Virtual Fashion As Cancer Survivor Metaphor

Iota Ultsch of Tres Jolie Haute Couture created a Second Life evening gown made of shimmering chrome.  She created it, Iota reveals to Gabby Panacek of Couture Conundrum, as a tribute to a friend who's fighting breast cancer.  I don't know if Iota's read Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor, which Sontag wrote while enduring her own battle with breast cancer, but here's what Iota told Ms. Panacek about her dress:

The metallic texture of the dress represents the strength with which she has faced her disease and the metallic intervention against her body. The single exposed breast symbolizes the beauty of the feminine form and the vulnerability one feels when faced with the loss of such personal magnitude.

Read this and understand we are only beginning to explore the profound depths of expression made possible by the metaverse.  Image credit: Gabby Panacek.