Armidi Rules: Arguing For A High Fashion Monopoly

Last October, Iris Ophelia noted how the official emporium of real world fashion designer Armani was tepid in comparison to Second Life's homegrown clothing empire with a similar name, Armidi.  According to SL-Newspaper's Alesia Schumann, Armidi has come to dominate metaverse couture in general, with fashionistas openly talking about "the rise of Armidi and their ability to suck the grid's talent pool of clothing and hair designers".  So much so, the twin M words, monopoly and Microsoft, are mentioned.  Ultimately Alesia rejects those comparisons, and makes the case that Armidi's dominance is a good thing, fostering competition in a market that's already fragmented.  (What with the sheer size of Second Life's fashion industry, and its many disparate varieties.)  In any case, the mere fact of Armidi's success suggests that recent concern over content theft may be overstated.  If IP violations were so rampant and economically harmful, how did a relatively new metaverse brand grow to such prominence so quickly?

Comments

[CyFishy Traveler]

If Armidi is so relentlessly dominant over SL fashion, why is it I've never even heard of them until I read this blog post?

[Krissy]

Armidi is HUGE in sl... The lag is horrible on the sim especially in front of the hair store. I found it by accident when I searched 'couture' once, but it's been many months ago, they've grown exponentially since then.

[Nexii Malthus]

I never even heard of Armidi, but then again, I don't care about human clothing and reach further for more original personalisation, instead of the constant clone wars called "Fashion".

[Oxytone]

I'd never heard of Armidi until the other day (of course, I had been gone from SL for a while up until a couple of weeks ago). Anyway, for those of us who do like human clothes and like them stylish, Armidi is a nice place, but they seem to be limited right now. I usually like designers who sell things with something of a goth edge (but not entirely goth), and like Armani, the clohtes at Armidi don't fit that, really.

[Dakota Buck]

"how did a relatively new metaverse brand grow to such prominence so quickly?"

Well, they're not a very new brand at all. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Armidi started out as a small store called Elephant Outfitters and have grown over time from there. They've put so many hours of work into EO and now Armidi that it only makes sense that they've grown, not only from the small original store to one and potentially two and an online shopping site but also from the original two designers to a team of creators.

[Jingo Dufaux]

Ok firstly before we go banding about the big M words, may i remind you that monopolies can also be very good to the consumer, why? because to be a monopoly IRL you have to barriers to entry such as innovation and product quality. In SL however there really is no such thing as a monopoly it is perhaps the clearest example of almost perfect competition. As shoppers it is us who choose whether or not to shop at Armidi and I admit I am at the sim several times a week whether for myself or with clients. Why? not because they are the SOLE (MONO) provider of clothes in SL but because they're product quality (i.e. textures, where it matters most in SL clothing) is always the best (I have never once been dissapointed with an Armidi or Elephant Outfitter's product, nor have any of my clients), and two they have an incredibly novel way of selling their clothes, it is like a high end designer store in SL. So to some up you aren't just buying some great clothing your also buying that shopping experience, which in the end is 1 of the reasons why I and many of its other loyal customers continue to flood the sim to bursting and put up with its lag hickups.