Where Bloggers Live: Sources of Inspiration
Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Every month a group of seven six bloggers share their workspaces, homes, towns, and more!
This month’s theme is Sources of Inspiration. This is sort of a stretch from the “where we live” theme but I think many of us find inspiration in many places in our lives.
I’m specifically talking here about fashion/style inspo. I feel like I find inspiration everywhere – from obvious sources like Pinterest, Instagram, Google searches, fashion magazines, fashion shows and street style blogs, movies & tv shows, etc…to art, fabrics, history, and even nature.
I feel like inspiration is often found when you’re not necessarily looking for it. I think staying open to seeing things with an open mind is important.
INSPIRATION FOUND IN NATURE
Sometimes in spring, when the maple trees are just starting to bud out in vibrant chartreuse puffs…and a storm is coming, bringing that steely blue-grey sky background against the tree buds…that is a showstopping combination to me.
And rather than just thinking “oh, that’s a nice color combination,” I think about what I could do with it. How can that be translated into an outfit? For years I’ve dreamed of a deep grey-blue shantung silk shift dress with a lightweight chartreuse cropped cardigan over it (not too specific) just because of that dramatic but lovely sky/tree pairing.
INSPIRATION FOUND IN ART
If you haven’t visited before, make sure to check out the Style Imitating Art blog series that Daenel is involved in. It’s extremely inspirational and helps you start to see all the ways art can be interpreted as fashion.
Finding Inspiration in Fabrics
Fabric (and wallpaper!) designers have taken all the guesswork out of color combinations for you. When you see a fabric (clothing, upholstery, draperies, etc) that appeals to you, make note of what colors have been paired together…and even in what proportions. Then try to build an outfit based on those colors.
INSPIRATION IN MEDIA
Social media is the MOTHERLODE of fashion inspiration! I have folders on my computer and phone, Pinterest boards, Instagram folders that are just BURSTING with outfit pictures.
Sometimes you see someone else wearing a certain combination of things, things you might have hanging in your own closet but never thought to put together, and it clicks for you. Sometimes you need to see something on a live human (as opposed to a commercial model), see how they’ve styled, how it looks out in the real world, before it appeals to you.
So I save pictures of outfits that appeal to me…and then eventually I convert their descriptions into a notes doc, indicating what items of my own I would use to recreate the look.
oh gosh, I’m a lunatic
But I’m a little anal about stuff like that. Some people can just see an outfit and remember it. Ha ha. Not this girl. I need words and pictures saved in perpetuity.
Over the years I’ve put together a shortlist of specific people (bloggers, etc) who I follow for inspiration…if you’ve been here for a while you’ve heard the name Lizzie Hadfield from Shot From the Street exactly 2,781 times because she has been a source of style inspiration for years. She’s really the first person I saw on an ongoing basis who dressed in this androgynous, man-tailored style that is so appealing to me.
Lizzie Hadfield from Shot from the Street
Going forward I’ll be posting a monthly “Inspired By” post where I’ll share a person or…category (?) from which I derive inspiration. I’d started it two years ago and didn’t follow through. But now, thanks to Blog Consultant Katherine, it’s IN THE CALENDAR and therefore, will happen 🙂
Honestly, scrolling through my inspiration folders/boards is one of my favorite distractions past times.
Where do you find inspiration?
Make sure to visit my friends to see what inspires them:
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Em at Dust and Doghair
julia
Ha Ha! Just noticed my smiling face in the picture! Sorry I messed up your lovely graphic. Maybe I’ll be able to join back in sometime in the future. Have a wonderful weekend Bettye!
Leslie Susan Clingan
Oh, that blue and green inspiration…all of it!! And your description of the shantung dress. Gorgeous. Those shoes with the pompoms are divine. Love, love, love that bright green…chartreuse. Ha, I spelled that without looking back to see how to spell it correctly. Wonders never cease.
I like that you take notes on looks that you have seen elsewhere or thought up. That is kind of what Pinterest and the Get Your Pretty On capsule wardrobes are for me. Ways of remembering a look, an accessory that I might not come up with on my own. I am very much in the box and unable to think or imagine my way out of it without a lot of help. I need all the inspiration I can get.
jodie filogomo
The notes are probably so helpful. I’ll save things but then forget about them later.
And I really like seeing things on people too. Not just in a flatlay!! I also LOVE seeing older women styling the items because it really speaks to me!!
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Daenel T.
Thank you for the shout out….
People at work always talk about me and my color combinations, so here’s my theory: if you see it in nature, you can see it on my body. So we kind of use the same idea.
I love how you categorize things… I’m the saaaaaaaaame.
bettyewp
Agreed re color combinations found in nature. That’s always been my argument for green and brown, too.
Which anal categorization system are you referring to? I have a LOT 🙂