Being a clothing designer in SL is a bit different from RL: it would take 3 or 4 years to learn to be one in RL, while a few weeks will be enough if you’re skilled (or if you’ve already some practice of computer graphics), and several monthes if you’re a not-so-talented beginner. The SL clothing designer name is quite self-explanatory: he or she imagines and designs clothes. Big surprise. Still, the job implicates a lot more than that. So, how to become a SL clothing designer, and where shall you start ?
Training. For some weeks or monthes, the designer to be will learn and practice clothing creation.
Creating. The designer imagines and actually designs a clothes collection.
Selling. Like in RL, the designer has to open a shop so customers can buy his creations.
Investing. A small amount of money is needed to start.

 Learning: There are many training lessons in Second Life to learn how to design clothes, t-shirts, dresses or costumes. Most of them are free, but each texture upload costs L$10. So, you need a budget for that.
NB : Some third-party viewers have a free “temporary upload” feature, which is very convenient for testing the texture, and only pay L$10 when you’re satisfied with the result. You can also freely upload your textures on the SL test grid (aditi)

There are free Gimp courses on Help Sandbox every Thursday at 10 PM CET (1 PM PST)
Lessons will resume early September.
Join the Help Sandbox group for more info.

To design SL clothings, you need a graphic software. The most used is The Gimp.
It’s a freeware, you can get it here:
http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/
http://www.gimp.org/windows/
http://www.gimp.org/unix/

There also are useful tutorials you can look at here :
http://www.avatars-3d.com/gimp et sur http://gimp.jimdo.com/
Both these websites are in french, there also are several in English :
http://phoenixkattun.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/32/ http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2007/03/day-181-creating-clothes-with-gimp.html
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html
http://constructeurs-scripteurs.org/doku.php?id=liens:apprendre#vetements

But, as in RL, the designer is more than just a stylist. Part of his time will be about creation, but even more time will be needed for sales related questions : installing, selling, customer support, public relations, marketing, advertising…
So, not only have you to learn about design, you also need to learn about being a store manager, and get some knowledge of marketing and advertising.

·      Creating a clothes collection.

Before starting to design the collection in Gimp, you first need to imagine it. What will the style of your clothes be ? All kind of clothes exist and can sell in SL. But most stores focus on a specific style.
Now, consider how many shops already exist, and are already known.
If you want to challenge them, it will be a matter of quality, but more important, it will be a matter of imagination and creativity, for textures, details, and style.
Becoming a successful designer in SL means “technical” skills : being able to use gimp (or another software) properly to make the clothe look good. Training and tutorials help on that point. But in means also imagination and creativity. This is crucial – and there are no lessons about that.

When uploading and creating the clothes in SL, the designer needs calm, and to be left alone so he can focus on what he’s doing. If you don’t have a private place in SL, the best solution is to rez a platform somewhere in the sky, over a quiet sandbox.

To design the SL clothes, you need avatar templates, that will show where the clothing will be on the avatar body.
There are several free templates on avatars-3d.com , in the dowloads section http://www.avatars-3d.com/template-telechargement .
You can also get the Robin Sojourner Wood ones on her website. http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/AVUVTemplates.html

It is important that you don’t use RL brands names in SL, this is strictly prohibited. RL designs can be a source of ideas, but it has to be your collection, and your brand.

To help you create clothes, there are free fabric textures on these websites:
-   http://www.avatars-3d.com/toutes-les-textures
-  http://www.textureonline.com/
-  http://free-3d-textures.com/
Some “pre-made” clothing templates are sold on the SL marketplace.

·      Selling:

Once your clothes collection is done (start with 10 items or so), the selling issue begins… It is much easier to design clothes than to sell them to customers…

First thing you need is a shop.
Depending on how much money you’re ready to spend, you can choose to rent a shop in an already built area, or to buy a parcel on which you build the store.

If you only have a small budget, begin with renting a small shop. It’s possible to find shops in which you can rez about 20 prims for L$ 50/week.

If you can invest more, it’s better to buy or rent your own land. Small parcels, allowing about 130 prims are large enough for a first store.
Building a few walls and a roof is enough, save the prims for the displays or boxes used for selling your creations.
The cost of such a parcel should be about L$100 for purchase, and L$300/week for the fees.
The more prims you want, the more expensive it is.

You can have a look at the land for sale prices on our partner’s FRANCE3D website : http://www.france3d.org/Liste-des-terrains-en-vente

Once the parcel chosen and bought, don’t forget to change the parcel name to your brand.
About the brand name, you should keep it short and easy to remember.

