SECOND LIFE, December 29 , 2007 – Of course, Second Life – the leading online virtual world open for free to anybody who has a powerful enough computer and a good internet connexion – now has more than eleven million people registered as avatars; all right, 1.276.661 of these “residents” have connected to the in-world, from which I am reporting today, in the past 60 days only and 45,703 are online as I am writing this article; good enough, in the last 24 hours alone, Second Life residents have spent, on Second Life -buying land from Linden Lab, but also from each other, renting houses and buying clothes from Second Life fashion designers etc..- U.S Dollars1,408,079 US$… All of this is huge and no wonder at this time of year, the financial newspapers are looking into it very carefully.
PRINCESSHILDEGARDE YACHVILI IS OUR FEMALE MENTOR FOR THIS TWO-PART ARTICLE
Economics say a lot but far from everything. As a fashion writer, embedded now in Second Life for nearly a year, I wanted to share with you my general views about design and style innovations in this leading virtual world and also suggest a few directions for the fashion industries in both lives, Second Life and Real Life, aka SL and RL by the residents here, as I think that they just might benefit from their respective developments far from what they can imagine.
In RL Paris (France) and Milan (Italy), the last menswear season shows, in June this year, did refer a lot to Second Life and virtual worlds. See the related articles about the menswear collection by Walter Van Beirendonck, Raf Simmons, or Alexander Mc Queen to get an idea. However and eventhough these designers claimed or seemed to relate in a negative or positive way, to the virtual online world, I am not quite sure that they really did investigate the subject deep enough, beyond the “buzz of the moment” aspect of their research.
Some other people in the fashion industry are certainly looking at it in a different manner, as if they were trying to use SL as a 3D laboratory to keep their minds open to technological innovations and let their muse wander on the shores of virtuality. It seemed to be the case for Dior Haute Joaillerie who opened an entire SIM (or simulator which corresponds in virtual land to a 60.000 square meters island) called Belladone for a time, from the name of their latest jewelry line based on the poisonous flower. It is most probably the studio headed by Victoire de Castellane, who investigated and created there with no real marketing goal… they had created on Belladone, no rings at all, but only gigantic flowers, like an inspiration for the actual beautiful rings by the exculsive Paris brand. Their work on colour was intriguing, their explorations of mechanisms of opening flowers, fascinating…
Not all RL designers think like that and my colleague Julien Fournié, illustrator forFashion Reporters and
PUBLICIST REDGRAVE IS OUR FASHION PUNDIT FOR SECOND LIFE MENSWEAR
former Creative Director of Torrente Haute Couture, plus designer of high-end accessories throughout the world, from France to South Korea, cannot be accused of not belonging to the internet generation. Still he says : “ I prefer creating clothes and accessories for the real world, to me, they cannot compare! What is the use of designing items on Second Life when you can actually see your dreams come true in Real Life and be worn by actual persons , not by avatars ?” Answering my questions about the technological aspect , Julien Fournié said : “Creating clothes or accessories on Second Like requires also the mastering of basic 3D technologies using various tools that seem to be more complicated and less precise than Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator to name the most famous graphic tools used in RL… I do not want to get into it, I have a feeling it will take ages to master at the level I require, and take much of my energy. I prefer to focus on Real Life, sorry.”
However, Julien Fournié has introduced me to some of his SL friends, without whose help I could never have written this, namely Princess Hildegarde and Publicist Redgrave, two extraordinary SL residents who have much taste, creativity and who have been my mentors ! Publicist Redgrave actually opened up an art gallery, called Fashion Art, for his SL friend, the RL fashion designer, to be discreetly present in virtuality. “He has such a talent as an illustrator, I convinced Julien to let me allow people on SL to admire and purchase his fashion illustrations, reframed in the shape of paintings for their SL homes. I believe it’s an idea that could well bring further developments for him, as they are selling quite well.”
Storm Schmooz is a SL shoe designer with several shops on “the grid” as residents are calling the SL platform. One of his customers is Princess Hildegarde and she gently disclosed: “ He confessed to me that he is also a RL designer working mainly in leather. I won’t disclose his RL name as Sl is enabling us all to stay anonymous if we wish, but I can tell you that he is Belgian and freelances for a Dutch brand”…. (Continued soon)
JEAN PAUL CAUVIN
Our selection of blogs, webpages and reference articles for who wishes to go further:
- New World Notes
- Linden Lifestyles – The Unofficial Second Life Fashion Shopping Blog
- Second Life News Network
- Second Life Official Economic Statistics
- “Now, Virtual Fashion”, article by Andrew Lavallée in The Wall Street Journal
- “A Very Real Future for Virtual Worlds”, by Mark Ward on BBC News Website
0 Comments until now.