Downtown – Fashion World Update

by Pixeleen Mistral on 06/05/07 at 7:01 pm

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely You can always go…downtown

by Tenshi Vielle, Fabulous Fashionista

After a week filled with catty Second Life drama and other kinds of activity, attending the Heroes and Villans Fashion Show/Party at Catwalk City was a welcome wind-down. Many avatars were in attendance, including Laydi Bailey (Hairapy), Aradia Dielli (Perfect Image), Popfuzz Bamboo (Popfuzz), and others.

Ccfashionshow_020
Sexy TankGirl makes an appearence on the catwalk

Whether you’re a fan of DC or Marvel, there was every kind of character to be had. As it appears, being Super is en vogue and, at Catwalk City, next to Gotham, totally on location. Siyu Suen was the DJ for the evening, while BooBooKittie Haight, owner of Catwalk City, played the MC. All of the costumes were wonderfully well-designed by their creators, and there were no complaints from THIS superhero.

Ccfashionshow_004
The Joker… gives me nightmares


Downtownopening_0011
Clowns were part of the entertainment at the Downtown sim’s opening on Saturday

Downtownopening_0021
Some of the first teleporters, at noon SLT. That’s Antonia Marat of Artilleri on the near left

The sim Downtown opened Saturday admist quite a buzz. At 12pm SLT on the dot, avatars began teleporting in to participate in the treasure hunt, where one could find tokens hidden all over the sim. By 5pm SLT, however, all tokens that were available were gone. “The professional treasure hunters came in and cleaned us out!” said one bystander, showing his Hoover pockets.

Downtown_001
The Chinese-themed back alley

Downtown_002
Mandarin Chinese – mmmmmm, kitty

The sim definetely shines the best at night setting, what with all the special spotlights and neon signs. The build began back in January, and boasts builders such as Pushbutton Skolnick, flopsie McArdle, Abbey Underall, Trevor Turner and Natalie Defiant. Natalie Defiant and Gage Rousselot are the sim’s co-owners.

Downtown2_002
Aradia Dielle shifts through records at Downtown’s record shop

“Totally insane, as you can pretty much see,” an exhausted Natalie told me over IM in regards to the traffic during the day, “Its been about 7 hours since we’ve opened, the crowd has stayed pretty large for most of it.” Isn’t that the truth. As I write this, there are at least 20 avatars standing in the center of town having their own little block party.

Downtown2_003
Block party at Downtown

As I write this article, most shop locations are full and there’s a waiting list to get in. “We invited vendors that we saw and liked,” Natalie says, “and once they saw the sim, most vendors couldn’t say no.”

“I’ve only been to NY once and stayed in Brooklyn. This feels like the real thing.” Moo Money stands at the corner by the record shop and the autobody shop, smiling. “And [the rent] is cheap! I seriously see a lot of potential in this sim. Check out the train!”

Downtown_005
The Brownstones at Downtown are magestic in their own right – but could you imagine the rent?!

Not long after I finished talking to Moo, the sim crashed from overload but was up again just as quickly. This sim is the next big thing.

5 Responses to “Downtown – Fashion World Update”

  1. marilyn murphy

    May 6th, 2007

    looks great im gonna go look this over. ty, great article.

  2. Simondo Nebestanka

    May 6th, 2007

    That sim does have a pretty darn cool look and feel to it. Great that we have such a mix of architectural styles in SL.. some totally “off the planet”-type places and some great RL locations kinda re-created. Good pics and story!
    Cheers

  3. HoJo Kilda

    May 9th, 2007

    Checked it out a bit and yes it does indeedy do look a lot like some parts of my beloved New Yawk. Cool build and some fab stores, I’ll be back for some shopping tomorrow.

    Nice to see an article about something fun and creative here as opposed to the typical “SL sucks because fill in the blank blah blah blah,” that I usually see here. Can we please have more articles about cool builds and creative things like this in the future? Pretty please!? Sl Herald’s been a real drag lately in my opinion.

  4. marilyn murphy

    May 9th, 2007

    you know hojo. you are right. i want a bit of this stuff too. i think the problem is that not many people are writing this sort of thing right now due to a lot of the turmoil over the open letter and the age verification and such. those are big news items and tend to crowd out the mere items of interest. probably in time the balance will swing back the other way and then people will comment complaining about “fluff” and no substance. ha ha.

  5. Tenshi Vielle

    May 9th, 2007

    I’m working on it, guys. Getting into more “gridhopping” articles. Keep your eyes open :)

Leave a Reply