Virtual Fashion Education
Buffalo State Fashion in Second Life
In the spring of 2007 and 2008 I had students participate in a Second Life fashion project that involves developing a series of garments and participating in a virtual fashion show. Here is a link to that 2007 project. We did a similar project in the spring of 2008 but I never had the time to organize and upload it to the Web. The virtual fashion class [link to post below] took place in the fall of 2008 and involved more advanced works in Second Life from students that completed the intro to Second Life class project that I presented in the second half of the FashionCAD class. I have developed an Intro to Second Life for Fashion Learning Module Series that anyone can use.
You can visit the Buffalo State island in Second Life to see all the student collections. Here is a SURL link to the student exhibit area. All of their virtual garments are available for free. There is an exhibit remaining from a virtual/real marketing project students did with Sears. Students created replicas of Sears catalog items available free in Second Life and linked to the real item for purchase. The real items are now discontinued so only virtual items are available.
MueMeu's Fat Cat Tee
In the student stores that still remain – items that are available virtually in Second Life are also linked to real items from the ZAZZLE site. MeuMeu was a student designer that created a series of virtual tees in her SL store that linked to real ZAZZLE versions of the shirts. Here is a SURL link to teleport you to her store. See video below to illustrate how you would view the real life version from inside SL. Her virtual tee image [right, free in SL] links to her blog posting from the project.
Some links to previous posts:
Virtual Fashion Internships
Yes you are reading the heading correctly, virtual fashion internships are happening in Second Life. How do I know about them? I know about them because two of my fashion students recently completed virtual fashion internships and three students are currently working on a specialized virtual/real world project in Second Life. Who are they working with? They are working on the virtual portion of the project with Shenlei Winkler aka Shenlei Flasheart in Second Life from The Fashion Research Institute.
In my next post I will be interviewing Missy, a FashionCAD student that completed a virtual fashion internship in Second Life.
Shenlei Winkler [Fashion Research Institute in Second Life]
This all started in the spring of 2009 with students from my FashionCAD class. Last spring I was having a meltdown helping to prepare for the big Runway 2.0 production at Buffalo State college. Shenlei Winkler filled in for me with the FashionCAD students by working virtually with them on the Second Life project. Students signed on to Second Life and met up with Shenlei at the fashion Research institute. Students were teleported to the Fashion Research Institute
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- Students were teleported to the Fashion Research Institute
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- Getting clothes, skins and hair at the FRI
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- The Instructor
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- Virtual Fashion Workshop
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- Virtual Instructional Area at FRI
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- Virtual Photography
She guided them through various exhibits where they learned how to walk, fly, place items into their inventories, they were able to get skins, accessories, clothing hair, etc. Once they familiarized themselves in Second Life she teleported them up to a special fashion instructional area where all students were provided with a studio/office of their own. You can see a birds-eye view of the studio/office rooms that were created for each student in the images above. Each student was expected to decorate their office/studio room.
The images above [The instructor] show Shenlei Winkler aka Shenlei Flasheart in Sl gathering the FashionCAD students around her for their lessons in Second Life. She instructed them during class in the central area and assigned homework.
There was a central instructional area and students were posing to be photographed in their new outfits that they created. The Second Life project lasted about 6 weeks and concluded with a fashion Show. Below is a group photo taken just after the fashion show ended, Shenlei’s avatar is on the right front wearing a suit.
Group pose of FashionCAD student and Shenlei Winkler
Here is a link to my FLICKR photo set that shows some of the FashionCAD students being instructed by Shenlei in Second Life.
FRI offers courses, orientation programs, textbooks, and complete programs available as OAR files, ready to license to other institutions. Individuals are welcome to register for courses directly with FRI Here is a link to learn more about virtual fashion educational opportunities in Second Life.
