With the new school year quickly approaching (or already here for many of us), I’ve started thinking about the goals I want to accomplish this year. Among them, I want to start wearing heels more often and put more effort into my going-to-class look. One of the ways that I’m going to accomplish these goals is by collecting inspirational photos to display, so I’m constantly surrounded by the fashionable women I want to emulate.
A few months ago, Kristina wrote an article about creating a fashion vision board and today I’m going to expand on that, and show you how to make a binder full of fashion ideas as well as a fashion inspiration board! Plus, I’ve included a few extra tips that will keep you inspired for months to come.
Table of Contents
Making Your Fashion Binder
Do you ever have those days where you have no idea what to wear, but you know that you want to look fabulous? When those brain freezes happen to me, I always pull out my trusty fashion binder, and voila! Instant outfit inspiration!
Making a fashion binder is one of the easiest and best things you can do to improve your style. All you need is a binder and lots of clear sleeves to put photos in. I pull out anything from a magazine that catches my eye, even photos where I just like the model’s hair. And then on those days where I feel like everything in my closet is absolutely wrong, I flip through the photos until I find just the right outfit for the day.
You don’t need to buy magazines to make one of these, though – you can also do this by printing out fashion photos from the internet and sticking them in the binder! It’s totally customizable and up to you: Who and what inspires you most?
Making Your Fashion Inspiration Board
Another great way to keep yourself inspired is to surround yourself with photos that get your creative juices flowing. You can do this by making a fashion inspiration board to display in your room! It’s easy to do and as a bonus, it will make a great decoration for your room.
Step 1: Gathering supplies
What you’ll need:
- A cork board
- Photos/quotes of anything that inspires you
- Lot of brads or push pins (I used mini brads for attaching all the photos and bought larger brads with gems on them to add a little sparkle.)
- Optional: I decided to add flowers to my board to add some dimension to it, but you can add ribbon or anything else you like.
- Bonus tip: If you’re crafty, paint the frame of your board first to add some more character.
Step 2: Laying out your photos
Play around with proportions here, and see what looks best where before you pin things down. Putting all the photos on the cork board is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle and you have figure out where everything fits. Once you have the layout the way you like it, then it’s time to start pinning things down.
To attach the flowers, I pulled the blooms off of the stems, and then used one of the brads to dig a hole in the cork. Make sure that the hole isn’t too big, or the flower won’t stay.
The finished product:
Now, proudly hang up the board in your room and let the inspiration start flowing!
More Ways to Keep Track of Your Fashion Inspiration
It’s also a good idea to save fashion inspiration photos on your computer. To do this, you can use Evernote to organize your inspiration like Zephyr does, or just make a special folder for the photos on your computer.
If you have an iPhone or any kind of mobile phone that can store pictures on it, you can upload your album of fashion photos to your phone (or get the Evernote app to access your Evernote notebook) and then you’ll always have your inspiration with you. It comes in handy when you’re shopping and can’t quite remember the exact outfit that your favorite fashionista was wearing, or when you’re sitting in class, completely bored, and would rather look at amazing fashion than Spanish architecture from the 1800s… Is anyone else with me here?
Thoughts?
What do you think about this project? Do you already have a fashion binder or inspiration board? Who or what inspires your style? What are your fashion goals for this school year? Let us know with a comment!
@Courtney (#6) Ooh yeah! The binder would come in handy since you’ll be able to organize it according to theme/color/seasons. You’re a genius! Haha, I never would have thought of that. I have a bunch of corkboards and it’s a pain when I want to reorganize it but a binder would work much better. Just take a page out and put another in! 😀
i used to do these all the time; i stopped because i didn’t see a use for it when i was always rushed- so i just have certain pictures in my closet that always give me that boost to the new outfit i need since it captures all the colors in it. 🙂
but i do like your idea with the binder.
You can make, like, a MILLION digital inspiration boards on POLYVORE.com! Be careful, though, because it’s totally addicting, so it can end up being a huge distraction from getting work done, but if you have the time to spare, it’s awesome!
Thank you so much for posting this! My sister and I were actually working on a board like this and I didn’t finish it because I didn’t have any inspiration. This article definitely refreshed me.!
Wow, I love this idea! (: I already have a memo board in my room of pictures of me & my friends, but a fashion inspiration board sounds amazing! I can’t wait to start my own! :] Love this post!
xooxoxxo
Cool idea! I was so inspired I busted out my paints and painted my bulletin board to match my bedspread.
Cool article! I definitely have three bulletinboards, and I also mount mini collages and big pictures on black construction paper and put those all over my walls since I’m constantly finding inspiration and the bulletin boards are full!
a more eco friendly way to be inspired- get a blogroll (I use google Reader), subscribe to good blogs (there are ready-made blog lists out there) and save your favorite looks to the blogroll’s Favorites. That way there’s more room than on your wall. And the environment <3s you.
I have a binder, scrapbook, and a cork board 🙂 I love doing these.
What I like to do for my binder is to upload pictures I’ve found online to CVS’s photo printing service, and have them all printed as photographs with a matte finish. I pick all different sizes, certain things that I like a lot I make 8.5 * 11, etc. It makes for a higher quality collection of images, and I find it cheaper than paying $60 for a new color ink cartridge for my printer each month.
I love fashion boards/binders!!! Through them, I’ve really learned a lot about myself and my personal style. I love the cork board just because it’s something you can constantly be changing as the seasons go by.
I have a scrapbook as opposed to a binder and even have articles about fashion instead of just photographs.
Like a commentator above I tend to stick photographs all over my walls instead of being organised and containing them in a corkboard. Does anyone else find that an artwork or film poster or other unrelated to fashion image can be more inspiritational than ripping pages out of magazines? (Maybe it is just because I refuse to damage my fashion magazines and treat them like books.)
this is quite handy. i like the binder idea better than the corkboard though, simply because it would be easier to organize (by season? by texture? by theme? endless possibilities)…and i’d get all anal about poking little holes in my pictures anyways. 🙂
Love this post. I’ve had a cork board FOREVER planning to do this but this post made me finally want to start. 🙂
The inspiration binder is a great idea! I’ve been doing that for quite a while now and it really helps you get inspired when you’re in a fashion rut. I have two binders filled with magazine clippings. The board is something I’ve always wanted to try!
i love this idea, the inspiration board makes excellent home decor as well!
Great ideas thanks! I started using evernote after I read zepher’s post a few weeks ago I definately want to start an inspiration board and binder!