Why You Should Have a Style Look Book for Yourself
A dear friend (Kasia) gave me the idea for a Personal Board Deck a year (or two???) ago. It’s essentially a powerpoint that houses your goals and gets updated each quarter for a live review with one of your board members (someone you go to life’s big questions, advice, perspective).
Kasia is on my board and we’ve consistently reviewed our goals each quarter via zoom for ~2 years. It’s been a game-changer. I’ll share more on this at a later date.
I’ve since adapted her original board deck template to suit my interests. One of the adaptations includes a personal style guide / look book which sits in the appendix section.
Huh? Hear me out.
I was the person that would go on quarterly shopping sprees and buy outfits that were calling to me at the time, but then I’d never wear.
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I am the person that cannot go a quarter without doing a closet purge.
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I wasted a lot of money and tossed a lot of clothes that I should have simply never bought in the first place.
Can anyone relate?
Knowing this was an area of opportunity for me (my wallet, and mother earth), I began observing what clothing always made the cut:
classic basics — black, white, or tan tops + jeans
cozies — associated w/ things I loved or nostalgic memories
staple work outfits — black blazer, black dress, black sweater dress
And what clothing always got the purge:
anything with a pattern
anything with a ruffle or super-feminine element
anything that made my hair static-y when I wore it
Time spent observing my behaviors resulted in my buying less and having less to purge, winning! But ya girl loves to shop! So while I got really good at the edit, I had to give myself guardrails to guide future shopping.
Enter: the Style Look Book.
Housed within my personal board deck, the look book gets subtle refreshes each quarter with the changing seasons. I use this look book to guide any fashion purchases — when I am out shopping I ask myself: Is this in the look book? If yes, the outfit gets to come home. If not, the outfit stays on the hanger.
Reflected in the image above, right now, I am loving Emma Grede’s style — classic basics, timeless dress-up fits — she’s got this simple, minimalist chic meets girl-next-door vibe that speaks to my soul.
Want to create your own look book? Here’s my process:
Step 1 — Observe the energy in your closet. What pieces do you love and wear all the time? What pieces do you want to love but never actually make it out your front door? What pieces bother you because they are itchy, static-y, don’t feel good when you are sitting versus standing?
Step 2 — Permission to purge. Remove the items from your closet that give off bad vibes. Keep the items in your closet that love you back the way you love them.
Step 3 — Build your own look book. Take to Pinterest, Insta, Tik Tok and snap screen shots of your favorite fits, but ONLY the ones that you know would make it through a quarterly purge based on the energy assessment you did in step 1. Put all these screen shots in one place (preferably accessible via your phone) to revisit, refresh and to guide you when you are in the dressing room contemplating your next purchase.
Step 4 — Shop til you drop. Okay, maybe don’t shop ‘til you drop, but give yourself permission to shop any looks in your look book, trusting that you’ve curated the energy you want to bring to your closet on an ongoing basis and that the dollars invested in this wardrobe will pay dividends.
Give it a try and lmk what you think. Xx!
