Major Real Life Fashion Designer's New Line Inspired by Second Life (Where She Works as a Virtual Stripper)

Ann-Sofie Back's Second Life avatar; design from Ms. Back's latest line

Ann-Sofie Back, a famed Swedish fashion designer, revealed her latest line at London's Fashion Week recently, and it comes with a fantastic twist: it's inspired by the fashion of Second Life, which she visits on occasion. (Screenshots from her blog here, including the angelic one above.) Elle UK has a full photo spread of her line here -- can you guess which SL designers most inspired her?

More curiously, Ms. Back tells the UK Independent her SL occupation: “I make a living out of stripping there – it’s really easy money.” (Just another example of unpredictable avatar identity in Second Life. Sometimes, a virtual stripper will also be a transhumanist Kurzweil fan; other times, as it turns out, she'll be a famous couture designer who spends much of her real life with naked supermodels.)

And while her latest line seems fairly inventive, Ann-Sofie Back's general view of Second Life doesn't seem as inspired. She tells the Independent:

“Second Life is quite a shitty, slow game where nothing much happens, but people do make an effort with clothes, hair and make-up. The weird thing is, you have the chance to really create something fantastic – you know, with rabbit ears or you could be green. But most people want to look like Katie Price and Peter Andre, and wear clothes like people on Big Brother. It’s even more conformist than real life.”

And while it's true there's a lot of banal, mundane virtual fashion in Second Life, Ann-Sofie Back's generalization suggests she hasn't explored very much of it, not had a chance to see much fashion that's uniquely SL. (As here, or here.) That's unfortunate, because if she did, she'd probably find more inspiration. Then again, some Second Life designs already seem to anticipate directions she takes -- like this pixelated headdress by Grady Echegaray, as compared to Ms. Back's pixelated dress at right. Then again, maybe she wasn't accurately quoted; I'm attempting to get an interview with her now.

Image credit: Screenshot of Ms. Back's avatar from her blog. Photo of Ms. Back's design from IMAXTree via UK Elle. Hat tip: Sanny Yoshikawa, Grace McDunnough.

Comments

[Sidney Smalls]

How famous can she be if she "makes her living" stripping in SL?

[Two Worlds]

Hamlet, the stripper boobies almost got some of us flesh-bound humans that still have jobs in the Meat Realm fired. :-/

[Two Worlds]

>>How famous can she be if she "makes her living" stripping in SL?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TKQcWEXSKU

"She works hard for the Lindens..."

[Toxic Menges]

Looks like she needs some help with prim hair in SL ...

[Crap Mariner]

That's fashion?

Um... am I ever so glad to be unfashionable.

-ls/cm

[melponeme_k]

It seems to me that she is a bit ashamed of hanging around SL and felt the need to denigrate it. Haven't we passed that stage yet?

And if the world was so ridiculous as she claims, why the need to strip and make Lindens? What would she need the Lindens for if the world is so conformity cursed as she claims?

[Bibe]

Thank you for posting this.
It's interesting that she stated first the game is slow, I find outside the states the game does run very slowly, and it's actually quite irritating to use the interface.
On the other hand her clothes are pretty awesome, her models are disgusting (personal opinion). Having sex with them would be like having sex with a bag of hangers.
I hope you do get the interview. Perhaps she is not in-world enough to really explore? It takes a lot of time to find interesting fashion and art in SL, on the surface it does seem very conformist.

[lifestyle week]

being quite frank....I think the designer clothesline by Ms. Back don't quite work....She need to revise on the apparels and learn more about fashion designing before starting off. Best of luck to her.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

A quick web search confirms that yes, Ann-Sofie is a famed Swedish designer.

Stripping is a perfectly good way to pull down some Lindens for anybody without that tired old nudity taboo.

And by game standards, Second Life is a shitty, slow place where nothing much happens. She seems to have missed the point that it's not a game at all, but that's not unusual.

And finally, yes there are some breathtakingly original and beautiful designs in SL. But they're droplets in a sea of virtual knockoffs of rather boring RL designs. I've always thought that the point of the more outrageous examples of haute couture were not to present something a sane person would wear in public, but just to shock up out of our rut of complacent conformity. But man, people get really defensive and catty when you try to do that :)

[melponeme_k]

"I've always thought that the point of the more outrageous examples of haute couture were not to present something a sane person would wear in public, but just to shock up out of our rut of complacent conformity. But man, people get really defensive and catty when you try to do that :)"

No one has to conform in SL to someone else's artistic standards whether they be for conformity or haute couture. But know this, its the complacent , conforming masses that are keeping the lights on at Linden Lab. Not the people with Haute Couture delusions.

And before Ann Sofie, professional fashion designer, mouths off again, she should fix her avatar. It doesn't match the level of her real profession. Its newbish and not more than a little conforming. Everyone has fricking wings in SL. She isn't being a original there.

[Bettina Tizzy]

What's that saying? Don't sh*t where you eat?

[Grady Echegaray]

Thanks for the mention Hamlet! :D
I should clarify though. I did not make the outfit/headdress pictured. That is the awesome work of Alpha Auer of Alpha Tribe.
http://graphofullstop.wordpress.com/

[Rusch Raymaker]

No wonder she found SL shitty...look at what vocation she chose. Obviously not the kind of crowd you can bounce intelligent or meaningful conversation with or collaborate with even. Denigrading the myriad options to be creative and productive in SL is a sign of her ignorance and lack of imagination.

[The Green Avatar]

I don't understand why you're all making such a fuss. She was a stripper in SL, so what? She was role-playing, what's wrong with calling SL "a game". Most people consider role-playing a game. Read carefully what she said. She said ".... most people...." She didn't say everyone she met. Sadly it's true I can find more people that look like how she described in fact there are many cases of people being mistreated in SL because of their variation from standard norms of appearance.

[Gypsy Dress]

Wow - those designs are so pretty, I want one :D

[phoenix landscape design]

You're kidding me, right, above commenter? Those designs are so weird looking, lol! I don't think I could ever wear one that looked like those.