More hypocrisy from one who claims to not get her ideas from RL or SL designers:
Bianca F
Prada
Makes this ad of hers all the more amusing...
lol
Bianca F
Prada
Makes this ad of hers all the more amusing...
lol
On Bianca's blog, under "Ethics & Journalism", Bianca said, among other things, this:
I have sent a response for the criticism I have received. They have not pubblished it and if they will, they will push "saint Digit". Instead they have cut and paste only the parts which interest them. This is not ethical.
/me sighs, rolls her eyes, and chuckles before saying:
Excuse you, but in the very first post I made about this, I put TWO of your responses IN FULL. I also posted the pics you gave about the outfits in question AND the initial pics I received from my source. I didn't HAVE to do either, but I CHOSE to to be FAIR. So quit trying to make this seem like something it isn't. God you just have a new lie every day, don't you? Ugh. Poor Poor Bianca, everyone is picking on you for NO reason!
How about at least ADMIT that to some capacity you were "inspired" by at least SOME of Digit's work. IT IS SO OBVIOUS. Otherwise, shut up already attacking the individuals who blog about this. You know good and well you were given opportunities to say your piece. Your "responses" have been posted all over the web. Quit calling out unfair treatment. We are just posting the news and gossip. You are "creating" it.
I have sent a response for the criticism I have received. They have not pubblished it and if they will, they will push "saint Digit". Instead they have cut and paste only the parts which interest them. This is not ethical.
/me sighs, rolls her eyes, and chuckles before saying:
Excuse you, but in the very first post I made about this, I put TWO of your responses IN FULL. I also posted the pics you gave about the outfits in question AND the initial pics I received from my source. I didn't HAVE to do either, but I CHOSE to to be FAIR. So quit trying to make this seem like something it isn't. God you just have a new lie every day, don't you? Ugh. Poor Poor Bianca, everyone is picking on you for NO reason!
How about at least ADMIT that to some capacity you were "inspired" by at least SOME of Digit's work. IT IS SO OBVIOUS. Otherwise, shut up already attacking the individuals who blog about this. You know good and well you were given opportunities to say your piece. Your "responses" have been posted all over the web. Quit calling out unfair treatment. We are just posting the news and gossip. You are "creating" it.
Let me catch you all up. Since I posted the article about this scandal involving Bianca F. and Digit Darkes, the blogosphere has began a ripple effect, with posts popping up about this all over the net. Over at Shopping Cart Disco, Tenshi Vielle talked about it, and I have been checking the comments on her page as well as others to see what people are saying and see what Bianca is saying, more specifically, in her pathetic attempts at self-defense.
Tenshi had said "You know, I’d like to see some of Bianca’s RL designs sometime. Can someone procure those?"
Well it just so happens that in our 3 hours long interview, Bianca volunteered to send me an image of a RL dress design she CLAIMS is hers. I do not know WHY she offered this image to me. But she did. I left a comment letting Tenshi know I have it and would love to share it.
Within MINUTES I received an IM from Bianca in a raw state of panic, practically pleading with me to not blog this image. She threatened that it was a violation of the TOS. I'm not sure what all the panic is about BUT, the TOS clearly states:
"Linden Lab has designed the Service to be experienced only as offered by Linden Lab at the Websites or partner websites. Linden Lab is not responsible for any aspect of the Service that is accessed or experienced using software or other means that are not provided by Linden Lab."
That being said, here it is:
I wonder if she is so afraid of this pic being blogged because this is just a random pic she took off the internet, slapped her name on it crudely, and is trying to pass off as her own design (sound familiar?) to somehow legitimize herself as an SL designer. Which is truly ignorant because the skills involved in RL design are totally different when it comes to construction than the skills required to do so in SL. Either way, NOW I'm posting it just because she doesn't want me to. The panic is there for a reason. Let's see what it is.
Bianca, after all you have said to me, all the lies, all the threats: now it's personal.
Kiss my ass.
Tenshi had said "You know, I’d like to see some of Bianca’s RL designs sometime. Can someone procure those?"
Well it just so happens that in our 3 hours long interview, Bianca volunteered to send me an image of a RL dress design she CLAIMS is hers. I do not know WHY she offered this image to me. But she did. I left a comment letting Tenshi know I have it and would love to share it.
