Simple Fashion - Dresses, Part 3

Honestly, I'm surprised that I never posted another installment for dresses before leaving in 2021, especially under the Simple Fashion tag. For those of you new to Material Middle-earth, my Simple Fashion category is designed for mostly minimalist outfits using as few cosmetics as possible. Most will use two or three pieces and, on the rare occasion, four. In addition to dresses, I've tackled hauberks, tunics, and robes. To find all of those easily, either click the Simple Fashion tag at the bottom of this entry or follow this convenient link here, covering everything created under this umbrella category over the years.

Without further ado, here are three dresses.

 

Head: Circlet of Fresh-picked Flowers (Turquoise, Farmers Faire barter reward)

Shoulders: Ascot Scarf  (White, Farmers Faire barter reward)

Chest: Picnic Dress (Turquoise, Summer Festival barter reward)

Autumn Leaf Fashion

I need to put it out there that if I missed LOTRO's Fall Festival--my favorite one by the way--I might have quit LOTRO permanently. As most of my readers and Twitter followers know, this has been a rough year investing in LOTRO. It's been one thing after another, all in rapid succession. A pandemic that forced me into 60+ hour work weeks from April to September. (I had one afternoon of playtime this past July, and that was it.) I came back to an unstable game, due to a combination of issues with SSG's service provider and their server infrastructure. Once the connection issues stabilized early October, my PC monitor died. I replaced it, only to have my PC's motherboard and processor kick the proverbial bucket nearly a week later. I had no choice but to rebuild my PC, which took approximately three weeks. 

Although these circumstances have been out of my control, I feel terrible leaving this blog all but abandoned this year. To make up for lost time, I'll be sharing three new outfits, each featuring a new cosmetic from the 2020 Fall Festival. Golden leaf motifs and tattered, perhaps more accurate to say leafy, fabric are the core components of this year's theme. Between the Leaf-turner cosmetics, which are somewhat reminiscent of pre-Isengard elven design, the spookier looking Autumn Sage ones, I'd say SSG has captured the festival's essence. I haven't been this impressed with the seasonal fall designs since 2018!

Head: Woodland Crown (Default, Yule Festival token barter reward)
Shoulders: Fur Mantle (Orange, Yule Festival token barter reward)
Chest: Vestments of the Autumn Sage (White, Fall Festival token barter reward)
Feet: Embroidered Shoes of the Dunland Healer (Rust, reward from Missing Persons)**

Weapon: Smooth Holly Staff (From the T6 Woodworker Holly Staff recipe)

The Gloaming

Oh, the memories working with these base colors! The last time I worked with black and orange, I was creating my Thrang-themed series and it's a difficult color scheme to coordinate effectively. Recall my "Silver Dawn" outfit from two weeks ago? The one featured this week is the near opposite, the dusk to that dawn theme. It took close to a week to complete this, even if it's a bit over the top.

The biggest obstacle was finding gear that was orange with areas that could be dyed black or black gear with areas that could be dyed orange. That brought to mind the Reforged Rift gear from the Summer Festival and the Ceremonial Gloom-bane set from the Cosmetics vendor at the skirmish camp. The former wasn't an option, as I missed the festival and had none of those skins. The Gloom-bane set worked somewhat, but it was too plain looking. If I'd wanted a simple black and orange outfit, they'd have worked...but I wanted to add another splash of color. That left me with very little outside the various crafted or bartered gear from the Mordor expansion. I found the "Pathfinder's Artifice" recipes, the ones that cost 75 silver signets to acquire and require a Fragment of the Gorgoroth Dungeons to craft, ideal. By default, they come with deep purple undyeable areas and look great when dyed black or orange. I was lucky to still have those fragments in storage. Whereas the "Silver Dawn" outfit had a lot of lightly colored, soft, and rounded pieces, this outfit, in the end, embraced a dark, harsh, and jagged look.

