Clio Cardiff

Clio Cardiff is know as designer for the brand Clio -pret a porter-. As all avatars Clio is young. So.. she could be around 25? 24? In late 2006, Miss Cardiff was first told about the existence of a virtual world named 'Second Life'. Finding this an interesting concept and curious to test it out, Clio Cardiff registered for an avatar in January 2007. She was happy to discover this is much more than just a 'chat where you can go around with a little avatar', and started enjoying it a whole deal, forever since hooked to Second Life.  Not only hooked, but loyal too: SL is Clio's only virtual world, she even confesses: 'I would barely know the names of some among the other virtual worlds... and I just don't have the time to try them out.'

As a total noob the first thing Clio ever tried to learn was 'how to customise her look'. She started off with the default Second Life appearance editor and created some outfits using textures from the inventory library...  but does that actually count as a first experience with virtual fashion? After about 3 weeks of SL, Clio Cardiff started working for a designer as a customer's assistant, and so learned a bit bitter how actual clothes look like.  At the beginning of her virtual career, it was really just experimenting for Clio: messing with textures in her free time, and seeing how they looked on. She learned it all through the 'trial and error' process of creation. She would once in a while read some tips on the blogs, but basically Clio is to lazy to follow tutorials. And that are her own words! ;) In February 2007 one of Clio's friends gave her the opportunity to start a little store on his land, and Clio's clothes started selling. Even more, Clio really started enjoying the compliments from her customers.  Over 18 months have gone by since Clio's first sales, and she has been improving ever since, starting from nothing and getting better, untill 'being proud' of her own creations. The latter is - together with customer feedback - one of the most important fuels for a designer according to Miss Cardiff.

Clio's inspiration comes from random facts, and those can be in spring or in winter with the same exact probability. She lives in a city where fashion and art are all around, and it's not hard to find inspiration from just about anything, from the buildings to the people. So far the moments of her 'richest' productivity have just been periods of time when she could dedicate more time to SL, thanks to a quieter RL (around december/january, may/june). Let's say when Clio get a stunning idea she usually sketches it down and keeps it till she feels she has the time and patience to realise it. For her virtual fashion designs, Clio Cardiff concentrates on women's clothing, mainly formals, or some 'nice&classy' casuals. But of course, that does not mean she can't do a bit more daring or extraordinary!

When asked about her favourite Second Life related quote, Clio blushes and giggles. It's a bit too stupid, but I totally cracked up when she saw this on someone's profile: "RL and SL are like 2  buttcheeks with a hole between them, into which anything could fall".

For more information on Clio, new releases, special deals and random facts about Clio Cardiff, check out Clio's Messy Room @ Blogspot.