These Gos DARE Booties by Gospel Voom are totally fantastic and I’m sure you’ve seen them everywhere. Each pair includes a HUD to change toe nails color, and match skin tone. The booties are also scripted to show/hide foot, change colors on all components, etc. But my favorite feature is the ‘G’ logo! Whenever I put it on, I just think oh, it’s G for Gogo!
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Tsk tsk. Those are EXACT copies of Alexander McQueen’s “Faithful” booties.
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/10/alexander_mcqueen_sues_steve_m.html
SL is full of items based on real life objects: shoes, jewellery, clothing, guns, cars, boats, planes etc etc. I’ve also been contracted to make interactive replicas of multi-million dollar laboratory equipment for and on behalf of several world leading universities. It’s virtual content not high street competition and it helps bridge the gap and blur realities.
I agree with Gospel on this on. Even in the article that EO mentioned, there is a reference to another shoe designer that mimicked that style at a lower price. http://www.splendora.com/blog/what_to_shoe/seryna_motorcyle_bootie I think its fantastic that we can replicate or try to replicate many of the items in the First Life. This creation by Gos is some quality work and she did not infringe on any copyright or IP. They are amazing pixel creations of an existing item in First Life. The entire grid is a replication in itself, thus the name “Second Life” and if we were held to creating items that did not replicate anything in the non-pixelated world then this would be one dull second life.
I have one thing to say about these shoes : they remind me of bananas.
It’s irrelevant what Gospel says – copying is copying. It’s unimaginative and intellectually cheap. Gogo, you ripped into Moody once for copying Louboutin – what’s the difference here? This is stealing someone else’s design without attribution. I consider that common, dull, vulgar, disgusting and criminal. And that goes for the people who do it and the people who support it. Sickening.
As Cassie explained, I think you’re both missing the point. This is an exact copy, with no mention of it being inspired by Alexander McQueen in the item description. In fact, the description at the Gos store reads as if the creator designed the shoe from scratch. And the article that I referred to was about how Alexander McQueen is SUING the copycatter for selling a knock-off of the original design. SL designers get inspiration from real life designers all the time, but they either credit the designer by mentioning their name and/or they modify the style far enough so that it’s not a replica. There’s a big difference between being inspired by something and making a copy and selling it as your own.
These are pixels not leather. They’re interactive digital analogies and to replicate RL objects is the norm not the exception. It’s what the market wants and it’s what other designers are doing. Just because you haven’t actually spotted the source material doesn’t mean it’s not going on. I suspect the anonymous Cassie and EO are just sore I got mine out first and if Alexander is reading this he should take note and make the heel taller, close the toe and paint them red.
“Just because you haven’t actually spotted the source material doesn’t mean it’s not going on.”
How did you ever deduce that from my reply? I clearly wrote that I do recognize that it occurs, and that IT’S WRONG.
If they’re just pixels, then why are people copyrighting their work, and taking every conceivable measure to keep copybotters and ripping tools at bay? If SL designers are so protective of their own work, then they should think hard before imitating the work of others in RL or SL. End of story.
And by the way your little unnecessary comment about how McQueen (who I’ve worked for) should change the design shows that you know absolutely nothing about fashion. He wouldn’t make the motorcycle jacket-inspired boot cap toed. It ruins the concept.
Gospel Voom January 26, 2010 at 9:24 pm
“These are pixels not leather. They’re interactive digital analogies and to replicate RL objects is the norm not the exception. It’s what the market wants and it’s what other designers are doing. Just because you haven’t actually spotted the source material doesn’t mean it’s not going on. I suspect the anonymous Cassie and EO are just sore I got mine out first and if Alexander is reading this he should take note and make the heel taller, close the toe and paint them red.”
Ah, the favourite excuses of the thief – other people do it, people want it, it will happen anyway and anyone who disagrees is just jealous!
But the advice to Alexander McQueen is priceless. Because obviously a successful RL world famous designer would be enraptured to take on board the dribblings of a pixel copycat. Well, you made me laugh, Gos old man, but the facts are still there. The kids I teach put it perfectly. You know pondscum? Your mom.
@ Estella Overland
Why is it I don’t see you taking up this argument over any other shoes on the feeds? You seem to blithely ignore the people who’ve created copies of Louboutin, McQueen, Givenchy, D&G, Sam Edelman Zoe, Marc Jacobs, YSL, Converse, Nike, Adidas etc. Was your avatar holding up placards at the Shoe Fair? You’re singling me out and although I’m flattered it does suggest another motive on your part.
Please- I barely knew about Gos before this post, and didn’t even know you owned Gos until your last comment. I don’t follow the feeds, but I do check up on Juicybomb. All I did was note the source and your thoughtless remarks snowballed it from there. Whining it about it now doesn’t change the situation. Either stop replying so that you prevent digging yourself an even deeper hole, or respond with a more valid argument. I’m going to stop now because I’m sure Gogo is annoyed by this chitchat.
@ Estella Overland
I haven’t made any thoughtless remarks and my argument is valid. To reiterate: You claim that other designers in SL credit the RL designer or are making enough modifications not to warrant it. The truth is they do not.