Within MINUTES I received an IM from Bianca in a raw state of panic, practically pleading with me to not blog this image. She threatened that it was a violation of the TOS. I'm not sure what all the panic is about BUT, the TOS clearly states:
"Linden Lab has designed the Service to be experienced only as offered by Linden Lab at the Websites or partner websites. Linden Lab is not responsible for any aspect of the Service that is accessed or experienced using software or other means that are not provided by Linden Lab."
That being said, here it is:
I wonder if she is so afraid of this pic being blogged because this is just a random pic she took off the internet, slapped her name on it crudely, and is trying to pass off as her own design (sound familiar?) to somehow legitimize herself as an SL designer. Which is truly ignorant because the skills involved in RL design are totally different when it comes to construction than the skills required to do so in SL. Either way, NOW I'm posting it just because she doesn't want me to. The panic is there for a reason. Let's see what it is.
Bianca, after all you have said to me, all the lies, all the threats: now it's personal.
Kiss my ass.
IP addresses can tell you the location an email is being sent from. This is EASY to find out. You look in the header of an email, you see the IP address, copy it and paste it into a site like this, this, or this...
I confirmed the accuracy of these sources by testing it out with my own IP address. It accurately displayed my internet service provider, however it showed a few towns away as where it was coming from. Research revealed that it showed the main location of my local ISP.
So... if you say you are in Texas for example, and are in Antonio, it might show up as Austin. BUT. If you say you are in Germany, it will not show up as somewhere in the US. Unless you are in the US.
This is common knowledge. Just wanted you to know I know.
I confirmed the accuracy of these sources by testing it out with my own IP address. It accurately displayed my internet service provider, however it showed a few towns away as where it was coming from. Research revealed that it showed the main location of my local ISP.
So... if you say you are in Texas for example, and are in Antonio, it might show up as Austin. BUT. If you say you are in Germany, it will not show up as somewhere in the US. Unless you are in the US.
This is common knowledge. Just wanted you to know I know.
I have just received the following Press Release:
Alienbear Gupte, one of the most famous and prolific designer of the finest jewelry in Second Life, has created a pair of limited edition one-of-a-kind crowns for prom king and prom queen to be auctioned off at 4 PM SL time (GMT-7) on Sunday June 22 to complete the DiS Relay for Life “RFL” prom event to benefit the American Cancer Society.
The pair of crowns are extremely detailed with baked shadows and glistening jewels, totaling over 700 prims, each prim painstakingly hand placed by the master jewelry maker Alienbear Gupte herself over the span of a week. They are to be worn on multiple attachment spots. The pair of crowns reflect the DiS RFL Prom theme of “Celestial Life,” and also that of Relay for Life. In Alienbear’s own words, “I get the inspirations from the UK Royal crowns… ‘Cross’ represent the ‘Jesus' love’. A Cross in between the flying heart just imply ‘the love of all people around the world join together to share their love to the Cancer patient & their family.’”
Designer CaSimone Aquitaine, the master builder of this immersive high school comments on the crowns, “Alienbear dedicated so much time and effort to truely make these crowns into strikingly beautiful works of arts.” Fashion Consultant and Designer Ina Centaur, also the Artistic Director of the SL Shakespeare Company, asserts that, “These are truly the most detailed crowns I have seen on Second Life.”
The DiS RFL Prom event was held 5/14 and 5/15 evenings in a totally immersive 4-island virtual simulation of a real life high school event. The high school portion of the build included a “working” high school—uncanny levels of details with dozens of classrooms each containing different academic subject posters and chalkboards, library, car shop, offices, locker rooms, and working shower and lav, and everything else. The prom was held in a giant gym spanning two island simulators, and decorated by over one hundred and eighty designers in the Designers in Seclusion “DiS” group. DiS raised close to L$200,000 this weekend, bringing the team total to nearly L$1,000,000.
The bidding begins at 4 PM on Sunday June 22. All who arrive will receive a small gift from Alienbear whether or not they are the prom king and queen to take away the crowns.
To preview the crowns, please TP to:
Alienbear One Of A Kind Crowns
Alienbear Gupte, one of the most famous and prolific designer of the finest jewelry in Second Life, has created a pair of limited edition one-of-a-kind crowns for prom king and prom queen to be auctioned off at 4 PM SL time (GMT-7) on Sunday June 22 to complete the DiS Relay for Life “RFL” prom event to benefit the American Cancer Society.
