Impressions: Frenzoo

I've done many things in my time. No, I'm not ancient (it just seems that way). I've just packed a lot of things in in the time I've had. I've been to school, I've had jobs, and I've had hobbies. It's kept me pretty busy.

There's one hobby that I've never made enough time for: fashion design. Do you draw little sketches of ideas, and occasionally develop those into full-colour plates and flats? Make your own patterns? Sit down at an actual sewing machine and construct a garment? Peruse magazines, books, and Web-sites, and any other fashion-related material you can lay your hands on?

There's a new way to share and to indulge that passion, regardless of your skill level: Frenzoo!

Don't wander off quite yet, if you're a Second Life user, because there's a chunk of awesome coming.

Frenzoo is a fantastic place to meet like-minded people, girls and guys, who love fashion, whether they be spectators, shoppers, designers, or all of those at once. Located at http://www.frenzoo.com/, the site constitutes a virtual (by which I mean, it exists digitally) world of fashion, incorporating shopping, design tools, forums, clubs and fashion shows.

Still in beta, Frenzoo is already a fine establishment, and steaming along at speed:

The web site is easily useable and navigable, with a minimalist look and feel that is pleasant to the eye.

The design tools for clothing creation are already superlative. The tool interface is simple and intuitive, while allow quite sophisticated designs to be put together. As a user with a free account, I have not yet had access to the Advanced features of the design tools; access is currently restricted to VIPs and people on the Frenzoo team. Nonetheless, the quality of the available tools leads me to expect more of the same from currently unavailable tools.

Now that design tool would be absolutely amazing in Second Life. Seriously. Imagine being able to design clothing for an avatar without reaching for The GIMP or Photoshop. It's all kinds of clever, and it's the sort of thing that Second Life is clearly missing. It's accessible, live and immediate.

Frenzoo is only to be used by those persons 13 years and older; those persons under 18 must have the permission of their legal guardian. Thus, considering that the age of many users will lie between 13 and the low 20s, the users for the most part show great maturity, and respect for each other, in all form of contact (forums, comment walls, clubs). I hope that this community spirit will continue to pervade Frenzoo well into the future, and that these users will, by their actions, encourage more people to join who will act the same ways.

Having noted that many users treat each other well, it's also worth mentioning that moderation across the site is excellent -- swift, transparent, and thoughtful, the moderators let users know where the limits are, and then stick by that fairly. I hope that they are able to maintain this standard as the number of users grows and the feature list is expanded.

Frenzoo, right now, consists of tools and stores without too much context. There's no worlds or rooms, just profiles and social networking and forums and walls to write on. It's a Facebook of fashion-designing, but the people behind it are steadily evolving it through the beta, and the distance they've come so far leads me to expect more to come.