get a style vision
My shoe with a new minimal silk band. Look at how easily it melts into the other colors on my moodpboard.
Look at the heavy visual weight of the silver chain I cut off the loafers. Compare it to to the fine lines of the earrings
I remember vividly a fashion crush moment at the Marangoni fashion school in Milan. It was the early eighties, she was a classmate in the fashion illustration class. My crush was an ensemble of a cobalt blue mens cardigan, white shirt, black cigarette jeans, white socks and black ballerinas. Months went by and I too became the excited owner of a cobalt blue cardi and skinny black trousers. Then something devastating happened. I didn't feel fascinated by what I saw. The effect I was drawn to on her was not in any way reproduced on me. Determined to make the look happen I wore the outfit the following day and stood at the bus stop wondering why on earth it didn't feel right when it looked so good on her. Why?
My classmate had thick long black hair. I have fine blond hair. The black combined with bold blue overwhelmed me, and this I saw in the mirror. I couldn't put it into words back then but nonetheless felt it. I have thin pink skin. My classmate had thick olive skin. Her visual weight was heavy...mine was and is light. Had I had long thick blond hair my visual weight would have been heavier and so the weight of the dark colors and high contrast wouldn't have overwhelmed me as it did.I have short legs. She had long. Since the cardigan was long and skinny the proportion on her and me were different. Not better or worse...just different. I was expecting to buy the same item and get the same look...which of course didn't happen. Because we were different. Back then I didn't realize how overwhelmed I was by fashion noise: trends, style icons, celebrities. And underestimated the importance of understanding how my inspiration and could relate to me. What to do? How to cancel staggering amounts of fashion noise? How to stop your intuitive style wisdom from being overwhelmed?
Self-awareness comes from an intentional visionboard. You need your beauty visually and verbally described to you, or you won't have a language for it and will drawn to the fashion noise of your opposite contrast level and proportions.
CANCEL FASHION NOISE with a style vision board
1. DEFINE YOUR INSPIRATION
Creating a vision brings in YOUR inspiration photos from art, nature, architecture and fashion. It is your masterpiece.
2. DEFINE YOUR UNIQUE STYLE LANGUAGE
Editing your inspiration photos focuses awareness of what you really love and want to communicate. The process of describing what you want to keep and what you want to let go of brings the essential vocabulary of your language to life.
3. DEFINE A CLEAR COLOR, SHAPE, PROPORTION CONCEPT
It is amazing to see how your inspiration photos repeat your your contrast level, your natural lines and shapes.
4. DEFINE YOUR STYLE & AVOID FASHION NOISE
A clear visual and verbal color, shape and line concept prevents what happened to me in Milan. It ensures you recognise what expresses your physicality, strengths and dreams. You easily identify fashion noise as clothing that looks great on someone else but won't highlight you. From neuroscience we know that visualizing is experiencing, so experiencing your vision boards daily imprint the images on your subconscious. You have the discipline to walk past fashion noise and the clarity to zero in on that which makes you the best possible version of yourself.
Having a vision board has made my style so much clearer to me. I know that if I buy shoes that will melt into one of my four vision boards....I will love them, wear them and feel great in them. When I came back from Milan I sat the rose metallic shoes on my Venice Luxe Visionboard....and joyfully watched them melt into it. Their color and form did. But not the heavy silver chain they came with. On someone with thicker hair and features, the heavy visual weight of the chains would not be as overwhelming as they are with my fine hair and features. In fact, the Venetian earring on my visionboard, is visually light like me. Knowing this allows me to suss out the shoes, what works and what not. That's why I was convinced I had to lop off the chains. And sew a silk silk band on. Now they fit the artistic, sophisticated and clean concept on my Venitian Lux board. And my fine, light visual weight.
If you are struggling to find your style voice amidst the fashion noise, make a vision board and watch how much clarity the process provides. You have all these beautiful ideas inside you. The act of bringing them out and putting them on paper makes them yours. This self-awareness may surprise you. Because surely you will find a common thread runs through all your pictures. You may find this super easy to do alone. If, though, you are struggling to edit and focus your ideas, I am here to help and guide.
you want to be the best you possible. a vision board creates the clarity, self-awareness and focus for this to happen!