The pair of crowns are extremely detailed with baked shadows and glistening jewels, totaling over 700 prims, each prim painstakingly hand placed by the master jewelry maker Alienbear Gupte herself over the span of a week. They are to be worn on multiple attachment spots. The pair of crowns reflect the DiS RFL Prom theme of “Celestial Life,” and also that of Relay for Life. In Alienbear’s own words, “I get the inspirations from the UK Royal crowns… ‘Cross’ represent the ‘Jesus' love’. A Cross in between the flying heart just imply ‘the love of all people around the world join together to share their love to the Cancer patient & their family.’”
Designer CaSimone Aquitaine, the master builder of this immersive high school comments on the crowns, “Alienbear dedicated so much time and effort to truely make these crowns into strikingly beautiful works of arts.” Fashion Consultant and Designer Ina Centaur, also the Artistic Director of the SL Shakespeare Company, asserts that, “These are truly the most detailed crowns I have seen on Second Life.”
The DiS RFL Prom event was held 5/14 and 5/15 evenings in a totally immersive 4-island virtual simulation of a real life high school event. The high school portion of the build included a “working” high school—uncanny levels of details with dozens of classrooms each containing different academic subject posters and chalkboards, library, car shop, offices, locker rooms, and working shower and lav, and everything else. The prom was held in a giant gym spanning two island simulators, and decorated by over one hundred and eighty designers in the Designers in Seclusion “DiS” group. DiS raised close to L$200,000 this weekend, bringing the team total to nearly L$1,000,000.
The bidding begins at 4 PM on Sunday June 22. All who arrive will receive a small gift from Alienbear whether or not they are the prom king and queen to take away the crowns.
To preview the crowns, please TP to:
Alienbear One Of A Kind Crowns
This image was sent to her group:
Whether from Balenciaga's vintage logo or current logo, it is obvious she copied it. The vintage one. Fine. What point are you proving? That you went into Photoshop and turned one B into an F?
Here are the two logo's we ALL have seen Bianca use:
and
Looks pretty obvious to me...
Whether from Balenciaga's vintage logo or current logo, it is obvious she copied it. The vintage one. Fine. What point are you proving? That you went into Photoshop and turned one B into an F?
Here are the two logo's we ALL have seen Bianca use:
and
Looks pretty obvious to me...
Saturday, a source sent me the following images, which urged me to start doing some research about what would prove to be a very complicated and many layered scandal in the world of Second Life fashion, involving two very popular and prominent designers.
I immediately began digging. I spent literally hours hearing out both sides, viewing all kinds of evidence (that will all be posted here, as promised to all parties), and am trying my hardest to get to the bottom of all of this. I have made GREAT PAINS to be fair and accurate through my research regarding this. Accusations like this can do a great deal of damage to someone's business, and I would never want to jeopardize anyone's success or progress. However, the facts will speak for themselves.
I am going to start from the beginning, and move this forward. Digit Darkes first opened her doors in June of 2006. She met Bianca through an IM Bianca sent to her in the beginning of October 2007, letting Digit know that she had written about Digit's clothes in her magazine and what a fan she was of her work.
They realized they had a lot of things in common so they began to chat. This evolved into the two deciding to go in on a Sim, Addictive, together. Bianca covering about 1/3 of the cost of the Sim and responsible for 1/3 of the tier.
Bianca has left the Addictive Sim just this week, and has moved to a new location on the Velvet Sim. Both parties claim they thought they left the transaction on good terms. Digit was even so kind as to allow Bianca to leave a teleporter to her new location on the Sim.
At this point, I decided it would be only fair to go to Bianca and let her know that I would be doing a story involving her and out of fairness and journalistic ethics, I wanted to give her the chance to state her side. She told me she thinks she already knows what this is about, and asked if it was "the story that she is copying someone". I confirmed that it was.
(**NOTE: It is against the SL TOS to copy and paste directly, IM conversations. However it is within the TOS for me to quote things said to me in the fashion I am using here. If there is ANY question as to the 100% accuracy of my quotes, I am happy to send copies of my chat logs to ANYONE, which IS allowed by the TOS. So feel free to ask. If it were up to me I would post the chats directly, but I sadly can not.**)
I showed her the images that were sent to me, which you already saw above. She in turn, sent me the following images in her defense:
A comment from me: if neither designer copied Gaultier directly, that would mean that these are both "original interpretations" of his design. What are the odds they would both "interpret" his design in the exact same way? Though the texture is different, the cutouts are EXACTLY THE SAME.