Sales volume also depends on how your creations are displayed. Background and text font matching the style of the clothes, brand and logo visible, model using nice skin and hair, all these details will enhance the clothes you design.
Don’t forget that most of the time, your customer sees the shop and the displays before the actual clothe you designed. The better they look, the better you creation is displayed, the more likely he or she is to buy.

Another important matter is the price your creations are sold. It’s up to you to decide if you will position your shop as bargain, mean prices or expensive. There’s no “good” answer about that, but it is important that pricing is coherent.

·      Advertising.

Now you have a shop, your creations are set for sale and nicely displayed, but customers still have to come into the store.
First thing is to have your parcel listed in the Second Life search. In the Land window (click on the land name, top of the screen, to open it), go to the options tab, and check “show in search”. It costs L$30 / week, but it’s very important: Checking it allows every resident to see your land when using the search.

So, rename the land to your store’s name, and be careful to fill the land description field with accurate and as specific as possible keywords. This will help your shop to show up in search when customers are looking for the kind of clothes you do. Avoid vague names (clothes is a typical bad idea), describe precisely what will be found in your shop.

Still, this won’t be enough for customer to come, at least at the beginning. You need to make sure customers hear about you and your store.

Absolutely avoid spam (its forbidden, plus it doesn’t work)
There are advertising groups in which you can freely advertise about your products. Don’t bother with that: these groups are full of people who want to advertise, but there’s not a single customer there.

First thing is to tell your friends and contacts that you’ve opened your shop. Invite them to visit it, and suggest them to tell their friends about it. It will start a buzz, and if the quality of your creations is interesting, this is one of the best ways to start.

Also, join fashion groups, like Style & Addict by Evenementia, or What’s New SL. As a designer, you will be allowed to post notices, and there are many customers willing to know about new releases and shops in these groups. Some are free, some others require a fee.

Contact fashion bloggers (look on their blog for the process) and send them pictures or review copies. If they like what you do, your items will be blogged, and this can be huge advertising.

This is basically free. Later, you can consider an advertising budget, for ad banners on websites or forums, ad pages in SL fashion magazines, event sponsorship, etc.
You can also pay LL to be listed in the “classifieds” that show up in search. Or, if you’re also selling on the SL marketplace, you can have your items enhanced for a fee.
Another way to get known is to participate contests or fashion shows. You’ll find more info on upcoming shows & contests on the Style & Addict website.

Last but not least, you can organize an opening event, with a party, or a concert. People will come, which will increase traffic, they might be your first customers, and anyhow it will create some buzz, which is always a good thing.
If you plan such an event, you can contact Lalabel Demina and visit her website (Evenementia), to learn more about it. She can also organize your opening event and advertise about it, for a reasonable fee.
Consider designing a nice freebies for the event. Not only will the free item be an incitation for people to come and get it, but it will show your creations’ quality.
On the longer term, consider that the freebies you’re giving are your professional card. If they look good, people might want to buy regular creations. If they look bad, they will consider so does all your shop… Free is not cheap.

·      Investing

How much do you need to start ? Let’s look what you need for your first month:
- Textures uploads : Depending on the number of textures, and on whether you use the test grid or temporary uploads, it may vary from L$300 to L$3000.
- Renting a small shop : L$50-L$200 / week
- Getting a land for your shop: Purchase is about L$100, then L$300-L$800 / week, depending on the number of prims.
- Opening event : L$2000-L$5000, depending on what will be featured.

So, the overall figure for the first month is about L$ 400-500 if you’re on a small budget, and can raise to L$2000-7000 for a larger store with event and advertising.

·      A last but very important thing: Do not open a store unless you actually love to design clothes, and creation fun is your main motive. Do not, ever, open a store if money is your goal.
Because let’s say it bluntly : You’re quite likely to start with losing money.
At the beginning, sales may not be high enough to pay the store’s rental fees.
Later, sales will increase if quality and creativity are there. Blogs, advertising, buzz… will show results. Customers will come back, tell their friends or fashion groups about it, etc.
But still, if sales pay for the rent, consider it’s far from bad.
If sales fund your other SL expenses (private land rental, shopping, etc…) it will be nice.
Some shops are successful enough to allow the designer to make a RL profit out of it. These are very rare. And it takes time.

So, it is most important that you actually have fun creating and managing the store. Because this will be your actual reward, much more than money.

·      If you have other info or suggestions about the clothes designer job in SL, feel free to IM me with it, they will be added to this tutorial.