Designing fashion for Second Life can be a daunting prospect. Lots of residents spend loads of linden on Second Life clothing, and a surefire way to make money is to do the same. The best thing about designing fashion SL is that you can sell the same item multiple times. In fact, you can sell it as many times as you want.

The only hard part is getting started. If you are not a programmer, designer or familiar with photo editing, you will not feel comfortable and you will not know where to start. But don’t worry, we’ve come up with three easy steps you can take to start becoming a true fashionista.

STEP 1: MASTER THE IN-GAME FASHION DESIGNER: The first step to becoming a fashion designer in SL is getting used to the fashion designer in the game. He opens the appearance tool (either via the top menu or by right-clicking on his avatar) and he will be able to edit a multitude of different factors of his avatar’s appearance. To change clothes or design new clothes, you will need to familiarize yourself with the menu of textures and colors. Once you are comfortable with the game designer, you can move on to the next step.

STEP 2: GET THE PHOTO EDITING: To get past the simple designs you can do through the look editor, you’ll need to get some photo editing software. Although many of these programs can cost $300 or more, we have found an alternative that is just as good. If you want to start designing fashion seriously, you’ll need The GIMP. (http://www.gimp.org/). This free software is just as good as commercial software out there, and there is a very active and helpful community of Gimp users who can help you. Download Gimp and learn how to use some of the features. After doing this, you are ready to move on.

STEP 3: GET TEMPLATES: To use Gimp (or other photo editing software) to design clothing for SL, you’ll need some templates. A template is simply a 3D representation that can be placed over an avatar. With a stencil, you can design masks, tattoos, and clothing. To get started, you need to download the Robin Wood t-shirt template. (http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html) This will allow you to create your first template design: a T-shirt. The template itself is very well done and through the use of layers and skins Robin Wood has created one of SL Fashion’s best assistants. use it

Of course, there is much more to fashion design than what we have told you about. (We’ve created a great fashion design guide that you can find on our website. Just click the link below.) You can spend a lot of time learning how to create fashions, but in the end, what you want is up to you. you. Designing clothes for SL residents is not difficult, but it does require knowledge and practice. If you can get to step three, you’ll be ahead of 90% of everyone else in the game.

GO CONQUER!