3pointD.com

This flew by me as I was getting ready for SXSW, but MTV, which has been roaring ahead with its virtual-world initiative, has announced it will launch a fashion line based on designs by Lauren Conrad, star of Laguna Beach spinoff The Hills. The designs will be made available first in the the Virtual Hills section of Virtual Laguna Beach. “In addition,” according to a press release, “Lauren will develop a real-world fashion line that will be available in high-end boutiques, retail stores and online later this fall.”

Lauren’s fashions are already available to Virtual Hills members, who can buy them with the MTV Bucks that are the world’s virtual currency at “LC,” the new virtual boutique that Lauren apparently helped design. I have no idea what they’re like, but I love the idea of parallel fashion lines in the real and virtual worlds. A number of Second Life fashion designers have contemplated doing the same, but as far as I know, none have. Of course, those designers don’t have the massive sway of MTV behind them. I’d assume that Lauren’s fashions will succeed or fail based on their merits, however; if people don’t like them, they aren’t going to keep buying them after the initial pop she gets from launching a mixed-reality line. What will be interesting, though, will be to see whether the physical line is significantly more or less popular than the virtual one, and investigate that for clues as to what makes virtual worlds tick. [Also reported at 606Tech.]