I was recently dropped a few items from Niki Axel. And this is what the notecard stated:
[Axel] sell hand-drawn contemporary high quality clothing in what we like to think of as a boutique-style atmosphere. We want to provide funky, fresh, couture fashions to the SL community
We make all our textures from scratch, and are avid followers of RL fashion trends.
When I read about this, I was so excited. I put it off for a few days and then contacted Niki afterwards! And I’ve just got to show you her ads.
Picture Courtesy of Niki Axel in Second Life
Aren’t you the least bit curious?
While looking through the folders that they (Niki, Lila and Hadi) have given me, I’ve noticed this particular outfit. At first, I actually didn’t know how this outfit worked out. But I gave it a try, what I like most about this outfit are the colors. The pants have great textures, the seams could be aligned better but everyone has to make a start!
The contrast between the belt and the top is great. Who would have thought green and yellow go together in harmony? *slaps herself* If it can work with lemons and limes, why not second life fashion? It has this very funky feel to it with the high waisted pants and the the bright colors. I couldn’t resist pairing it with pink lipstick and side ponytail. I could be the next Cyndi Lauper (sp?)!
Balme Outfit from Axel
And then I drooled over the next outfit. I have to say that these outfits are not completely up to armidi’s standards but honestly, everyone has to start somewhere. Niki, Hadi and Lila are off to a great start, hence why I am blogging about them. They have great potential and who am I to stop their success?
Arbeider Onesie in Blue
Towsend Tee in Sunny
(Who comes up with these names?!)
If I had to pick one particular good thing about this outfit, it would be the buttons. It is so endearing, it actually reminds me of the old Osh Kosh Clothing for toddlers with the button jumpers. It’s just so fresh that someone would actually care to create something like this.
I am giddy with excitement for this store and for the designers who are teaming up to put this store together. I hope they get better in time and then I’ll be opening my wallets to them and their creations very very soon! *winks*
So go visit the Axel Store now!
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Blogger,
_____________________________________________________________________________
What I Wore (Since I Am Cool Like That):
Outfit # 1
Skin: Emporio Caproni – Sonia v3 in Soft Pink
Hair: Truth – Missy in Dark Blonde
Eyes: Avalon Designs – Unique Deep Blue Eyes
Eyelashes: Sin Skins – Fluff Lashes
Nails: Awesome Designs – French Tip Manicure in Gold
Bangles: +plus – Glam Bracelet in Gold
Shoes: Decoy – Francisco in Yellow/White
Belt: Axel – Balme Belt in Yellow
Outfit: Axel – Balme
Outfit # 2
Skin: Emporio Caproni – Sonia V3 in Dark Red
Hair: Artilleri – Rita in Golden Blonde
Eyes: Tuli – Bright Blue Eyes
Eyelashes: Lynnix – Thick & Long Lashes
Nails: Awesome Designs – French Tip Glitter Manicure in Royal Blue
Shoes: Shiny Things – Brandys in Blue (Size 0)
Shirt: Axel – Towsend Tee in Sunny
Jumper + Skirt: Axel – Arbeider Onesie in Blue
I will definitely swing by that place during my Saturday shopping rounds!
yep you should! =)Maybe you’ll like something there
-Portia <3
I went buy nothing that caught my eye
I talked to Brett Finsbury about a loveseat I bought and did not get.
The store Sevans was gone and Brett Finsbury was there. He told me that Vanya and Seven opened a new store named Axel using alts.
He was not sure if Seven or Vanya would help me so he refunded my money.
These are the same two people who ripped textures from S.C. and The Loft.
I will not set foot on Axel ever.
@ Katgurl
There is no way to know that Lila, Niki or Hadi are alts of the Seven and/or Vanya. And why in the world are you trusting Brett? Seven, Vanya and Brett have history together. Give Axel a chance and accusing people of stealing and ripping textures without proof is slanderous.
