Virtual Burn Brings Style “Home” Part 2 of 2
As mentioned a couple of days ago, the virtual man burn yielded a wonderful opportunity to drop in and check out some of the brilliant fashions that Second Life (SL) participants created for their virtual regional.
Now, let’s consider what it must be like to craft virtual fashions. Virtual and non-virtual crafting though seemingly different, share the same fundamental intention: to assist in the creation of an experience for you and those who interact with you.
While there are many similarities, let’s now consider some immediately obvious differences. In the non-virtual world, materials conform to environmental constraints automatically. A long black strap will naturally hang down a certain way for instance. In the virtual world, these normally unconscious reactions must be accounted for and the incorporation of such a response then becomes part of the crafting process. Taking this a little further, we quickly see how programming in the way a material folds, responds to different types of movement, lighting, and numerous other environmental factors paves the way for some intense crafting.
Acting upon brilliant inspiration remains the genesis, manifesting a detailed & beautiful extension of the character is still the goal, but much of what must occur in between is worlds apart. An interview with Second Life fashion designers is in the works. If this interests you, click the Subscribe links to the right and stay tuned.
Virtual Burn Brings Style “Home” Part 1 of 2
The Burning of the Virtual Man was epic. So epic that it crashed the servers and we almost didn’t get to see it! Fortunately, we did get to view the outfits on the burners who remained to celebrate around the ashes.
Just in case you are confused between the video and the pics, time moves more rapidly in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and the night of the burn turned to day shortly after the man became “ash”. You may also notice some less-defined “gray areas” in the video or the pics. These are pixels that weren’t rendering properly due to the heavy traffic on the SL burn servers.
One of the things that is so spectacular about the fashions in SL is that some of these ingenious creations would be impossible in the non-virtual world. By removing the physical limitations, even more potential for expression becomes instantly possible.
At the same time, there is a fine line to be balanced upon as going completely a-wall and abandoning all semblance of physical constraints would almost certainly result in a suspension of disbelief “backlash”. Further, with regards to the virtual burn, there is an ever-present aesthetic constraint to contend with in that burners expect playa couture to appear … burnerly. While it is certainly impossible to define or authoritate what is and isn’t burnerly, I think we can all agree that, though the reason(s) may be anomalous, some looks just don’t seem suited for the backdrop of the playa.
Confessions of a Virtual Burner
Every year the global on line community of 2nd Life (SL) hosts a virtual burning of a virtual man on a virtual Playa. The event is an official Regional called Burning Life and this year over 100,000 participants are expected to attend the festival!
Equally amazing are the fashions that are being designed for this virtual world. 2nd Life has an impressive fashion industry as well as SL specific fashion blogs.
The fact that burning man fashions have a growing and significant presence in this new virtual world is yet another verification of the paradigm shift occurring. We entered the virtual playa (after doing a little shopping and putting together an outfit of course) to see some of these sweet fashions in action.
While there was a plethora of visually stunning art (including an utterly breathtaking temple) we didn’t find many people. Most everyone we came across was at center camp and only a handful were decked out to any degree. Still though, the potential is most certainly there and we are eagerly anticipating returning for the burning of the man this Saturday!
Stay tuned as the virtual man will burn on Oct 24th and we’ll be doing a follow up with pics of those who gathered to celebrate! Subscribe by clicking on the links in the right column to ensure that you don’t miss out.
Reno-lution Decom, Couture Community Snapshot
One Night Only! For just one night we can be transported back to the Playa as a default world collective. What’s more, we can bust a new outfit or two that either came into being post-playa or that we loved
too much to get dusty (there I said it).
Yeah, we all know the deal. But here’s an interesting notion that occurred to me during this year’s decom: It’s one thing to trip on the fact that 50,000 or so brilliant souls from all over the world can create such beautiful playa fashions but another thing entirely to party exclusively and be blown away by the creativity of your own small community.
Reno/Tahoe/Sparks has a higher ratio of burners to civilians than any other community in the world. And expecially during decom this really shows! These are the people who make your community what it is, radically expressing themselves. As usual, clothing is a tremendous aspect that expression.
One of the things that was great about this 
year’s decom was the daytime venue at the Celtic Forest. There were some well dressed stilters and a portrait studio where non-burners could play dress up!
What this event signifies to me is the beauty of radically creative community. The brilliance that occurs when we gather with the intention of passionately sharing in what makes us human. It’s the same synergy that we are attempting to manifest with DustyCouture. Join us in this endeavor by clicking on the Subscribe links to the right.
True Fiction, The L.A. MudPeople
There is a mysterious group of transcendentally costumed creatures that has been rumored to exist beyond the trash fence. Actually, WAY beyond the trash fence. And yet, they look like something that is of the Playa. Or, perhaps more accurately, they look just LIKE the Playa surface itself!
These are the L.A. MUDPEOPLE, an improvisational tribe. According to tribe-member Mike M. Mollet, “We don’t speak. We move slowly, wear full-head masks (often with) found clothing & ornamentation, & MUD, many colors of MUD. We hang-out. We’ve been around for nearly 20 years.”What’s so amazing is how deep the Mudpeoples’ “costume” goes. Beneath the sheer brilliance of their primitive exterior adornment, the Mudpeople act, live, and, I suspect, think the way a tribal aboriginal would. Their behavior whilst in character is said to be that of an exemplary environmental steward, a creature that is inseparable from the land.
The Mudpeople are engaging in a powerful practice of radical transformation from the outside in. There are profound experiences to be had via this method. By choosing to holistically BE something that is evolutionary-stages apart from the current norm, this tribe is tapping into some truly transcendental energy.
Over the next few weeks we will be delving deeper into the various aspects of this outfit that muddy the way for deeper development. If you are interested in exploring the power of next-level costuming along with us, click on the links to the right and subscribe.
Tubular Crinoline and You
Tubular Crinoline (aka “Crin”), or Swiss Stretchy Ribbon, is a unique material with profound unexplored potential as a crafting/costuming component. So far it’s only found wide use in the construction of “cyberlox”
(a dread-fall likehair extension) but we see a brighter future ahead for this unique accent material which has wonderful visual and interactive properties.
Over the next season our Craft-O-Lution Lab will be experimenting with a long list of ideas which utilize this resource. In addition to costumes we will also investigate accenting home decor, combinations with light sources (such as E.L.-Wire), interactivity explorations, and generally redefine the boundaries of what this captivating material can be used to create.
We understand if you aren’t interested in waiting for our results to start using this in your own projects so here’s everything we discovered about obtaining it via online sources:
Because we wanted the best price, we went through Tatum Ribbon, 
everything was delivered quickly and as advertised. Be forewarned however that there’s a minimum order amount of $100, they require a business Tax ID, their web “catalog” utilizes an archaic image-viewer technology, and the names in the catalog don’t match perfectly with the names on the ordering list! All of this makes putting your order together time-consuming and more than a little frustrating. Since their prices are practically half-off the other sources we found, we were willing to put up with the inconvenience.
Even though we went through Tatum, we still utilized the color charts at I Kick Shins. While Shins is more expensive, they allow smaller orders and don’t require a Tax ID plus their ordering process is MUCH more user friendly.
Don’t miss the imminent follow up articles featuring the results from our Crinoline experimentation labs! Click on the links to the right and stay connected!