Bianca gave me the following statement to include in my post, directing what she said to the one who gave me the images that started all this:
To Whom it May Concern:
You are accusing me of an injustice and hurting my name and my brand regarding dress designs I created long ago and are no longer selling. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you the TRUTH, as I believe you to be misinformed.
I would also like to say that I find this very odd that these accusations are surfacing at a time when I no longer have a store on the Addictive sim and have just recently built my on sim. Furthermore, Didit Darkes and I have been friends for some time and created Addictive together and even produced a fashion show together in November 2007, punkromantik .
YOUR SAD PICS
(see above)
Digit Darkes did not invent the latex dress or crossbondage top (Gaultier did for first) and there are many, many designers that have reinterpreted this concept, both in rl fashion and on the Internet. There is never a way to control how fashion uses different images and concepts and there is simply no way that these conceps originated with Digit Darkes.
From my own personal observations, it would appear that photoshop software was used to retouch my owns designs and to make a copy very similar but not an exact replica.
I would be glad to provide you with any information you would like to reaffirm my original creations and the timing of these to clear my name and my brand. I am a rl fashion designer for more than 20 years and live in the one of the world's major fashion capitals, I need not to copy anyone.
Best,
bianca foulon
Thus began my questioning. Bianca said that she felt this was all a made up farce meant to attack her because she has moved on to her own Sim. She went on to tell me she "upload those file we talk about in october 2007". She later went on to tell me and even show me evidence of that it was actually in July of that year. Not October. That was the first inconsistency, but could have been an innocent mistake, and so I gave the benefit of the doubt and we moved on. Bianca said that the images that were sent to me, the first ones posted in the article, were tampered with in Photoshop and made to look more identical to Digit's design than they really do. I asked her to let me have a copy to try on for myself so I could see in person, and offered to return them to her if she wanted, as this is not me trying to get free clothes, but discover the unbiased truth for myself.
Bianca did give me a copy of the blue latex outfit featured in the images you have seen. I put them on to check it out for myself. Here are my images. Other than adding text they have not been altered and I can show the original copies without the text to anyone who would like a copy.
No matter which angle I looked from, the highlight marks do line up to be almost exact to the texture of Digit's dress. Of course the "almost" might be due to the way this texture appears to be made. From an image taken of the original texture. Though the highlight marks are in identical places, they appear more blurry and stretched on Bianca's version.
If this texture was made from scratch by Bianca, why would she release it with such awful seam lines? They don't even line up and the back and front are not aligned properly either. This is either the result of a photographed texture or shoddy craftsmanship. Either way, if I bought this outfit and it was made like this, I would be livid.
I asked Bianca if she had any copies of her files to show the progression of trial and error making the items in both sets of pictures. She said she did but as of this date, she has not sent them to me.
Bianca emphasized to me repeatedly, in our talk which lasted well over three hours, that she had taken the pictured items out of her stores and hasn't had them available for sale since December. She wondered to me why they would be just now discovered when they haven't been in world since December, and pointed out the coincidence that the timing of this revelation was parallel to her leaving the Addictive Sim and moving to another one.
This point had me very confused also. If the designs haven't been available since December, but this was just being brought up now, 6 months later... then that did raise some valid questions.
Digit and I were finally able to sit down to talk about her side of all of this much later on in the day. I let her know that Bianca claims the designs haven't even been in world since December, so why and how is this just coming up now. It was at this point I was given the following screen shot of a transaction history from the night of when this all came about. An alt was sent to Bianca's store and purchased the cut out looking top just last night. Here is the screen shot of that transaction:
I then went right then to the location where the top was purchased just the night before. Since the purchase had been made, the entire layout of the store had been changed, and the top was suddenly no longer there. Considering that Bianca already knew about this issue when I first contacted her, and that the top that was under debate was purchased, not in December as she claimed, but just the night before... and was suddenly missing from the location the next morning... well it doesn't look good at all. In fact it was an outright lie. She knew about this issue, and intentionally removed the items in question as soon as this was exposed. And then lied to me and told me they had not been in her stores since December knowing full well she had removed it only THE SAME MORNING we spoke!
I IM'd Bianca to ask her one more time when it was that she removed the items in question from her stores. She again said in December. I then said, then how can you explain that I have in front of my a copy of a transaction that took place just the night before? And that now, suddenly the very next day after this has come out, said items are gone. I reminded her that December was long before last night. She claims she "forgot" that just THE SAME MORNING she had removed the top she had repeatedly told me hadn't been available for sale since December. She... forgot? You are being accused of stealing, in regard to this specific item you JUST removed, but you "forgot" to mention it when you said December over and over for hours? Is that the best you can do? Do I look like I was rezzed yesterday? I think not.
