So, I probably wouldn’t have found this shining example of ego-centricity if Grazia Horwitz hadn’t plurk’d it this morning with a link and the caption ‘OMG, I peed’. When someone laughs so hard they pee, you have to check that out.
In our SL Fashion culture, ego seems to be the thing that proceeds you before a fall. We value and hold up our talented, humble designers, but then there are the ones who make up for lack of talent with an ego the size of the Red Sea. In fact, I’ve noticed that the less talented (and I’ll explain later what I mean by talented) the designer, the bigger the ego, especially if they’ve been around longer.
I’m putting a cut here because I have a feeling this will be a touchy subject with some people, so don’t click it if you don’t want to read it. I was feeling picky today, and this set me off.
So Vanilla Sola, designer of Black Moon, is apparently up in arms because someone stole her idea that was all her own and had never been done before; paper as an outfit. I know, right? Well, here’s some pictures of the copying: Black Moon, Lemania Indigo . They totally look alike, amirite? I think the Paper Couture outfit (way to steal a successful brand name for your outfit, Vanilla) is made of paper…and the newsprint dress…is made of paper.
Will anyone cry content theft these days? I wouldn’t even say they’re remotely similar.
Vanilla then goes on to compare herself to Last Call in terms of quality:
And some of my customers approached me already scared that we’d close as Last Call because they compair our design with them and did tell me they don’t want to loose the quality.
Also, what really sets her outfits above the rest:
Thanks god my customers all still come to my shop and tell me they see the difference at the quality and that although my design ideas can be found meanwhile anywhere else too mine would be still outstanding. I guess it are the hours I put in that make the difference. Otherwise such idea using would have forced us to close our shop!
And here’s where the ego sets in…Vanilla made her paper outfit last year, while Lemania Indigo made hers on Tuesday. I’m sure that Vanilla’s innovative idea to use paper as a fabric had just been burning Lemania up for the past year until she just couldn’t help herself anymore.
Oh crap, I think Galliano just infriged on Vanilla’s IP rights!
I think it’s just the basic presumption and possibly the bad grammar that makes me so angry.
There are occasions when ego is a good thing. You should always have self-confidence and be happy with what you put out into the world. It’s when you present yourself as the be-all, end-all of the oh-so-important world of SL fashion that it starts to stink a little. And Vanilla’s ego had a whole slew of fashion bloggers laughing at her in Plurk today.
And since ‘talent’ is such an amorphous concept, let me tell you what I consider ‘talented’ pieces. It’s also what I look for when I want to review something for SCD.
- A good sense of proportion and symetry/asymetry
- Details such as buttons, pockets, seams, etc
- Texturing that actually uses texture in an efficient, elegant way
- Shading and depth, which is probably my overall criteria
- Whimsy and heart
Judged on this scale, Black Moon would not be blogged on SCD. I’m not saying that because I consider her untalented, Vanilla should close her shop and leave SL forever. I’m not the boss of anyone; just some chick with a blog and an idea of what she likes.
If designing is what turns your crank, then design! Make what you love! Work constantly to improve your skills and you’ll be great! If we like it we’ll buy it and treasure it. Just don’t presume that you’re the best game in town, please. There’s nothing like an unhealthy ego to make people want to rip you out of your self-appointed tower.
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Whereas I am totally appreciative of any content creator acting up when they believe their IP is being infringed upon, what cracked me up were indeed the quotes that you have highlighted, Iris. Ego is everything, apparently
And I always thought that Galliano copied d’Artagnan’s moustache anyway, so further copying does not surprise me at all *snickers*
I fail to see how these designs are even remotely close to the quality that Last Call provided… Probably pointing out the obvious, here, but… No. Sorry.
Calling an outfit “Paper Couture” in your SL line is like calling an outfit “Proenza Schouler” in your RL line, y/y?
I’m still looking at those two outfits and I’m still trying to see the similarities other than they used newsprint as the idea. I’ve never seen either outfit in world, but I hope for Ms. Sola’s sake that her outfit in that picture is merely a victim of bad photography.
The paper couture outfit made me laugh my balls off when I saw it on the feed and then I saw it on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/worstcrapfromslandfashfeed/3025382800/in/photostream/). Doesn’t she realize that she isn’t total hot shit?! This is why I don’t make stuff… I would make terrible terrible junk and I would be so proud of it. I’ll just leave it up to the talented creators and veer far away from the likes of Black Moon.
