The Accademia Montenapoleone 5 opens in Second Life!

Many wondered why I had been pretty much silent for almost a year. Here's the explanation:

During the last few months I worked very hard on the building and opening of my new project: bringing the first real life fashion academy to Second Life. I could find no better one that the fashion academy I study in every morning, and that's the Accademia Montenapoleone 5 (also called Accademia del Lusso or Luxury Academy), whose homepage can be reached at http://www.accademiadellusso.com/ , that already distinguished itself for the innovative and effective teaching methods and was definately the best choice to be a pioneer in Second Life too.
Why did I decide to start this project?
First of all, Second Life has an unparaleled potential for creativity. It's my belief that, short of the real thing, there's no better place for a fashion student to learn how to create a brand and manage it, and also how to interface with the tastes and the needs of a real audience and market than Second Life.
Also, my personal dream is to bring the excellence of italian fashion and creativity in Second Life as it is in Real Life, and to create a point of meeting and merging between Second Life and Real Life fashion.

After about one year since when the idea has been conceived now the virtual academy is ready, and can be visited at this slurl

The grand opening last saturday, featuring a fashion show with the virtual brands Callie Cline, Simone, Shiny Things and Musashi-Do (wich are the guest brands that already have a shop in the island to pose as an example for the academy's students) has been a groundbreaking success, with the sim being filled by the enthusiast audience from start to end.

The project itself will be divided in several branches:

1: The real academy students will be granted shops in the island (in the reproduction of the real life premier fashion street in Milano, Via Montenapoleone) to create and manage their brands and projects in second life. Second Life residents will be invited to port in and to shop 'til they drop on the fruits of their creativity.

2: Several of the academy's teachers (wich are all real world fashion professionals) will hold classes in the island, open to every second life resident, that will cover every aspect of real life fashion.

3: Second Life residents involved in the world of virtual fashion will be invited to host classes themselves, encompassing all aspects of virtual fashion (Everyone interested can contact me (Shiryu Musashi) via IM, or at my email adress shiryu@musashi-do.net).

4: I'm holding myself a real life course on Second Life creativity (it already begiun on December the 3rd) at the real academy, to help the real students and teachers learn thepotential and the use of Second Life.

5: An exhibition center is ready to host exhibitions on several aspects of fashion and art. It already features a small exhibition on Still Life photography featuring the work of last year's styling course at the academy.

It's definately an ambitious project, and i really hope it'll meet it's goals, creating a true place for Second Life and Real Life fashion to meet and merge, and for Second Life Residents and real life fashion students to learn from each other and improve their knowledge of fashion.

Anyone that's interested in attending the classes can join the "Accademia Montenapoleone 5 Update" group (free to join) where notices will be posted to let everyone be aware of the schedule.

If anyone is interested in downloading pictures of the grand opening (for publishing reasons) please click here and feel free to send me a message in world or an email (at shiryu@musashi-do.net) to require any kind of info.

Also, a machinima (movie) of the event will be published soon.

I'm extremely proud of this project, and happy to finally let it see the light :)

The classes will begin soon, so stay tuned!