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It’s been a lonely month here at Fashionista and we’re so excited to have Abby Gardner on board! I might be shy, but she’s a totally open book - so if you want to know where she’s been and what she’s done up until now, read on for a mini-Life With in which she answers questions I thought you might ask.

Hello!! So I’m the new girl here at Fashionista and I couldn’t be more excited to be here. And to finally lend Britt a hand. She’s been doing an awesome job, basically solo for weeks now. So, we were trying to think of how best to introduce me to you and decided to go with a modified “Life With” column. It’s one of my favorite new things on the site. Feel free to leave questions in the comments section.

Don’t ask why, but I recently had to create an avatar - a character/person (for those not in the virtual gaming world) - in Second Life. Then, after some minor Googling, I entered this vast world of virtual fashion - think people creating full clothing lines, garnering major “celebrity” (in the meta way) attention, and actually making money (in the real, cold hard cash way) off of it.

If you’ve never heard of dresses from Simone!, lingerie from Insolence, or stilettos from Shiny Things, it’s ok, neither had we. Not only are these virtual designers getting a virtual (but still real) audience, but some big name, real designers are too - Armani has his own virtual boutique, and Jean-Paul Gaultier used the virtual world as a platform for launching his “Fleur du Mâle” fragrance through a VIP event that gave invitees access to a new Second Life area.

We even found Second Style Fashionista (we’re so happy to get a mention in the virtual world), where a woman has been wandering “all over the grid” - Second Life speak for looking all over the place - in search of a wedding dress!

If all this seems too fake to be real, you might remember that story about a real-life couple divorcing over Second Life. So just remember - if you’re actually into this, and you think there aren’t any real-life consequences to donning a puce, sequined tube dress in your Second Life, think again.

—ALEXANDRA BEN-GURION