It's hard to hear, but it just might be true. Alicia's post is in response to all-to-common designer complaints on Plurk (the social network of choice for many SLers, and fashionistas in particular) about slow sales and slacking business. As Alicia points out, these plurks are quickly flooded with supportive messages about the economy and slow seasons and so-on, but very rarely is anyone willing to tell you if the problem may actually be your store.

This isn't because everyone wants to suck up to you (necessarily), but because when you extract the occasional epic dramaz and catfighting, Second Life fashionistas are generally very supportive of each other. Our reflex action when someone is upset is to be comforting and reassuring, but this often does more harm than good. It's also very hard to gauge how well someone will respond to criticism of their creative work even if you're very close with them. It's no exaggeration to say that I've lost friends for pointing out flaws after I've been asked for my honest opinion even though, as regular readers may know, I'm not exactly brutal when it comes to delivering criticism.

The truth is that every designer needs to find someone honest, a voice of reality. If you can't be friends with that person at the same time then find someone outside of your social circle. A blogger, a fellow designer, someone that you trust to deliver the truth when you need to hear it. You need someone who won't hold back if your prices are too high, your texturing is too flat, your seams are too skewed, your primwork is too dated, your templates are too "templatey"... You get the picture. Some days you might hate them, some days you might wish you'd never asked them for their opinion, but it's a perspective you need to hear if you really do want to develop your brand (and your skills.) If you send review items to a blogger and they don't write about them, you may even want to ask them why not (nicely of course!) to get an outsider's point-of-view.

And what if you're the friend of a designer in this position? Follow Alicia's advice and do them a favour: Take a chance and be honest. It might sting at first, but you're doing them a greater kindness with honest feedback than you are with hollow praise.

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.