Silver Dawn

This outfit was actually inspired by Hymne of Cosmetic LOTRO. Having seen her use the Jacket of the Wild Hills in this outfit, I felt the desire to do the same. Originally, I started with a similar color scheme as my base, keeping the jacket lórien gold to match the braided celtic knot pattern.  However, no matter what I did, I couldn't get anything to match the chest very well. Days of trying new skins, only to run into the same exact problem--serious clipping. Not just movement clipping, but stationary clipping. The Jacket of the Wilds is one of the bulkier pieces and doesn't exactly sit skin-tight on the body. It was so frustrating that I almost tossed in the proverbial towel and moved on.

Traveling in Luxury

Now here's an old outfit. This was the very first for my Beorning. Just like the last post featuring this character, I wasn't quite sure at the time what her clothing style would be. I just wanted to get her out of her intro clothing as soon as possible. It's been some time since taking these pictures and I believe that I've already cycled out this outfit. I think it looked lovely...but it just wasn't her style. However, almost any character could wear this somewhat decorative, yet casual traveler's attire.

Sentinel of the Tomb Hills

My Beorning has certainly come to wear the most atypical of outfits since I made her. At first, I wasn't sure what her particular style would be. Whatever new combination of clothing I liked I had her wear. Long before I stuck to leathery wildnerness-themed gear, I tried hauberks, robes, heavy armor, and dresses. This particular ensemble was one of the earliest she'd worn...and one I hadn't replaced yet. Considering this used a combination of pieces scattered across Eriador, I wasn't exactly sure what image this would portray.

Tribal

With the release of Mordor on Wednesday, Aug 2, I considered uploading some of the combat outfits I would be taking through the Morannon. However, a lack of time for taking and editing screenshots combined with heavy questing and exploration prevented me from doing that. As much as I wanted to show my newest creations, I decided to keep my scheduled outfits as they were. As a result, my Beorning has taken the spotlight with another tribal-themed outfit.

Uch-lûth Skirmisher

I've been wanting to take pictures of my Beorning's outfits for a very long time. Before I could do that, I made myself a promise first. That promise was to get her to Dunland. This outfit, even though it was assembled mid-2016, I had a particular place in mind to model it. That would be Barnavon in Carreglyn, however she was thirty levels too low at the time. I've put in a significant amount of work with my Beorning since my return and it's been wonderful experiencing landscape content and exploring locations I seldom have reason to visit.

Whispers of Forodwaith

The Forochel Epic quest reward, the Breastplate of Voima, has finally seen some use. Would you believe it's been sitting in Nathrien's vault since early 2011? I've held on to this for so long because it's a unique skin from the Shadows of Angmar. It probably would have continued to collect dust had I not found it's counterpart leggings, Golubadanir, while deeding in Angmar. I honestly wasn't sure what I could create with the set, but I gave it my best.

Ward of the Neldoreth

With very few chances to play LOTRO between January and September, I missed out entirely on two festivals. Luckily, I was able to procure the new Nárië cosmetics from this year's Summer Festival from the auction house. I've yet to get my hands on the New Bloom cosmetics from the Spring Festival. I've been keeping an eye out for those, hoping I can grab them without having to wait for the next one. It pleased me greatly to see more surcoats and tunics making their appearance in the game. Even the Fall Festival had a new dress! I've even wondered what the Yule Festival has in store this year!

Dorthonion Scout

Meet my Beorning. This is the only character I've been playing since January, when I cut LOTRO down to a minimum. I hadn't bothered with making outfits until I felt I had distanced myself from this blog. For months, I was content to simply play and enjoy adventuring in Middle-earth without attachments or distractions. When I made it to the North Trollshaws (the much needed revamp was amazing, by the way), I felt the need to make an outfit. The abundance of evergreen trees reminded me of Dorthonion, the pine-covered highlands north of Beleriand. I've always imagined it to be similar to the other great forests of Middle-earth before Morgoth corrupted it. Thus, greens and browns became my central colors.