It was over a year ago now when I originally posted how to create your own look book in the men’s section of the blog. It still remains one of my most popular posts to this day. If you never caught it then I’ll do a quick recap before I kick off with this post. A look book, if you’re not already familiar with one, is a collection of looks that showcase how a collection works. The beauty of your own personal look book is two fold; it documents your own style progression and it also helps you develop your style. How does it develop your style? You may ask, well it allows you to build a collection of looks that you want to achieve. You then have them documented and can go out and focus when shopping to purchase pieces to help create the desired look. So no more wandering around aimlessly looking at the shops until you find something you like. Fashion magazines have been doing these sorts of things for ages, you’ve probably seen them where they have outfits made up of different pieces from different retailers. You’ve probably picked certain ones that you like the look of. The difference is this is a book where you won’t like just one piece but the entire collection… because it’s yours. It’s your collection… and just by seeking out and looking for what’s stylish will automatically fine tune your own sense of style.
Now in that post a year ago I talked about making a physical copy of your book, but a lot has changed even in the space of a year. By all means if you still love the concept of cutting pictures out and sticking them in folders then stick to that because for some people it can be a lot of fun. However, if you’re short on space or want to embrace the world of technology then there now a number of ways you can create your look book 2.0.
The Tablet/Mobile
If you’re the proud owner of an iPad or any other tablet or smart phone then you’re literally walking around with a personal computer in your hand/pocket. This opens the opportunity to store your look book on your digital device. It’s a lot more portable and a lot easier to edit. You can really spend as much or as little time on it depending on how creative you want to be. You could simply dedicate a folder or a section of your tablet’s/mobile’s gallery for your look book photos. Alternatively you can create a full-blown presentation style look book using something like keynote for iPad and add notes and have it displayed nicely. I use this method to create a trend bible for my clients each season and they always end up looking really cool. Even something like evernote will allow you to add photos to notes which could be used to compile a sort of look book. The options are endless.
The Cloud
I originally had my look book as a folder on my mac containing pictures. But it soon frustrated me because every time I wanted to look at it I had to turn on my mac. So I decided to upload them to ‘the cloud’. There are loads of cloud services you can use. I chose flickr simply because it’s automatically built into my phone so made uploading photos easy. I set the album to private but you can have it public if you wish. You don’t have to use flickr, you could make an album on Facebook or tweet your ideas and providing you use them same image hosting service e.g. tweet pic or yfrog then you have your own collection. It also allows feedback from other people if you’re posting it on social media sites as well, if that’s what you desire. There is even lookbook nu which is a site dedicated for user’s to upload their ‘looks’. The beauty of having it stored on a cloud service is it’s accessible on any internet enabled device where ever you are.
A Blog
I know technically it should fit in the category above but I felt it should have a place on it’s own. You could create your own blog purely for this exercise and make notes to accompany your look book. The only downside to this is as you’re putting it out there you’re opening yourself up for potential feedback unless you turn off the commenting option. There already plenty of personal style bloggers who do a similar thing by posting up pictures of their outfits and inspiration on their personal blogs. So if you haven’t considering using a blog as your own personal look book then now’s your chance.
I really think look books are great to have to help document your style, help you shop and generally improve your style. Now you have the option to create one and have it where ever you go.
I’d love to hear your thoughts as always.
i’m planning to make a lookbook but didn’t knew how to do it,
so this post really helped me!
xoxo
I’m glad it helped you, if you didn’t already read the original post check that out too.
So, I finally found a reason to get an iPad. I’ve always said “nah, not interested” but now I see how it could be serious fun and practical to create actual looks…. I saw you mentioned something via your facebook page, I think you were creating something for a client, and yes, on an ipad, it not only works greatly, it would look fantastic 🙂
Ha ha you can always do it on your phone. If you’ve got photoshop and a lot of time you can put them together on there first and make them look really cool and professional. That’s kind of what I was doing when I posted that comment on Facebook.
I remember your original post, and these additional ideas are superb. I love cutting & pasting with my hands, but my laptop works well too. I try to find inspiration in all of these venues. 🙂
Yeah I love putting them together as long as you have the time they’re always fun.
Out of all of those, I think the blog idea is the best for two reasons.
1. You can read your look book 2.0 from any device
2. If you have a blog you can update by email, then you can upload photos from any device as well.
I’d disagree with a blog only because on a self hosted one you have to upload your pictures to your host first. A lot of phones have social media services built in which means literally one touch uploads.
I really need to get into the habit of utilizing some of these ideas, as well as other tools like pinterest. I’m in the habit of pulling inspiring images onto my desktop and then throwing them into a folder, promising myself I’ll organize them later, only to hit a point where it’s so overwhelming it never gets properly sorted, and those inspirations become useless. The same goes for pages I pull from magazines; I recently purchased binders to organize pages I pull from, but haven’t actually gotten around to actually carrying through with it yet. I have a tablet, a flickr account and a cloud service, so there’s really no excuse for not organizing my ideas using these things.
Yeah it can be time consuming you do need to spare some time to get it all organised but once you’ve got it set up then you’re set. Especially if you’re smart phone is say integrated to flickr… its then easy peasy.
What about if we sketch our own fashion ideas, how can we make it into a look book? Especially if we want to have them made for ourselves later? Thanks…
If you have a sketch book and you put all your sketches in there then you’ll have a look book for your illustrations.