Ohhhh Miriel...

Ginny Talamasca: Clothes, Robbie Dingo: Music, Munchflower Zaius: Skins, Miriel Enfield.... the fashionista brain goes "jewelry!" and of course you'd be correct. And yet, this multi-faceted jewel of a designer goes waaay beyond just jewelry. While I was enjoying the Linden Lifestyles ball, I saw a beautiful dress on a lovely young lady and thought "ooo, how did I miss that one?" and asked her politely where she got it. Her name seemed familiar, and yet when she said "Oh, I made it" I realized I had most certainly never known her for her work. And so, right after I changed out of my ball gown I headed over to Miriel Enfield's store in Nouveau to see how on earth I could have missed her.


First, being who I am and adoring prim work to the point of obsession, the first thing I saw were stained glass windows that made me want to IM her and demand she give them to me at blunderbuss point. PRIM STAINED GLASS, that's right, carefully aligned, perfectly rotated, gracefully used torii formed prim stained glass built to fit a texture for the colors. The store is modest, sweet and simple, with minimal decor and a vintage feel. Her vendors were a little confusing to get used to, but once I realized how they worked they were simple and easy to use. I was wondering where and how I put my money in, but touch menu's came to my rescue to ask me what metal or stone I wanted, and whether I wanted her jewelry to be copy or transfer. I bought myself some yummies, and then left because I knew if I stayed I'd be naughty and I was trying to save some cash.

But then Miriel headed me off, and pretty much trapped me in her store, because today, she made a daring (and very popular) move by pulling a Torrid, and announcing that ALL of her everyday casual jewelry styles and her retro dress were going to be FIFTY LINDENS or UNDER.

Now, someone had given me a Retro Dress a while back as a gift, and it was in Amber and well... if you know me, you know I don't like Amber. Even if you don't know me, you assume. So I have to say I didn't wear it... but the different colors of this dress... every single color has a personality, and while maybe the Amber and me didn't get along, pretty much every other one did. You want to be badass but cute? Try it in black. You want to be sweet and innocent and enjoying a spring breeze? Try the white. You want to be mysterious, feminine and chic? Try the purple...
Ok, so yeah those are my three favorite colors and constitute the whole of my wardrobe. But I was able to buy all SIXTEEN colors for.... drum roll please....

140 Lindens.

And truly, the keyword for this dress is versatile. as you can see by the picture, the dress is neutral enough that it is completely changed by the accessories, and you really only need one or two. An undershirt (since the dress is on a jacket layer) is a super easy way to add another color, and every woman knows that shoes change the mood of an outfit in seconds. Gosh, and I'm so busy gushing I forgot to mention what wonderful, subtle quality it is. Miriel is one of the only folks I've found to add little seams, darts, puckers, and wrinkles with incredible deftness, those little flaws that add such realism to the unreal. Yes, there are wonderful shaders out there and those that mind their seams (and I've definitely shown my appreciation in the monetary sense)... but have you ever seen a little pucker like this around your lovely digital breast?

If you need to, open the picture in a new tab so you can see properly. This is the incredibly beautiful and underplayed Harem Rose silks, that even though I can't say I like the skirt much, I am right now wearing as my underwear. The shading is subtle, the "cloth" looks like its cupping and holding my digibewbies without making it look as if it is about to tear apart at the seams or stretch like spandex.
There is a little bit of a down side to all this glory though, I feel obligated to say that the edges, right around the edge of the chest area to the retro dress, and when you zoom up close to the silver edging on the above, it runs a bit jagged where it stretches across the mesh of the avatar. From far away you don't see a thing, but for close ups, it did get noticeable. It's a small thing that I felt obligated to share, but really it didn't dampen my enjoyment of these outfits in the slightest. She only has four outfits out at the moment, the other two not shown are Flora, a simple sheath dress in 9 colors, and Echo, an incredibly beautiful empire waist gown (there should be more!) with a gradient, that comes in seventeen different colors, all of them beautiful, and it happens to be the gown that got me over to her store in the first place.


But I'm not done yet. Ohhhh no. Aside from picking up every single casual jewelry style she had, including hair pins, necklaces, and matching earrings and not paying more than 400L for all of it, I ended up finding a room... a room full of eyes.

And damn. I've found my eyes. Everybody searches for a while to find the eyes that are Theirs, just like they look for Their Skin that will define their shape in that perfect way, and the eyes aren't any different. The Eyes Have It, right?



Never a truer word. Miriel, again I say it, is such a multi-faceted creator on SL. While some content creators *coughMEcough* never stray far from their beloved medium, Miriel excels in prim work, textures, AND scripts, for the simple and elegant vending scripts turned out to be all her own sweat and blood. Is there anything this woman can't do? (apparently animation, but never say never). So anyway, back to the eyes. These are actually purposely made as smaller iris eyes, so that we who do not wish to walk the path of anime eyes or stylized eyes can look realistic, without it looking like our irises are taking up a third of our head. My being an Asian avi, and loving the delicate and exotic look of the low lids, made me instantly fall in love. Aside from being a nice and rarely seen size, they are clear, three dimensional, and have a beautiful shine. For the first time I can say that a virtual pair of eyes looks healthy, and she knows how to make them look real without making us all bloodshot (oh, god, the bane of glamour photography is "real" bloodshot eyes). So I have officially found my eyes, in any number of the vibrant and rich colors she offers.

SLurl: "Miriel: Jewelry, Clothing, Eyes"

Little Retro Dress - 50L for one color, 140L for 16 ("Symon" Hair by Deviant Kitties, L&E "Signature Sandals", Shiny Things "Old Lace Up Boots" "Madame Rose Shirt" by B@R, "Intent" boots by Prim Seduction)
Harem Rose - 300 for one color in gold and silver trim, 800 for collection of 9 colors (shown in "jet, silver")
Various Eyes - 50L, 125 for a pack of four. Sold by theme of color (naturals, pale naturals, bicolors, etc) From left to right: Indigo, Hummingbird, Blue Opal, Gray and Forest (shown with Schador Head Wrap, a new release I swear I'll get to)