I don’t get it….this designer is still making the type of stuff (textures bleh) that were around in 2006, who would want to copy? Perhaps a mall or something like that. I think she is protesting the use of the word “paper” as that is the only similarity I can see, just as well no one owns IP rights to the english language huh. Sorry babbling just wopke up
0.o
I can’t see the similarities at all. One looks like wall paper and the other is newspaper… a few months ago I ran into Sn@ch and found a dress with newspaper print that was way cuter than either of these…
I was just curious, so paper was the texture used and she is screaming she was copied, so does that mean every person using knit as a texture is also stealing ideas? There are no parts of the outfits that look the same to me.
Also looking a few pages back in her blog she states this:
this flowered skirt is in the tradition of the skirts that Black Moon designed as first shop in Second Life, as well as flowered collars and other cute accessories we added to our dresses 2 years ago already, at a time when only very simple skirts and tops got sold at SL.
Please someone tell me she was not the first clothing store in sl, if so her designs must not have changed. They seriously and I am not saying this to be mean, look like freebie clothing.
It woudl be one thing if an outfit was called “Paper Coture” and it was inspired by or is a satire presentation of the original company; this work by BM just looks silly. Now, it doesn’t look like utter basic primage slapped onto an avatar, but it is definitely not Last Call. In fact, I find it very disrepectful for someone to proclaim that, considering *why* LC had to close. And I certainly don’t see a headline of “Vanilla Must Die” on Lemania’s newspaper dress.
Now, I think it’s also problematic that she went after Lemania when there are other, bigger designers using the same concept. For example, Bare Rose has two paper outfits:
Origami Swan
http://barerose.xeraweb.com/index.php?module=viewitem&itemid=1564
Originally presented in Tori Heart’s Blog: April 06, 2008
It’s Only a Paper Moon
http://barerose.xeraweb.com/index.php?module=viewitem&itemid=1790
Originally presented in Tori Heart’s Blog: September 01, 2008
There have been other small designers, as well:
Homeless by Abnormal Ms
http://freebietelegraph.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/funny-hobo-outfit-abnormal-ms/
Crepe Paper Queen by Color Me Chaos
http://i37.tinypic.com/2aaa3j4.jpg
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cursed/210/209/24
We could probably search OnRez and Xstreet SL to find many more examples of paper being used by Second Life designers other than Ms. Vanilla. Hopefully, we don’t need to go into real life fashion, which not only involves designers, but activists and your crazy prom-goers.
It seems like her name is fitting: she lives in a sheltered world where there can only be one way to do things, making her ignorant to other methods of creativity and enjoyment.
I think some people get confused about the whole concept of “intellectual property” and think that their *ideas* are some sort of precious commodity. They are not. Ideas, by themselves, are worthless. Its only the *expression* of those ideas that has value. I might have the “idea” of writing a story about a man whose ambitions lead him to commit awful crimes and eventually loses everything, but that doesn’t make me Shakespeare.
The annoying thing is that these silly claims get mixed up in laypeople’s minds with the real cases of actual content theft and they wind up ignoring the whole issue as just a bunch of catty fashionista drama.
I read the blog in question this morning and blinked once, laughed alot and went about my merry way. But honestly? For new designers who watch the feeds, this is why some quit. Who wants to deal with someone going all ego-ish because *gasp* similar ideas where put out during different time frames.
The rest of her blog is rather interesting too…talk about ego indeed.
WTF! I couldn’t even finish reading it. she could atleast fucking use proper punctuation and sentence structures. shes jumping all over the place, I can’t keep up!
*blinks*
What?
This girl must be blind. She better hurry and nab all the other people with paper clothes because I own at least 4 that I can think of off the top of my head.
My favorite being –
http://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=418164
Umm I bought a newspaper textured dress from Truth earlier this year that is funky and fun! Wonder what would happen if she tried to take him on lmao.
“Wonder what would happen if she tried to take him on lmao”
Oh thats easy. he would hit on her, duh.
SL is “Your World, Your Imagination,” right?
Some people just let their imaginations run right off the cliff and land in the pit of DELUSION.
Now I want to make a newspaper outfit. :/
Do eet, Kess! XD
I am hoping she never made a dress that looked like stone, because my “Rock Me” dress may be a copy of her ideas, and hell… paper covers rock! But there may be hope for me yet; if I can only come up with a dress that uses scissors as a theme… we all know that scissors cut paper!
Sorry, I couldn’t ignore this one, the target was the size of a football field, and even with my poor aim, it was irresistible!
~ Ketsy
I think that every designer who reads this thread should make a paper dress or outfit. Flood the feed with them and watch her explode.