Bianca sent out a statement to her group regarding this issue. Here is the memo in full:
To Velvet Group and Bianca F. Group....
I feel it is very important to make you aware of a situation that has come about in SL. And tell you the TRUTH before you read in any newspapers or blogs.
As you may well know, I was partners with Digit Darkes on the Addictive sim for many months. We both had stores on the sim, produced fashion shows together and generally shared a deep love of fashion design. I even helped her by sharing some of my textures like glitter and she did the same with me.
Now that I have built Velvet sim and have new store, there are rumours and accusations that I copied many of Digit Darkes designs. The truth is a flat out, NO, I did not.
As many of you know, in RL, I live in one of the major fashion capitals of the world and have been a successful RL designer for more than 20 years. I have designed for many of the best fashion brands of Italy. When I came to SL, I began to use the same passion to create designs for the women of SL.
Now it would appear that several dresses, I designed and no longer sell are being said to have been copies of Digit Designs. These particular dresses were concept dresses influenced by some ot Italy's top designers but were original creations, no copies from anyone in RL or SL.
Furthernore, it is suspect to me why these rumours and accusations are coming to light at this time...I am no longer involved with Digit Darkes in any business venture and have closed my store on Addicitive. Velvet is my future here in SL and when left Addicitive, I thought it was on friendly terms with Digit.
So, I wanted you my friends and customers to know before the rest of SL knows that yet another fashion drama is headed my way but you now know the truth. I hope you will help to dispell any further rumours or accusations.
Fondly,
bianca foulon
The first thing I noticed was... in the statement she gave to me to post in this article (see above) she says, and I quote: "Digit Darkes did not invent the latex dress or crossbondage top (Gaultier did for first) and there are many, many designers that have reinterpreted this concept, both in rl fashion and on the Internet." She was speaking of the cutout top, and says both in this Memo and in her IMs with me, that her top was inspired by Gaultier. She even uses one of his images above side by side with her own. However in the notice she sent to the group, she says, and I quote: "were original creations, no copies from anyone in RL or SL.".
If all there was to this were just these items, it would be bad enough. But let's take a closer look at some of the items in Bianca's collections, and compare them to some of Digit's designs.
Digit gave Bianca her version of these gloves for use in a fashion show. They were as yet unreleased. Coincidentally (ha, right?) Bianca came out with the above pictured gloves not too long after.
In this image above, you see a main image, and 2 inset images. The main image is of Digit's tulle skirt, one of my favorite pieces from her. The 2 smaller inset images are of Bianca's outfit. Strikingly "similar" aren't they? In the image below, you can see the Digit top that Bianca was "inspired by". Like Digit, she paired the latex and tulle. Digit has had this outfit for AGES.
In regard to the cutout top, Digit was immediately able to provide me with the following images as proof she did create the shirt on her own:
It seems even Bianca's logo is a rip off of Balenciaga's:
There are just too many similarities to shrug off. I will be updating you all with further information if and when it becomes available. In the meanwhile, my advice to you dear readers, would be: the best way to show your support for original creativity would be to shop with the designer you feel is the innovator, and boycott the copy cat. Who is who? Decide for yourselves.
I immediately began digging. I spent literally hours hearing out both sides, viewing all kinds of evidence (that will all be posted here, as promised to all parties), and am trying my hardest to get to the bottom of all of this. I have made GREAT PAINS to be fair and accurate through my research regarding this. Accusations like this can do a great deal of damage to someone's business, and I would never want to jeopardize anyone's success or progress. However, the facts will speak for themselves.
I am going to start from the beginning, and move this forward. Digit Darkes first opened her doors in June of 2006. She met Bianca through an IM Bianca sent to her in the beginning of October 2007, letting Digit know that she had written about Digit's clothes in her magazine and what a fan she was of her work.
They realized they had a lot of things in common so they began to chat. This evolved into the two deciding to go in on a Sim, Addictive, together. Bianca covering about 1/3 of the cost of the Sim and responsible for 1/3 of the tier.
Bianca has left the Addictive Sim just this week, and has moved to a new location on the Velvet Sim. Both parties claim they thought they left the transaction on good terms. Digit was even so kind as to allow Bianca to leave a teleporter to her new location on the Sim.
