skinny AVs don't sell

Howdy,

I own a clothing store ISL. & my av has a skinny/tall/heroin-chic/Uma Thurman/tom-boy type.. Physique.

Now, My friend, who claims to be "a properly proportioned" AV, unlike me (the stick-figure with boobs) says people would prefer to buy my clothes if I showed them on a more” healthy realistic AV" Cos she thinks maybe most AVs ISL are more.. Robust.

She says she doesn't even like some of my clothes till after she sees them on herself (to be fair she has one of the hottest AVs isl IMO).
NOW, here’s my question:

Is she right? Do you ever find yourself coming to my store (or any ISL store really) & having second thoughts about an outfit because of the model AV's weight?

I do think my friend looks 10 times better then me in most outfits cos her AV is the hottest but I prefer to model my clothes myself. Me *being* myself & all that..

What do you think?

OH, just to clarify: My clothes *DO* look great on whatever AV "weight" you have.
That's not actually an issue. When I make my clothes I give them to my friends each of them has a very different shape they all look hot in them.. SL is a 1-size-fits all kind if place. (as you can see in the picture)

Well I know I would DO the model!!!

I am a diff shape to you, and your clothes look the bomb!!!! The sooner they can bring out demo testing of clothes tho, the better, personally I don't get put off by what the model looks like. I just buy the clothes if i like em

I don't know, and can't even guess how to answer the poll, cause I have never bought any clothes. But I must say, that denim outfit is adorable!

coco

When I look at an outfit on a model, I can eyeball how it's going to look on me, even if that model's shape is VERY different than mine. I think most people learn fairly quickly what their own body shape will do to an outfit, in particular around the bust and the butt

I try to keep my avatar shape for modelling purposes to the most average proportions I can without going to extremes in any direction.

Honestly, I have never thought about the models proportions when buying things, but garments do stretch differently for different body types.

Personally speaking, I vote for voluptuousness.

Come to think of it, what Aimee says is true irl, too, where all the models and mannequins are thin and tall. Therefore I have voted.

coco

P.S. I only wish irl that the outfit would magically conform to my own shape and height as it does in SL.

Cani your clothes always look great, and most people can tell what an outfit will look like on their own av - especially if they're shopping whores which, if Ms Properly Proportioned is who I think she is - she IS!

Also, if all the outfits in a shop are modelled by one av, once you've bought one thing you know how it'll shape up on yourself.

So STAY SKINNY dude, we love you that way ^_^
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Weeeeee see? 2 shapes, both hawt as ^_^

Ok I pretty much think aimee made a lot of sence & setteles this IE i'm right MUHAHAHA!!

...

Wills - Thanks but no it's not willow!

And coco the jeans can be bought at canimal's *cough* >.>

OH SIS!

I was asleep in that pic!

I've never not bought clothes because of how they looked in the picture..

And Canimal's clothing has always looked great on me.

Most Avatars are sticks for modeling, there are only a few people that have curves and use them in modeling pictures, the City Girls come to mind. When people make prim skirts I know that I am going to have to IM them and ask them to add some prims for my ass (thanks Wuvme!). I finally had to break down and make a flat assed avatar to wear in a wedding so my bridesmaid dress looked right. Honestly there are a lot of things in SL that just dont look right on my avie because I am a little meatier, but I'd rather be chunky than stick figurey. I think most people in SL want to be toothpick models so I double a thin model is hurting you at all.


I always use myself or Laquitain my modeling pictures and my avatar has a huge ass and is a little chunky on purpose. We can rep for the big girls and ad a splash of cafe to the creamy forums.

Skinny or thick av models don't make any difference to me. What does bother me is av models with the boob sliders jacked all the way or most of the way up. It's very unattractive and warps the look of the clothing.

Bodyshapes don't deter me from buying clothes. I'm a plumpy, curvy shape with a belly and a rotund front and back. When I wear your clothes, I'm so nauseatingly HAWT.

What deters me from buying something is if the display pictures are too dark, the details aren't visible because the picture isn't zoomed on the av, or has a poor resolution.

HA! Really good point. I didn't even think about the RL aspect of all this. Let me just say a top on a Cosmo model is going to look a LOT different than on Aimee "Hooters" Weber.

Well on a Really large AV, I guess they look okay...
Much better than some clothes I've found.

Here's my Fairy Troll Princess AV modelling your new outfit.

I bought it specifically after reading this thread.

Man alert!

Canimal: Get Vektor Linden to be your model, he is TEH HAWT!