Assignment: Paper Fashion
Materials: Paper(newspaper, magazine, wallpaper, notebook paper, construction paper, etc)
Process: Design and create a dress or outfit solely based around the concept of paper.
Prize: Personal satisfaction
Some people are just delusional. I pity them.
I just peed my pants too! In laughter! Oh boy oh Boy! Sarah Palin Syndrome (SPS) !!!!!!!!
Oh, for… I bought a comic strip dress from ReTox several months ago. Is she going to whine about that one, too?
I found the reference to Last Call quite tasteless given their reason for closing. The entire blog is filled with similar grandiosity. Really bizarre.
Both paper outfits are definitely freebie quality, and fugly. Clothing designers with no skills are basically boring, they are a dime a dozen. What I tend to laugh at are the occasional uberfugly outfits put together by bloggers.
The ‘short comment’ on her blog is also… amusing. She’s another one who ‘is a RL designer’. Ahem.
But, y’know, she does all the shading and stuff, as she points out to us.
She also says ‘are you saying my customers have no taste?’
Yep, sweetie. We are.
Now, I am fairly certain english isn’t Vanilla’s first language, so I can forgive the mumbling rant on her blog’s awful grammar (and if it IS her native tongue….wow). What I can’t forgive is that liking to Last Call. No way. Not in a million years…not even since I started in ’06. I didn’t like Black Moon stuff when I was a newbie and I see that nothin’s changed in the past two years. RL fashion doesn’t always translate into SL, nor does RL skill. The disillusioned customers who may have done the comparison must have been either blind, mates or just…i dunno.
At any rate, she needs to get a clue.
her outfit should be called “ugly hotel stationary”
@Kess,
We should have a newspaper fashion challenge. I’ll see if I can talk Thomas into making silks out of newspapers.
What bothers me is that we are comfortable piling on a designer who is seen as a safe target to attack. Blue Moon is a safe target because Vanilla clearly isn’t catering to true SL fashionistas as none of us would probably choose to purchase and wear her designs. It’s disingenuous to say we are offended by her ego because frankly I’m offended by the outrageous display of ego and self-importance many popular designers and bloggers plaster on the feeds – and I know I’m far from alone on this one. But, we don’t and can’t criticize the golden cows publicly for fear of retaliation so instead we just snicker and roll our eyes behind their backs.
Vanilla is ridiculous to suggest her design concepts are being infringed upon and clearly her designs aren’t about to give our favored design houses a run for their money. That said, if you’re gonna bust people for their display of ego please aim a little higher. The list of people needing a nudge off their pedestal is long indeed.
Personally I think both items shown are crap and I wouldn’t wear either. Nor do they look remotely similar to each other. If I were a creator, I would really go back to the drawing board on those and wouldn’t have released them to the public in the first place. If creators are gonna talk like they are some mack daddy excellent creator and have been copied from, then show us the ‘money’ instead of crap like what is shown in this blog post.
“mack daddy” LMAO
Oh, and I agree with sad but true. One of the brands who needs a nudge off their pedestal was just blogged on SCD.
@ Sad but true: I SO agree with you!!!
Agreed, as entertaining as this seemed at first, it now feels mostly sadistic as the opponents are clearly an uneven match. That said, the sadistic part of me rather enjoys controversy for controversy’s sake.
I also kinda feel this particular target was chosen because their items aren’t really catering to the fashionista crowd… and that there’s more than one designer out there who has a bit of undeserved self-importance. I’ve seen a lot of freakouts from big and small designers over “copying” that don’t necessarily seem justified.
Why is it such a witchhunt, and such an emotional deal for everyone involved? Because the creators of Second Life have virtually no rights in this situation. Aside from following a DMCA (effective? You tell me), there’s NOTHING we can do once something’s been ripped off… So when we see something we think might’ve been copied… it’s not a rational reaction, it’s an emotional one, because we feel pretty damn helpless about it all. I’m not stating that this particular designer isn’t a bit of a snob, I’m just saying that an overreaction to possible copying and theft is pretty much the norm in a virtual world where copiers GET AWAY WITH IT. And some of the big names out there have done the exact same thing Ms. Black Moon has done, accuse someone of copying a “concept” of sculpted boots, for example.
Okay, that wasn’t meant as a rant about theft/copying… oops. Just to say, ego hits the big guys too, and maybe the emotional freakout over copying is going to be the norm now that it’s so common and LL does frack all about it. :/
I was pretty offended by the comparison to Last Call, though.
Edited to add: Iris’s followup at SL Revolution actually has some pretty good advice for new designers looking to add more realism to their texturing… and if we’re all going to do “paper” couture, let’s do it and auction the outfits off for charity. Maybe something that saves trees.