Lila and Niki are good people and very nice, if you have a chance, you should talk to them.
-Portia <3
Brett has also been banned from commenting at SCD for generalized craziness.
I do know or care to be involved with any drama.
I Got my refund from Brett for what I bought and that is all I care about.
One note though, If they have a history, who else would know better if Axel is their are alts?
Obviously you do care, or else you wouldn’t be asking, Katgirl. I will say this: Brett has vendettas now since he discovered he cannot comment here any longer, he’s pretty angry about it and willing to say anything to trash Vanya.
Can you prove Lila and Niki are Vanya and Seven’s alts? If you can’t, what makes you think Brett can? Just because they have history together does not mean Brett’s word is LAW when it comes to Axel.
This is not drama, what you claimed about Niki and Lila are not nice — and a little be insulting to Lila and Niki themselves. This is their blog entry to showcase their work, not have someone say that they possibly stole textures . To write that you think they might have to do with theft is a little rude when this blog entry is not for that purpose.
-Portia <3
No, Portia, but I’ll bet I can prove that Katgirl is Brett.
I visited the Axel store a couple of days ago out of curiosity when I saw their first Fashcon notice. A friend and I had looked up the profiles of Lila, Niki, and Hadi out of curiosity — my friend is particularly good at sniffing out alts, she just seems to *know* — and sure enough, Lila had a seVan brand image listed on her picks.
A look at Vanya’s picks revealed that one of her locations had been updated and showed “/AXEL/”.
I visited the Axel store in Tully High and found numerous prims rezzed by Vanya.
Again, this is all circumstantial evidence but I am 99.9% sure it’s them, they haven’t exactly gone to great lengths to conceal any connections between Axel and seVan.
Given seven’s history as outlined in a previous post courtesy of Tenshi, you can’t blame people for scrutinizing Axel in this manner. I personally was rather peeved to find out that the texture packs I’d purchased from seven all came off of filterforge.com’s free texture library.
I’ve spoke with Vanya and she says this isn’t her shop, and she isn’t related to it/connected to it/whatever. I’ll quote what she has to say here:
“There are some things I really have refrained from addressing in the past couple of days, as I have tried to move on from it, and tried my hardest to be an active member of the SL-society…despite the incessant need for some people to continue slandering me. Just a backstory so you can all understand where I am coming from on this:
I have been in the content creation business for well over a year, my first store (Vans home & garden) was operated and co-run by myself and Brett Finsbury, who owned a good portion of the sim. The business was successful, I had a great customer base, and things were going great…then my twin sister logged into SL, she had been on it before, doing her own thing, but this time she came to me with some of the items she created i.e. furniture, and i was stunned…thought it was fantastic! Of course both Brett and I thought she would be a great addition to our team, and that is how seVan designs came about..Seven & Vanya….seVan…lol…we did the designing, and Brett handled the floor. So back at the begining of this year, a bunch of allegations (which turned out to be true) came out that somehow we were using stolen textures, and then sculptie shoes that were not made by us etc. etc. it is all outlined on the shopping Cart disco blog…both Brett and I were stunned at this, we had done honest work, we were known to our customers for being genuine, good people…and now our name is tarnished. We immediatly told Seven that she can no longer produce items for us, removed any questionable content, and just resumed business as usual.
Up until this Sunday (Mothers day)…dun dun duuuuuun….Brett and I were discussing the Minnu issue on Tenshi’s blog over gmail chat…he asked “and why am i banned†(from commenting on SCD), told him that I would find the IM that Ten and I had, so he can see why. Before i could even paste it into the chat window, he decided to call myself, my mother, and my twin sister (AVatar name, Seven Farella) the c-word….ok ladies…let me ask you…what is the one word that you will not tolerate or stand to ever be called? anyways, I went off on him and told him that he stepped over a line and that I would no longer work with someone who disrespects me or my family. Told him to return all my items, and he promptly did. *takes a deep breath*….well I thought that was the end of this drama, until I was sent an IM from Tenshi, asking me if I knew AXEL…my prompt answer, “yes, indeed i do!â€â€¦my mind started racing, and I just KNEW it had to be Brett behind all this, since we did exchange a lot of nasty words between us…So now what is my relation to AXEL? That is what the drama-mongers and witchhunters are DYING to know. In any other circumstance, i would say, its none of your business, but since I feel like there is a smear campaign against innocent people who i have absolutely no involvement with, that I should explain myself.
