Winners of Fashion Week 2012 screenshot contest!

Turbine announced winners of Fashion Week screenshot contest today. For me, it was an amazing event which I loved for two reasons - motivation to create my own contest entries and seeing so many wonderful and original outfits of others in such a short time. Many people have awaken their creativity for this contest and came up with new combinations and untypical pieces, which I wouldn't think of using myself and they worked great!

I didn't comment on the finalists on forums, because I was part of the jury for Fashionista's Choice category and didn't wanna reveal my opinions before the results were announced. After today, I'm just an ordinary member of outfitting crazies public :)) and I'd like to use this opportunity to express my thanks and comment on the TOP 10 outfits in Fan Choice and Fashionista's Choice meta-categories.

Disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions and expressions of my own taste. I'm not trying to play a reviewer here, especially as outfits are very personal thing and there are as many fashion tastes as there are people, elves, hobbits and dwarves in the Middle-earth :)

Very good and original outfit - certainly one that would catch great attention. It matches the mount perfectly. I'm a little sorry I can't see more screenshots of the outfit - side view usually don't show much, but I can imagine the rest of the pieces and I think they work pretty well together. The only part I'm not sure about is using sleeveless top for such a massive battle outfit.

I don't really wonder this outfit won the Fan's Choice. It's purely amazing. It's very original - the chest piece is rarely used. The cloak, boots and gloves are a perfect match for the chest & legs combo. If I wanted to find one flaw on this outfit, I'd maybe say that when the Everstout (chest piece) is used, it's almost always paired with the Leggings of the Sun-lands (I did the same terribly unoriginal thing myself and it's still one of my favourite self-made outfits :)) and I would have wanted to see other so well matched combo. But as I don't wanna find any flaws, I say this outfit is just perfect :)

I have a weak spot for this outfit. When Kemendin sent it to me a few months ago as a guest submission, I was left speechless. I love crimson and Kemendin used to it create an intimidating attire for a lore-master with it. He also made his elf look very handsome and manly, which can be an issue with elven stature. Kemendin is also master of screenshoting and this is one of his dark atmosphere shots, which appeal to me a lot. Draigoch armour pieces are used very often recently but Kemendin made them look unusual by combination with other pieces.

Beauty lies in simplicity. This attire proves it. It evokes serenity and peace as well as cuteness (who wouldn't adore the two feathered hobbit hat!). Also the screenshot is perfect. However, if I'd meet the character ingame, I wouldn't probably notice the uniqueness on the first glance - many people wear Extravagant Festival Dress dyed purple and with lower details and distance from character, the hat would be nearly unnoticeable.

My personal No. 1 favourite. I was astonished when I saw this - I don't know who is the author of this outfit, but I suspect it's Cookiereth and enhanced version of the outfit she submitted to my blog last year (her staff seems to confirm that! :). If it's her or not, it's a very original outfit and I haven't seen anything like that except for the two occurrences (Cookie on my blog and the contest entry). I love how exotic this combination looks and how well-matched it is. Boots, "belt", golden details on shirt and shoulders add nobility. Mask, grey chest parts and black skirt parts create feeling of danger. The sabre cat adds to the whole atmosphere. The only downside is the screenshot - I read many people didn't vote for it in the fan choice simply because the homestead's surrounding was... inappropriate for the battle outfit. Unfortunately, I must agree - the outfit would look so much better in Moria, Forochel or for example Dunland. Anyway, despite the contest being called "Fashion Week screenshot contest", I prefer to consider it an outfit competition, because I know how long it took me to take proper screenshots myself (and I'm still not perfect) - so I'd love to see this entry as a winner :)

Charming outfit and a great screenshot - sort of "Lara Croft of the Middle-earth" :) I can see that the character wearing this is a lore-master, but the outfit would fit basically any explorer or scholar, and I would definitely wear it for my woman burglar if I had one :) Very pretty.

An extravagant and stylish outfit using non-typical colours - I like that. However, I can't help myself hating the chest piece on females. It damages the feminine body shape so much that the lady suddenly looks like a male elf :( Using gentler top, this could have been a really nice outfit.

Great outfit and I'm very happy it won Professionally Minded category. I love the bright metallic colour of the steel armour (I've tried something like that for my first dwarven outfit - with much less success though). The only thing I don't like is the helm - I would pick another one, but the rest is just perfect and very suitable for a dwarf.

When we were voting for Fashionista's Choice, I gave this outfit full points for every criteria (dye bledning, integration of pieces, overall impression) except for one - originality. I've seen so many outfit using this hauberk - and I can take part of the blame, I use it regularly myself. There is a reason for that - it can be styled in a thousand ways and always look good. Here with the bandana, it works amazing, and if this really was a screenshot contest, it would be the absolute No. 1 for me. I can't imagine how the author managed to take such a great screenshot - it looks like a cut from a movie scene. Bravo!

This is the only outfit I commented on before. I was very surprised when I saw it posted on the forums, as I made exactly the same outfit on the same day Valkrist posted it (only shoulders being different). I remade it a little (really just a little) and submitted it to the Fashion Contest anyway - you can see the result as my outfit to be published today. However, Valkrist looks absolutely gorgeous wearing her creation and the screenshot quality just took my breath. This outfit won Fashionista's Choice category, because we all agreed it's a demonstration of pure elegance. And I'm very happy about our choice :)

Congratulations to everyone who made it to TOP 10 and to everyone who took part in the contest. You guys are wonderfully creative and made me, an outfitting freak, really happy! I'm looking forward to more events like that. Thank you Turbine for organizing it, and my wonderful judging partners Hymne and Devonna for fun we've had while picking winners in our category!