A few examples:
Giuseppe Zanotti for Balmain Zipper Boot – Coco
Christian Louboutin 120 Backless Ankle Boots – Coco
Yves St Laurent Fatale – Maitreya (Ixkin)
Marc by Marc Jacobs (Ruffle) Slouch Boots – Maitreya (Soho)
Jimmy Choo Berry Ankle Boots – Magnifico
Sam Edelman Zoe bootie – SLink
You also say you check up on juicybomb, if that is the case where is your outrage over this submission:
http://juicybomb.com/2009/12/02/slink-beebee-boots/
I’m sure you can now understand my surprise at being singled out as this is clearly the convention in SL and has been since before I joined. I would suspect that any fashion conscious avatar in Second Life has many examples in their inventory of fashions that are – whether they know it or not – copied directly from real life.
Now if you’d prefer to continue this discussion elsewhere IM me in-world or use the email address in my profile. But if you continue to attack me here I will naturally continue to respond.
As much as I’m all for the pro-content creating, I do find it a little disheartening to see a designer torn down because they’re using a RL shoe and creating a pixelated version. I will agree that the shoe does lose a little of its luster for not being an original concept from Gos, but I’d still purchase and reccommend the design to others. It has amazing textures and outstanding prim architecture.
I would estimate 80% of SL incorporates and/or implicitly copies a RL item…be it clothes, shoes, jewelry, furniture, textures, etc. I would find it quite hard to believe for anyone to say their entire inventory is clean of a RL copied item, whether they know it or not. Or that they themselves haven’t bought an item in RL that is considered a knock off (Steve Madden’s version of Alexander McQueen’s shoes for example).
And if anyone wants to get technical, Gos did modify the design a bit. There aren’t the exact amount of ribbed details along the back, the toe can be closed, it comes in a distressed and smooth texture option, its available in red as well, the sides on these don’t ‘flip’ up, and the zipper pull isn’t a skull.
Though I haven’t been apart of SL for long…I don’t remember it being this way when I first joined. If it was, my mistake. But…when did it become more about getting out the pitch forks and torches to hunt down creators rather than enjoying that someone can actually make something beautiful?
I agree with Gospel on this one, I love my Le Corbusier sofa and chair I picked up a couple of years back in SL, but I don’t remember seeing them credited. I hope McQueen is flattered.
Flattered by what exactly? That someone has stolen his design and is making money off it without attribution? That the same someone has the impudence to suggest ‘improvements’ to the design? Or just the moral cheapness that so many residents of SL have, in their greedy disdain for genuine designers’ intellectual property, so long as they can own pixel versions of items they can’t afford in RL? Clearly whoever makes the sculpts for these shoes has a certain skill – could they not perhaps design something original? Oh, and I see that Moody have a similar version of these shoes also. It will be amusing to see them and Voom squabbling about who copied whom first! We might not always know that an item in SL is copied, just as in RL we might be taken in by counterfeit goods. But when we do know, we have an absolute moral duty to shun them and their creators. All of them, not just Voom.
What do the people who don’t have the “moral cheapness” of the majority of residents in Second Life keep in their inventories, Cassie?
Think about it for a minute. How many of these creators who were having outstanding, inspired and original fashion ideas would be working in Second Life designing virtual wardrobes when they could be designing for real and making rather a lot more than a few dollars on each sale?
Your holier than thou attitude is moderately entertaining but ultimately rather pathetic.
YOUR mom. Ha.
“How many of these creators who were having outstanding, inspired and original fashion ideas would be working in Second Life designing virtual wardrobes when they could be designing for real and making rather a lot more than a few dollars on each sale?”
Sure, if they had the all the requisite skills they might be. If they knew how to cut a pattern, work with real life fabrics/leathers etc. If they had the financial backing to establish an atelier and produce a collection. If they had the contacts in production, advertising and distribution. It’s easy, isn’t it? Just draw a pretty picture and hey presto – you’re a couturier. LOL. It’s a hell of a lot easier in SL – but it’s still equally possible to be original and not a thief. You support thieves. Sucks to have your karma. Ha, as you so eloquently put it. Mwah.
Fashion is art. Just as art can sometimes be fashion. In both, the perspective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Don’t shun someone else’s ideas about modifications just because you yourself don’t agree with them. If everyone was expected to keep their inspirations and concepts based on another item a secret, fashion wouldn’t exist. Who are you or anyone for that matter to say that someone’s modifications aren’t justified or appreciated? I don’t believe anyone has been voted into being that spokesperson. It’s each individual consumer’s place to decide what they want or don’t want when someone releases an item. If Gos does well with his design, obviously people appreciate his modifications. If he doesn’t, so be it.
And your defense is a little off kilter Cassie…first you say that one of the main issues is Gos isn’t attributing the design to Alexander McQueen…then you state that the second we know its a RL copied item, we’re supposed to shun the designer. So what if Gos attributed the designer? Are we still supposed to shun him by your standards or would it suddenly be ok as long as we know where the original material was founded upon? It doesn’t make sense when you put the two together.
As for the comment about ‘moral cheapness’…please, step off the pedestal you’ve so highly put yourself upon. You’re basically trying to imply that the majority of people in SL are just poor beggars waiting for the next crumb in RL so we have to resort to SL for a feeling of importance. That’s disgusting and beyond the point of the discussion per Gos’s design vs. Alexander McQueens original. I find it quite common of you to put your assumptions that just because someone voices their own opinion inherently means they are morally cheap in some way.