I owned a bunch of land on the Tully High Sim, verified by anyone who goes there and asks the residents, I ended up selling everything except a small chunk of it that was right next to the water, as I had a small store there temporarily for selling textures and sculptie maps from seVan designs, …this was in the search, so obviously this had the logo for seVan designs attached to the land. As soon as the new store on the Jonestown sim (where all the other stores were), I decided to just remove that store, and set up rental…home/business whatever…I set up some platforms on the sand, as it is not completely flat, some trees to make it look nice, and a small store that I built. Posted to the classified, property for rent, 200 prims 600L/week, a few days later, the rental box is paid to by Lila Axel, and I recieve an IM from her saying she needed to be added to the group and if she can possibly put down her own building etc. I said “sureâ€, I then added her to the sevan group so she can do that, she sent back my store i had put down and she did what she wanted there. A few weeks later, I get an IM from her asking if there was any way she could purchase the land from me as she wanted to make an AXEL group and allow her partners to build on the land too. Well anyway, I ended up selling the land to her, made a nice profit, and went about my business…
I thought everything was fine until Sunday, when I had my store returned to me by Brett, and then Tenshi IMing me, and now comments on SCD of the AXEL clothing suggesting I am somehow part of this store. Frankly, that is kind of a double-edged compliment, as they are saying that I have this kind of talent, but at the same time they are implying that the store is involved or associated with theft. Which is really unfair to say the least. I have spoken to Tenshi and Portia, the people who operate that store also have spoken to anyone willing to bother asking them. It is a shame, as you know, I am really trying to make you all understand that I have done nothing wrong, nor have these business owners YET, there is guilt by association. I have dealt with that since the debauchery at my store, but I am not willing to let people throw innocent people under a bus with no due cause! Now its become if someone happens to know of me, they are me, or that they are a thief…its just sad and pathetic and a lame attempt to create and stir more drama. SO anyway, yeah…I have stuff on that land, so effin what…alright I will tell them to return it to me, and by their own trees and put their own grass down…fine? satisfied? And â€picks†pictures…geez…do i really have to explain that one too? So that is my rant, as i have held back as much as I could. I don’t think this is even worthwhile drama for anyone, but i owe it to some people to have their names free of troubling labels that might hurt them in the long run.
Thanks again for reading this….”
I think we have bigger problems going on rather than discovering whose alt is operating what shop, don’t we? Does Axel contain any currently stolen digital goods? Not that we know of.
So it’s no that big of a deal, and everyone should just let it be. Vanya was the victim in all of that previous crap; her sister Seven was the one jacking people around. Time to move on.
I’ve read every single line in Vanya’s statement.
I’ve been speaking to Lila and Niki for a while now — ever since I’ve decided to publish a review on their items. And I have to say, they seem to be really honest and very down to earth people. There’s no way I can believe that they would honestly do something despicable as to steal textures.
They are in alts because they want a fresh start from their past (and no it’s not content theft, people). So why is it that they have to defend themselves to you, the general public when they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong? If you can prove that they’ve done something terrible — i.e. stolen textures, then we’ve got something to work with.
If not, leave Niki, Lila and Hadi alone. They are just trying to bring good fashion in Second Life, and by saying these things about them, they are losing a customer base and a foundation. Give them a chance, if you find anything wrong (i.e. stolen textures), the there’s no way I can stop you from prosecuting them.
-Portia <3