« Celestial City now open | Home | Stunned »
NWN: Fashion Crisis?
By Celebrity Trollop | May 9, 2006
Hamlet Au wrote today about a post on Torrid Midnight’s blog which discusses Torrid’s disappointment at the apparent lack of interest in the Spring Flowers design (covered here April 7). Hamlet asks:
[T]here’s an enormous warehouse of Resident-made fashion for people who want to roleplay in-your-face sexuality and sexual-tinged fantasy. There’s a comparative dearth of fashions for folks looking for low-key sensuality. What’s this say about SL culture? And what does it say about what women want from this world?
A commenter at NWN suggested that maybe the huge commercial appeal of (ahem) slutwear comes from the number of men playing female avatars. Perhaps some of it is due to that factor, but it can’t explain all of it. I think to some extent that Hamlet hasn’t delved enough into Second Life fashion — if you look at the posts just from today here, or at Linden Lifestyles, or PXP you’ll find a range of styles from slutty to genuinely sophisticated — I’m sorry, you’re just not going to convince me that Nephi’s new dress designs are trashy!
What are some other factors which weigh into this supposed slutwear tilt?
- I don’t think it’s possible to deny the strength of the sex economy within Second Life. There is a fairly powerful economic incentive for non-content creator players to find a source of Lindens other than their own pocketbook — for many that means being a virtual stripper or escort.
- Some players genuinely like revealing clothing. Let’s face it — when you can adjust your boob size and body fat using sliders and have killer abs thanks to a skin designer’s talent with PhotoShop, why not flaunt it every once in while?
- The clothing templates in Second Life don’t lend themselves to “baggy” very well. Ask any designer how baggy looks on the avatar template? This also contributes to a degree to a relative paucity of men’s fashions within Second Life as well. If the style isn’t clingy, it just doesn’t work terribly well typically.
- The constant influx of newbies. My personal theory is that every newbie goes through a period where — so delighted with the shape of her virtual self — she runs out and buys a lot of trashy clothes just for the sheer thrill of being able to do so and feel good about the way her virtual self looks to herself, her friends and any romantic interests she might be kindling.
- Finally, although I personally loved Spring Flowers (check my in world profile — I’m wearing it in my profile photo) there’s a segment of fashionistas out there who don’t really care for the poofy mesh skirt look. I know — they’ve IMed me about it. :D (Not a knock on the design, Torrid — I really do like it.)
There’s probably more too, but I think that’s a fairly decent set of reasons why more revealing clothes sell better than more conservative styles. I’m sure there are cultural and sociological implications surrounding this apparent preference, but honestly, I think that a deeper level of analysis is merited — there’s more to this than meets a casual glance.
Topics: External Resources, Opinion |
I totally agree with you. A place like Second Life is a perfect arena to examine how the invisible yet overwhelmingly influential hand of culture influences people’s choices. Like decisions to wear “slutty” clothes.
I think Second Life is still very much in a phase where it is a reflection of the values and zeitgeists of the “First Life.” Pepole buy slutty clothes because the want to in the First Life and CAN in the Second Life. =)
I love your observations!
Posted by: Vincent on May 21st, 2006 at 12:50 pm