better days... the most glaring and sad omission to her ensemble is her wind-up key. Perhaps she can find a new owner who will fashion a new key for her and bring her back to life.

NSA3 starts Oct. 1 and runs through Oct. 31. Visit the "No Strings Attached" blog for more information on the hunt and participating shops.

Sixty Linden Weekends sale item for Sept. 24 & 25

2011-09-24T01:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Sixty Linden Weekends deal is "La Vendeuse" in copper. Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the clothing store.

Check out the other deals this weekend at the Sixty Linden Weekends Picasa Gallery -- there are always great deals to be had!

New release: "Le Redingote"

2011-09-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Montagne Noire presents "Le Redingote" (riding coat), a Victorian/Edwardian equestrian riding habit with breeches, two skirts, riding hat and gloves, in amethyst, emerald, onyx, ruby, sapphire and topaz.

Le Redingote features both a full length prim skirt for walking and a system skirt for riding horseback, riding in a stagecoach or wagon, or simple parlor sitting. The jacket waist ruffle is worn over either skirt as well as the breeches.

Le Redingote is modifiable, allowing you to tailor the garment to your proportions -- the breeches can be shortened or lengthened to match the height of your own riding boots (riding boots are not included).

As a new release, Le Redingote is 50% off regular price through this weekend, at our main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village (just 125L!)

50L Friday featured item - one day only!

2011-09-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

Be sure to pick up the 50L Friday item, "Le Pelerine," in leopard, before midnight tonight, at our "secret" satellite store in the Clocktower Mall.

The return of Le Chemisette

2011-09-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

I've updated an old favorite -- Le Chemisette!

Many dresses in SL have lowcut bodices -- which would not always be appropriate for Victorian RP, unless you are RPing a "soiled dove," or other woman of questionable reputation.

Montagne Noire's "Le Chemisette" is the answer to that problem. In the 19th century, chemisettes of linen or cotton were often worn with day dresses, and could be decorated with tucks, embroidery (especially whitework), or lace.

Our chemisette is worn as an undershirt layer -- the chemisette and sculpted collar will give the appearance of a blouse or shirt worn under a low cut bodice, making your favorite gown "Victorian ready"!

Le Chemisette is copy/mod, allowing you to duplicate and color match it for as many outfits as you wish. Plus, it's only 1L!

Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the shop.

What's new at Montagne Noire this week?

2011-09-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

JUST FOR FUN... A FREE TINFOIL TOP HAT & MONOCLE SET
Stop by and pick up your very own FREE tinfoil top hat and monocle set -- especially made for the sophisticated conspiracy theorist!

SEPTEMBER BALL GOWN & SHOES ARE HERE!
"Septembre," our specially priced 100L Autumn Equinox ball gown in peridot green is now available in the entry alcove, and has a pair of matching 10L ball gown heels:

SIXTY LINDEN WEEKEND ITEM
This weekend's Sixty Linden Weekends deal is "Domestique," our Victorian/Edwardian day maid uniform ... not just for maids, with it's tidy apron it's also an excellent gown for housekeeping or chores! Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the clothing store.

CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS HUNT STARTS SEPT. 15
Here's a preview of the COTA hunt item, 'Apollo et Calliope," a unisex toga/tunic set perfect for ancient Roman & Greek or Gorean role play:

Happy Hunting!

Justice for all in Second Life?

2011-09-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Some disturbing revelations have surfaced recently regarding a "citizen watch group" in Second Life called Justice League Unlimited, which allegedly has been collecting the personal, real life information of SL residents they view as "griefers."

You may have seen them before patrolling the grid -- specifically, public sandboxes -- wearing superhero costumes. If you'd like to read more about their alleged activities, a summary thread is available at SL Universe, as is the massive 300+ page originating thread. Additional coverage can be found at the Alphaville Herald and Search Engine Watch.

Among the allegations leveled is that the JLU has a private wiki which contains intelligence on residents -- from both their "First Life" as well as their Second Life -- who may or may not be members of griefer groups. The "private," "secure" wiki has been compromised at least twice, mostly recently last month -- it remains unclear whether the wiki was hacked externally, or if there was a mole within the group itself that leaked the information.

I am writing about this issue now because as an SL resident of three and a half years, I'd never really heard of this group until recently. And I am concerned about the consequences of the JLU's actions.

Now I have fortunately only been the target of griefing, or the witness to griefing, a few times during my Second Life experience.

In each instance, I used the tools which Linden Lab provides residents to report abusive behavior of other residents -- whether that be the official LL Abuse Report system, requesting the assistance of Estate Managers on private sims, banning people from my parcels, or simply muting them.

And each time I have had no further problems with the resident or any objects created by that resident.

But apparently this is not a typical resident experience -- at least according to anti-griefing groups like the JLU. No, according to them, as SL residents we are all in serious danger of being stalked and harassed by nefarious griefer groups who reside in Second Life solely to make us all miserable.

Let me back up for a moment and be clear: I don't condone the serial harassment and stalking of SL residents, including "outing" the alts of SL residents, creating alts to further harass specific residents and circumventing account bans, or breaching SL resident privacy by publicly connecting their real life identity to their SL identity -- which, BTW, are all against SL Terms of Service. (More on that later).

But "griefing," as subjectively defined by the JLU, is a pretty broad spectrum of objectionable behaviors -- even something as simple as disagreeing with them (which for U.S. citizens, is a First Amendment right) -- in fact, by my writing this, I'm very likely now listed in their logs as a griefer, if you can believe that.

My definition of griefing is obviously far removed from the JLUs: When residents are purposely disrupting the livelihood of SL merchants and land owners, that's griefing -- oh, except most people call that copybotting, not griefing, which is a far greater disruption to the grid than self-replicating penises.

Before all this information became public, I probably would have welcomed a group that was devoting time reporting copybotting to merchants and to Linden Lab.

So why doesn't the JLU monitor alleged instances of copybotting? That would be a far greater service to the SL community. That absence of concern would seem to speak to the collective mindset of the group's membership... their "policing" methods are more closely aligned with those of totalitarian regimes than it is a selfless effort at true community service.

Obviously residents desire and deserve security on the grid. But it is simply not the job of any "citizen watch group" to be policing the grid. That should be LL's job.

While there is disagreement as to whether LL may or may not be providing adequate tools or support for some residents to protect themselves from abuse, that isn't tacit permission for any resident, or resident group, to be monitoring and reporting the activities of other residents.

There is also disagreement, however, as to whether Linden Lab is aware of -- or condones -- the activities of the JLU, and others. There is no longer an LL staffed Governance group, and this group's leadership claims they have several individual Lindens who are sympathetic to their cause. But I highly doubt the Lab would approve of a private resident group collecting the real life medical information of its residents. Or would they?

Obviously residents desire and deserve security on the grid. But for LL to potentially give what essentially amounts to a vigilante group free reign to enforce LL's Terms of Service is just wrongheaded. And dangerous -- considering they are using the exact same TOS violating tactics as the people they allege to be "protecting" us from. Tactics which are the very legal definition of cyberstalking.

I am glad to see that "stakeholders" -- merchants and landowners -- are slowly beginning to speak out about this. The more major landowners and merchants who stand up and publicly voice their concerns -- the people who pay the electricity bills on LL's Battery Street building in downtown San Francisco -- the better chance the Lab will sit up and listen.

It would also put to rest the (erroneous) claim that anyone disagreeing with the JLU's mission must be a griefer, or a griefer sympathizer. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Whether you or a merchant or land owner or just an "average resident," I urge you to express your feelings to Linden Lab CEO Rodvik Linden about this situation.

Sixty Linden Weekends sale item for Sept. 3 & 4

2011-09-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Sixty Linden deal is "Madame," a practical houndstooth wool day gown for the Victorian businesswoman, in granite... Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the clothing store.

Check out the other deals this weekend at the Sixty Linden Weekends Picasa Gallery -- there are some great deals out there!

New hunt items are here!

2011-08-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

Just a note to let you know that both the Twisted Hunt and STEAM 5 Hunt are now underway, and our hunt items are ready for you to seek out!

Our Fall 2011 Twisted Hunt gift is "Fleur du Mal," an Unseelie dark woodland fairy costume:

Our Fall 2011 STEAM hunt gift is a steampunk themed tea set:

Both gifts are hidden within our Main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village.

And starting Sept. 15, the Celebration of the Arts Hunt, featuring "Apollo et Calliope," a classical Greek/Roman tunic toga set for both men & women.

As you can see, I'm stepping out a little more beyond my usual Victorian/Western/Steampunk comfort zone — and finding that I really like it! I hope you do as well. Cheers!

Sixty Linden Weekends sale item for August 27 & 28

2011-08-26T23:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Sixty Linden deal is "La Vie en Ville" (City Life), a Victorian gown, hat and parasol set in amethyst... Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the clothing store.

Check out the other deals this weekend at the Sixty Linden Weekends Picasa Gallery -- there are some great deals out there!

Sixty Linden Weekends sale item for August 20 & 21

2011-08-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend's Sixty Linden deal is "Suffragette," a white Edwardian suffragist gown & hat to celebrate Women's Equality Day in the U.S. on Aug. 26! The set also comes with a "Votes for Women" picket sign (not shown). Find it in the entry alcove as you TP in to the Montagne Noire Clothiers main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village.

Check out the other deals this weekend at the Sixty Linden Weekends Picasa Gallery -- there are some great deals out there!

What's new at Montagne Noire

2011-08-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

NEW RELEASE - LA VIE EN VILLE
"La Vie en Ville" (City Life) is a new Victorian gown, hat & parasol set, complimenting last week's release "La Vie Champetre" (Country Life).

As new releases, these items are now 125L through next weekend!

NEW GROUP GIFT!
Our new, FREE group gift is also here... now available in the entry alcove, "La Vie en Ville" (City Life), is a special gothic edition in "nightshade."

You can join the group right on the spot there -- instructions are on the wall. Be sure to wear the group tag when you touch the gift delivery sign to receive the FREE outfit!

By joining the Montagne Noire Fashion Society, you'll receive announcements of new releases, special events and member exclusive gifts, such as this outfit and others.

NEW CLEARANCE ITEMS
I've done some inventory housekeeping, and have added several new items, including several holiday themed gowns, in our 3rd floor clearance "secret room" that are on their way to retirement. Prices range from 5L to 50L -- up to 80% off original prices.

I think that's it for now -- hope you are staying cool as the summer winds down. :)

New Victorian day and evening gowns!

2011-08-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

La Vie Champetre (Country Life) is now available! In bluebell, lavender and mint, this Victorian day gown with Irish lace detailing comes with a matching straw hat and lace parasol.

As a new release, the gown is 50% off this week, just 125L!

AUGUST BALL GOWN
Our specially priced 100L Victorian Summer ball gown, "Aout" (August) is now available in the entryway:

Matching ball gown shoes are also available for just 10L!

Be sure to check out all our other 100L ball gowns on the third floor, too.

Back again... again.

2011-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

As some of you already know, I've had a lot of ups and downs with my health over the last year and a half, which has forced me to prioritize my time in SL and on the computer.

Thus the dearth of posts for the last four months.

I'm intending to give the blog a go once again, as I've had a couple people comment that they like being able to catch up on Montagne Noire news outside of SL... too often inworld group notices are missed, or never delivered, or offline email notices go into spam folders and are never seen again.

