• The shop name has changed. We are now Locke Couture. Why the name change? People found “gris-gris” hard to pronounce, couldn’t spell it, couldn’t remember it, and the meaning was lost a long time ago. I am fully on-board with the decision to switch to something a little snappier.
• We are likely going to relocate for what we hope is the FINAL time to a property owned by TQB Group Estates Sims. Setting up an appointment to talk with the esteemed owner. <3
• We are joining a SLEW of hunts and look forward to interacting with the participants.
• We are making a ton of new jewelry and will also be releasing male clothes in 2010!
• New products have been released, so if you didn’t see ‘em, go see.
• We are revamping the group/message list system for what we hope is the final time. The in-SL group is for DISCOUNTS ONLY. You can get a 15% discount if you use the vendors! We are switching back to a Subscribe-O-Matic mailing list for updates and everything else.

That is all. As you were!

The set includes:
-Two blouses, creme and white
-Two optional flexi-prim ruffles for both blouses
-A navy-colored jacket
-Prim cuffs for the upper arm (you can go without them if you like)
-Two pairs of pinstriped pants, black and navy — features satin pocket linings and a side zipper. Comes in regular and tight versions (for boots).
-The full jacket/blouse combo in both colors on all layers.

The whole set is mod/copy. Make all the changes you like, but save before you do so.
All possible layers are included for full layerability.

I’ve always been inspired by strong female characters in fantasy literature and video games, and playing Jeanne d’Arc for the PSP recently had me intrigued by the magical-girl quality of the heroine’s transformations in the game. Simply put, I’m a sucker for the combination of lace, frills, and armor. It’s a pretty rare combination, but when I see it, I’m spellbound.

So I started to imagine something softer, not for battle, but definitely princess-worthy; something not so courtly as a ballgown — something you could run around in, but that still screams royalty. That’s usually the element I love about the wardrobes of strong heroines in video games — the combination of sex appeal, femininity, and practicality. So naturally, the first colors that came to mind were gold and white.

I was also inspired (oddly) when I recalled the design of one of the Automaton types in Final Fantasy XI (online), the paladin type (the Valoredge). Gold and white with a red feather in its little helmet, this puppet is about the only thing I still miss about playing. I’d named mine “Clochette”, which means “little bell”, so it’s no wonder that the white-and-gold armor of the Valoredge attracted me (but the saving of my fragile tarutaru ass by regularly curing me when I was half-dead as a solo Puppeteer helped me to love her even more).

So the two ideas really came together when it was time to sketch this out. I have to say that my original design was lacking, and I didn’t expect to go after it so fiercely as I did, because it was going to be complicated and weird, to say the least. Still, something drove me to try it, and three days later, here are the fruits of my labor. I hope you love it as much as I do.

It comes in three colors. The only thing that varies in the versions is the color of the ribbons and the stripes on the sleeves and two skirt types. The difference lends a significantly different look from set to set.

The set includes:

• Prim sleeves with prim bells and flexi ribbons
• Sculpty cuffs for the hands
• A shrug with sleeves, a corset, and a bodice — full and on separate layers for layerability
• A flexiprim skirt in two versions: one is plain, the other has a bottom layer with lace (to protect you from the ugliness of the alpha sorting glitch, but to still add a transparency-enabled lace petticoat)
• Knee-high white stockings
• Prim bells and flexi ribbons that attach to the hem of the stockings above the knee
• And an extra bag with all of the top pieces in every possible combination, in case you want to mix and match.

The whole set is mod/copy. Make all the changes you like, but save before you do so.
The prim parts are tinted a slight shade of gray to offset the glaring light which keeps the texture/prim parts that should match up from being so obviously interrupted. (Thanks so much to Tenshi Vielle for this suggestion). Until LL makes it so that the same color in a texture appears the same on both avatar bodies and prims, this is the very best fix. If it’s too dark or light for you, I encourage you to experiment, but I found this shade to drastically cut down on the stark glare of the prim parts.

If you buy the fatpack, you save L$125 — half off the third dress.