Welcome to The Modavia Supermodels - The Most Popular Virtual Models in the World, and Stars of the Modavia Fashion Directory - The First Second Life Guide to the Who’s Who of Top Fashion Design. Thanks for visiting! - Dea Mills, CEO, Modavia Fashion Marketing. VOTE FOR US!

Shirt:  Forever Sweater Med (Cranberry) by Callie Cline

Pants:  Bayla Pants from Haute Style and Co.

Shoes:  Tomboy sneakies in black unlaced

Hair:  Ember-Black Brown from Deviant Kitties

clothes: *LeeZu Baxter* Lea Pants /black, top from *LeeZu Baxter* NOIR Mina Flexi Dress
shoes: Maitreya ChiChi Pumps - Black Velvet
hair: “FA”Solid Wave[Neo Black]
skin: angelee 2.0

clothe:*LeeZu Baxter* Lea Pants /green, top [spork] Tanx - Lemon, AOHARU_BT_AfghanStole_Orange
hair: “FA”Solid Wave[Neo Black]
skin: angelee 2.0

clothe: *LeeZu Baxter* Lea Pants /violet, top from Cachet - SPIDER
hair: “FA”Solid Wave[Neo Black]
skin: angelee 2.0

Clothe: Lady Thera’s Moreau
hair: ETD Marisela II - Copper
skin: angelee 2.0 skin

Clothe: Lady Thera’s Paul Cezanne(x)
hair: ETD Marisela II - Copper
skin: angelee 2.0 skin

Clothe: Lady Thera’s Renoir Night Gown_001
hair: ETD Marisela II - Copper
skin: angelee 2.0 skin

Clothe: Lady Thera’s Tatoo - Juan Miro Constellation
hair:booN BON75 hair black big
skin: angelee 2.0 skin

Dea Mills, CEO for Modavia, had this to say, “It gives me great pleasure to announce, Ms. Poptart Lilliehook as Chief Editor of the Modavia Fashion Directory. Poptart will oversee the monthly development of the directory, as well as manage and coordinate directory staff, models, designers, and photographers. Pop is not only a well-respected working model, but also a seasoned businesswoman whom I regard highly. She has a critical eye and is never pleased when something is left undone or done without excellence. She is unafraid of challenge, works endless hours, and is willing to do whatever it takes to reach the goal. I am certain the Modavia Fashion Directory will grow in even greater quality and prominence under Pop’s leadership.”

The Modavia Fashion Directory is the first Second Life guide to the who’s who of top fashion design and features The Modavia Supermodels - the most popular virtual models in the world.

Are these parties just fun and laughter? Is there more going on there?

The life of a real life model (from the outside anyway) appears to be travel, fittings, shows, shoots and parties with plenty of photographers always around to capture their latest look (or latest antics) to be splashed across the pages of tabloids and magazines.

In SecondLife, there are certainly parallels to the real world–.  Successful models in SL are busy with fittings, photoshoots and castings. They are being given gorgeous clothing, shoes, skins, and hair by designers almost every week. They always look amazing (and never have to go to the gym!)  and they will often have items to wear before they have been put on the shelf for the teeming masses to purchase. They are also photographed at social events and those photos appear in online publications and blogs.

And the parties! One or more each day!…Do they serve a purpose?

In SecondLife, a party is a chance to be in the same room as designers, models, photographers, and other creative people who are there in a more relaxed frame of mind. The music is great, the jokes and comments are flowing..and you can finally meet some of the people whose work you have admired. I have met models, agency managers and owners and photographers at parties and later these same people have become business associates.

Networking at parties is really the game within the game.
Exactly like the realworld cocktail parties where the executives and spouses are all dolled up and a bit relaxed from the liquor… SecondLife parties with their intoxicating blend of beautiful avatars, thrumming music and a well-designed surrounding are conducive to the forming of new friendships and contacts.

The room chat is greetings, clever remarks. and laughter.. the IM? (OK I am not going *there*) is often many introductory chats, requests for friendship to contact each other about a project, or just mutual admiration being expressed so that the proximity to that person isn’t a lost opportunity.

We no longer must justify our parties and hours spent dancing.. we are networking! We are increasing our contact base within a social milieu (OK, maybe that’s stretching it)

The intended point of this missive was to say that business is often done outside of the confines of a business meeting. All of us who work in the modeling and fashion arena of SL are aware of people via their flickr pages or runway events or any number of places we become familiar with their work, but we haven’t met them personally. Attending parties is a great way to finally get some “face time” with that person and can lead to friendships or future collaborations.