So please do keep an eye on this blog -- I encourage you to follow it if you're a Google or Blogger user. I intend to continue writing not just about Montagne Noire news, but also about issues in Second Life, when the mood strikes. ;)

Thanks all for your patience, and for reading. Cheers!

Easter Egg Hunt item preview - no foolin'!

2011-03-31T01:09:00.000-07:00

So here's the scoop: Starting tonight at midnight (Friday, April 1), ten damask eggs will be hidden throughout the three floors of our Caledon Oxbridge Village main store through the end of the month.

Each egg will contain a 10L clothing/accessory item, all of which coordinate into two outfits!

These items also coordinate with our specially priced 100L Avril (April) ball gown!

A personal note: April is a special month for me because it's my birthday month and the one year anniversary of my mastectomy surgery.

In appreciation of the support of my patrons and friends in SL during the past year, I'm celebrating my recovery from breast cancer with this special event. I hope you'll stop in and join in on the fun!

Breast Cancer Awareness gown featured

2011-03-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Miss Dymphne has graciously featured my 100L Breast Cancer ball gown on her new blog, Dymphne's Album, here and here.

Thank you Miss Dymphne! You are absolutely lovely.

Montagne Noire Easter Hunt starts April 1!

2011-03-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday month and the one year anniversary of my mastectomy surgery, so I'm celebrating my recovery with this special event at the main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village.

Photos of the gift items will be forthcoming soon!

Getting back in the groove

2011-03-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

March 2011 marks a year since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in RL. It's been a long haul, but my prognosis is excellent.

As you can see from the date of my last post on this blog, I had to stop posting last summer when I started chemotherapy. Treatment was a real struggle; I ended up going into the hospital twice, and eventually we decided to stop chemo treatment early, because it was making me so ill.

After some recuperation, I jumped head first into radiation treatment and that took a lot out of me too.

Throughout the last few months I've kept a low profile on SL, mostly focusing on maintaining the creative and business side of Montagne Noire. When I've felt well enough to sit in the computer chair for long periods of time, I've released some new outfits; when sitting was too tiring, I had to limit myself to addressing customer service issues.

So one of the things that fell by the wayside during the last few months was this blog. I simply couldn't justify the effort and time for it... but now I'm intending to make a re-commitment to it. While this blog has but a small following, I think it's an important exercise for me as a RL writer.

One of the lingering effects of treatment has been trouble with words... Word Amnesia would be a good term for it. There's a neurological condition the oncologists call "chemo brain" which affects different patients in different ways; it just so happens that it's affecting my ability to spell correctly and conjure the correct words for people, places and objects. What it hasn't affected fortunately is my ability to create clothing. That must go on in a different part of my brain.

My posts will likely be brief in nature, mostly announcing new releases, sales etc., as I did before. So please stay tuned!

Montagne Noire Merchantile in Deadwood

2010-07-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

The newly reset Deadwood western RP sim has a great little merchants section within Fort Laramie, the starting point of your journey to Deadwood (in real life about 400 miles, I think).

When the sim owners rebuilt the sim recently, one of the things that was important to them was to get as authentic a look as they could get from their merchant "outfitters," those businesses that in the real life Old West set up adjacent to such places at Fort Laramie to provide prospectors and travelers with the supplies they needed to survive their long journey. So you won't find any flashy or modern looking vendors here.

I finally updated my little outfitter display with vendors that resemble dry goods crates (an idea encouraged by the sim owners). I narrowed the clothing selection to what I thought would be the best fit, so to speak, for role play in Deadwood.

Stop by and see what you think -- and check out the amazing reset of the Deadwood sim at SURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Phoenix%20Pass/116/170/767. Its focus on authenticity and providing visitors with actual historical background about the real town without a doubt make it the best western RP sim in SL. The role play is a blast too!

New Independence Day/Bastille Day gown & more!

2010-06-27T01:57:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

It happens to me every year, I look at the calendar and July is right at my doorstep -- and I haven't even started on my annual "Patriot" item!

Luckily this year I am a little ahead of schedule -- I present to you "Juillet," a ball gown to celebrate American Independence Day on July 4, and French Bastille Day (also known as La Fête Nationale) on July 14. It's specially priced at just 100L!

Juillet (July) is the month my Role Play character celebrates two monumental events in the history of her adopted nation and her birth nation: American Independence Day on July 4, and French Bastille Day (also known as La Fête Nationale) on July 14.

The flags of both nations share the colors red, white and blue, and so Juillet was created to honor the shared triumph of the American and French people in reaching toward the historical ideals of democracy.

I hope you enjoy this gown and have fun at the many Independence Day and Bastile Day balls and events that are planned around Second Life this year!

Also, back in the "bargain alcove" are three DOLLARBIE patriotic straw boater hats for women, girls, and for men & boys.

AND, there are a few bits of patriotic decor around the shop that are available for sale -- fan banners and posters.

NEW BOYS & GIRLS RP OUTFITS

"L'Orphelin" and "L'Orpheline" are the the first children's costumes to be introduced to the Montagne Noire Role Play Collection. As new items they are 50% off for the first week, so just 100L!

The costume is designed for the RPer who wishes to play an orphan, with the added option of playing a blind child -- or perhaps a sighted child playing a blind orphan for financial gain. How the story develops is completely up to you!

STILL MORE SALES

The "Pink & Red" sale is still going strong (all pink & red clothing is 50L), as is the Victorian bathing suit sale -- men's and women's suits are 50% off -- plus there's a brand new black & white suit for the ladies!

OTHER NEWS

The Caledon shop has expanded -- the "bargain alcove" is now at the back entrance of the shop, where the free group gift vendor now resides, along with the dollarbies, and our soon to debut Sixty Linden Weekends kiosk!

Every weekend for Sixty Linden Weekends we'll be featuring a fabulous gown -- might be from our regular inventory, might be a limited edition -- for just 60L! I'll be sending out notices as next weekend gets closer. :)

That's it for now! I am still fighting cancer with both fists -- SL and designing clothing are a great distraction and therapy. So thanks for making that possible for me! :)

Montagne Noire Furnishings? What's this?

2010-06-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

I recently realized I don't do a proper job of promoting my furniture shop, so I have set about to rectify that, beginning with a special group gift for furniture lovers -- a fancy Victorian blanket chest with scripted open and close lid!

You'll find the group gift board in the foyer entrance.

While you're there, please check out the items that are included in the "Pink & Red" Sale -- items with the color pink or red are now just 50L through the summer!

A few samples of some of our most recent furnishing additions include a folk art baby cradle, rocking chair, bookcase desk and writing chair, bathroom towel cabinet, and more. We also offer furnishings for your parlor, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, bath, Chinese imports and business furnishings.

Most furnishings retail for between 50L-200L. My goal in making these items was to offer low cost, low prim furnishings for roleplay -- most aren't extremely complicated items, just nicely textured to give the appearance of a well furnished home on a small prim budget.

Montagne Noire Furnishings is located in Antiquity Township, SURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Antiquity%20Township/117/26/23

I hope you enjoy the chest, and browsing the other furnishings!

MNC Caledon Oxbridge Village main store expands!

2010-06-20T01:25:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

MNC is pleased to announce the expansion of its Caledon Oxbridge Village location! Please update your old LM with this one, as occasionally you may end up getting stuck in the front stairs:

SURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge%20Village/180/222/22

The new building now has a back entrance, where the dollarbie items and group gift are located.

As you can see it's a bit bare right now, but we hope to be participating in more hunts and shopping events in the near future (stay tuned for our first foray into Sixty Linden Weekends, coming up July 4 weekend!), and this is area you'll find the information!

The rest of the building looks about the same, it's just been elongated to make room for future inventory. Enjoy!

A new parasol collection and a Victorian tattoo?

2010-06-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

Finally MNC has released a parasol collection! Le Parasol is a Victorian ladies scripted walking umbrella with fringe and roses that comes in bluebell, calla, nightshade, rose and snowdrop.

As new releases they are currently 50% off for the next week, just 50L for individual parasols and 175L for the fat pack of five.

And what's this? A Victorian tattoo? How scandalous!

F-holes, also known as sound holes, are the carved opening in stringed musical instruments such as violins and cellos, which help project the sound of the instrument through vibration as it is played.

For the Victorian lady of Second Life, I like to think of this elegant f-hole tattoo as a bohemian expression of the muse within each of us, whether we are inspiring a romantic partner, or our own creative spirit.

Look for the black gift box in the foyer of the MNC shop in Caledon to purchase this unique tattoo for just 1L! It's only available until the end of June, so don't delay! ;)

Astolat

New clearance items & bathing suit sale!

2010-06-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

New this weekend to Montagne Noire's clearance section (third floor at the Oxbridge Village main store) -- four outfits reduced 80% to 50L!

Also, a Victorian swimsuit sale! 50% off regular retail. Ladies bathing suits now 125L. Gentlemen's bathing suits now 75L.

Don't forget to check out the dollarbie and freebie (group gift) items in the foyer as you enter the shop!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Astolat

June New Releases at MNC

2010-06-03T01:12:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

First off, stop in to the Caledon shop to get June's group gift, Fleur de L'ete ("Flower of Summer") a frothy Victorian day gown and straw hat in jade green. You'll find the board on the left as you enter the shop.

If you aren't currently a group member, simply touch the top sign with the picture of the gown, and you will receive a notecard with instructions on how to join.

Once you are wearing your Montagne Noire Fashion Society update group tag, simply touch the bottom sign to receive this free gift!

Also new this month is "Madame," a practical houndstooth wool day gown for the Victorian businesswoman. Madame come in granite, marble, and moss, and as a new release is currently 125L, (50% off regular retail) through Friday, June 10!

And yes, the "Pink & Red" Sale still continues! All pink and red clothing is reduced to 50L at the Caledon shop, and select furniture is 50L at the Antiquity furnishings shop. There are also a few new low prim furniture pieces you might want to check out there as well!

I think that's it for now! In RL I'll be starting my first round of chemotherapy tomorrow (Friday, June 4), so if you have any customer service issues, you can always email me directly at thevictoriancloset@gmail.com. I'm hoping to be in SL as much as I can, depending on how I'm feeling, so please stop by the shop and say hello.

Happy Spring!

A little this & that

2010-05-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

As I'm able to sit for longer in my computer chair, I'm finally getting around to some projects that have been on the back burner for awhile.

One of the most common requests I get is "I love that outfit? Can you make it in [insert your favorite color here]."

I may eventually get around to making all my outfits in every color of the rainbow, but in the mean time, I've been rounding out sets so that they have three color options.

If you like the sapphire and ruby La Danseuse saloon girl dresses, you'll love the new one in emerald:

The popular amethyst and emerald Le Pianiste gowns are now joined by an onyx black version:

The Pluche line becomes a threesome with the addition of an onyx black gown to the ruby and sapphire sets:

Last, but not least, the La Ranchette line has had a complete overhaul, to include a new onyx set, a dark topaz, and a dark ruby, all featuring more prominent Native American embroidered trim:

What's the best part of this new round of new releases? I'm implementing a new sales policy -- all new releases will be 50% off retail for the first week of their debut!

That means the emerald Danseuse, onyx Pianiste and onyx Pluche are now 125L through next Sunday, June 6.

The new topaz and onyx Le Ranchette sets are 175L this week -- the ruby remains 50L as part of the "Pink & Red" sale currently running!

Remember, these prices are good ONLY at the Caledon Oxbridge Village main store.

