Despite a severe amount of early over-hype and nagging technology problems, it has continued to grow a vibrant and diverse community since launching in 2003; over a million active users now regularly log into this alternate world.

Fashion within SecondLife is especially interesting. Inspired by the Linden Lab "create anything at all" philosophy and free from constraints of reality - the results can be striking.

To explore further, I invited SecondLife expert Iris Ophel to be interviewed on this blog. Iris is the managing editor of leading virtual fashion magazine SecondStyle.

Q - Hi! Tell us a bit about yourself, what attracted you into virtual worlds?

Well in my first life I'm a university student majoring in English. I first got involved with Second Life at the end of my first year when I was looking for something to relieve the end-of-semester stress. I've always had a love of aesthetics, in particular relating to clothing, so it didn't take me long to get hooked to my avatar.

Q – We see many wonderful creations in Second Life. Who makes them? Are they graphic designers, tech lovers, students or other, and are they doing it for love or money?

All of the above! There are real life designers who have branched into SL, and on the other end of the spectrum there are single moms doing it to make ends meet. Tons of people get into it for money, and those people tend to do worse than those who get into it out of a love for the process/medium/product. It's not a quick and dirty way to make money, by any means, you have to commit or you won't get anywhere.

Q – Some people perceive Second Life as “too techie” and mainly for geeks. Does it make it hard for fashion content to flourish?

People used to say that about the internet, and now CNN quotes blogs, and the CEO of Zappos is giving out free shoes through Twitter. It's true that there is a steep learning curve associated with Second Life, and creating content for it in particular, but there are a lot of resources available, and the fashion community has only been getting bigger, even with more 'techy' features becoming important to the market, like sculpted prims which require the creator to use a 3D modeling program like Maya or Blender. Again, it's not easy, but honestly neither is whipping up a real piece of clothing. It will take you hours of practice and patience either way.

Q – Are there any successful examples of designers generating buzz and increasing real worlds sales by participating in virtual worlds?

Nyla Cheeky's the best example. She's really increased her visibility as a designer with her work in SL, which merges her real creations with the digital world.


Q – How about virtual only fashion designers… is it enough to make a living being a Second Life designer?

Not everyone can do it, but it can be done. There are some design empires in SL that support their creators quite comfortably. It takes a lot of hard work, creativity, talent, and most of all passion to get to that point. Good examples of this are BareRose, ETD, and Fleur.

Q –What was the inspiration to start Second Style and what’s the concept?

I was writing some fashion pieces for an SL paper and a few blogs when Second Style was started out. It was created at a point when there weren't really any regular fashion publications. There were many blogs, but nothing like a magazine. The concept is basically just that, a broad-ranging fashion magazine that offers something for everyone.

Second Style started out pretty mainstream, and since I started as the managing editor I've tried to keep the mainstream flavor, but push into some somewhat more specialized niche styles and shops that are frequently overlooked. Since Second Style started, other fashion magazines have cropped up, each with their own unique flavors. I like to think that Second Style is something that reaches all throughout the fashion world of SL and offers a bit of everything in one convenient book.

Q – What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen on Second Life?

There's a Japanese snack company called Glico, and they make a product called Pocky, which is sort of like a cookie stick dipped indifferent flavored coatings-- It's wildly popular in Japan and with anime geeks all over the world. Well, around Valentine's day, they opened a sim for Pocky, with different areas themed around different kinds of Pocky. Sidewalks made of wafers, chocolate-covered pine- trees, it was incredibly well made, and it just thrilled me when I saw it. I'm a HUGE fan of the Japanese creative community in SL, they're definitely the hidden gems of SL. Photos here.

Q – Any new trends or directions? What are your personal predictions for the next 1-2 years?

Style in SL does 3 things. In part, it mirrors real life trends, in the past year for instance there's been surges of nautical motifs, pencil skirts, blocky platform heels, rich jewel tones etc.

Second Life also has standard staples that are released often and are generally popular, like baby doll dresses, oversized gowns, diamond- studded everything, stilettos...

The third element is something that mirrors Japanese fashion scene. Second Life has a lot of niches and pockets where alternative fashion flourishes (naturally, since the world is a blank canvas with no need for the laws of physics or practicality). There are ebbs and flows of trends in these niches, like the gothic lolitas (doll-like avatars), neko (cat-people), grunge, cyberpunk, steampunk, even fetishwear is a huge niche market subject to trends. It's pretty impossible to predict anything, honestly. Creators keep raising the bar on quality and creativity, the only guarantee is that in the next 1-2 years we're going to see things that are more amazing than we could even imagine right now. If you don't believe me, find a screenshot of SL from 2006, and compare it to some of my recent pictures. "It's fashion at lightspeed".