So party on, SecondLife fashionistas! Increase your visibility and increase your list of business contacts.  Those hours spent dancing and joking are not wasted, they are invested!

Dress:  *ICING* Sangria Sunrise

Jewerly: *ICING* Princess Pearl Set

Shoes:  ~*ZHAO*~ “SHY II” (PINK)

 When I first took up my role of V.P. Fashion at Modavia, Dea’s first job for me was to pull together a shortlist of the best couture designers in SL. She gave me about 8 names of her favourite designers to get started with to which I added my own favourites. Next stop was the other 35 supermodels, each contributing their own favourite designer’s name to my list. I then spent the next few months going to every couture show/event and happening I could to try to gather enough nominations from the amassed fashionistas to be able to come to an opinion on the best of the best in SL. I readily concede that, during those 2 months, I was guilty of more indiscrete right clicking on, and scrutinising of, other people’s garments than any other avatar in SL. If you got the feeling that someone was watching you at Miss Universe pageant or at a kMAD show or at the Ewing Fashion Awards, or the ever-popular BOSL events, or pretty much just walking down the street… you were probably right. My thinking was that people vote with their feet (and their Lindens) so if they’re wearing it to a special occassion, then they must like it. My column in the inaugral edition of the Modavia Fashion Directory reflected the final list I settled on after many happy hours of looking, talking, shopping and wearing. My personal take, liberally informed by fashionable colleagues, on the Top 50 Couture Designers in SL.

There are so many fine designers in SL though who we know we might have overlooked or who do one or two things very well but who don’t yet have the breadth of collection to make it into the current Top 50. Our continued quest to honour the designers of SL who bring the finest of creativity and beauty to our SL wardrobes will play out through the year as we seek to add to, and further refine, our existing list - building to a Top 100 of designers by our first anniversary edition of the directory next year.

To this end, my blog site here GOT POP? (htp://www.i.getmodavia.com) will call each month for suggestions in a given category of fashion, say formal shoes, or men’s casual. Suggestions will be judged by our Fashion Review Board made up of Modavia Supermodels and invited guest judges. This is not just another vacuous contest - we earnestly believe that our reviews will act as a buying guide for all SL residents - steering people towards those designers who are truly striving for excellence. Please write to me and tell me about your favourite designer - and in particular, any exciting new talent on the grid that we can showcase. So here goes… these brands got the top votes in my personal straw poll.

1. Armidi
2. Baiastice
3. BiancaF
4. Bijou
5. Black Moon Haute Couture
6. Bolero Collection
7. Cachet
8. Callie Cline
9. Casa del Shai
10. Cubic Effect
11. Dare 2 Bite
12. Designing Nicky Ree
13. Digit Darkes
14. Eros Fashions
15. Freda’s Fine Fashion
16. Frozen Turquoise Valentine
17. Haute Style & Co
18. House of Nyla
19. House of Rfyre
20. Icing
21. Indyra Originals
22. Innovations
23. Ivalde
24. Jador
25. Jaywalk
26. Kunglers Fashion Design
27. Lady Thera
28. LeeZu Baxter Designs
29. Maitreya
30. Mimikri Hot Couture
31. Minx Shoe Designs
32. Muism
33. Nonna Hedges
34. Paper Couture
35. Patrizia Blessed Collection
36. Redgrave
37. Sartoria Italiana
38. Serene Sensations
39. Sherry Yates Fashion
40. Shiny Things
41. Simone! Design
42. Stiletto Moody Shoes
43. Storm Schmooz
44. Sven Olbers
45. SWS Design
46. The Zoo
47. Tres Jolie
48. VictoriaV Fashion
49. Vindi Vindaloo
50. Zhao Shoes