I hope you enjoy these new colors!

Montagne Noire is back!

2010-05-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

It seems my recuperation from surgery has generated a creative streak in me, as I have just finished another new gown, "Brode"!

Brode (English, "Embroidered") is a practical cotton day gown with floral embroidery, a perfect spring gown for the lady who wishes to take a leisurely stroll in a stylish and comfortable suit. It comes in garnet, jade and turquoise, and retails for 250L!

I've also put out a special 1L "dollarbie" gift in the entry foyer of the Caledon shop, "Le Merle" (French, "little blackbird"), a rich onyx black velvet and beaded lace gown and matching onyx hat, that previously retailed for 250L. Enjoy!

Also now available is "Dans le Rose" (French, "In the Pink"), a special edition breast cancer awareness gown featuring rich velveteen brocade and satin adorned with pink ribbons and flowers.

The gown is now on sale for 50L (originally 350L) at my Caledon shop! Additionally, all regular priced ladies, mens & childrens clothing in pink and red continue to be discounted to 50L for the foreseeable future (only at the Caledon location).

There are also selected pink and red furnishings reduced to 50L at my Antiquity furniture shop!

Once again, thank you for all your support as I recover from breast cancer surgery, and get ready to begin the long road of treatments. Everyone has been so wonderful during this challenging time, and it means a lot to me.

An unexpected twist of fate.

2010-04-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

To my friends and loyal customers,

Last month as I was contemplating participating as a merchant in SL's Relay For Life event, in an unexpected twist of fate I also learned in real life that I have breast cancer.

I'm now scheduled for a double mastectomy at the end of April.

I'm writing to let you know that I may not be in SL on a daily basis in the next several weeks, so if you have any customer service questions or issues, please contact me via my email address, thevictoriancloset@gmail.com, which I can access away from my home office.

In the mean time, as a thank you for your support, all regular priced Montagne Noire clothing in pink or red will be discounted to 50L. This discount is only available at the Caledon Oxbridge Village main store.

I would have very much like to have been able to offer a RFL promotion, but now I must focus on my own personal "relay for life," which means diverting my SL income toward paying my medical expenses.

I encourage all of you to patronize those merchants participating in RFL this year -- I have seen some wonderful creations being offered.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this challenging time in my life.

Regards,

Astolat

A Green Sale for St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Just for fun, Montagne Noire announces a special St. Patrick's sale - all regular priced green clothing is 50% off now through Wednesday, March 17!

This sale is taking place **ONLY** at our Caledon Oxbridge Village main store:

Green being one of my favorite colors, you'll find that there are several dresses on sale, from 100L to 175L.

Also included are three Le Petit girls dresses and a mens suit on the second floor.

The sale also includes some winterwear accessories in our seasonal section on the third floor.

And don't forget to visit the clearance section, where last year's promo St. Patricks Day ball gown is reduced to just 20L!

While you are shopping, be sure to check out the Steam Hunt display as you enter the shop. More than 100 Victorian and Steampunk merchants are participating in this month long event (including Montagne Noire), and from what I've seen there are some amazing items to be had.

Role Play Collection: La Danseuse saloon girl dress!

2010-03-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

I have a bit of catching up to do, so you may see a flurry of new posts. Thank you for your patience.

Recently arrived at Montagne Noire in our "Role Play Collection" -- "La Danseuse" (French, "the dancer"), a rich striped velveteen gown with a feather hairpiece, designed for the role player who wishes to portray a Victorian Old West era saloon girl.

In ruby red and sapphire blue, the costume's undergarments feature interchangable "briefs" and bloomers, as well as black fishnet stockings, depending upon the type of entertaining you are doing...!

*ahem*

The costumes retail for 250L and are available at our Caledon main store, in the new arrivals room to your right as you enter the shop.

A Western General Store... & a Chinese Market

2010-02-24T01:37:00.000-08:00

...Been doing some inventory housekeeping, XStreet listing fine tuning, and working on some new items for the Deadwood reset in March, and the result is "The Western General Store" role play kit, which can now be viewed on XStreet.

This General Store Kit is designed to decorate Victorian & Old West merchantiles, grocery stores, grocers, outfitters, provisioners, sundries and dry goods shops.

Among the items included are antique advertising signs, crates of Arbuckles coffee, beer and coal, barrels with flour, cornmeal and nails, sacks of potatoes, sugar and salt, a fresh fish stand and a vegetable stand.

There are fancy Victorian cabinets and counters, as well as more improvised shelving with modifiable planks and barrels. In fact, most items are modifiable, and some are also copy/mod, so the variations on your store layout are endless.

Plus, most items are one prim unless otherwise indicated. Purchasing this set at 995L saves more than 500L if items are purchased separately.

If you're looking to set up a Chinese Market, Miss Ji Yheng offers her own role play version on XStreet as well.

Miss Yheng's kit features Chinese style bamboo shades, lanterns, an apothecary cabinet, gunpowder keg, "gunpowder tea" crates, liquor crate, merchant's cupboard, a rice barrel & rice basket, a traditional quilted Shan Ku merchant garment, "coolie" straw hats and much more. Her set retails for 750L, 300L off the individual purchase prices.

Second Life viewer 2.0 -- Go where you are wanted.

2010-02-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

'Oh, sick I am to see you, will you never let me be?
You may be good for something, but you are not good for me.
Oh, go where you are wanted, for you are not wanted here.'
And that was all the farewell when I parted from my dear.

Mr. Housman would be boggled were he alive to witness my torturous use of a stanza from his A Shropshire Lad.

I have yet to download the beta viewer that the Lindens rolled out today with much puffery and circumstance. That's because after reading the Linden blog, the comments there, the subsequent new threads in that gawd awful blogorum, and reviews on other sites by people I know and trust -- I am truly wary of it.

What I realized after doing the reading, as Miss Emily Orr said so eloquently in her blog, "... but damn it, I'm in the middle of trying to get a store that I can stand up and running and I DO NOT NEED TO DEAL WITH THIS CRAP. (emphasis mine)

Frankly, the only people I saw who spoke glowingly of the new viewer were... people who don't do business in SL, i.e. residents that come to SL for "social networking"... people who have the time to learn all the new bells and whistles, who like bells and whistles and ~~love Farmville and Mafia Wars~~ don't have much interest in the underlying architecture of what allows them to be in SL.

For "business minded" people in SL, i.e. content creators, merchants, estate owners, we enjoy our share of socializing -- at least I hope other people do, otherwise they risk monumental burnout. But I digress.

However, it's already a technical challenge to be a business person in SL. There is a level of tedium in navigating SL as a content creator or service provider that I have not experienced in RL business, mostly to do with glitches in the existing architecture. Last night it took me a half dozen tries to rez something -- anything -- out of my inventory. Several times.

Now I'm not a nuts and bolts IT professional, but I seem to have a better than average grasp among my co-workers on new technology, and adapt to change pretty quickly. However, I'm actively working to expand MNC/MNF right now, and I just don't have the luxury to spend on the adjustment curve this new viewer is going to require right now. Especially when they have buried tools I use regularly, and brought to the platform's forefront what looks to me like a lot of cosmetic frou-frou.

Basically, I don't have time to be Linden Lab's guinea pig.

For the time being, I'm sticking with what works for me. I gave Snowglobe a try last week on my PC at work, and was pleased at how less laggy that was, so I am considering right now downloading that viewer here at home on my Mac.

After I finish a few more things on my business to do list.

"with rue my heart is laden..." Apologies to Mr. Housman.

An emerald ball gown for St. Patrick's Day

2010-02-19T21:54:00.001-08:00

The next gown in our new ball gown line has arrived, coinciding with the celebration of St. Patrick's Day next month.

The emerald "Reine du Bal" (French, "Belle of the Ball"), is a rich velveteen brocade and satin evening gown featuring a bustle and train adorned with... shamrocks.

Yes, I was a bit skeptical of the idea of putting little satin shamrocks on the bodice and bustle of a ball gown. It seems a little too -- forced. Corny, even.

Surprisingly, the results are very pleasing to the eye. Three and four leaf varieties of green clover adorn the gown's bodice, accenting the decolletage. Clover garlands frame the gown's bustle in back, gently floating over the landscape of the fabric.

The gown is available at a special sale price of L$175 -- 50 percent off the retail price -- now through St. Patrick's Day, March 17. The gown can be found at either our Caledon, Antiquity or Fatima locations.

A new ship captain's Davenport desk set!

2010-02-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

New to Montagne Noire Furnishings, a replica 19th century Sea Captain's Desk. Also also known as a Davenport Desk, it's said to have been commissioned by a real life clipper ship captain named John Davenport.

Designed for optimal comfort in the close quarters of a ship, the desk typically stored the crew's papers, sealed sailing instructions, logbooks, charts, instruments and a pair of flintlock pistols in the locked drawers on the sides. The desk also featured a storage well beneath the hinged desktop, and a narrow hinged lid concealing a flat storage compartment for writing supplies.

Montagne Noire's captain's desk has been designed for the Second Life captain who, like his real life counterpart, has limited space to conduct his ship's business (in this case, prim count). The desk is seven prims, the chair just two. The chair features a writing animation and an inkwell that provides a quill pen, so you can write in your captain's log. Also included are maps of the Mediterranean and West Indies.

Of course, this desk is also very functional for other sorts of captains -- captains of industry, Captains Courageous, and captains of I-prefer-to-remain-on-solid-ground...

The desk set retails for 200L, and is now available at our Caledon & Antiquity locations, as well as on XStreet.

"This is no social crisis... it's just another tricky day"

2010-02-09T00:53:00.000-08:00

I recently joined an in-world, Linden directed group called "Second Life Commerce Merchants." The purpose of the group is described as thus:

A place for merchants in second life and on XStreet SL to talk business.

There hasn't been a great deal of activity in the group since I joined a few weeks ago, partly because I don't think merchants have a clear idea as to how much we can or should utilize the group for discussing business... I'm not sure the Lindens running the group -- which includes Pink and Colossus -- are certain of its purpose either.

In the last two weeks there have been two notices sent out, both by Colossus Linden -- the first, encouraging us to put all of our Valentine's Day related merchandise into the recently expanded Valentine's Day category.

Sounds good, but I already did that a few weeks ago when I saw the notice in the blogorums.

But then there was this additional tidbit:

But, don't stop at finding what you like... share your favorite items with your friends. We've just added share links to Xstreet SL. Log in, go to the detail page of an item you like and try it out. The share link is in the box on the right side of the detail page beneath the purchase options.

Okay... I'm sure this is a good idea, but in the larger scope of things, this is what the Commerce Team has made a priority?

Today's notecard missive was more promising. The Commerce Team has launched a trial program to assist shoppers in finding merchants on XStreet, by using tags. To wit:

We presented an idea awhile back of adding some common tags to item descriptions in order to make it easier for shoppers to see the subset of items they are most interested in. We'd like to give this a shot with an initial set of tags and if things go well, we'll expand and refine our official tag set.

Okay, this is interesting, do go on...

Merchants, if you have goods that fit into the following communities, please add the respective tag(s) to the end of your item description:

* tagTiny
* tagGorean
* tagFurry
* tagEmo
* tagVampire
* tagSteampunk
* tagGoth
* tagNeko
* tagPirate
* tagFantasy
* tagCyberpunk
* tagScifi
* tagMedieval
* tagSpace
* tagBeach

*the Victorian seamstress waits*

Okay, maybe they cut off the end of the list... I'm not seeing a "tagVictorian"... or even a "tagWestern." Nope, no "tag:Historical."

