Frock to Frock Competition in There.com
The fashionistas of There.com are going frock to frock over the next nine weeks to find out who’s the best designer of fashions for the virtual world. The There Fashion Challenge pits a dozen of the world’s top designers in weekly design competitions, commencing with a pirate outfit challenge that’s currently up for judging. The competition is being run along the lines of a reality show, with residents voting a couple of designers out of the running each week.
The pirate designs are showcased in a 15-minute video that’s up on the Fashion Challenge site at the moment — though the links to individual designers’ portfolios seem to be broken. (And the video could use a little music and a more lively narration, in my opinion.)
According to a press release from There, the contest is being held in part to “define the look of ‘There Wear’,” though the release doesn’t say just what this means. In any case, “All contestants will also be able to sell their designs in There auctions for purchase with Therebucks, the community currency, by other members who want to dress their avatars in high style.”
The contest is a cool idea, and points up some interesting differences between There.com and Second Life, which has enjoyed notably more media attention lately. There.com is more explicitly a social world. Creativity is not as free in There; all resident-designed content must first be submitted to the company and vetted and approved before it is made generally available in the world. But the closer attention to content that’s paid by the company means that events like the Fashion Challenge can be pulled off in a more organized fashion, in contrast to the loose affairs that are Second Life fashion shows. (Which doesn’t stop them from being popular, mind you, or from featuring some great designs.) By the same token, though, the added layer of involvement from the company means the pace of development is slower. And as the world grows — There.com already claims more than 300,000 members — the burden of vetting content will grow with it. It seems to work for far, though, for the kind of world There is. It will be interesting to see how far it scales as virtual worlds’ populations continue to grow.
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> But the closer attention to content that’s paid by the company means that events like the Fashion Challenge can be pulled off in a more organized fashion, in contrast to the loose affairs that are Second Life fashion shows.
Not sure that’s a fair statement, just because fashion shows in SL can be organized at any level, from tight to loose, depending on who puts them on and how much structure they employ. Don’t There residents run their own informal, independent fashion shows too? Or is this one just different because the company is helping run it virtual worldwide?
I’ve got to get into There more, if only they would release a Mac version! Someone should recreate the winning designs in SL, it’s pirate fashion after all ;).
BTW my favorite pirate fashion item yet, produced by the open juried design community of Threadless.com. Love how they make the favorites real.
Hmm. Taking a look at the designs for the contest I can’t see many people abandoning SL for There to do fashion design, if that’s all the technology (and/or the vetting process) allows you to do.
Ordinal Malaprop, what exactly do you mean by your comment? There’s designers/builders do a VERY good job and are VERY creative. By the way, people don’t leave Second Life for There because of the fashion, they do it because of the drama in Second Life. And I am proud to say I am a Second Life refugee! I want to know why Second Life members pick on There? The only obvious answer is is jealousy. But I mean, I don’t blame you for being jealous, but just try and stop picking on There!
Um, okay. So you agree with me then?
No, I don’t agree with you. I don’t think There’s fashion designs are any more limited then Second Life’s. In fact, I think There gives more control over things like clothing.
Congrats to these There fashion finalists!
I noticed Ameshin on the list—she’s *also* the immensely talented Ameshin Yossarian in Second Life. Any other crossworlders on there?
On a related note, I’ve been reading ThereCare to learn more about how they do customer service. I stand to learn a lot from it and like how they’re using Lore.
Yeah Torley,
There’s fashion designers and builders are extremely talented. I for one am proud of being part of such a creative community. Also, I do think There’s customer service has been stream lined recently. ThereCare is really neat as well, a lot of userful information can be learned there.
Joel