At this point, I decided it would be only fair to go to Bianca and let her know that I would be doing a story involving her and out of fairness and journalistic ethics, I wanted to give her the chance to state her side. She told me she thinks she already knows what this is about, and asked if it was "the story that she is copying someone". I confirmed that it was.
(**NOTE: It is against the SL TOS to copy and paste directly, IM conversations. However it is within the TOS for me to quote things said to me in the fashion I am using here. If there is ANY question as to the 100% accuracy of my quotes, I am happy to send copies of my chat logs to ANYONE, which IS allowed by the TOS. So feel free to ask. If it were up to me I would post the chats directly, but I sadly can not.**)
I showed her the images that were sent to me, which you already saw above. She in turn, sent me the following images in her defense:
A comment from me: if neither designer copied Gaultier directly, that would mean that these are both "original interpretations" of his design. What are the odds they would both "interpret" his design in the exact same way? Though the texture is different, the cutouts are EXACTLY THE SAME.
Bianca gave me the following statement to include in my post, directing what she said to the one who gave me the images that started all this:
To Whom it May Concern:
You are accusing me of an injustice and hurting my name and my brand regarding dress designs I created long ago and are no longer selling. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you the TRUTH, as I believe you to be misinformed.
I would also like to say that I find this very odd that these accusations are surfacing at a time when I no longer have a store on the Addictive sim and have just recently built my on sim. Furthermore, Didit Darkes and I have been friends for some time and created Addictive together and even produced a fashion show together in November 2007, punkromantik .
YOUR SAD PICS
(see above)
Digit Darkes did not invent the latex dress or crossbondage top (Gaultier did for first) and there are many, many designers that have reinterpreted this concept, both in rl fashion and on the Internet. There is never a way to control how fashion uses different images and concepts and there is simply no way that these conceps originated with Digit Darkes.
From my own personal observations, it would appear that photoshop software was used to retouch my owns designs and to make a copy very similar but not an exact replica.
I would be glad to provide you with any information you would like to reaffirm my original creations and the timing of these to clear my name and my brand. I am a rl fashion designer for more than 20 years and live in the one of the world's major fashion capitals, I need not to copy anyone.
Best,
bianca foulon
Thus began my questioning. Bianca said that she felt this was all a made up farce meant to attack her because she has moved on to her own Sim. She went on to tell me she "upload those file we talk about in october 2007". She later went on to tell me and even show me evidence of that it was actually in July of that year. Not October. That was the first inconsistency, but could have been an innocent mistake, and so I gave the benefit of the doubt and we moved on. Bianca said that the images that were sent to me, the first ones posted in the article, were tampered with in Photoshop and made to look more identical to Digit's design than they really do. I asked her to let me have a copy to try on for myself so I could see in person, and offered to return them to her if she wanted, as this is not me trying to get free clothes, but discover the unbiased truth for myself.
Bianca did give me a copy of the blue latex outfit featured in the images you have seen. I put them on to check it out for myself. Here are my images. Other than adding text they have not been altered and I can show the original copies without the text to anyone who would like a copy.
No matter which angle I looked from, the highlight marks do line up to be almost exact to the texture of Digit's dress. Of course the "almost" might be due to the way this texture appears to be made. From an image taken of the original texture. Though the highlight marks are in identical places, they appear more blurry and stretched on Bianca's version.
If this texture was made from scratch by Bianca, why would she release it with such awful seam lines? They don't even line up and the back and front are not aligned properly either. This is either the result of a photographed texture or shoddy craftsmanship. Either way, if I bought this outfit and it was made like this, I would be livid.
I asked Bianca if she had any copies of her files to show the progression of trial and error making the items in both sets of pictures. She said she did but as of this date, she has not sent them to me.
Bianca emphasized to me repeatedly, in our talk which lasted well over three hours, that she had taken the pictured items out of her stores and hasn't had them available for sale since December. She wondered to me why they would be just now discovered when they haven't been in world since December, and pointed out the coincidence that the timing of this revelation was parallel to her leaving the Addictive Sim and moving to another one.
This point had me very confused also. If the designs haven't been available since December, but this was just being brought up now, 6 months later... then that did raise some valid questions.