*the Victorian seamstress reads on*

We're also providing a few which are a bit more purpose related than community related:

* tagEducation
* tagAdultContent
* tagGaming
* tagSports

Merchants, this system will only be useful if these tags provide shoppers items in the area of their interest, so please do not spam these tags in unrelated listings.

*the Victorian seamstress realizes she's holding her breath and is starting to turn blue*

Uh... hmm.

The immediate issue I see is that my business does not necessarily fit into any of those categories -- yes, I have a few items that might be useful to vampires, goths and possibly pirates, and even one or two that are vaguely "steampunk." (Perhaps it's time to put that steampowered corset back on the drawing table...)

Will that mean we get dinged for keyword spamming if we put my items in those categories? Because without a Victorian or Western or Historical tag, our potential customers will not be seeing work by merchants in those categories. We'll be lumped in with the whorewear and BIABs.... which makes for an interesting dichotomy.

Addressing consumers, LL has this to say:

Shoppers, we don't yet have a true tagging system, but we're making use of the search system. You can click on the tags above to search on that tag, or you can type a tag in with your search query when searching on Xstreet SL. Remember that if you're using multiple words in a search query, adding a '+' before a keyword makes it required within all results.

So, once again we have an example of Linden Lab's reverse engineering strategy. They claim they presented this idea awhile back. If they did, I never heard of it, and I try to skim the blogorums on a regular basis, to keep up with announcements.

Nor is it likely many of my fellow Victorian merchants did either. LL has implemented yet another program in a half-assed manner before it's been properly researched. If you've been following the Avatars United debacle, or the XStreet revamping, you know exactly what I mean.

We will look to expose these tags/communities from the homepage and if this system increases sales and shopper satisfaction, then we will look to expand on the tags we are promoting.

That's all nice and well, but historically, LL's movement on fixing any of their hastily thought out plans is like watching moss grow. So we have a few months to wait. Wonderful.

Good luck.
--The Commerce Team

Good luck, indeed... *sighs*

When an idea doesn't pan out

2010-02-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

Being a business owner -- being a successful one -- sometimes means taking chances. The tight RL economy, in addition to various changes Linden Lab has recently made which make doing business in SL more challenging, are weighing on many SL merchants these days.

Although I don't feel I'm in competition with my fellow Victorian and Western merchants, right now many businesses are looking at smaller revenue streams, some more than others.

It's said that the biggest failing of most business owners is that they are afraid of change. But change is necessary in times like these -- and acting on new ideas could make the difference in whether your business is still open in six months.

So an idea comes to you that seems like a smart one, a logical move, until you sit back after implementing it and you watch it wither on the vine.

How long does it take before you should declare it a success or failure? Is this dip in sales and/or traffic a blip on the screen, or the sign of a steady decline?

I've had several of these ideas lately that, for no discernible reason, are not performing as I expected. I invested some capital to see them through to completion, only to see a rather dismal response.

That's scary when you have come to rely on the income you're making in SL to help you through tight finances in real life. But I should feel lucky that I even have this second source of income right now, because there don't seem to be any second sources of income to be had in RL at the moment.

For now, all I can do is keep moving ahead, keep trying new things, and hope for the best.

Expansion, 10L secret sale, discounted ball gowns

2010-02-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Montagne Noire is pleased to announce that we are making some changes to our shops in Caledon Oxbridge Village and Antiquity Township!

Our inventory has been growing quickly, and in response we have renovated each location -- our Caledon location will continue to specialize in clothing and accessories, and our Antiquity shop will now exclusively feature our Victorian & Old West low prim furnishings.

And just for fun, this weekend only, at each shop I have put one item at each location on sale for 10L -- items that are regularly 100-250L. It is up to your sleuthing skills to hunt the items out!

Also, the third floor clearance section at the Caledon shop now has more of our 2008 and 2009 holiday ball gowns available, priced at 20-50L, 80% off the original price.

We're in the process of adding more furnishings, and will announce new items as they become available.

New to the Role Play Collection: miner & soldier

2010-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

Two new additions to the Role Play Collection are now available: Le Mineur and Cavalerie.

"Le Mineur" is a well-worn outfit based on the clothing typically seen in historical photos of 19th century miners.

This outfit was deisgned specifically with the Deadwood 1876 sim in mind, which will soon be "resetting" itself to 1876.

In the summer of 1876, thousands of prospectors flooded into the Black Hills of Dakota Territory (where Deadwood is located) to seek their fortunes placer mining in the gold fields.

As larger mining interests entered the picture, men were employed to work the large underground mines bored out by large machinery. Before the invention of the carbide lamp in 1892, miners lit the dark passages of the mines with a small oil lamp attached to their cap.

The lamp on the cap in this set is a working reproduction of those 19th century oil lamps. Simply touch it to "light" it, and a flame will appear that will also provide some light for you in the dark. Touch it again, and the flame will be extinguished.

Mr. Ernst Osterham, the building wizard that he is, deserves sole credit for the lighting effect, as my grasp on scripting is still rudimentary.

The outfit also includes a cap without the oil lamp attached, for those evenings your character spends in town, and not in the mines.

Also introduced to the collection today is "Cavalerie," based upon the actual U.S. Army Cavalry M1872 and M1874 uniform pieces worn by enlisted soldiers during the "Indian Wars" of the 1870s.

This uniform was also designed specifically with the Deadwood 1876 sim in mind. In real life, there was a notable military presence in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory (where Deadwood is located) during the 1870s because of continued conflicts between the United States and the Indians of the northern plains.

You'll find two crates in this set: one uniform set is clean for garrison duty and formal events, the second crate contains battleworn garments for the "veteran campaigner."

The "clean" uniform features multiple versions of the sack coat and "pattern" shirt: you can wear the pattern shirt as an undershirt layer, with the sack coat as a shirt layer, which will allow you to wear a large overcoat or poncho for a jacket layer, creating a multi-layered look.

The pattern shirt is also available as a shirt layer, and the coat as a jacket layer. Depending on your physique, one combination make work better for you than the other -- all garment pieces are modifiable.

The "dirty" uniform in the other crate is designed to resemble a uniform that has seen months of service, with dirt, mud and perhaps some dried blood on each piece. It too features multiple versions of the coat and shirt layers.

The set also includes the traditional "kepi" cap, and Mr Osterham deserves credit for creating the sculpty that makes the "slouch" look much more authentic than the prototype I initially built out of standard prims.

For the ladies: new gowns on sale

2010-01-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

Plenty of news to be had, so we'll start right off with our new releases for ladies:

Montagne Noire introduces the Cheongsam, a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women in a vibrant red satin brocade.

The cheongsam is also known in Mandarin Chinese as the qípáo and in English as a Mandarin gown.

Also included are garment pieces to wear as an Vietnamese Ao Dai (Áo Dài), featuring a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over ankle length leggings.

Montagne Noire's version is designed with a Victorian eye for modesty, featuring long sleeves and ankle length leggings.

To celebrate the Chinese New Year on Feb. 14, the Cheongsam is on sale for 100L, 50% off the retail price. The sale price is effective through Feb. 14.

The next gown in our new ball gown line has arrived just in time for Mardi Gras.

To celebrate Mardi Gras on Feb. 16, Reine du Bal in amethyst is now on sale for 175L, 50% off the retail price. The sale price is effective through Feb. 16.

Lastly, there are four new gowns in our clearance section, marked down 80% off the retail price, making them just 20L and 50L!

New womenswear is located in the west wing on the ground floor of our Caledon & Antiquity shops; you'll find Clearance on the third floor.

So you want to role play a "working girl."

2010-01-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

So you are interested in roleplaying a 19th century parlor girl, courtesan, working girl, painted lady, soiled dove, whore -- a prostitute, in a Second life Victorian/Old West role play sim.

Where do most people start? With clothing. Typically, it's the most frilly, flamboyant outfit available on XStreet -- silk stockings, rhinestone bustier, the whole nine yards. It's a fabulous costume, certain to turn the heads of the gents (ahem).

You land at a Western sim's welcome HUB and rush past the signs urging you to read about life in the 19th century American West, thinking you already know everything you need to in order to make your RP debut, thank you very much.

Here you are sauntering down the street, ready to make your big RP splash, when suddenly someone IMs you. "Uh, hello and welcome, you appear to be new -- are you aware that costume isn't really appropriate to wear on the street?"

"Of course it's appropriate," you reply, "isn't that why they're called streetwalkers?"

I can't tell you how many times I've had this IM conversation with new characters in Deadwood, the Western sim I RP in. Many, many female avatars wander in with a head full of ideas about prostitution in the Old West that they got from watching Hollywood movies.

There are as many myths about the prostitutes of the Old West as there were "soiled doves" (a common term for prostitute at that time).

Probably the biggest myth that new roleplayers buy into when creating a working girl character is that they had glamorous lives and clothing. Certainly the upper class courtesans and parlor girls were dressed sumptuously for their upper class clients. They weren't necessarily well educated, but they could carry on a conversation and knew which fork to use for the salad.

Most of the high class parlor houses, however, existed in larger cities, and only came later to the boom towns of the West as the wealth of the land began to pay off.

How does this relate to fashion? well, in a few weeks, the Second Life sim of Deadwood will be resetting the clock to 1876. Currently, it's 1879. The town has grown into a bustling little burg with theaters, hotels, tea rooms, a hospital. It's all very... civilized.

I should qualify that and say that, despite what some uninformed people have been saying, it has as much excitement as it's always had -- bank robberies, hangings, lost dogs -- but it's a full fledged town now, with a mayor, city council, a town charter. It's still the Wild West, but as in RL, time moves forward in SL as well, and progress -- telephones, railroads, electric lights -- are just over the horizon.

SL's Deadwood has always strived for historical authenticity, and with the reset, there's an opportunity to explore the seedier side of frontier life.

In the early days of Deadwood's gold rush, in mid-1876, it was estimated that approximately 90% of women of the camp were “painted ladies.” Women amounted to between 100 to 150 for the entire Black Hills area, perhaps constituting between 1 percent and 2 percent of the population, according to Watson Parker, author of Deadwood: The Golden Years. That's at the rough estimate of about 10,000 residents at the peak of the gold rush.

When the Deadwood sim reopens, it will be a chaotic, lawless camp, made up of an assortment of tents, wagons and crude lean-tos to house its rapidly expanding populace, which will consist mostly of men who've come to the area to strike it rich in the gold fields of the Black Hills. With that influx of prospectors will come folks with entrepreneurial interests, who will set up shop on the first flat, vacant parcel of land they can find, to provide food, clothing, liquor, tools -- and sex.

The women providing that last commodity in these early days of Deadwood will not be dressed in silk stockings and rhinestone bustiers. They will be women who may or may not have come to Deadwood of their own volition. Some will have been lured there under false pretenses, thinking they would be filling jobs as cooks or laundresses.

Many of them will be escaping already desperate lives, thinking that life in a mining camp couldn't be much worse than what they'd already endured. Some will come to the grim realization that they have unwittingly sold themselves into sex work.

Most of these women will probably have traveled to Deadwood with little more than the clothes on their backs. Already poor, the dresses they wear are threadbare at the elbows, where the sleeve rubs against the washboard. The skin on their hands will be red and calloused from scrubbing with harsh lye soap and carrying buckets of water from the creek to the washtub.

