SLLondon Fashion Week Opens in Style (In Spite of SL!)

You may expect to have a few things go wrong on the first night of any new show or event, so everyone had been a little bit nervous as SL London launched its first Catwalk show for the SLLondon Fashion Week (Sponsored by The London Evening Standard, Virtually London (Lite) and Platinum).

Debs Regent and her team had worked really hard to get everything into place so it would be up and running in time for the show to begin last night. The word had got around and the sim was packed full of avatars, reaching a 100 people throughout SL London, and 70 actually at the Catwalk show.

The SLLondon Fashion Week show was officially opened at 12 noon (SLT) as singer Mapoo Little appeared on stage. Mapoo, has a raunchy sexy style and fantastic voice, she kept the audience enthralled as she belted out songs like ‘Hot Stuff’ and ‘Raining Men’ She had people dancing in the aisles and the first hour soon passed as everyone enjoyed her performance.

Then Second Life itself intervened, as it is so fond of doing. We waited for the catwalk show to start and we were totally unaware of the London team’s frantic efforts behind the scenes to sort out a major problem. The show was running late and Brie Janick, one of the London Directors bravely came out and told the audience that she would have to re-start the sim, which meant everyone leaving and coming back once the sim was re-booted. No one was to blame, it was just an SL fault, there had been an invisible prim object right in the middle of the catwalk, which could not be moved because of the lag, and the only way to cure the problem was to restart the whole region for the object to vanish. You had to admire the team, who appeared calm and in control, knowing just what they had to do to get the show back on the road.

Spirits were high though and people were already buoyed up from Mapoo’s singing, so they didn’t appear to mind having to relocate for a few minutes before returning for the rest of the show. Once it was safe to go back people readily took their seats to see the wonderful collections of skins and clothes by the top SL designers and companies, who had their own separate 15 minute slots to fill. The Kensington, where the show was held, was once again packed with avatars and the lag was pretty bad, but the show went down a storm.

‘Platinum’, who are one of the SL London Fashion Week sponsors, were the first to show their amazing collection of quality skins, and you could feel the excitement of the audience as the first male model stepped onto the catwalk. Taliesin Silverstar did an excellent job of talking us through the range of beautiful lifelike male and female skins and the audience loved it.

Kirk Claymore of KMADD Enterprises (owned by Kirk and Maddox DuPont), was next on the scene. He introduced us to the second show called ‘To-a-T’ which featured Victorian clothing created by the brilliant designer Terry Lightfoot. The stunning ladies’ and gentlemen’s attire brought a gasp from the audience as we were swept back to a gentler age with the elegant Victorian outfits.

Next on the catwalk was top designer Leezu Baxter’s fantastic outfits introduced by Serenity Mercier. Leezu never disappoints with her use of colour and textures to bring something quite unique to the fashion scene. Her clothes are very classy and stylish without being ostentatious, so they are the type of outfits you would love to own, especially for those formal occasions in SL.

After Leezu, Kirk once again took the stage to speak us through his own couture Autumn 2008 collection from the MADD Agency. And quality is the word, both in the ladies and men’s outfits. Like Leezu’s designs, MADD’s clothing is completely wearable, but with that look and feel of luxury and style that you would never find in the ordinary shopping malls in SL.

Well that was the end of the first day of the SL London Fashion Week. People stayed on to enjoy the first night party and Debs and the team can certainly feel proud of a great event, as can the designers, models and hosts who introduced each section. The music played throughout the catwalk show added to the enjoyment of the night, and in spite of SL trying to throw a spanner in the works, the evening was a total success.