Digit and I were finally able to sit down to talk about her side of all of this much later on in the day. I let her know that Bianca claims the designs haven't even been in world since December, so why and how is this just coming up now. It was at this point I was given the following screen shot of a transaction history from the night of when this all came about. An alt was sent to Bianca's store and purchased the cut out looking top just last night. Here is the screen shot of that transaction:
I then went right then to the location where the top was purchased just the night before. Since the purchase had been made, the entire layout of the store had been changed, and the top was suddenly no longer there. Considering that Bianca already knew about this issue when I first contacted her, and that the top that was under debate was purchased, not in December as she claimed, but just the night before... and was suddenly missing from the location the next morning... well it doesn't look good at all. In fact it was an outright lie. She knew about this issue, and intentionally removed the items in question as soon as this was exposed. And then lied to me and told me they had not been in her stores since December knowing full well she had removed it only THE SAME MORNING we spoke!
I IM'd Bianca to ask her one more time when it was that she removed the items in question from her stores. She again said in December. I then said, then how can you explain that I have in front of my a copy of a transaction that took place just the night before? And that now, suddenly the very next day after this has come out, said items are gone. I reminded her that December was long before last night. She claims she "forgot" that just THE SAME MORNING she had removed the top she had repeatedly told me hadn't been available for sale since December. She... forgot? You are being accused of stealing, in regard to this specific item you JUST removed, but you "forgot" to mention it when you said December over and over for hours? Is that the best you can do? Do I look like I was rezzed yesterday? I think not.
Bianca sent out a statement to her group regarding this issue. Here is the memo in full:
To Velvet Group and Bianca F. Group....
I feel it is very important to make you aware of a situation that has come about in SL. And tell you the TRUTH before you read in any newspapers or blogs.
As you may well know, I was partners with Digit Darkes on the Addictive sim for many months. We both had stores on the sim, produced fashion shows together and generally shared a deep love of fashion design. I even helped her by sharing some of my textures like glitter and she did the same with me.
Now that I have built Velvet sim and have new store, there are rumours and accusations that I copied many of Digit Darkes designs. The truth is a flat out, NO, I did not.
As many of you know, in RL, I live in one of the major fashion capitals of the world and have been a successful RL designer for more than 20 years. I have designed for many of the best fashion brands of Italy. When I came to SL, I began to use the same passion to create designs for the women of SL.
Now it would appear that several dresses, I designed and no longer sell are being said to have been copies of Digit Designs. These particular dresses were concept dresses influenced by some ot Italy's top designers but were original creations, no copies from anyone in RL or SL.
Furthernore, it is suspect to me why these rumours and accusations are coming to light at this time...I am no longer involved with Digit Darkes in any business venture and have closed my store on Addicitive. Velvet is my future here in SL and when left Addicitive, I thought it was on friendly terms with Digit.
So, I wanted you my friends and customers to know before the rest of SL knows that yet another fashion drama is headed my way but you now know the truth. I hope you will help to dispell any further rumours or accusations.
Fondly,
bianca foulon
The first thing I noticed was... in the statement she gave to me to post in this article (see above) she says, and I quote: "Digit Darkes did not invent the latex dress or crossbondage top (Gaultier did for first) and there are many, many designers that have reinterpreted this concept, both in rl fashion and on the Internet." She was speaking of the cutout top, and says both in this Memo and in her IMs with me, that her top was inspired by Gaultier. She even uses one of his images above side by side with her own. However in the notice she sent to the group, she says, and I quote: "were original creations, no copies from anyone in RL or SL.".
If all there was to this were just these items, it would be bad enough. But let's take a closer look at some of the items in Bianca's collections, and compare them to some of Digit's designs.
Digit gave Bianca her version of these gloves for use in a fashion show. They were as yet unreleased. Coincidentally (ha, right?) Bianca came out with the above pictured gloves not too long after.
In this image above, you see a main image, and 2 inset images. The main image is of Digit's tulle skirt, one of my favorite pieces from her. The 2 smaller inset images are of Bianca's outfit. Strikingly "similar" aren't they? In the image below, you can see the Digit top that Bianca was "inspired by". Like Digit, she paired the latex and tulle. Digit has had this outfit for AGES.
In regard to the cutout top, Digit was immediately able to provide me with the following images as proof she did create the shirt on her own:
It seems even Bianca's logo is a rip off of Balenciaga's:
There are just too many similarities to shrug off. I will be updating you all with further information if and when it becomes available. In the meanwhile, my advice to you dear readers, would be: the best way to show your support for original creativity would be to shop with the designer you feel is the innovator, and boycott the copy cat. Who is who? Decide for yourselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