Poptart Lilliehook, Vice President of Fashion
Modavia Fashion Marketing

Top and Skirt-HSC Amy

Jewerly-PERSONA Black Pearl Drop Earrings and Necklace

Shoes-Maitreya ChiChi Velvet Black

Skin-Redgrave 06 Beyonce

Eyes-MADesigns SOUL Green 1

Hair-Aden Edie Black

What am I still doing up at 4:00AM, you ask.  Well, I was shopping, asking Dea millions of questions, and trying to figure out which hair demos fit me best at Minnu.  Tonight was my first time trying on the new Minnu skins that were released weeks ago.  And I must say that they’re not as bad as many people have told me they are.  The Gen 2 skin collection, with the shiny, glimmering lips, still remains my favorite skins ever created by Minnu–I was saddened that Minnu retired the collection.  The Minnu Zero skins have much of the same shadings as the controversial Gen 4 collection, a collection that became the topic of many accusive and, perhaps, slanderous blogs.  In a recent interview with Minnu in the Best of SL magazine, Minnu has finally revealed her side of the story–that she has never been sued and that pulling both Gen 2 and Gen 4 was her decision and not due to a legal reasons.  Why has Minnu become the attack of blogs when it is obvious that so many other designers, perhaps, do the same thing as Minnu has–used sources from RL 3rd sites in the creation of their own skins?  A blog has compared the images of both her skins and the supposedly original skin that it claimed Minnu stole; perhaps the evidence was there for hers and not for the others.  But contrary to blog accusations, Minnu did not steal the file template-she used certain parts of the template in the creation of her skins.  It’s kind of hard to explain to anyone without the slightest idea of how skins could be created, but if you check out Minnu’s own blog, you’ll be able to find a statement by her own attorney.

When Minnu retracted her Gen 2 and Gen 4 after weeks of accusations and pressure from blogs and closed her store for the launch of her Zero skins, I had thought that, perhaps, Redgrave has already become the sensation that Minnu had once been.  In terms of popularity, has Redgrave skins become the new Minnu?  In my opinion, yes.  Redgrave has become very mainstream–I see a lot of people wearing them–even some Modavia models.  Redgrave skins have stronger, darker and more pixelate and radiant details than Minnu skins.  The shadings in Redgrave skins, especially in the face, are mostly done with lighting–so some of the Redgrave skin, when looked from afar, seem as if they are discolored from the face.  In terms of body details, I think Redgrave ties with Naughty Designs.  Redgrave skins are also less expensive, though not by much, than other leading brand name skins.  I still believe, however, that Minnu skins are best for modeling–the details are there and evident, yet they’re subtle and striking.  The tone and shading of Minnu skins seem more appropriate for photography to me.  There may be a lot of critics, but in my opinion, Minnu knows how to translate RL high fashion into SL.  She knows high fashion–and you can see this in her photography, in her magazine and profile picture.  But will people ever “forgive” Minnu in order to fully support and appreciate her work?  I don’t know.  I, too, like everyone else, believed half of everything blogs fed me, but what’s theft when the creations in question weren’t actually stolen?  What’s theft when it hasn’t been proven?  Why, as asked by Minnu herself, are people so eager to condemn without clear and distinct evidence, without hearing both sides of the story?  

I had intended to visit Minnu when it had first reopened with the Zero line, but was bogged down by my preparation for the fashion show and after party that I was planning to celebrate the official launch of our new shapes at Beautify, Inc.  The fashion show was the first show that I had ever produced with my business partner.  We virtually started from scratch, with the information we knew from our own experience with modeling.  There were a lot of sleepless nights, mostly due to the deadline and many last minute decisions, such as moving to a new sim, building a venue, etc.  We had less than a week to pull off the show because it had taken us longer than we thought to secure a designer, especially during and after the 4^th of July weekend.  We moved at the last minute due to drama with our neighboring stores.  I never expected so many obstacles to overcome in the production of the show.  The funny thing is that it was a two women show-my business partner and I were both able to pull off the show on our own, with little to no help from anyone else.  Hard work and a miracle.

For a first show, the show went relatively well, even if there were heckling from people next door.  The fashion show had conflicted with a neighboring launch party; while I had informed the owner next door about the shouting of our announcer days before the show, the warning seemed to have eluded her guests.  Drama aside, we had a good turn-out and slide-show pictures of the show and after party with DJ AZU can be found at the following link: http://flickr.com/photos/tillie/sets/72157606135354250/show/

The fashion expo featured shapes by Beautify and featured fashions by Amanda Bolero of the Bolero Collection, Avagardner and Barbra Kungler of Kunglers Designs, and Forda Fairlane and Moxie Polano of Haute Couture & Style.  All the designers were chosen for a reason-the quality and creativity of their designs spoke to us.

Okay, I’m finished with my rant?  Bored?  I thought so.  At least I was entertained.