FASHISM participated in the Fashion For Life (FFL) fair that ran from March 12-22. Each designer at the show set aside and/or created special content for sale, proceeds from which were donated to the American Cancer Society. We got to showcase our latest work while contributing to an important cause.
The FFL fair was amazing: 9 uniquely designed sims of thematic 'Beyond Black & White' goodness, with tons of shops and goodies to peruse. It was very well organized and run by Harper Beresford and Syngen Sohmers et al. I couldn't have asked for a better experience as a first-time merchant: my shop was on the Elikatera-sponsored Bourke-White sim, and got lots of walk-in traffic.
I barely settled on my final design for my first product line, 'Sunrise' eyes, in time for the show. I spent a few days on branding aesthetics (a logo, color scheme and graphics, etc.) and then quickly outfitted my shop for the event. I added new eye colors pretty much daily for the first few days. I was so behind when it started!
Despite that, things went really well. And things exploded once Harper's A Passion For Virtual Fashion blog was posted. Here is her gushing, glowing post about my eyes, called The Eyes Have It. Within 5 minutes of it going live, I had traffic, and more traffic. Nearly every visitor mentioned that they had read Harper's blog and had to come see. That was a pointed lesson and example for me of the power and reach of a relevant SL fashion blog with a large, dedicated following. Thanks, Harper!
The show ended March 22nd, so as that wound down, I scrambled to find land for my permanent Main Store. I finally settled here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jewelry/48/181/37 ... and got the store operational pretty quickly. Since then, I have been fiddling with the architecture and decor. That work is nearly complete (for now), and I plan to get back to making eyes very soon!
In the meantime, I have been featured on a few SL fashion blogs and flickr posts, so I'll do follow-up posts here soon with links. I setup a flickr FASHISM group, too. New images are coming in almost daily, which is really gratifying.
I have received so much praise for my first series of eyes, which is my first of hopefully many FASHISM product lines. It's so encouraging! I can't wait to make more content for Second Life.
Out! - Ikon Innovia