-Flip

Canimal;

I have bought clothing from you before. I know I never stopped to wonder if the clothes on the model would look just as good on me. It was more like, "Omg, that's SO cute!! I want it!" I think your clothes speak for themselves.

awww, thanks everyone! I didn't expect this thread to become the ego boost it has so HUGE THANKS to everyone who answered! I'm very confident now that regardless of my av's weight or whatever physical qualities, it's the clothes that get the attention!

(PLUS I get to throw this in my friend's face when ever we have a disagreement that i'm always right! )

& Yeah, the real-life aspect does put things in proportion! (Damn models..)

No thanks however to the moderators who keep moving threads to places they don't belong in!!!

Agreed <3

I'll give a few comments regarding this. Personally I can visualize how clothing will look on me and my female model, however; depending on the design of the tops/low cuts it could be an issue. As the breast/cup size increases the clothing stretches and or lowers towards the nipples. If I designed clothing, which I have been researching somewhat here, I would use a full figure C Cup Model as a mid point or there abouts.

As far as marketing inticements, some people like "Eye Candy" my models name is "Candy" by the way hehe. Though most high fashion real life models are usually B-Cups, in which I also have; depending on the type of clothing I would use different model/Cup sizes/hip width. Some clothes like skirts and dresses look better on thinner Avatars, B, B+ to C cup as opposed to tight pants/jeans/loungerie/binkini's on a full figure model D Cup.

"A Picture says a thousand words." What the picture says to a Newbie may not be the same as what is says to an experienced Secondlifer.

But it's really your preference, but; if Iam playing Pool I will go for the sure shot first.

While its true most of the women in SL are fairly busty - I think your comment on full figured is not totally accurate.

Full figured in clothing is generally used to describe sizes Bigger than 12, 14 or 16 depending on the store / seller.

I would hardly think most female AVs in Second Life are Full Figured from a clothing size standpoint, most are probably at most a 8 to 10 dress size in proportion once you discount the fact they have unrealistic Heights.

I doubt proportionally My Av would be any bigger than a size 4.

B-cup is HUGE for a fashion model. Most are the smallest size possible. It's just a fact of life: breasts distort fabric and change the way clothes hang... in SL as well as RL.

Designers can't tell where the texture is going to distort on your individual avatar. Showing SL fashion on skinny avatars where the distortion is less just makes sense... and if it alienates customers who hate skinny people (as a skinny person in RL I get it all the time: "Oh my god you're so thin I hate you" and "you look so unnatural and unhealthy, you should eat more" ... guess what, thin people have feelings too.) I think that's their issue. Keep in mind SL is one place where genetics don't force you to look a certain way... it's one's CHOICE to have a curvier avatar or even a fat one.

What might be kind of cool, though, is if LL did different clothing templates for different body shapes to minimize distortion... I'd like to see seperate male/female ones, for a start.

What they could do instead is just increase the poly count so the stretching on our templates could be better distributed... I think an entire AV has fewer polygons than some tortured Torii I have seen =P

I model, alot. Mostly for my articles, but i have done ad work, and the runway. My AV is me IRL for who i am with minor embellishments. I am a voluptuous chick, I have a nice figure, but i have a big tush, and large chest. I duplicate that here. When i started runway modeling, i was told to make a "Model" body. basicly no tush, no curves, no boobs.

Does anyone else realize that the fashion industry wants models with the body of prepubescent boys?? Since when does appealing to pedophilic natures in people mean profit?

Also, the argument is made that boobs and curves cause the outfit to hang funny. Well.. don't you want your customers to know that the clothes won't look good on them unless they change thier bodies before they buy??? Or do you figure people won't complain?? I am a real woman with a real woman's body. If it looks good on me, any woman can be confident it looks good on them.

For that reason, all the modeling i do for my fashion columns i do with my real body. If you need to be no boobed and a skinny no figured girl to wear a designers clothes... then you have more issues to worry about than looking good by the hang of the cloth. Like maybe getting that tapeworm finally taken care of.

Please designers, design for the masses, not for the unmassed. I recently saw only extremely skinny models (1 actually, used lots of times) at a store (Zaige D'Zigns) and loved the outfits i saw on the 12 year old girl model.. but i didn't buy any. They just looked like they would distort horribly on a normal woman. I even spoke with the designer about this who blew me off. Which, of course, would happen.

We have a unique opportunity in SL to be reflective of real life.. and see ourselves as real women with real bodies that still look gorgeous in the clothes we buy.. and we can buy alot.. because there are alot of designers who like helping us look and feel pretty. Design houses... stop asking models to disfigure thier bodies or promote unhealthy images of women. That is what modeling IRL is. In here, we can all be movie stars... and we don't want to have a heroine chic' (or similar) body to do it.