My First Second Life Fashion Show (and Maybe My Last!)

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

Lord Chesterfield

 

          GraciAnn Harte, my friend and Traveling Companion, recently invited me to join her at the Labor Day Fashion Show being held at A Tribute to Venice in Tribute City.  Graci was one of the models and thought it would broaden my horizons.  (Graci appears to have made it her mission to save me from myself in Second Life (SL) and to bring me to civilization.)

          Never having been to a fashion show in either SL or Real Life (RL) and always willing to support a friend, I decided to attend. 

          I arrive near the Grand Canal in Venice and see people arriving for the show.  I’m greeted immediately by my friend Jessii Warrhol who’s running the event with Ava Jhamin of L’Amour Management. 

Others are assembling in the cathedral and I walk over.  I enter and find myself face to face with my old friend, World Undercroft, who has moved on from being a vampire when I knew him with Nulli Secundus and had just arrived in SL.  Since then he’s moved onto modeling and recently won the title of Mr. Virtual World 2012. 

This event is starting to become like Old Home Week for me. (I’m probably spending too much time inworld.) 

          After World and I exchange greetings, he promptly tells me that I’m in the wrong place. (Story of my virtual and, come to think of it, real lives as well.)  Only the models are allowed inside.  Here begin my misadventures.   

          Returning outside I walk over near the Grand Canal where I’m told to go and wait for the show to start with other spectators.  A nice sized crowd forms. 

          The show is intended to celebrate workers in honor of the American Labor Day holiday which is being observed on this day.  Twelve models will be showing clothes worn by working people.  At the conclusion of the show, judges will select male and female best models from the models. 

          The models appearing in today’s show are World Undercroft, Raezelle Aphrodite, Vivy Coppola, GraciAnne Harte, Sidney Hax, Brendan Macarthur, Aradia Mistwood, Kitty Picadilly, Thayna, Steele Sirnah Undercroft, dee Shepherd, and Zivaaj Achyleus.  (Please click on the models’ names to see them in their outfits.  Rex Requiem took the pictures.) 

          The show starts and World leads the models out of the cathedral dressed in an outfit celebrating those serving in the Armed Forces.  Then as the others come out, I can’t see them.  So, I decide to switch places.  Using the mini-map I think I see where the models are.  I move across the bridge which looks empty when suddenly I receive an IM requesting me to move off the runway!  As Graci would later explain to me, I’ve made the classic faux pas of walking across the runway during the middle of a show!  (I suspect Graci’s rethinking the wisdom of inviting me in the first place.)

          I now find myself stranded on the other side of the Canal not being able to see the show at all.  I follow what’s going on as the models continue coming out as Nani Xue (who is dressed in an interesting and somewhat revealing nun’s outfit herself) shouts out who’s modeling and what they’re wearing.  (BTW, most of these work clothes would probably be frowned upon by most RL Human Resources departments.) 

          Unfortunately, I miss Graci when she appears in her French maid’s costume.  (Life, even SL, can be so cruel.)  After her walk, she checks in on me and tells me that after the models walk there will be a fanfare where they will all appear.  I sense a chance to get back into the mainstream of things. 

          Nani continues shouting about what’s going on and then announces that the judges are considering their decisions.  I ask the person who called me out for wandering across the runway if I can recross the bridge and she says I can.  I make my break.

          I arrive in the plaza before the cathedral and run into Graci who is merrily dancing away to the song YMCA.  Actually, I first thought she was having a seizure but she told me what she was doing.  Watching a French maid dance to YMCA without losing her feather duster is a sight to behold.  Trust me.  (Another reason why Graci will probably never invite me to her next fashion show.) 

          By this time, I manage to get into more trouble.  I walk in front of the photographer, Rex Requiem, while he’s taking his shots.  He’s really very nice about it.  (Yep, you got it.  Another good reason for Graci not to invite me back again especially since it’s her photos I’m ruining.) 

          There are winners.  For the female models, Graci and her French maid costume takes the trophy.  Brendan Macarthur takes the gold for the male models.  Both are exceptional models and I congratulate both of them!  (I also wonder why Graci lets me hang around.  Probably curiosity about what I’ll mess up next.) 

          Models and spectators mill about offering congratulations and chatting.  I notice that many start to leave soon after the winners are announced.  The after show socializing is not quite Paris Fashion Week.  (Maybe they should serve drinks?) 

          At this point I take my leave myself and return home.  I have enjoyed myself.  The show stayed true to its theme of celebrating workers and their outfits on Labor Day.  Despite the models and spectators, I experienced no lag.  (I crashed once but that’s a regular event inworld it seems these days.)  I haven’t blogged about the SL fashion world in a world and it was good to be back.  (The SL fashion world may have another opinion about that.) 

          Ava and L’Amour Management runs these fashion shows regularly.  The theme depends on the time of the year.  Recent ones have been Vintage Fashion Week and Sports Show. I recommend that you attend these when you’re inworld.  The fashions are stylish, creative, and fun.  The shows are enjoyable events in themselves.  (Please try not to be as disruptive as I was and if you are, you don’t know me!) 

          In closing, I’d like to thank Graci for inviting me and I congratulate her and Brendan for their wins.  They’re both exceptional models and I expect to see more of them in SL’s fashion circles in the future.  I thank Jessii and Ava for putting on a great event (and not ejecting me for my gaffes).  I also want to thank Ava for permitting me to use the show’s pictures for this story.  Rex Requiem did an outstanding job taking them.  More pictures can be found at the Tribute City News website.  And, I apologize to Rex for ruining some of his shots.  If I have done anything else to anyone else while I was at the show, please accept my most sincere apologies.  I promise to improve.