Some will not be able to speak a word of English. Others may be addicted to alcohol or opium. Suicide or murder will be the tragic end for some.

But the lot of the "painted ladies" of Deadwood was not entirely bleak. For some, it was an opportunity to flee the restraints of Victorian society and become a woman of independent means. Historically, there were a number of real life women who came to Deadwood and made their fortunes as madams.

Don't take my word for it -- there are several very good resources about prostitution in the Old West. Get started with "The Painted Ladies of Deadwood," a feature on the "Legends of America" website. Shooting Star Enterprises, a company that specializes in historical reenactment education and supplies, has a informative page devoted to "Entertainers, Hurdy Girls, Soiled Doves and other Ladies of the Evening." A book I highly recommend on the subject is Anne Seagraves' "Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West."

Lastly, I should explain why the typical "saloon girl" costume is not appropriate for streetwear in an Old West sim. "Costume" is the key word here. "Saloon girl" is a loose term for women who worked in saloons as barmaids, dancers, and prostitutes. Depending on the saloon, a woman could serve as all three, or only one or two.

A "saloon girl" dress is essentially a uniform -- a costume worn when a woman is working in the saloon, entertaining. The shiny fabrics and feathers, the short skirt, the low cut bodice and bare arms, are part of the entertainment factor.

This stands in sharp contrast to the "proper" fashion of the day -- long sleeves, high necklines, ankle length skirts.

Here we get to one of the double standards of Victorian fashion -- while modest clothing was expected of respectable ladies conducting their daily business in public, at formal evening events it was perfectly acceptable for decolletage and porcelain shoulders and arms to be put prominently on display (pale skin was a sign of a woman of better means who did not have to do manual labor outside in the elements).

Meanwhile, a prostitute might be seen in public doing her day to day errands with a low neckline on her dress -- this suggestive attire being a not-so-subtle advertisement of her profession.

As the Deadwood reset draws closer, I am currently working on some "working girl" dresses that will hopefully fit into the rough and tumble world of 1876 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Stay tuned.

New ball gowns arriving at MNC

2010-01-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

Thanks to an overly scheduled RL the last few weeks, what time I do have in SL I've been devoting to finishing a number of MNC projects that have been on hold for various reasons.

One of those projects I've been pushing to finish, for release in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, is a new line of ball gowns. And finally, they are here! Well, at least the first one.

"Reine du Bal" (French, "Belle of the Ball"), is a rich velveteen brocade and satin evening gown featuring a bustle and train adorned with roses.

This first gown, in ruby red, is available at a special sale price of L$175 -- 50 percent off the retail price -- now through Valentine's Day, Feb.14.

More gowns will be arriving soon for Mardi Gras and St. Patrick's Day.

Reine du Bal can be found in the "New Arrivals" showroom on the ground floor of both Caledon and Antiquity locations. The gown is also available on XStreet.

New menswear just arrived!

2010-01-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

By request of our gentlemen customers, Montagne Noire has just released a new suit and two classic hat styles.

"Le Mountebank" (a huckster or charlatan) is a Western Victorian sack coat style suit completed by a string tie & basic black derby (bowler) hat. The suit comes in two colors, coal and bronze, and retails for $225L.

Gentlemen now have two choices of hats at MNC -- the basic black derby/bowler hat (available in the Le Mountebank set) can be purchased separately for just $50L. Also available is a traditional black Western wide brim hat.

All these new releases are currently available at our Caledon Oxbridge Village and Antiquity Township shops, and will be coming to soon to our other locations and XStreet.

Remodeled Caledon & Antiquity shops now open!

2010-01-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

Renovations are finally complete on MNC's Caledon and Antiquity shops.

After a lot of research, I came back to my original choice for a new building, "The 1875 Shoppe" by Four Winds.

Four Winds makes some exceptional buildings, from many different eras, both residential and commercial. As I went around SL, I really didn't see anything quite as nice. That likely has to do with SL's Search function, which is frankly a rather frustrating and often futile experience. But that's a topic for another post...

The shops now feature a third floor devoted to our complete line of low prim Victorian & Old West furnishings, in addition to our regular selection of men's, women's and girl's Victorian clothing and accessories.

If you haven't seen MNC's furnishings before, the line has grown considerably, and includes everything from Victorian sofas & armchairs to a Chinese tea table & seat cushions. Oriental rugs, bookcases, English & Chinese tea sets, Edgar Allen Poe cigars, fireplaces, wine & liquor cabinets, shop counters, stained glass lamps, armoires, kitchen furniture are just some of what the line now offers.

All this I've designed over the last two years with Victorian & Old West role play sims in mind, where every prim counts. As I said in a previous post, they are simple, yet functional.

I'm very excited about the new buildings, as they give MNC more room to grow. They also have a more open feeling to them as you walk in -- large plate glass windows in front give visitors a picturesque view of Caledonian and Antiquity waters.

Please be my guest and stop by some time to say hello! I'm often at one or the other location, tinkering. :)

What's "quality" content?

2010-01-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

An XStreet customer left a review for my one prim buffet table over the weekend. I had to use a translator, as the comment was in German, but the fellow apparently felt that 60L was way too much for a single textured cube.

Of course, he never bothered to contact me before he left his one star rating -- even though there's a link right under the "purchase" button on the listing page to contact the seller.

If he'd simply IMed me or sent a notecard, I would have been more than happy to refund his money.

It's an example of of an issue that I think will come to a head this year in SL: just what exactly is "quality content"?

Yes, the buffet table is one prim. It was designed purposely that way, for people who have limited prim allocations, such as in role play sims. It and the round tea table version served me very well when I owned a hotel/restaurant/theater in Deadwood.

Originally, I'd made both tables with legs -- the buffet table was five prims, the tea table three prims (on a pedestal) legs. This was pretty early on in my building career.

One day it occurred to me -- why do these tables even need legs? No one can lift up the tablecloth to see whether the table is standing on its own. This is SL, after all, where people can fly. So I removed the legs, and voila! A fairly realistic looking table with a white linen tablecloth. And only one prim. For 60L.

I've probably sold a hundred or more of those tables since I made them about a year ago. The only other negative comment I've had was also on XStreet, but that had to do with the table's permissions mysteriously reverting to no mod. That customer didn't contact me either.

I was originally encouraged to sell them by people I'd given them to, who'd seen them in my RP business. These are people, like many SL residents, who don't have the time or patience to make their own furniture.

Coincidentally, these tables are what started me on designing low prim Victorian furnishings. There are some amazing furniture designers in SL, who make beautiful, complex, realistic furniture. However, many of these items are heavy on prim count. That's what makes them beautiful, complex and realistic.

But you easily can blow half of your prim allotment in a RP sim on a single desk and chair set from one of these designers. So, seeing the need for attractive, realistic, affordable low prim furniture, my furniture making career began.

I'm not sure if this table would be considered a "quality" item on the new Linden Lab content creation roadmap. It's the epitome of simple -- it's a prim cube with textures applied to it. But there are some people out there who don't know how to, or don't have time to learn, or simply have no interest in knowing how to put textures on prims. So we're back to the concept of seeing a need and fulfilling it.

It did take time for me to make it. I had to visualize it, find a white tablecloth, photograph it, manipulate the image in Photoshop, and play with the texture settings on the cube to get the proportions right.

For that, I charge 60L. I chose that price because I'd shopped around to find something equivalent before I made the table myself. There are a lot of high profile merchants who do the same exact thing, but charge at least twice what I do. I've seen one prim furniture pieces for 125L or more. I don't know if they sell at that price, but since they are made by some of SL's most successful furniture makers, I assume they do.

I don't know why this kind of thing gets to me, but it did. So here I am, venting. Thanks for reading... :)

Introducing The Role Play Collection!

2010-01-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Montagne Noire Clothiers is excited to announce the launch The Role Play Collection, a new line of garments designed specially for the Victorian and Old West RP community!

Over the last two years I've released several "themed" outfits to correspond with the needs of my SL friends (and myself!) for clothing appropriate for role play.

The new collection consolidates and updates some old favorites, while introducing brand new uniforms, costumes and thematic garments for Victorian and Old West role play.

The current lineup includes:

An updated version of the popular "Le Domestique" day and formal maid uniforms
Majordome, a formal butler/manservant suit
La Nourrice, a nurse's uniform & cap with two aprons -- one clean, and one stained
Le Clerge, a clerical tab collar shirt & cassock for priests and clergy
Shan Ku, an Asian immigrant workers garment, in blue or green

More RP garments are in the works, including military uniforms and tradesmen garment sets.

You can currently find The Role Play Collection in the upstairs north wing of my Caledon Oxbridge Village main store.

The complete Collection will be available soon at most of my other locations and on XStreet as well.

If you have any suggestions for RP related garments, please don't hesitate to send me a notecard, and I will add it to my idea list!

New release: Le Menagere Victorian/Old West dress

2010-01-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

New at MNC, Le Menagere (English, "The housekeeper") is a practical cotton day gown with apron, in emerald, sapphire or topaz plaid, for the lady of the house who wishes to conduct her daily chores in a comfortable but stylish dress -- ideal for housekeeping or market day.

Le Menagere was designed to reflect the style of dress adopted by women of the mid- to late- 19th century American West. Shedding cumbersome crinolines (the "hoop skirt") and restrictive bustles for more practical dress lines, women on the frontier had more pressing concerns than wearing the latest fashions.

And now for a little editorializing: Before the invention of sunscreen, pioneer women wore long sleeves and high necklines like those on Le Menagere to protect their skin from the harsh elements. In one of the great double standards of the Victorian era, bare arms and decolletage were only acceptable for "proper" ladies on formal occasions, such as balls -- only ladies of ill repute put their assets on public display at all hours of the day.

This is one of my little pet peeves about Victorian fashion in SL -- lowcut necklines and off the shoulder gowns are not, not, not daytime wear for proper ladies! So don't be surprised if you enter a role play sim and you are mistaken for a "painted lady" and treated coarsely. :)

Le Menagere is of course modifiable, allowing you to tailor the garment to your proportions. The dress is now available at MNC's Caledon Oxbridge Village location, or on XStreet.

"It's just life..."

2009-12-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend and fellow blogger Diogenes Kuhr got something off her chest about the perception that Second Life residents have no "First Life." You can read it in its entirety here.

But since Blogger seems to have something against letting Mac users comment on other people's blogs, I'm posting my comments in my own blog. Which is probably for the best, because usually my responses end up meandering off course.

Dio's post got me thinking when she said that this time of year can be tough for SLers who visit family and try to explain this "other life" to them. "...and they kind of smile, while their eyes regard you with this mixture of pity, contempt and confusion. And maybe even fear." I had to laugh, because since I have a smallish family and live close to most of my relatives, I get that a lot myself all year round.

What it really got me contemplating, though, was the notion that this time of year actually proves what a wonderful platform SL is and its potentials.

For many people who don't have families, who don't have close relationships with their families, or can't afford to travel to see their families, this can be a lonely time of year.

Sure, in "real life" you can exchange phone calls, emails and Christmas cards with family and friends, but it's not the same as seeing them. The SL experience, however, gives you the next best thing.

Many folks spent Christmas *in* SL this year, having dinner, opening presents, leaving cookies and milk for Santa. They spent it with friends and family, some from SL and some even from RL. To me, that's the closest thing to "real" that you can get.

