Audrey Hepburn in Second Life

I couldn’t resist. I bought the dress as soon as I laid my eyes on it. Of course, how often will a gal get to wear a Givenchy gown designed for Audrey Hepburn? In Second Life it’s possible.

The movie Sabrina is one of my favorites. Audrey Hepburn is beautiful and charming in the film. I do recommend that you rent the movie–and not the 1995 remake with Harrison Ford (bah!). Natalia Zelmanov’s store in Second Life, Sirena Hair and Fashions, offers clothes and hair; the normal stuff. When I saw this gown, though, oh my, I had to have it. Here’s the original gown:

Oh to be that classy.

While at Natalia’s party last week (yes, I went to a party and did some dancing — it’s so easy in Second Life), I asked her about the gown. She’s also an Audrey Hepburn fan. We joked that not many avatars seem to go for the Audrey shape in Second Life. Natalia laughed, “The settings would have to be all zeros!”

I started thinking…a dangerous thing to do. The ability to change your appearance is possible in Second Life, so why couldn’t I look like Audrey Hepburn? Shoot, I even have the dress!

So, here I am wearing Natalia/Givenchy:

Designing a shape to fit the Sabrina theme was easy as far as the body goes. And yes, Audrey does have her sliders set at zero in a few places. I had set her at such a skinny shape that I didn’t think it was going to work, but when I put on the gown it looked perfect. As for Audrey’s face, jeez, that wasn’t so easy. She has a distinctive nose, but I never captured it perfectly. Trying to get her facial dimensions correct was an unsuccessful chore also — squashing the face made it too wide; stretching it didn’t match the way her face looks. I kept tweaking away, plus I tried a few different skins to see if there was one that would capture her eyebrows. Nope. This is the best that I got.

Here’s the fun in taking pictures. Here’s similar shots with changing sun settings (yep, you can make it high noon anytime you want in Second Life).

I had fun putting this look together even though I can’t quite capture the face the way that I want. Trying to find hair for the outfit was also a trick. In Sabrina Audrey Hepburn had short hair. I couldn’t find anything quite like that look, so I took a style that had bangs and a bun of hair and then I rearranged the hair to get an approximate look. You will notice that my camera shots only come in from a face front angle. The back of the hair is uuuuuuugly (so unAudrey-like).

Anyway, that’s the fun I’ve been having in Second Life. Let me leave you with one last picture before I go: