I finally got the money into my bank account from Paypal and I’ve sent off the donation of funds we raised from the fair and here is the proof of payment.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in making this an event to remember and for helping all of the animals this money will go to.

~Phoenix

There is no way I ever could have done this expo without a lot of help from many people to realize my vision. So I want to thank bunches of people for various things they did to help bring the 2008 SL Footwear Expo to fruition, and so successfully:

Delora Starbrook (Starbrook Architecture) - Thank you to you and your partners for creating such an extraordinary build, and for working so tirelessly with not only that, but with the vendors, the scripts, the decor, and countless other small things. You’ve done so much and been such a great help to me in everything, my honourary co-chair. Same time next year?

Rosie Shark and Payton Heron (Trio Communications) - You, my new partners in crime, are angels in the metaverse and I consider myself a lucky girl to have met you both. You’ve been invaluable to me in helping with the events, promotion, marketing and general insanity-reduction. So many things would not have gone off as smoothly as it did without you and your support.

Zoe Demar (Z…Complete Studios) - Thank you for creating the fair posters and logo, and reincarnating it in so many adaptations for different purposes. You are so talented and gifted.

Alysha Rennahan - Thank you for being my little pitbull, reigning in all of the designers who were too busy to reply to my original invitation, and making them sign up. A good quarter or maybe even half of the designers probably cursed you (at first) for harassing them, and I can say without a doubt it would not have been as successful without you.

Helianthus Mesmer - The blogger fairy who’s taken over the blogging here and made sure that events, etc. were posted for everyone to know about, not to mention sending out interview questionnaires for the designers to fill out. It’s been interesting to read about their inspirations, careers and thoughts behind their work in SL. You are fantastic, Heli, thank you.

Alaska Metropolitan and Metro Models - Thank you for putting on an amazing fashion show last weekend and working so tirelessly to make sure it went off without a (seen) hitch

Catero Revolution and Hathor Models - Cat, thank you for being you and helping me put it into perspective when I was overwhelmed with work and doubts, and for helping me with so many of the little things. To the Hathor models who so generously donated their time to participate in the charity fashion show with grace and professionalism, thank you.

Matthew Anthony and Echo Seigo - Thank you both for your scripting prowess and assistance at the very last possible minute. Echo, you saved the day!

Anessa Stine and Graciana McMillan - Thank you to the amazing, sweet, kind-hearted ladies of On Your Toes, for all of your help before and during the fair. Special thanks goes to Anessa for your help with the museum display, the flickr contest (I promise, it’ll be different next year!), and your special heart, not to mention volunteering to take over the club next year (I didn’t forget and I’m totally holding you to it!)

Emi Bade and Haruka Kish - Thank you to both of you beautiful ladies for your assistance with our Japanese designers. We could not have expanded our designer base without you.

Daphne Abernathy of the Going Broke podcast - Thank you for a wonderful interview and letting me pimp the fair out on your podcast!

Second Style magazine (Celebrity Trollop) - Thank you for your support and running a free ad in support of the expo and the ASPCA.

Metaverse Messenger (Phoenix Psaltery) - Thank you for your support and running a free ad in support of the expo and the ASPCA.

I had no advertising budget whatsoever and I could not have done it without your generosity.

TheDiva Rockin, Nexeus Fatale, Lux Yao, Azu Cattaneo, Meredith Freund, Dahni Ella, Cylindrian Rutabaga, Summer Deadlight, Jean Munro and Duckyfresh Watanabe - Thank you to all for your musical stylings and talent, and for volunteering your time to help this very worthy charitable cause.

Surrealia Anatine, Tillie Ariantho, Torrid Midnight, Dove Swanson, and Serenity Mercier - Thank you for your generous contributions in sponsoring the Flickr contest.

To the very many sponsors of the huge raffle - There are far too many of you to post here, but I’d like to sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such generous and supportive people, sponsoring the Raffle. For a full list of the sponsors and prizes, please click this link.

The designers of the 2008 SL® Footwear Expo - It goes without saying that without your talent and creativity, this expo would not have existed. Special thank you to all of you. See you next year

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - Thank you for all of your work protecting abused, neglected and sick animals. All animals are beautiful and special.

Rezzable - Thank you for your generous support in providing the space and means to throw on such an event. Special thanks to Lokum Shilova and Gweneth Lange for all of your assistance when I needed you.

And last, but most definitely not least, thank you to all of you who blogged the event, came down and bought some shoes or showed your support in a myriad of other ways. I appreciate your help more than I could possibly say.

We raised L$866,119 for the ASPCA, and I’ll be sending a check off in support of their wonderful work.

Sincerely,

Phoenix Chapman
Coordinator of the 2008 SL® Footwear Expo

After a very successful run on the Rezzable Sims, we managed to raise nearly L$900,000 for the ASPCA.  Go us!

I could not have done it without the help of tons of people, who deserve their own post, so I will post that tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are the results of both the Flickr contest, and the Raffle!  Prizes and instructions on redeeming prizes (since a lot of them have choices assigned), will be delivered to the winners tomorrrow.  Congratulations to all of you, and we’d like to thank you for your participation!