SL is also responsible for the happy Christmas an SL acquaintance of mine got this year. After marrying her SL partner in RL, thanks to help from her SL friends, she and her son were able to make the trip overseas to reunite with her husband. They were a day late for Christmas, but the three of them are now finally together as a family. What better gift could that be?

So while we may "live" in a pixelated world, there are flesh and blood people behind every one of those IP addresses that log on. It's really no different than texting or using Twitter or Facebook to communicate.

If anything, SL offers more intimate and meaningful interaction than those communication services, because it not only happens in real time, it also provides a rich visual experience and a deeper context to the communication.

You may not be seeing the "real" physical person via a webcam or photograph, but through an avatar, what you *do* see is even more revealing about a person. The avatar is a virtual manifestation of how we really see ourselves, deep down, and how we would like others to see us.

Yes, there are plenty of ethically challenged and morally bankrupt dickheads in SL, and at times it can be a struggle, without benefit of body language, to accurately interpret whether someone is trying to insult you or is being sarcastic. For the most part, however, Second Life is really just an enhancement of our "First Life." A "Second Home," as it were.

I know I feel the richer for having moved in.

The Union Suit now available!

2009-12-17T20:47:00.000-08:00

Another new product rolled out today -- Old West RPers will recognize this one: the classic "union suit" one piece wool long underwear (also called longjohns, depending on where you are from), featuring the buttoned "drop seat" or "escape hatch" in the rear. Now in red AND grey!

This winter essential is not only for the Victorian gentlemen in the Old West, ladies will find it a practical item as well -- in fact, historically, the union suit was originally created by women, for women, as part of the Rational Dress movement of the mid to late- 19th century.

"The first union suit was patented in 1868 as 'emancipation union under flannel.' Traditionally made of red flannel with long arms and long legs, it buttoned up the front and had a button-up flap in the rear covering one's rear end (colloquially known as the "access hatch", "drop seat", "fireman's flap", and other names), allowing the wearer to eliminate bodily waste without removing the garment.

Depending on the size, some union suits can have a dozen buttons on the front to be fastened through buttonholes from the neck down to the groin area."

1896 "Night Before Christmas" book now available

2009-12-14T23:35:00.001-08:00

The famous Christmastide poem "The Night Before Christmas" (also known as "A Visit From St. Nicholas" or "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") was written by Clement C. Moore and first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823.

Montagne Noire has acquired a carton of 1896 editions which are now available for sale in the MNC shop in Caledon Oxbridge Village for 75L.

Much of our modern notion of Santa Claus can be found in this poem, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, the number and names of his reindeer, and the tradition that he brings toys to children.

Prior to the publication of the poem, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas and Santa Claus, among other Wintertide visitors, were imbued with distinct cultural traditions. With Moore's poem, Santa Claus emerged as a distinctively American character, further shaped in the Victorian era by artists like Thomas Nast and in the 20th century by the advertising art of the Coca-Cola company.

This prim book contains scripted pages that turn when you click on them. The book displays reproductions of pages from an 1896 edition of "The Night Before Christmas."

To use the book, simply rez it and click the cover to open it. Then click each page to turn to the next one. You can close the book by clicking on either the front or back cover. Take care not to click too quickly, especially if you are in a sim with high script usage, the pages might take a a little longer to appear.

This book comes in two sizes -- a smaller "reading edition" and a larger decorative version that shows off the book's beautiful artwork. This book set is also transferable for gift giving!

Joyeaux Noel!

More on promoting your business in SL

2009-12-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

Responding to my post about SL business marketing and profile picks two weeks ago, fellow Victorian designer Marrant Vita asked how I keep track of who puts my shop in their profile picks.

I thought it was worth a separate blog entry unto itself, because the program has proved so successful for me thanks to a product I found on XStreet.

The Profile Picks Gift Vendor, which I put out in my shop in Caledon, does all the work for me. I have two signs up -- the first is for the dress, and contains a notecard about how to participate in the profile picks incentive program.

The second sign, located underneath the first, contains the script. The customer puts my shop in their picks, then returns a day later (24-48 hours is supposedly how long it can take for results to appear in Search). When they touch the second sign, the script contained within then searches Search for that person's profile. If it finds my shop in their picks, it delivers the dress.

There's even a website where I can view who has participated in the program.

I should add the caveat that only account-verified avis can participate, which means that they have payment information on file with Linden Labs that verifies their identity. The SL search engine itself is currently set up so that only the profiles of account-verified users are indexed.

It's worked wonderfully and I can definitely recommend it -- it's very much worth the price. I have seen a marked improvement in my Search returns, in addition to
some keyword tweaking I've been doing to both my land descriptions and my classified ads.

Marrant's business by the way is called Marrant Vita's Victorian Needs, and she makes wonderful scripted products such as an antique sewing machine, a bread baking set and cleaning supplies.

She also makes amazing children's clothing -- you can get an entire set of clothes and a wood wardrobe for 500L -- and scripted toys, like her dollhouse and a wooden train set.

The reviews are (coming) in!

2009-11-24T04:02:00.000-08:00

I was thrilled to be contacted today by Gertie Packbiers at Look What the Cat Brought, who posted a very complimentary review of my new winter gown, Soir d'Hiver.

From the sweet rose on her cap and the warm fur over her shoulders, this long coat from Montagne Noire called Soir d'Hiver modeled by my friend, Perdita, is sure to please.

A few other reviews have popped up on the web in the last year, including a mention by Kembri Thomsen in the October 2009 issue of The Primgraph (page 115). In her column, "A Ladies Dressing Room: Exploring Autumn's Glories," Miss Tomsen has many kind words for my Autumn gown, "Fleur d'Automne."

My friend Diogenes Kuhr, in her blog, "The Ephemeral Frontier," made mention of the campaign desk and chair set I made on a special commission.

Earlier in the summer, Miss Emily Orr, in her blog "Welcome to the Trainwreck Love life" bestows compliments on my mourning gowns as part of her report on a trip to the Old West sim Deadwood, where my oldest shop location resides.

A year ago, the reviews got rolling with Bamika Easterman's review in her blog, "Patent Pending," of my "Domestique" outfit for maids & servants.

I can't tell you how tremendously flattering, and inspiring, it is to get such positive feedback on my work. I'm very grateful for the support; I hope that my work continues to bring people pleasure during their time in Second Life.

The sky is falling! (again)

2009-11-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

After reading dozens of posts across the web regarding Linden Labs' announcement of major changes to the XStreet shopping portal, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to broach the subject here.

Initially I was gobstopped; the idea of being charge 10L per month, per listing, on top of the commission LL collects on sales, seemed heavy handed. Charging 99L a month for listing freebie items was even more stunning.

The outcry has been considerable, and in protest many merchants have been removing their entire inventories from XStreet, even though the policy is not set to go into effect until 30-90 from now (leave it to LL to offer a vague time line for implementation... though they "promise" they'll give 2 weeks notice before they begin charging merchants).

Already this policy is having an effect on the shopping experience, both good and bad. As a shopper, I certainly would like to be able to wade through the junk and find quality items more easily. But of much greater priority to me would be having a search function that actually worked -- both in XStreet AND SL itself.

As a merchant, I have more than 200 items on XStreet at the moment, and I don't relish the idea of slicing an additional 2000L a month from my profit margin at a time when my RL household budget needs every penny of the supplemental income I make on SL. I am in the process of examining my inventory to determine which items have become "stale" and need to go... but this is actually something I have already been doing in world.

So far I've managed to deactivate about 1/3 of the more than 200 items I have in inventory. I haven't outright deleted them -- I'm still trying to decide what kind of sales record actually qualifies an item as "stale," considering I am a merchant in a "niche" market.

I guess I took for granted the idea that XStreet could serve a complete catalogue of my merchandise -- my philosophy was that if everything gets a sale sooner or later, slower selling items could be parked there indefinitely. Every sale counts, right, even if some items only sell about every other month?

I'm not sure if that was an unreasonable expectation, since LL was getting commission on every sale... my expectation now is that I should regard XStreet as a marketing tool, and fine tune my listings and descriptions to drive customers to the in world store.

When I made my first freebie about a year and a half ago, the SL marketplace was a much different place, At that time I could track that the majority of people who took my freebie clothing item also purchased clothing from me.

That has changed dramatically in the last several months.

Most of the shoppers who "buy" my freebies now? Never buy anything else from me.

There is a sense of entitlement that has become prevalent among newer residents that they shouldn't have to "pay to play" -- which is why I think we've also seen a sharp rise in content theft. This entitlement attitude baffles me, because there are few other places, both in online worlds and in RL, where you can "live" without spending a dime.

I'm not sure which came first, but the SL marketplace has experienced a drastic drop in prices in the time I've been a merchant. The economic recession has also added to this downward spiral. But many merchants are pricing quality items for ridiculously low prices both in SL and on XStreet, when many, many of them could charge more for their work.

It distresses me when I hear people say they don't care about making money on their work. I wish they would understand that if you make a quality item, you are selling yourself short by not selling it for market value. You are essentially devaluing the work you do. A consequence of that is that you also devalue the work of other community members. If we are all here in SL to live in a community, that means supporting each other and valuing the contributions of other members.

The distressing part of this new policy is that it puts "niche" merchants such as myself in a difficult position. My items serve a specific (Victorian/Steampunk/Western/historical) audience, even if that audience is not a large one. Because of that I'll likely never be a high volume seller, unless I consider diversifying my business.

So as I review my sale inventory in XStreet, how exactly do I gauge if an item is "stale"? An item that I would regard as "popular" in my niche might likely be viewed as a slow mover in a mainstream market. At some point will LL decide that niche items like mine don't meet their criteria for inclusion in the SL economy anymore?

This also raises another issue: How will niche communities maintain a presence in SL if the content creators for them can't afford to, or are no longer allowed to, sell their items? Or are specialized, thematic sims also on the endangered list too?

Finally, however, the biggest lesson in these changes is that, as in RL, the SL marketplace is also in a state of constant flux. You cannot rest on your laurels. You have to be constantly reinventing your "brand" -- even if you are just a "hobbyist" merchant.

That doesn't mean that all the joy is going to be sucked out of your experience, it merely means you need to think on your feet and adapt when market conditions change. While I'm not thrilled about the direction LL has decided to take XStreet, and where SL itself looks like it's going, I see it as a chance to challenge myself both as a content creator and a business person.

If indeed the landscape of SL is changing, and an influx of new corporate residents (presumably) with deeper pockets is on the horizon, perhaps this is the opportunity for many of us smaller merchants to start thinking bigger.

As they say, life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Montagne Noire news & new releases - 11/09

2009-11-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

Bonjour!

I've been on a creative kick lately, so I've not been keeping up on my blog posts, however, this also means you should expect to see more frequent updates in the coming weeks...

NEW RELEASES - LADIES

Montagne Noire Clothiers introduces "Soir d'Hiver" (French, "Winter Evening"), a rich mink and velvet coat, gown and matching Russian style "Zhivago" fur hat.

Available in emerald, ruby and sapphire, Soir d'Hiver is a fashionable winter outfit for the lady who wants to look her best on errands in town or visiting friends. It retails for $250L.

NEW RELEASES - GIRLS

This season's early addition to our line of specially priced holiday gowns is for young ladies: "Le Petit Noel."

Available in holly red and ivy green, "Le Petit Noel" is a rich velvet and fur trimmed holiday gown for the Victorian or Edwardian girl, and retails for just $100L.

