Designer Interviews Designer Interview: Ramses Meredith of Egoisme
Written by Lacy Muircastle Tuesday, 24 January 2012 23:46
Hi everyone, Costa Rica Sims Productions will be showcasing this coming weekend Egoisme by Ramses Meredith. I went to have a chat with him leading up to the fashion show.
Ramses Meredith arrived inworld 4 years ago, in fact his rezz day is the 26th January, so Ramses happy rezz day from all of us at Costa Rica Sims. His real self hails from Milan Italy, one of the main fashion centres in the real world.
Ramses, thank you for taking time out to chat to us. What brought you SL?
Mmm well this is funny, I was looking for another virtual game like World of Warcraft, hehe if I think back to when I arrived in SL it was a little traumatic for me at first since the gui interface is not friendly like WoW.
I think it was the same for most of us.
Haha defnitely! But it was a disaster because the use of the keys is very different and so on but I learnt fast. What was most strange for me was the concept of being able to move from sim to sim and needing know about places and being able to find them.
Would you tell us a little about yourself and your time in SL so far?
Well what I can say is I am eclectic, I like to experiment with everything and to learn, I am thirsty for knowledge. I love to design and play business. In fact in RL I am designer and business man, we can say I have a number of different jobs since I like to push my limits and to manage many things at the same time. In SL, well I started playing but then I couldn’t find clothes and tattoos to suit my taste, so it was from there that I started with the production of tattoo’s first. That pushed me into the SL business world, then a year ago I started Egoisme Ltd in RL to work in SL and started to work on clothes, skins and accessories. As many people know, I am very selfish when it comes to design, everything has to fit me first, if I don’t like what I have designed, I don't feel the need to sell it. My RL job helps me a lot in SL because I have a base to work from; what’s more I have been using Photoshop since I was 15.
How did you come to decide on Egoisme as your brand name?
As I mentioned previously, because I am used to designing everything first for my "needs" I am ... we can say selfish? So in French the word for that is egoisme, and since for me Paris is still one of moda's capitals, I decided to use this French word for my company name.
What are your inspirations for your designs?
Everything! It can be music, or maybe a nice landscape, everything can stimulate my imagination. I want to emphasise that I don't copy from RL outfits because I am genetically unable to copy, I need to have my soul in what I do so I create by using my imagination and what I am feeling at that moment, as an example, now I am very into fur because I damn love to play with fur textures.
What do you find are the biggest challenges you face as a designer in SL?
To work with prims and the fact that Linden Labs have an algorithm that reduce texture resolutions, you know SL have a cluster of servers called "asset" servers, so to save space every texture is resized till you upload a 2048x 2048. So u need to find new techniques to increase detail for low resolutions
So then what’s your take on Mesh vs Sculpties for the SL Fashion World?
I definitely prefer mesh, but I am waiting for Second Life to upgrade the new system that allows avatars to wear mesh clothes, so I am not going to waste of time with rigging that would allow designs to fit every body size. For now I will wait to make mesh clothes.
What do you think is the best thing you have done?
This is a new skin I am working on by the way. But the best thing I have even done is adopt a Kenyan boy. We take part in the ‘feed a smile’project and as company we have adopted a boy. With 100 lindens you can give a child a meal, so we have donated 10k for this boy. Next month I hope to adopt another one, so that will be 2.
This is what for me is the best thing I have done for now. I am lucky to have many customers who love my work and this is my way of saying thank you to them. As it is Egoisme that has adopted the boy, it that means every customer has made a contribution. I could give the money from my own wallet, but every customer has built this and I love my customers, they are a great family and they help a lot.
How did you go about deciding what to show on the weekend?
Well following the feeling I have now I would describe it as exotic and furrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, hehe.
Oohhhhhh, sounds intriguing.
Hehe, yes! It’s like when you cook, the fashion is a mix of spices and main ingredients. Like with everything, you need the main idea first and then each shape, each fabric texture is a mix of "spices".
I then asked Ramses if I may take a snap shot of him….
RM: No, you can of course - fixes fast his hair
RM: *winks*
LM: Lol, you look stunning darling, nothing wrong with your hair
RM: Lol, I know! I urged Maddox Dupont to make hair like this. You have to know when I feel an idea, I have to encourage whoever it applies to, to create something for it.
LM: and they don't mind you telling them this?
RM: No they love being involved, I mean I don't order - lies - I "suggest" the best way - omits "the best way to survive"
I for one look forward to the fashion show on the weekend! Don't forget to read the press release. See you all there.
Lacy Muircastle