Click on the pictures to be taken to the winner’s flickr page for each photograph.  All pictures used with permission by virtue of entering the contest, and contestants retain all rights to their photos.

Cherie Parker’s definitive statement took home first place in the Flickr contest, with her photograph of J’s Tassele Wedge Sole Sandals in Red, with the optional sculpty toes.

Winter Jefferson’s topsy turvy photo of some boots I don’t recognize ;), takes home the second prize honours with a really cool picture.

And finally, Kitty Lalonde’s wet entry with the ETD Galoshes, a sweet and playful photo with a bit of a different perspective takes home third place.

Congratulations to you all, and please allow up to 48 hours from each sponsor to receive your prizes.

Now, onto the Raffle, and what I believe is one of the biggest ever single prizes in SL history (yeah, I said it!):

Congratulations goes to:

MARAH DARCY!

Thank you for entering the raffle, and you will be receiving tons of amazing prizes from some of SL’s most noted names in fashion!  Please give us 48 hours to get that to you.

Thanks again to all contest participants, you helped make the event very special and all of you are stars in my book.

Well, two weeks and L$850,000 later, we’re ready to wind down the 2008 SL® Footwear Expo.

Kicking off the finale celebrations at 3pm SLT, we have DJ Azu spinning some tunes for us, so come down and get your groove on (and your shop on), because tonight after 5:30pm SLT, you will NO LONGER be able to get exclusives from stores such as Maitreya, fuel, Enkythings, and Bodies By Oh.

Come join the party!

All good things must come to an end… The Expo ends tomorrow, and todays interview with Katat0nik Pidgeon is last of the series. Enjoy!

Q: For how long have you been designing footwear in SL?
A: Since summer 2007.

Q: What are your inspirations, when it comes to designing?
A: My designs are inspired by all the shoes I’ve ever wanted but can’t find IRL, and little ideas that pop into my head while building and/or drawing stuff for SL. I often try to make shoes that match the clothes I make, or vice versa.

Q: Does your sl style reflect your rl style?
A: Definitely! I’d totally wear my SL shoes in RL

Q: Which one of your designs is your favourite?
A: At the moment, my Mortido & Bubbly Mary Janes. They are probably my simplest shoes, but when I was making the sculpties for them the whole work process was so smooth and natural, and they turned out exactly how I wanted them to. I am very happy with them.

Q: Did you prepare any new/special releases for shoes expo?
A: Yes I released my Bubbly Mary Janes & Strawberry Dream Legwarmer Boots at the expo. The Bubbly Mary Janes come in 10 colors and have several texture change options. The Strawberry Dream Legwarmer Boots are legwarmers with boots built in, and they are embellished with strawberries, vines & ribbons. These match my Strawberry Dream Dress.

Q:What inspired you to take part in the ASPCA benefit event?
A:I have a soft spot for animals, they are beautiful and inspiring to me as an artist IRL. I also have the cutest dog in the world (in my opinion, lol.) Animals are so sweet and loving, I can’t help but care about their well-being. In the past I’ve raised money for various “no-kill” animal shelters IRL by donating some of my paintings and/or profits from my artwork, and being able to do the same with my SL work is pretty cool.

Tp to Katat0nik’s store or to the Expo booth where you can get latest releases!

*****

Remeber, some shoes which are on sale at the Expo such as Maitreya Virtue and /fuel/ Naima Summer Melon (shown on pic) are limited edition, which means they will be gone after Expo ends!

So come grab them, this is your last chance! An if you feel like partying tonight, we have live performance by Jean Munro at 3 pm followed by party with DJ Dahni Ella at 5 pm! Here’s your limo to Club Shoooooz!

If you claim yourself SL fashionista, for must familiar with this logo:

Digit Darkes is another multi-talented designer who makes clothes, hairs, skins, and - yes you’ve guessed well - shoes. So if you bought one of awesome Digit’s creations and need matching shoes, you can get them right away at her store. At the Expo all proceeds from sales of selected shoes go to ASPCA!

Here’s interview with Digit

Q: For how long have you been designing footwear in SL?
A: 2 years

Q: What are your inspirations, when it comes to designing?
A: Can be anything…but normally starts with current Trends then it eventually morphs into something else when IM building in SL.

Q: Does your sl style reflect your rl style?
A: YES

Q: Which one of your designs is your favourite?
A: My unreleased ones of course!

Q: Did you prepare any new/special releases for shoes expo?
A: YES

Q: What inspired you to take part in the ASPCA benefit event?
A: I am an animal Rights Activist and I use my current blogs to spread information and help Fight Puppy Mills.

RAFFLE!

So far for the ASPCA, we have raised just over L$800,000 so far! I couldn’t be more excited about what this will mean for all those animals. It makes me really happy and proud of everyone who has taken part of this event, from the amazing people beside me to the designers who are participating, to the people who just love shopping and have stopped by to pick themselves up some new foot lovelies.

But…

I *REALLY* want to hit L$1,000,000! I know, I know, call me nuts, but there’s something about seeing that magical number that makes me all weak-kneed and excited! So the fastest way I can think to accomplish this is for people to come down and enter their names in the raffle. The odds are ridiculously good right now, and the prizes…WOW! They are amazing….if I could enter this contest, I so would! The entire package is valued at least around L$50,000!

If you’ve got a spare bit of cash, and a pet at home, or love animals, or just like shoes XD, then come down to the expo in the final days and enter the raffle, buy some shoes, donate for the cause.

Thank you.

~ <3 Phoe

Enktan Gully of enkythings makes not only makes awesome shoes…

…but also many other stuff such as beachwear, plants and mushrooms, garden decorations, furniture and vampire coffins. That’s what i call a huge selection What’s more, Enktan has also 1 L$ shop with tones of quality freebies and dollarbies, so unlike the lame freebie places, great for new residents or even not so new ones

Tp to the store or Expo booth (where you can buy special edition of Kaseyo shoes) after (or even before) reading the interview.

Q: For how long have you been designing footwear in SL?
A: Since sept 2006.

Q: What are your inspirations, when it comes to designing?
A: Women that are both elegant and sexy. Certain rl shoe styles and periods. Clothing and textures.
With my prim shoes often it were the prims and their limited possibilties themselves that inspired me.

Q: Does your sl style reflect your rl style?
A: It reflects my taste in what I like for a woman, not my own style.

Q: Which one of your designs is your favourite?
A: The Ekota, my most recent release.

Q: Did you prepare any new/special releases for shoes expo?
A: The Ekota were released on first day of the expo.
A special edition of Kaseyo was made to support ASPCA.

Q: What inspired you to take part in the ASPCA benefit event?
A: I’m totally against any maltreatment of animals. And it’s a shoe expo… making shoes is what I do in sl.

***

Total donations to ASPCA are over 800K L$ now! Only few days to go, can we get a million? You can help animals by shopping at the Expo (percent of every sale and all proceeds from sales of selected products go to ASPCA) or by buying the raffle tickets! The list of prizes is super long so i won’t paste it here, look at Phoenix’s post to see what you can win!

Isobel DeSantis collaborates with Constanza Volare of Alchemy, and many of her shoes are made to go with Constanza’s creations. Great way to get complete look with no hassle! Tp to (Angles) store or visit the booth at the Expo where all proceeds from sale of Remarkable Stiletto shoes go to ASPCA!

Here’s Q&A with Isobel:

Q: For how long have you been designing footwear in SL?
A: For just over a year - I started around April 2007, making shoes to match my friend Connie’s dresses.

Q: What are your inspirations, when it comes to designing?
A: I started designing shoes when my friend Connie of Alchemy designed a dress, so my first inspiration was her clothes.
Now it seems inspiration comes from everywhere. I see a bed of flowers and the colours are so delicious I want to put them together!
Or I see clothes from a designer and immediately the shoe I want to wear with them pops into my head.
General trends come from RL fashion mags but just copying isn’t creative enough for me, I have to make it MINE

Q: Does your sl style reflect your rl style?
A: Pretty much, yes. I like high heels, elegance, colour. I would certainly wear my shoes in RL!

Q: Which one of your designs is your favourite?
A: Dream was my very first design and it’s still a best-seller. In fact, Silver Dream has become an iconic image for my designs

Overall, my favourite is Charismatic. I loved making everything about them: the unusual colour combinations, getting that bow to sit “just” right, and the versatility of the style - I adore them!

Q: Did you prepare any new/special releases for shoes expo?
A: I expect to be releasing a couple of new designs during the Expo, so watch out for them!

Q: What inspired you to take part in the ASPCA benefit event?
A: I adore animals - I have 3 VKC dogs now and one or other of them is usually at my main store, greeting customers and taking care of the place!
Anything to do with animals will always get my attention; they love so unconditionally and are such great teachers for us.

***

It’s middle of the week… but why not to party on Wednesday for a change? DJ TheDiva Rockin will be spinning the tunes for you from 5 pm to 7 pm at Club Shoooooz!

At Aphrodite Creations you can find sculpty shoes in tones of colours for very reasonable price, clothes, jewerly and even some poses. Also colourable lashes for those of you who mastered lashes adjusting skillz.

Shown on pic: Serenity shoes. Interview with Aphrodite below the piccie

Q: For how long have you been designing footwear in SL?
A: Since December 2007

Q: What are your inspirations, when it comes to designing?
A: My imagination though that is something based on all I’ve seen around me I’m sure

Q: Does your sl style reflect your rl style?
A: In a way yes, but that is in all I design, for I design more then shoes. But yeah it does have a certain style I feel that has its roots in my personal taste.

Q: Which one of your designs is your favourite?
A: Usually my latest, since that isn’t released untill I’ve made a personal improvement in skill even in the slightest way.

Q: Did you prepare any new/special releases for shoes expo?
A: Not really but who knows

Q: What inspired you to take part in the ASPCA benefit event?
A: I was asked and thought it was a great initiative, and I’m happy to be able to add my little share.

Visit Aphrodite Creations at the Expo. Evertytime you buy shoes at the Expo, percent of the L$ goes to ASPCA!