I've been invited to set up a little shop in Le Cadre and i immediately took up the chance, expecially due to the awesome urban look of the building i was offered. My friends know well i have a very soft spot for urban architecture. So here it is, the new Musashi-Do Le Cadre Shop, surrounded by the shops of many other talented designers. It definately looks cute, at least in my own biased eyes :P
Right now i'm at an awesome halloween party organized by my friends at ASpiRE! Lots of cool people and cool music here, i'm sure it'll be a fun night. I sponsorized the event (alongside quite a lot of other designers), so a lot of Musashi-Do clothes and Musashi Motorsports cars will will be given away. 
Tomorrow , Saturday October 28th, at 4PM SL time, Silver Motorsports Complex will run a fundraiser auction to support the American Cancer Society and the U.S.O. 
As you might have noticed (if you're here) i finally registered the musashi-do.net domain (unfortunately musashi-do.com was already used, i'll retry next year) and as such the old japanwings.com domain will be set aside as an addon domain. Unfortunately there have been some problems with the linking of the two domains, so the pictures referring to japanwings.com won't work until my provider solves such problem. After the addition is done everything should go back working and the broken links should heal.
Yesterday another unique special edition of my Zero (the Black Dragon) was raffled at RockNGames's anniversary week end. The people at the party appreciated it, and the party was great fun :)
As a last side note, there was an awesome article about my fashion show on the Metaverse Messenger this week and on their NewsBlog. It was very positive and i have to say i was very flattered and happy to read it.
Following up the announcement od the project "Evolution" that will bring to a gradual renewal of the whole early Musashi-Do stock, the vintage line composed by Ivory pearl, Lavender Cloud and Snow Rose has been revamped completely with the addition of flexiness amd brand new textures and the creation of new colors: Crimson Ruby, Emerald Forest, Midnight Romance, Crystal Sky, Black Rose, Red Diva, Pink Candy, Ebony Shadow, Sea Star and Purple Royale.
Ad the same time, I did the same process of renovation and embellishement on the other Musashi-Do formal gown, Obsidian Glitter.
Honestly the revamping of my older designs was long overdue (expecially flexiness), and will now continue at the same pace as new releases.
Of course, since i would never make people pay twice for the same product (even if revamped), customers that already bought the older (non flexi) version of Obsidian Glitter, Snow Rose, Ivory Pearl and Lavender cloud will just have to send me an IM to receive a completely free update of the appropriate color.
I have to say I'm quite satisfied both with the results of this revamping and with the new colors (actually i'm beginning to wonder why I just made ivory, lavender and white at the beginning...). Despite being older designs, the idea behind them still has the same value, and the new techniques I applied to them (shading, flexi, wrinkles and so forth) definately bring them up to par with my newest creations. 
Now, on to the next project! :)
It's done! After a very hectic month of preparations the day has finally come and gone. My first fashion show after my return to Second Life is done, and it was a success, actually much more than I could ever imagine. The sim was packed full, and there actually were even people looking from the nearby sim (God bless the position of the catwalk, a few meters from the sim's edge).
All of the Girls, Bianca and Trina, the managers of ASpiRE (a modeling agency that will go a LOOONG way, judging from the talent they shown today), all the models and the DJ, my old friend Daphne (no Dapphy, you're not old, you know what i mean :P) did such an awesome job that I was almost moved to tears. It all went basically flawlessly, from the beginning to the grand parade in the finale, in spite of the lag. I have to say that seeing them all on stage wearing my formals like that was quite the sight! It totally made up for the effort spent in the past week, while i was designing them.
Speaking of formal gowns, they are the first dive into my "Evolution" project. Basically I decided to revamp (and in some cases extend and add new colors) almost all my older sets.
My design techniques have gone a long way in 2 years, and some of my "vintage" designs are definately sub-par compared to the newest ones. This is something that definately bugs me, so i decided to rework them, adding flexiness where due, new shading, wrinkles and so forth, applying all i learned in the last two years to my earlier designs.
Of course customers won't be asked to pay twice for the same design, even if revamped, so the ones that already bought them in the past will be able to request a completely free update. So if you have an older Musashi-Do design, you may wantv to join the Musashi-Do Newsgroup group (wich is spam-free and free to join for everyone), on wich i'll post, between the other things, regular notices on the status of project "Evolution". Who knows, the next outfit to be revamped may be your favourite one :)
It's early morning here in Italy, and the sun it's raising. It's finally time to get some much deserved sleep. Buona notte!
The UN Millenium Stand Up campaign has invaded Second Life, it's extremely nice to see the Second Life residents getting together to take part in such events, that definately need all our support.
There was an extremely surprising side to it too.