So now the â€O My God I Can’t Believe How Mean You Are†postings start to come. I’ve read how some are worried about new designers being picked apart.
This isn’t a new designer in SL. She’s had a shop in SL 2 years before she started her blog. And she claims to be “THE†designer of SL. When she aims high, she better deliver quality to back up her words. So she was treated badly? Tell me, have any of you who cry out now really read her blog, the Black Moon blog? Notice that she mention Blaze here. I say no more.
Friday, August 29, 2008:
And a very big THANK YOU to our customers, who never did let us down! And by the way I wonder how they lived of what they earned, because truly, they can’t 
That’s just a nice story. Sl design is not enough as only job if you want to live well 
at least not if you only design and don’t rip people off.
There are some new designers offering dresses for 50-250$ and trying to collaps the SL market that already suffers badly by the dollar going down. Besides the fact that the dresses look only on the pics nice and that the designers might even cause that some good designers leave SL, they won’t survive for long because noone can seriously want to buy any more expensive items from them when they see before how simple and sloppy the designs were made by buying the lowpriced ones. Cheap means always also that no love was put in and that the designer just trys to make fast money. Of course I bought also already some real cheap stuff, but seriously most went to trash. At RL it is not any different, only very few things that are real cheap got real quality. A designer got not to feel a bad consience or guilty if he sells you crap at a cheap price, you may even not complain, he would tell you: What do You expect at this price? And he is right.
We have had a flood of crapdesigns and still have it at SL and it is now hopefully getting better when the people just don’t sell their crap anymore because less people spend much money and most discover the difference between quality and crap after being at SL for a while.
As I came to SL it was hard to find any nice gown for less than 1000L$, we have offered the dresses including accessories and heels cheaper than this and have been one of the reasonable priced designs at SL for a long while. Most of our dresses are about 500L$ and less, but I won’t join the new trend to sell at a loss, because my designs are not fast made crap and extremly detailed painted. Thanks to all those awesome people who support our design and love our quality our business is not half as much down as most others and even at a time when shops as Blaze who really tryed to be exclusive and told the magazines they’d live at real life by their design earned not even a quarter of what we earned, so I won’t complain
More posts from August 2008:
This blog is about my design but also about me and so I will use it also to tell how I feel about some things at SL. You might have a different opinion or the same one, that’s ok for me, I don’t expect everyone to agree.
Why is this design extraordinary?
Just because You won’t find this kind of dresses at this quality anywhere else. As I already mentioned a lot of my ideas get used by other designers, but You’ll never find this detailed work and the original is always the best. If I catch people imitating my work I give them the same back till they stop, if needed I even make those clothes freebies after designing them. I am a fighter and as I started having a bigger shop at SL a model asked at a SL magazine for fashion if they’d like to write about my design. She talked to some lady who’s name was Doolittle, I won’t mention her complete name, but I will mention what she said. She seriously said: No we won’t write about this design because You do only ugly costumes and no fashion!
At this point of time I didn’t design any different to nowadays and if you look up my shop you’ll laugh about every single word that this lady said. Meanwhile we are everywhere mentioned as one of the best shops and designs in SL. It is hard if you have to work with people who are totally imcompetent but run any magazine that deeply believes to know about fashion. It’s a true shame for SL! Sorry to say this but it is definetely the truth!
Look up some of my dresses and make up your own mind and opinion.
blaze blaze blaze *tries to think* isn’t that one of those brands like Simone! Who was the shit back in 2005-2006 but now, nearing 2009, their quality has not caught up with the rest of SL’s “best”, yet ppl still hold onto the etched-in-their-mind belief that they are still the shit?
Maybe im wrong. Im probably wrong.
Anyway, the girl is clearly dellusional. If she can communicate in english and bash american designers, she should be able to take a bashing back. But I still agree there are other, larger, designers, who need a kick off of their pedestal. I could name some, but I won’t start the drama.
Ah, an anecdote about Vanilla. I found Black Moon when I was just two or three months old back in 2007. To young me it seemed like her dresses were THE ONES. (I was still camping and binging still meant buying dresses from 25 dollar diva). I never bought any from her, though, because most of them costed L$700 or more. But I added her shop to my pick and it stayed there for almost a year until one day I won a competition by Callie Cline. Without thinking much I just edited one of my picks to contain a quote of a group announcement Callie made about us winners and changed the picture to my entry picture… and it was incidentally the pick that linked to Black Moon.
