Virtual fashion
loading...
fashion editors and selling their collections to other players. What many thought was just a pr exercise - why else would Armani, American Apparel and Stella McCartney set up virtual boutiques - is now a bonafide business. Second Life is a simulated world with almost 10 million "residents," and players are as fashion savvy as they are in real life.
Residents can do whatever they want, whether it is building a business, tending bar or launching a fashion label. Residents chat, shop, build homes, travel and hold down jobs, and they are encouraged to create items in Second Life that they can sell to others or use themselves. Many virtual items are bought and sold in Second Life, according to the Wall Street Journal, but clothing has emerged as one of the hottest categories. Real clothing makers, such as Adidas, sell items in Second Life that mimic apparel they sell in the real world. Thus, players can dress their avatars in some of the same clothes they wear themselves.
Because Second Life creators own their products and can sell them, the game has attracted both professional and amateur designers, says Linden spokeswoman Catherine Smith. That has led to a thriving fashion scene that includes not just dressmaking but also jewellery, hair and even skin design, as people purchase the elements to create a look for their online alter egos. Selling virtual clothes to real people for their avatars can even be lucrative.
Like offline fashion designers, Second Lifers can spend hours or days sketching and developing the textures and patterns of a single garment, then refining its measurements through fittings on an online model, states the Wall Street Journal.
Designers do have some costs. Uploading a dress design from a computer to the Second Life world costs about four cents, though once it's there it can be duplicated and sold over and over again. Many designers also "rent" online storefronts or stalls in shopping malls, which cost about $5 a month.