The gown comes with a modifiable velvet ponytail holder, which can also be copied, in addition to the white fur barrettes, giving you more hairstyle options -- MNC recommends a curly formal updo.

These gowns were designed to compliment our ladies Noel holiday gowns -- for mothers and daughters who wish to coordinate their holiday attire. You'll find both sets of gowns on easels at the entrances of all our locations!

Montagne Noire's main store is located in Caledon Oxbridge Village.

See all my inventory via Xstreet as well.

I am sincerely grateful for your support, and wish you a wonderful start to the holiday season.

Introducing: The Mackinaw

2009-11-03T00:44:00.000-08:00

There's a distinct chill in the air, which has put me in the mood for making winter clothing.

Right out of the gate I've finally completed a jacket project I tinkered with all summer, a Mackinaw coat. A gentlemen's double breasted woolen work coat, it's available in red plaid and blue plaid.

According to my research, the Mackinaw, a heavy dense water-repellent woolen coat, is said to have been invented by native Metis women in 1811, when John Askin, an early trader on the upper Great Lakes, asked them to design and sew woolen jackets for the army. "They were all to be blue, but when this colour ran out they used red and then the black-on-red plaid cloth that we associate with the jackets of today."

Mackinaws later became an indispensable accessory of American and Canadian loggers in the northern and northwestern part of North America in the mid to late-19th century logging boom. "The term later spread to be universal, and in Canada the "Mac" is regarded as a marker of national identity and working-class values."

MNC's Mackinaw is modifiable, allowing you to tailor the garment to your proportions. The coat top comes in both a shirt and a jacket layer, depending on what you wish to wear underneath. It retails for 100L. Enjoy!

Genteel thoughts on guerilla marketing in SL

2009-11-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

There are probably about as many opinions on how to market one's business in SL as there are SL residents. Despite this, or in spite of, I try to carve out a certain amount of time each week to read up on the current issues of interest to merchants in SL via both LL sanctioned and independent forums. I've culled a lot of very good advice from other merchants, both large and small.

There are some very helpful, experienced businesspeople out there who are happy to share their tips for marketing their content. Scorpion Agency offers 140 Second Life Marketing Tips & Ideas, which are relevant for both SL and RL businesses; a recent post at the New Babbage ning site demystifies how to use SL's search to boost your business.

I would not call myself a "cutthroat" SL businessperson. In RL, I abhor certain types of marketing, like telemarketers who call during dinner (even when you're on the Do Not Call list). Other methods I respond to very generously with my hard earned cash. I love coupons, discounts, free shipping, etc. The businesses who politely offer these kinds of marketing campaigns generally have a repeat customer because they are willing to reward me for my loyalty.

So thinking along those lines, I wondered if there was a way to harness the loyalty of both new and longtime Montagne Noire customers, without being the dreaded dinner interrupting telemarketer.

Since Linden Labs effectively crushed the community that was the XStreet merchant forums with their new and confusing blog format, I've been visiting other independent forums to see where all the merchants have gravitated. I decided to ask about the issue of "gaming" traffic and search results at SLUniverse, which is emerging as the merchant go-to site. You can see the discussion my question generated here.

The response was an interesting mix. I asked if it was unethical to offer an incentive reward to customers who put Montagne Noire in their Profile Picks. Some said yes, some said no. Some said it depended on whether you gave it only to people in your update group and people who already had your shop in their picks. Some thought it was gaming search results to offer an incentive to anyone walking in off the street.

What almost everyone agreed on is that it can be a real challenge to publicize an SL business -- even more so as the business landscape in SL has changed dramatically in the last year or so. It takes a lot of creativity to effectively get the word out, especially when you are working with a modest budget.

Probably the most powerful tool for promotion -- and least understood -- is the SL search engine. It turns out one of the methods of improving search ranking is having people add your business to their profile picks.

The SL search engine counts each pick from an "Account Verified Resident" (an SL resident with credit card or Paypal payment information on file with Linden Labs) as a vote for that location when determining its rank in search.

After a good deal of thought, I decided to try an experiment.

I sent a notice to members of the Montagne Noire Fashion Society update group, and to a select group of friends.

Now my sincere hope in all of this is that my friends and group members won't regard this promotion as the equivalent of the obnoxious junk mail the postman brings everyday. I'm hoping that my friends know me well enough now to know I am not a scheming, money-grubbing capitalist who just has them on my friends list so I can flood them with marketing campaigns.

Would you like to earn an exclusive hat and dress set FREE while helping spread the word about Montagne Noire Clothiers?

If you are an Account Verified Resident (an SL resident with credit card or Paypal on file with Linden Labs) all it takes is putting MNC in your "picks" tab in your profile. Picks are a great way to show off your favorite people, places and merchants in SL.

It's a quick and painless process: Simply place Montagne Noire's Main store in your "picks."

If you don't know how to add your favorite locations and business in SL, it's super simple:

1) go to the "Edit" pull down menu in the upper left corner of your SL browser.

2) select "Profile" then click on the "picks" tab.

3) Click on the "New" button at the top of the picks page, and the location will be added (be sure to actually be standing in Montagne Noire's parcel location before you add it to your picks!).

If you already have MNC in your picks (thank you!), update the tab by pressing the "delete" button at the top of the picks page, then click on "New".

Once Montagne Noire has been in your profile picks for 24 hours (enough time for SL search to read your updated profile), return to the shop to claim your prize! Touch the sign below the one you received this notecard from and vendor will process your reward and deliver it!

To encourage users to actually keep MNC in their picks, I'll be changing out the special gift every so often.

To build subscriptions to the "Montagne Noire Fashion Society" update group, I'm now also working on a way to offer special discounts & sales for group members, where if you wear the group tag while you shop, you'll receive a discount on certain item(s).

So what do people get if they add MNC to their picks? This special limited edition onyx version of my "Fleur d'Automne" set.

A last thought on being a business owner in SL. I don't really think of myself as being in competition with other Victorian designers -- we all have unique styles, and our clientele all have unique tastes. I'm here to have fun, and if that also means I might be able to grow my business into something that pays a few RL bills, I'd be thrilled. But I am also thrilled when I see other designers succeed at something they love to do, too.

Content theft -- the deck is stacked against us

2009-10-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

Some disturbing news today... Stroker Serpentine has reported over at SLUniverse that a massive content theft has taken place, using what were probably some of the known exploits of the permission system, notecards, etc.

As far as I know, my work is not involved. I feel fortunate that after all this time I have not been a victim of this, but I'm sure time will only tell when someone thinks its time to start ripping small time merchants like me.

I feel terribly for everyone whose work has been stolen, and I feel incredibly helpless. It seems that SL has no real interest in preventing what has clearly become large scale content theft. I'm simply at a loss as to what to do -- so many voices much more influential than mine have risen up in the past to protest this, and nothing has been done.

I'm not sure what this all means, what the future holds for content creation in SL. Like so many other virtual and real world places I've invested myself in, everything from Facebook to my health care insurer, it feels like Corporate America has no accountability for their actions.

It's the new corporate profit model -- well, perhaps not new, but big business seems less concerned with keeping their real motivations a secret anymore.

What it is, is risk assessment gone horribly wrong. Businesses no longer seem to be interested in what the customer wants -- they are interested in knowing how long they can keep making money while they knowingly rip off customers, or allow them to be ripped off? When the litigation finally comes, will the payout we have to make be substantially less than the profits we earned while ripping off people?

In Second Life, the folks at Linden Labs happily take the money content creators spend on uploading textures, sounds, animations. They happily take the tier payments my landlords pay for virtual real estate, that I in turn rent from them for my shops.

They don't seem to see that content theft is problem -- because it really costs them nothing. It's not really "their" content that's being stolen. Linden Labs is in the real estate business and the asset storage business, not in the content creation business. They provide servers, and sit back while Second Life residents do all the heavy lifting.

Not to diminish the service that LL provides -- obviously that takes a tremendous amount of resources. Someone has to pay the electricity bill.

It seems to be the nature of community building that it always reaches a critical mass, where it simply becomes too large to effectively administer or police. This happens simultaneously with larger interests entering the picture, who see a new opportunity for investment... and profit.

You hit a threshold where a community of individuals is much harder to stabilize than a community of larger interests.

And this is what is happening with Second Life. Administering to a handful of corporate entities, who already have their own management infrastructures, is much more profitable and efficient than trying to keep thousands of "mom and pop" content creators and landowners happy.

For now, we wait. I personally am waiting for when LL finally announces exactly what "a minimum threshold for content transactions" is as part of qualifying for their content seller program... while my business is just beginning to grow, my content creating days very well could be over before I ever get a chance to prove myself in the market.

Expeditionary campaign desk & chair set

2009-10-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

Once again, time gets away from me. But I have a good excuse -- I've been working on a commission.

I spend most of my time designing clothes, but about a year ago I started making low prim furniture. At first I was just doing this for personal use -- I was having trouble finding Victorian era low prim furnishings for my shops, as well as for my apartment and the hotel I own in a western RP sim.

Now I completely admire (and envy) those with the skill to make the amazing Victorian furniture I've seen out there -- unfortunately, when you have a 100 prim allowance for your residence or shop, you have to come up with creative ways to cut corners in order to have a realistic looking interior.

So I began photographing furniture textures from my own house, the houses of friends and family and a friend's antique shop. I started simple by building basic one prim items like armoires, dressers, bookcases, etc.

Slowly over time my skills have improved slightly, and I've made fireplaces, china cabinets and other Victorian era furnishings. Nothing fancy, but they are functional.

So it took me by surprise when I was asked to make an item I only had a passing knowledge of -- a campaign desk and chair set.

What is a campaign desk, you ask? Historically, officers on battlefields (hence the term "campaign"), as well as scientists, explorers and well-to-do tourists on safari or expedition, brought along a portable field desk to use for correspondence, sketching and journals.

Such a desk would typically have a hinged writing surface/lid that closed flush with the other edges of the desk box and was locked with a key. The edges traditionally featured brass hardware to protect the desk while transported, and had handles for carrying. The legs were often hinged or unscrewed and stored in a compartment under the desk box during travel.

My Second Life version was commissioned by a roleplayer who is a scientist on a paleontology expedition in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, in the RP sim Deadwood. He had acquired the simple, one prim cherry wood map cabinet I'd recently released, but had trouble finding a portable desk to his liking. So I agreed to see what I could come up with.

And here it is: his desk, at 6 prims, features a "hinged" writing surface that can be opened by touch. The 5 prim chair was designed to look like a folding chair (though it does not actually fold) and includes writing animation. The inkwell, when touched, delivers a quill pen that will attach to your right hand when worn.

For more authenticity the set includes rolled and flat maps that depict the Black Hills in Dakota Territory, circa 1876 & 1878, and an 1874 map of the Rocky Mountain Territories: Colorado, Wyoming, Dakota and Montana.

I think it turned out rather well -- it's now got me thinking about other multi-prim furnishing projects.

If your interested in viewing it, it's on display in the 2nd floor at my Caledon Oxbridge Village shop shop, as well as on Xstreet.

Texas, we hardly knew ye

2009-10-10T00:57:00.000-07:00

Sadly, after just three weeks in operation, the new Texas sim where my newest MNC location recently opened, is ceasing operations.