As I visited Black Moon again to see if there were new dresses, Vanilla IM’ed me. She told me to remove my pick because she’s not Callie. It’s not as if it’s a mistake a profile reader would make, the content of the pick and the picture was totally not the real favorite place sort, you know what I mean? I did remove the pick but I wrote off her store in my head.
I read her blog about the paper dress issue and didn’t go any further. I’ve never purchased a BM dress and don’t know much about Vanilla either. I saw the flickr page I won’t say I felt sorry for her but that little part of my heart that isn’t black did feel a little bad for her. After reading the comments here I don’t feel bad anymore.
There are a lot of designers who make top quality items for 100 to 200L. Being low priced doesn’t mean the items are bad. It’s actually smart because shoppers end up buying more. I know I feel better buying 10 items for $2000 than just 2 items. High priced doesn’t mean it looks great and BMs items are an example of that.
@Sad but true: great comment! I agree with you 200%.
*rolls eyes*
Christ. First of all, fashionistas are fashionistas because they shop, they DROP the lindens, have taste, and are looked upon as resources. Fine. Finished. Get over it. They may or may not blog about it- but it remains fact that they are the ones to find the best SL has to offer and guess what- these outfits BOTH EFFING SUCK.
I’m usually not one to raise my opinion but when people start being ridiculous and getting all pissy at the fashionable set in SL… Ugh I’m so over it. Go buy a gun and play army or something if fashion isn’t your thing. If you put stuff out there- quality or not, it WILL be judged, scrutinized, laughed at, hated, and scoffed by SOMEONE- so grow a pair and get over it. The peaceful loving society of fashionistas will strike when necessary I’ve noticed. They will strike when they deem appropriate and they will applaud frequently and often (I am of the mindset if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. And most genuinely good designers deserve the ass kissing since they spent lord knows how much time- but I digress…)
Secondly, this woman has absolutely no right to act like she doesn’t need to learn a thing or two (maybe a million) about making quality clothes. That outfit sucks. SUCKS. I wouldn’t go near them. If I saw someone wearing that, I wouldn’t even want to talk to them. Does this make me a stuck up snob? Yes. Do I care what you think? No. I’m telling you this because I have just as much right to voice my opinion as Iris Seale does or this quack job nut who thinks her clothes are the end all be all in SL fashion does. And I’m siding with Iris because of one little detail that little Miss “I’ve been designing for 25 years†(designing what? Bad wallpaper?) seems to be so profoundly lacking in: CLASS.
The most insulting part of all of this is the use of the words “Paper Couture.†*makes a fist* This B- has the gall to associate such drivel with one of the best fashion houses in SL is a joke. Although Paper Couture may not make actual “couture,†the quality of their product (meaning textures, prims, creativity, originality, etc.) deserves to not be linked with such crap.
In finalizing, I laughed my @$$ off at this. People who have egos for absolutely no reason need to be shipped off somewhere with the blingtards and oily skinned neko rejects.
OK since this is the first time I found out I was being bashed to be honest I had a good laugh. Number One — I copy NO ONE — never heard the woman’s name, never owned her products, etc. The idea behind the dress if she were smart enough to read the notes was that it was for SL Newspaper and the logo had to be used. Thus, newsprint. If she holds intellectual copyright on paper we should all be scared. Now all I want to do is make every dress out of paper. Also if you are going to blast me have the guts to let me know in person. Jealousy will eat you up girl. And you know something else… I honestly don’t give a damn if you are a fashionista or not. The clothes I make come from my own head and if you like them fine, if you don’t fine. I price EVERYTHING reasonably because this is SL and not RL and why do people come in here – to have fun and enjoy themselves. If you can get a great outfit for 1L or 200L it makes me feel good knowing you aren’t stressing because your credit card charges are getting out of control because of you SL spending.
In RL I am an artist with a normal ego. I have sold mt pastels all over the world – thousands. I came into SL and began making clothes because I enjoy it. I learn new things every day – try to up the game and let me say one final word — I WILL NOT OVER PRICE my designs and will ALWAYS keep them affordable. So if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen because I have a lot me coming at you baby.
Oh to those who say that the dress sucks
To each his own and fashion and art are the same. We each have our own taste and design sense. You wanna be cruel – go ahead. I have thick skin and no worries on the score of whether you have better fashion sense than I do. Does it matter? We all buy what we like and if you don’t like it don’t buy it but don’t bash creativity in the bargain. I am here not to make a statement but to be creative and have fun. No big ego but you want to call something butt ugly go ahead. I really don’t care 
I’m going to be away on business are they able to deliver to a P.O. Box?
I love your blog!
It is very good!