As always, I’m grateful to all for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.

I’ve included a few pictures below from my visit.  They’re nowhere near the quality of Rex’s but they give a sense of the venue. 

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

     If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

Photo No. 1 Church Plaza – Site of Show

Photo No. 2 GraciAnne Harte (on right) – Winner for Best Female Model

Photo No. 3 The Grand Canal

Photo No. 4 Church Exterior

Photo No. 5 Church Interior

Photo No. 6 Grand Canal Pathway  

Photo No. 7 Venice – Interior of Shops   

 

 

Twenty-four Hours in Second Life – The Look Back

         

Well, I did it!  I spent twenty-four hours in Second Life (SL) and lived to tell about it. 

I had a great time.  As I had planned, I met old friends, made new ones, revisited places from earlier stories, visited new places, and had new experiences.  All within the virtual world of SL.

What did I learn?  First, that SL isn’t terribly different from Real Life (RL).  (A word of warning here, I’m an unstoppable optimist concerning the overall good nature of people.  Yeah, there are a few clunkers out there.  But, eventually, and sometimes at great cost, they get tossed aside.)  People want to help other people.  People have issues in their lives.  Illness and unemployment are just a few examples.  But, there are happy occasions too, people leaving SL to go celebrate the Christmas Holidays with family and friends in RL.  The people I met as avatars in SL are not some fictional cartoon representation of an alternate reality.  They are there to express their lives in a form that is only a different expression of their day-to-day reality. 

Next, I have not even begun to scratch the surface of all that is going on in SL.  Games, different communities, sites to visit, I did a few in this recent journey but there are tantalizing hints of much more over the horizon.  This is why I continually return to SL, to go over one more horizon to see what’s on the other side and then to bring the stories back to my readers.  And, I haven’t even gotten close to the builders and creators in SL who make it all happen.  I’ll try to reach out to them next year. 

Finally, there is a rich, vibrant social community in SL.  I was at three dances.  I was invited to several parties which unfortunately my schedule didn’t permit me to join.  (Don’t you just hate it when someone uses that lame excuse!)  I’ve been invited back for tea.  One resident has asked for my assistance in drafting an article.  A car was sent for me when I arrived at a train station.  I could go on.  People are coming together in new ways and then going off to do something else. 

Alright, these are all the positives.  What about some of the things that didn’t go to plan?  First, I had to quickly move away from doing hourly posts because I found myself interacting with people continually and new situations arising.  I decided to go for being with people and consolidated my posts. 

Second, lag and response time inworld slowed my progress and my activities.  At one point in the final hours, I was afraid that I might have to abandon my quest.  Others noticed this as well.  Maybe more residents than usual were inworld because of the Holiday season.  I don’t know.  But, this will be an issue in the future for Linden Lab (LL) if platform investment doesn’t anticipate these needs. 

Next, one of my friends has lost a lot of valuable work and the time she invested in creating it.  LL needs to be better able to handle these situations.  There’s no magic here.  Data retrieval and customer service models to support it have been around for years.  A thriving economy is possible in SL but only if LL acts more proactively to protect intellectual property rights and secure their physical protection.    

Finally, and this is a small point, but, I believe it’s an important one.  All the while I was in SL, I never met one Linden.  To be fair, there was no expectation that I would meet any.  No one had said they would meet with me.  (Even though, I did write ahead and say I was coming.)  When I meet residents who remember the Golden Age of SL just a few short years ago, they always talk about the Lindens who used to walk among them and bring truth and work minor miracles.  Maybe these tales have morphed into the creation myths that every society has.  But, as a relative newcomer to SL, I put Linden sightings right up there with Elvis and Sasquatch.  This is an unfortunate turn of events. 

One last point before I wrap this article up.  As I made this journey, people opened up and shared personal stories with me.  I want to respect their privacy and will do so.  But I want them to know that I heard them and I believe that the SL community can help them, should help them.  SL isn’t like World of Warcraft where we run around in green skins and animal hides bopping each other over the head with clubs and stealing one another’s gold pieces.  Nor is it like Facebook where we run off with our own little cliques and like each other’s opinions on the local weather.  2011 has shown how new technology can be used to bring about great change in societies.  I’m not talking about overthrowing the world here but maybe we can help make a difference just one resident at a time.  I’ll write more about this in 2012. 

Before I go, I want to thank those who came out in the last couple of hours to encourage me to keep going.  Spec, Hibiscus, and World, you guys rock!  Janey, thank you for joining me as I crossed over the finish line and thanks for trying to teach me Greedy, Greedy! 

Happy New Year to all and please visit and support the sites mentioned in these stories! 

For everyone’s convenience, I’ve included links to the four articles about my twenty-four hours in SL:

Twenty-four Hours in SL – I

Twenty-four Hours in SL – II

Twenty-four Hours in SL – III

Twenty-four Hours in SL – IV

I want to thank all the others for coming out to meet and travel with me during my twenty-four hours in SL.  I also am grateful to all of them for helping me along the way! 

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

     If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

Photo No. 1: Flying Crane Tour

Photo No. 2: Kevin the Bird Behind web

Photo No. 3: Topographic Map of Phaze Demesnes

Photo No. 4: Linden Realms Portal Area

Photo No. 5: North Pole Sleigh Ride Adventure Off Season Arrival Area

Photo No. 6: web on a snowmobile

Photo No. 7: Muddy’s Music Café Dance Floor

Photo No. 8: Ankh-Morpork Winter Scene

Photo No. 9: Snowmen Auto Accident

Photo No. 10: Fashionably Dead