The Real world rock band Sugarcult held a live gig in Second Life during the event, and surprise surprise, they were wearing my Evening Revolution suits. I felt extremely honored about it, first of all due to the theme of the event, and even because i really like their music, not to mention the fact that, even in real life, they definately seem to know how to dress (at least according to my own tastes). It was definately a good beginning for a great day!
Tonight there has been another auction to beenfit hyasynth Tiramisu, i was short on time due to the fashion show, but i really wanted to contribute in my own little way, so i made the twin car to the Silver Thorn that was sold last week (to Simone Stern).
This is how the Zero Silentsparrow is born, inspired by hyasynth's own clothing brand and colors. Callie Cline managed to get it, and i hope she'll enjoy it, as much as i hope that hyasynth will be well soon.
All in all this has been a VERY hectic night, with a lot of events. I'll blog more about it later.
At last, the long awaited moment has come. Thanks to the ASpiRE! modeling agency, the first Musashi-Do fashion show after my return will be reality. It'll be tomorrow, Saturday the 14th, here.
between the other things, i'll finally show my latest project. Codename "Evolution", that as all good things, brings something old and something new together. What is it? I guess you'll have to wait for tomorrow to know :P
If you're reading this, and you want to support the talented designer hyasynth Tiramisu, that is in urgent need of medical care, click here to teleport to Simone, and bid on some of the awesome one of a kind items many designers put up for action. The turnout seems great so far, and the event just started.
Lately, now that I managed to settle down and place everything back in order after my long leave of absence, i'm working hard on getting a little of visibility. So new Musashi-Do shops are popping up like mushrooms all over the world. This time is the turn of a small but nice shop all dedicated to menswear in Simone.
Simone is really a nice sim for shopping, full of very talented designers, so i'm pretty sure the shop will do very well.
Today (saturday the seventh) at 6 PM in Simone there will be an auction to benefit hyasynth Tiramisu, a very talented designer that is in need of urgent medical care. I've been asked to do an unique car to put on auction and here it is. The Zero Silver Thorn Special. This time, since Simone's audience normally caters more to girls, i decided to try a quite graceful purple and silver tribal design. I really hope the auction will go well, it's always sad to see a fellow resident and designer troubled by health problems. So please come, and bid high! :)
I finally opened a small shop in the beautifully built and landscaped Desires Island. Very cute, isn't it? I love the Ancient theme of the place...
The shop can be found here.
I even changed the usual disposition of my vendor panels... i kind of like the scattered one.. makes the shop look more full and lively.
I just opened a new little shop at Barbie club, as part of my sponsorship to the club, I think it looks cute. Since the space is limited i'll just keep the latest news there. There's no need to clutter it anyway. The area is high-traffic, so it'll definately be worth it.
Also, I've been asked to make a very cute neon pink Zero, that will be called "Barbie Special" and will be sold only at Barbie Club. I'm kind of satisfied of the result, it reminded me of when i made a pink Supra (what now is called the Shoki) for Torley... good old times before the watermelon goddess jumped the fence... *sighs*
Following the success of the Evening Revolution suits set for men, i received many requests from girls to make an equivalent set dedicated to them, so i did. That's how Revolution femme was born.
It's probably the biggest set i've ever produced (60 pieces total), including 3 suits (pants, skirts and jackets), 21 shirts, 16 ties and 3 lingerie sets (garters, bras, stockings and thongs).
With this set i worked more on the shading/highlighting of the fabric. Many say that it's not possible to make a good lightmap without using complex (and costly) programs like Lightwave, and since i absolutely disagree i set out to demonstrate my point.
I took inspiration from my experience in painting real life miniature soldiers, in wich highlighting and shading is absolutely indispensible to bring out the details of the model. In the end a 3D mesh like those Second Life has is not much different. I tried to reproduce in photoshop something equivalent to the painting technique called "Glazing" with the use of several feathered selections and layers, and i have to say that i'm really satisfied by the result. Lightwave is definately NOT needed to make a pretty good lightmap. I have to admit that I LOVE it when i'm right :)
I made some separate sets too, in the case someone doesn't want to purchase the whole package: Suit - Black, Suit - Grey, Suit - Blue, Shirts - Spring, Shirts - Fall, Shirts - Winter, Ties - Fantasia, Ties - Classic, Ties - Glamour, Lingerie.
As always the set is available at the Musashi-Do Fashion Shop, on SLExchange, or on SLBoutique priced 800 L$.
I finally did it. I applied and got accepted to the Montenapoleone 5 Academy, a pretty awesome fashion design and brand management school in real life. 
I will start attending classes on november the 6th, and that would bring quite a change to my real life, a change that will last two probably very exciting years. I wonder if it'll affect my second life and the quality of my SL fashions... We shall see :)
Honestly i can't wait.
