THE DEVIL REZZES PRADA

Iris Ophelia interviews Ms. Trollop

Back in my Linden Lab days, I once put together an Avatar-Based Fashion Expo, and the way I ran it was just about the worst mistake I ever made.  The idea was to have residents nominate and vote on the best in SL fashion, which I'd then cover on New World Notes.  And while the styles which made the cut were great, the selection process was an emotional bloodbath, with expo nominees and their friends accusing each other of ballot stuffing and backroom lobbying, spurring one contestant to withdraw altogether, rather than endure the ongoing skirmish, while another privately messaged me with the plea, "I'm being killed here."

And that was back in 2004, even before the prospect of making a real life living from the sale of avatar fashion was fully manifest.  Now it is, with the very top designers taking an estimated $50,000-70,000 yearly, when their L$ earning are converted to cash.  Unsurprisingly, that seems to have made the pressures and feuds even more acute, especially for the top SL fashion blogs and publications.  I noted that when Second Style editor Celebrity Trollop posted a transparency policy on her blog, and during my panel at SLCC, which included Lo Jacobs, co-editor of Pixel Pinup and co-host of The Goods SL fashion podcast, who confirmed the sense that Second Life fashion was, like the real garment industry, a roiling cauldron of melodramatic hyper-competitiveness.

All this being alien territory for me, I asked Iris Ophelia, a talented regular contributor to several top SL fashion publications, along with her own charming blog, to file an NWN report on the scene from this high-drama world. 

The Devil Rezzes Prada

by

Iris Ophelia

As any world develops, reporting is a necessary function to keep track of it.  That was Hamlet's original purpose after all, right?  Second Life has gotten so big that broad reporting doesn't always do the trick, and metaverse journalism, in the past year especially, has been fragmenting to cover more specialized areas. Arguably the biggest area where this new focused approach has taken root is in SL's fashion world.

With dozens of new designs and releases coming out every day, fashion journalists in SL have started everything from informal blogs to magazines that would rival a virtual Vogue. Fashion is an industry with a lot of money running through it, enough that a successful designer can afford to make Second Life their first life employment. With so much subject matter and so much profit riding on this segment of the economy, there is a lot of pressure on fashion journalists, as with normal journalists, to promote material as fairly as possible.  And they are often subject to criticism and judgement based on the products they choose-- and not choose-- to showcase with their writing.

Every publication works a little differently, and from the outside, it's pretty hard to see what's going on behind the screenshots, polished ads, and abundant SLurls. I'll admit now I am a fairly prolific writer in this category myself, contributing to three of these outlets regularly. I'll leave it in your hands to decide whether this makes me very informed, or very biased.

Inside Second Style magazine

I called on Celebrity Trollop, the Versace behind the veneer of Second Style Magazine and its sister blog, to talk.  Her story is very similar to that of many fashion journalists.  “I decided I might as well write down what I liked and where I bought it, or what I intended to go buy," she told me.  "There is so much posting volume on the forums that I would forget great stuff all the time.”

Even if you’re not a fashion follower, you may recognize Celebrity Trollop and her blog from a recent entry in New World Notes about her new “Transparency” policy-- something meant to literally bare all to the blog’s audience, and let them make their own decisions about whether or not she’s impartial, being influenced by a designer-focused friend’s list, or by alleged “review payola”.  (That is, getting a free reviewers' copy in exchange for a favourable review.)  It’s worth noting that I’ve yet to see a blogger review something just because someone gave them a freebie, something Celebrity also addressed.

“Readers are pretty smart at figuring out when you're ‘faking,’" She said.  "You might fool them once, but probably not twice.”  Celebrity’s new blog policy helps with some of those major issues in SL fashion journalism. 

“I like it because it's largely drama-free. There will be no inter-blog flamefests,” she added, which have been a common problem inside the publicity-driven fashion community. Sharply critical comments left anonymously or under an assumed name are commonplace, and while Celebrity can coolly shrug them off or suggest the commenters go make their own blog, she’s an exception.

“Remember that all SLers are human, and we all have feelings, different opinions, and different views," Willow Zander advised.  "Try to accept them, not bash someone down for having different ones to yourself.”  Willow is the most active blogger on Pixel Pinup Online, and has more than a few bruises from this.  “The negativity I get from some people, people that barely know me but apparently 'know what I am about'-- sometimes I want to throw in the towel, go back to my pre-PXP Second Life and live happily like the hermit I am.  But I love SL fashion, I love that some people enjoy reading what I write, and I make them laugh, so it's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me, really... I don't get paid for what I do [and] I don't ask, expect, or receive as many freebies as some people believe bloggers do.  And sometimes it's highly frustrating when the negativity is smothering enough to make you want to quit doing something that you really do enjoy 99% of the time.”

Willow is of course also well known in the fashion community for blogging every release done by Ginny Talamasca of Dazzle, and Elikapeka Tiramisu of ETD, and this is common ammunition used against her. Ultimately, most residents have a few designers they follow religiously, keeping up on every release.

The difference between her and most residents?  Writing for PXP, of course.

“We aren't here to lie to people, or to big up designers," Willow told me.  "We are here to blog about what we like, what we wear, what we would like to bring attention to.  It doesn't matter if the designer is friend or foe, big or small, if it's something I want/have, you can be rest assured I will blog it.”  Of course, once again, it is up to the readers whether they will believe this or remain skeptical.

Or as Celebrity said, summing up the issue: “If I am such a so-and-so, then surely you can do better than me!” She invites her critics to create fashion blogs themselves.  With the official SL Forums closing, this invitation should definitely be taken to heart.

Iris is the author of Ophelia Rising.  As a tastemaker herself, she recommends "Vinson, a rather new store with a Forbidden vibe.  Only male styles, but they all look great on girls anyway."