This isn't the first time I've opened a location in a promising new sim, only to see it fold not long after its unveiling. I still miss Londinium, a Dark Victorian sim which had all the makings of a fantastic RP world.

It's never good to speculate on what misfortunes are behind the closing of sims -- too often, however, it's that people aren't fully prepared for the tremendous financial investment that a sim requires, as well as the tremendous amount of marketing that must follow in order to make the sim pay for itself.

$1000 USD down and $300 USD a month in tier has always seemed like a steep price for the privilege of "owning" a 65,536 sqm piece of a virtual world. Yet I have daydreamed many a time of having my own private estate, where I can set up a residence, or build an immense flagship storefront. But the economics of such an investment have never been within my reach, and looking at the numbers, it's unlikely that will ever change.

I understand the resources that go into maintaining the vast network of server farms Linden Labs hosts. They are a private company and have the right to charge whatever they please for their product -- and considering at the moment they are the only game in town, so to speak, in this type of virtual world, more power to them.

Inevitably the economic conditions in First Life were bound to trickle into Second Life. People are losing their jobs, having their homes foreclosed on, watching helplessly as their credit is frozen or their bank arbitrarily jacks up their credit card interest rate.

In that scheme of things, Second Life is a disposable asset. And yet Second Life is something that many people right now need more than ever -- a place to temporarily escape from an oppressive set of First Life circumstances.

I've been creating specialty clothing and furnishings long enough to know that no matter how thorough my marketing is, there's just never going to be a larger demand for my product line. Let's face it: for as wonderful as the Victorian/Steampunk/Gothic communities are in SL, they are a small, specialized minority in the larger scope of the SL population.

I think I'm okay with that. I make enough now to cover my rents in world, to pay a miniscule portion of my rent in the real world, and to put some of my earnings back into the SL economy and support the work of other builders and designers. Perhaps if I had arrived in SL earlier, during the upswing of the content creation economy, things might be different.

But that's neither here nor there. The important thing is that I enjoy creating the clothing and furnishings I sell. It's a great stress reliever, it's a self esteem booster. It's something I should spend more time on.

So what would happen if I did devote more time to designing? That would mean less time devoted to, well... facilitating other people's need for drama. Hmm... now there's a thought.

So the door to Texas may be closing, but perhaps a window is opening elsewhere. Perhaps too it's my time to close some doors in SL, and open a window two for some fresh air.

MNC news & new releases for October 2009

2009-10-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

The best laid plans... suffice to say, RL knocked me for a loop, hence the absence of posts since September. I hope to rectify that this month.

Now onto the news! This is the beginning of my favorite time of year, so Montagne Noire has several new releases and news to share with you.

NEW RELEASES

Our 2009 Halloween ball gown is now available -- "Samhain" is a rich black velvet dress with black beaded trim in a Gothic/Dark Victorian vein that comes with a ruby & silver spider choker necklace. The gown retails for just 100L.

Last years gowns are also available again -- "Hallows Eve" is a traditional taffeta crinoline gown that is available in citrine and amethyst. For the month of October, these gowns will be on sale at 50% the original price -- just 50L!

As many sims in SL will see snow fall following the end of Halloween celebrations, MNC is now releasing "Le Pelerine", a full length ladies winter cloak. Available in black velvet, red velvet and mink fur, Le Pelerine's slender silhouette can be worn with or without the matching hood. The cape retails for 200L.

In our merchantile department, we have several new additions to our low prim Victorian furnishings, including a map chest, a carved oak bar featuring a quaint brawling scene, a cast iron fireplace, and an oak truck with an open/close lid.

NOW ON SALE

In addition to the markdown on last year's Halloween dress, our entire stock of "Petit" girl's dresses is also 50% off original prices -- reducing all outfits to just 100L-125L each.

MNC will also be marking down a limited selection of women's and men's outfits this month for retirement later this fall. These clearance clothing items will be reduced to 50L -- 80% off original price. Our clearance items will only be available at our main store in Caledon Oxbridge Village.

We have also made a permanent markdown on all our Oriental rugs and antique advertising signs, now just 10L each. The entire inventory can be found on XStreet.

(All markdowns are reflected in the purchase menu when you select the item).

NEW LOCATIONS

Montagne Noire has opened a new location in newly relaunched Texas State USA sim, featuring a special selection of ladies, mens, and girls fashions.

Montagne Noire Merchantile, devoted solely to showcasing our low prim furnishings, is now open in Texas' sister sim, Kansas Territory.

(If you click on the landmark a second time once you arrive at the sim HUB to be teleported directly to each of these locations.)

WHERE TO FIND MNC

Montagne Noire's main store is located in Caledon Oxbridge Village. We also have locations in Antiquity, Deadwood and the Victorian Village @ the Isle of Fatima's Desire.

You are welcome to peruse my inventory via Xstreet as well!

Thank you as always for your support, and enjoy you Halloween and harvest celebrations!

Just arrived at Montagne Noire ... Fleur d'Automne

2009-09-17T00:25:00.000-07:00

September's new gown is now available -- "Fleur d'Automne" (French, "Flower of Autumn"), a rich velveteen day gown and matching teardrop hat with satin flowers, black feathers and black lace.

Available in ruby, turquoise and topaz, Fleur d'Automne is a fashionable walking dress for the lady who wants to look her best on errands in town or visiting friends.

Fleur d'Automne comes with a prim skirt for standing and a "system" skirt and hip ribbons for sitting, designed to avoid the embarrassment of naked legs that prim skirts cause for ladies who wish to sit modestly.

Circa 1865-1875, Fleur d'Automne reflects the early transition from crinoline (the "hoop skirt"), to polonaise, to soft bustle in Victorian ladies fashion. The full round shape of the crinoline gave way to more slender dress lines, with overskirting draped over the hips and underskirting moving toward the back of the skirt.

Montagne Noire's main store is located in Caledon Oxbridge Village. You are welcome to peruse my inventory via Xstreet as well.

About Montagne Noire Clothiers...

2009-09-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

If by chance you have randomly stumbled into this blog, I am the owner of Montagne Noire Clothiers, a Victorian clothing shop in Second Life. I've been designing Victorian clothing for women and men (and now children) for a little over a year now.

I am by no stretch of the imagination a fashion designer in real life, though I have acquired enough seamstressing skills over the years to have designed and sewn several historically inspired garments. I would (very humbly) describe myself as an amateur historian, so in researching and designing historical costumes, it followed that I began to study the history and progression of fashion.

Now how does this translate to designing Victorian clothing in Second Life? Good question. I am not an artist in real life, I can't draw worth a damn. But I do have some graphic design skills that I use in my real life job.

Before I took the plunge and tried designing, I traveled through a number of the historical realms of SL, picking up a variety of historically themed garments, both free and Linden purchased, along the way. But it was often a painstaking and frustrating process.

While there were an abundance of shops out there advertising era specific clothing (Victorian, Medieval, Renaissance, etc), more often than not the outfits were an amalgamation of different eras and styles.

I've come to call it the "Sinderella Syndrome" -- more (adult) fantasy than reality, the gowns generally feature giant swirling crinoline (hoop) skirts and very lowcut necklines.

First, let me say that there's nothing wrong with wanting to dress like Cinderella in Second Life. SL is a place where you can realize your fantasies, and for many women, that's dressing like a princess. I myself readily admit to having a few Cinderella gowns in my SL inventory.

But it's problematic when you are the owner of a historically themed role play sim and want to provide visitors an authentic experience. That, however, is a topic for another blog entry...

Some of this homogenized look is the result of technical limitations in Second Life. It's very difficult to recreate some garment styles because of the way the UV body templates are mapped. For those who aren't familiar with how clothing is created in SL, it involves layering textures two-dimensionally in a graphics program like Photoshop. That final texture is uploaded to SL, where you apply the textures onto the three dimensional body of an avatar.

Sometimes the translation isn't what you expected.

So, armed with my interest in fashion history and a copy of Photoshop CS3, I began to tinker to see what I could come up with. And the rest, as they say, is history.

A mountain by any other name...

2009-09-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

The redhead steps down from the stagecoach, gazing at the rough-hewn frontier town ahead of her, drawing her cloak around her as the bitter winter wind greets her. Mais, fait-i, fré, ogniet [But isn't it cold today] …. She hopes the welcome she receives is not so chilly … Vère dja, mais pas tant comme hiaer [Oh yes, but not as cold as yesterday] …

She wonders to herself if it was the right decision to come here… to start over … but it is too late for doute.

Where she should even begin? something to eat, perhaps…. Then enquire about available properties. Yes, that is it, she thinks. Make introductions, settle in, get to work, put my mind to other things…

Later in the day, she is standing before an empty building in a quiet corner of town by the river, imagining the interior adorned with lace curtains, Oriental rugs, racks of rich fabrics and... rows of dresses. An abundance of gowns. She had seen the attire of some of the ladies in town as she made her way down the street with her new landlord. I have my work cut out for me, she mused.

But what to call this place? She stood in silent contemplation for some time. As her eyes lifted to the stark hills surrounding her, her mind wandered back to a time and place on another continent, where she could see dark peaks rising out of the earth with the same kind of defiance.

Ah... Montagne Noire [Black Mountain], she said out loud, the sound of her voice drifting off into the hills. She smiled to herself as she turned to make her way back to Main Street. There were so many things to do now.

The story thus far...

2009-09-15T01:01:00.000-07:00

I am but a character in a virtual world called Second Life. Perhaps you have heard of it?

I found this new world in December 2007, and like most everyone else who arrives on these virtual shores, spent my first few weeks trying to find my footing. I initially took the standard path: camping, blingy shoes, clubbing.

That got old pretty quick.

Then it occurred to me that as a virtual world, there had to be more to it.

I was fortunate about that time to wander into a place called Neko Gardens. The garden's caretakers, Jett and Jade, took me under their wing and it became my first home in SL. At the time, I had no idea what a Neko was. It had never occurred to me to be anything else besides human in this virtual world.

Neko Gardens was a delightful blend of feline, fairy and zen. One could sleep in a giant flower or swim in a sapphire waterfall. That might seem silly, but it was just the kind of escape I needed at that time.

Sadly, Neko Gardens, at least in the incarnation I knew it when I first met Jett and Jade, is no longer. But that sense of community they fostered there has stayed with me. I am so grateful for their kindness and generosity. It set the tone for how I have led my life in both of the worlds I reside in.

But back to the garden. As I settled in I began to broaden my horizons and explore other sims. I started plugging various search terms in -- and to my delight, one of the search returns was 22 Baker Street, located on the Victorian sim, Caledon.

From there, I began to wonder if such a thing as "role play" existed in SL. It did!

I drifted through many amazing times and places, all fantastically re-created down to the last pixel, until one day I finally discovered an era that spoke to me -- the Victorian Old West.

So, one frigid February afternoon, a finely dressed redhead descended the steps of a rickety stagecoach, stepping into the slush and snow covered street of a little mining town in the Black Hills of South Dakota... Deadwood, circa 1876.

There, Astolat Dufaux, seamstress, failed actress, refuge seeker, was born.

...

I chose the title of this blog, "The Victorian Closet," because it seemed an appropriate description for what will be my musings about Victorian fashion, both as a designer of Victorian clothing in Second Life, and as an amateur historian in my "First Life." I use the term fashion in the broadest sense -- not just clothing, but customs, attitudes and ... well, those things one might find literally or metaphorically in a Victorian closet.

Welcome! -- I hope you enjoy following my train of thought.