A Newbie in Paradise

I just had the most amazing opportunity ; someone was needed to cover “A New World Order”, the Exxess Designs Fashion Show by Avenue Models. Did I want to do it? Me, a heterosexual full-blooded male, up-close to Avenue Models’ amazing women, all wearing Layja Vidor’s incredibly arousing and sensational creations? Do some people in SL dress up as furry bears? Did a kid ever turn down an offer to run free in a candy store? Of course I jumped at the chance!
Grabbing my shiny new “Freelance writer for SL Newspaper” badge, I waited patiently for the TP to a secret rendezvous that was going to happen in what seemed to be an enormous black hanger hidden in the darkness of the night sky.
When the rezz cleared, I found myself inside. Metal blackness, lit by walls of fire, cordoned-off with heavy chains. The most amazing décor, something like an opera stage for Dante’s Inferno. Zasa Rossini of La Belle Vie furniture had built the stuff that dreams are made of.
Adjusting to the light, I looked around. Here were my new found peers, the SL media crew, the fashion writers. And then I looked again. Were these the media hacks, or had the show begun, and I was seeing the very latest walking fashion statements? They were indeed journalists, but the fashion, the quintessence of style everywhere I looked, was truly amazing. I knew I was going to enjoy the evening. The devil wears Prims.
Thank heavens for Avenue Models’ PR people! To my very great surprise, the appeal to remove scripted objects actually worked! Can you imagine the guys in a brewery turning off the beer? Or women fashion writers taking off their shoes? Yes, their shoes? Well, they did! And then I reminded myself, this is SL, the place where the impossible can and does happen.
The lag under control, the show began. Rusch Raymaker, Avenue Models’ CEO, presented her amazing models showing the very latest Exxess Designs collection. Did I already mention that I felt like a kid running wild in a candy store? Those models, those clothes, and me, front row, next to them? Yes, I sure was enjoying the evening.
Layja Vidor’s collection, “A New World Order”, is sublime. These are not clothes you’re going to wear when you have dinner with your parents. They’re probably not clothes to wear for the short distance between the exit of your apartment building and the taxi across the sidewalk. But this is a collection that’s made to kill once you arrive at the party, believe me.
Textures that I have seen nowhere else (where did she get them? Did she make a deal with a gentleman with horns and a red cape and sign it in blood?). Spikes, claws, chains, bracelets that just seem to float, you name it, you desire it, you have deep fantasies about it; you can have it! Layja makes it work, and she avoids any kind of vulgarity or perversion in the process. Just pure style, pure fashion, and, dare I say the word? Pure beauty!
Rusch Raymaker said she was very pleased with the way the show had gone off and to expect a new era in modelling from Avenue.
Fashion in SL had always seemed to me like a glorified “ Barbie’s New Haute-couture Fashion Set”. I told her I live in Paris, at the very center of the RL fashion world. And I said how I had always been convinced that pixels for avis in SL are all very fine, but for true creativity, you need to visit our Avenue Montaigne I found myself saying that the show had been a true revelation for me, and that today, the real creators, the best designers and stylists, are right here in SL. I even went as far as saying that RL designers should come into SL and learn what can really be achieved.
Now that’s something, isn’t it! Think about it folks.

By Hamlet Kornbluth