Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you’ll be aware that March 1^st saw some quality shopping events launch upon the grid; The Arcade Gacha Festival and the Whore Couture Fair.

Having spent three days trying to get into the Arcade event, I gave up and have gotten most of  my winnings thus far from the second hand markets.  Fortunately the event itself is running until the end of March, so I’ve still got plenty of time to  go in and actually experience it, but I’d had enough of lurking on the edge unable to get in and go play Gacha. (I did get to explore The Grove Country Club though while I was waiting; what an utterly wonderful location!)

However I was delighted when I attempted the Whore Couture Fair and got in first try. Even though the event is mad busy, I was able to move around pretty freely because I was wearing an alpha, which meant I was completely invisible and not guilty of carrying any avatar pollution like lag-inducing scripts. (That said, there were plenty of people there who were guilty of it.)

Be warned that Whore Couture Fair is MASSIVE, with 206 participating stores listed on the map. It’s split into two locations, Ambon and Borderlands.  I have no sense of direction in real life and it’s even worse in my Second so navigating the stores could have been a challenge, but the layout is neat and easy to negotiate, which is a relief for the less spatially aware like myself:)   In fact it’s a really well- produced event, looks great and has been finished with professionalism and polish by the bucket load. It’s a thrill investigating each store and I warn you now you’ll spend some serious Linden!

I’ve not finished exploring yet; I’ve barely covered Ambon because I like to take my time and enjoy these events  so I’ve not visited every store,  but I am certainly enjoying what I’ve already encountered.  The content quality is second to none. There are some huge names exhibiting here, but there are also lots of stores that I’ve never seen before and am delighted to have discovered. This is why events like this are so important, you find so many new creators and designers, and it’s always exciting finding a new store that you can add to your list of favourites.

In fact because of the WCF I’ve discovered something bloody wonderful. Mesh legwarmers with sneakers built-in! OK, these aren’t brand new to the grid, but they’re very new to me and so is ‘Blueberry’ (#15) where I discovered these gorgeous ruddy things. I’ll be investigating Blueberry in-depth at some point because judging by the quality of these the store is sure to be right up my street. Don’t they look wonderful? The woolen texture and mesh-wrinkles are just perfect, and they ‘hang’ brilliantly over the sneakers.  Blueberry is selling a range of them in plain and patterned varieties. I went for the black option because I can use them with more items in my wardrobe that way, but I think I’ll be investing in a job lot of them because they look so blinking brilliant! L$199 a pop too, not bad value if you ask me!

Another new brand that I discovered is ‘{PSYCHO:Byts}’ and that’s where this fantastic feline cross motif mesh jumper and also my denim skirt are from.  They have a small booth and the content just leaps out at you, inviting you in to take a closer look. (It’s store #118) I like the jumper very much. I love the long sleeve with thumb-holes, and it looks especially good if you’re wearing nails. As recent posts have shown I’ve adapted my shape to wear Tango breasts, so I had to take them off to wear this jumper because it doesn’t have appliers.  Fortunately the jumper is shaped perfectly and I didn’t need to change my shape to accommodate.  I felt a bit odd without my mesh-bewbs but not everyone is designing for them, and that’s fair enough. Wearing mesh jumpers of this quality more than makes up for my lack of Tangos, and I’ll be returning to the main-store to purchase the other jumpers in this range. I’ll probably do the same for the skirt too.  I don’t wear many skirts in-world  but that’s about to change I think, because  these denim skirts are available in a selection box of colours and designs, and it would be just plain wrong to not have them all.

Finally Belleza are one of the sponsors of this event and have a number of skins at the event. I’m wearing a variation of Ava  available at the fair (#3)that has luscious matt red lips and blue eyeshadow detail. However I’ve become attached to wearing lots of eyeliner on Kitty, so I dropped lucky by discovering the range of fantastic eyeliner tattoos that Mons (#165) produces. I’m really starting to get into the world of Second Life cosmetics because they can really add an extra dimension to your favourite skin, without having to fork out loads of Lindens.   I think this eyeliner is astonishing worn with this skin, and it makes me want MORE!

I need to go back to Whore Couture Fair, but I think I’ll leave it for today as I expect it’s going to get really busy as the day progresses and more time zones start to log-on.  It seems the trick with these events is to hit them early in the morning when the US is asleep.   But  I must go back because I have a feeling that there are more goodies waiting for me to discover, and of course when I do I’ll share them with you here.

If you’ve found anything amazing at the event feel free to write a comment here and tell us all about it!