shenlei | A Passion for Virtual Fashion

Shenlei Flesheart, RL CEO of the Fashion Institute of America and apparel designer, has deep involvement in Second Life. Once the owner of Prim and Proper, an in-world historical and vintage fashion store, Shen now owns the Shengri-La family of sims and keeps herself busy building on OpenSim as part of a research collaboration and working on an actual design application for the apparel industry. Shen has also recently published a book about fashion design, available on Amazon.com called Designing Dreams.

Recently, Shen called me over to her sim to introduce me to her students—a trio of ladies who have been taking a multi-week class in Second Life fashion design with Shen based on Shen’s experience. I reviewed their work with interest. Each of the three ladies has a definite vision, and while they were all beginning designers, they showed a lot of promise.

Today, I am featuring the work of one of Shen’s students, Trinity Hartunian. Trinity is not new to Second Life and this shows in her work. She has a fine understanding of system pieces and shading and is developing a strong brand, Category 5, with the tag line “A force to be reckoned with.” Trinity has covered all bases right off the bat with a great website and Flickr page, and offers her designs on XStreetSL.

This dress, one of three colors available from Trinity for a mere 25L (!), has well shaped system pieces, PERFECT seams, and a stylish versatility that can take a lady from business to pleasure with just a change of accessories. Worn with a skirt shape, this dress is sexy, classy and low arc (if you need to have that for your system). Yes, you CAN look good without prims if the system pieces are done right.

I dressed the outfit up with accessories from =DeLa*=. These are the most stylish cuffs I have found in SL.

I opted to style this dress with as-yet unreleased shoes from HoneyBear Lilliehook, another new designer. HoneyBear’s “Bear Feet Savvy” shoes are another entry into the toe/foot sandal market. With it’s sexy shape and texturing, this shoe at 299L is a steal. The shoe comes with a great HUD that includes colors PRESET to match popular skins such as Laqroki, Redgrave, and Belleza (HoneyBear promises to get Pulse in there soon) and a way to customize using RGB. You can save presets as well. Additionally, the shoes come with 10 nail colors and a resizing script (which I find I need to use always—the shoes are usually too large for my ankles and you see the fatty overlap unless they are resized—ewww). I have seen others using this sandal—it’s a kit a builder can buy. HoneyBear has made it hers with her unique hud.