polyvore: absolute genius

So, I got an email from my friend Katie the other day, talking about Polyvore and the DIY trend boards that the site offers. I'd heard of Polyvore as a trend forecasting site, and sort of explored it myself, but never really realized that you could make these!!!! Totally genius.

They are called "sets" and Polyvore pulls for multiple online resources to find the images, including retail and image sharing websites. You can search by color or silhouette, and if you don't want to use an item immediately, you can save them to a file. There is also the option to upload your own images. Then you can search other users and look at their sets. It's essentially another online fashion community, but instead of just posting photos of you daily outfits, you get to express your creativity beyond styling.

I LOVE making collages. Probably more than designing or styling clothes. That is the reason I was so interested in trend forecasting, because I saw it as basically getting to make collages all day long - I know that's not totally true - but it's what I find most exciting and interesting in the design process. Being a trend forecaster has all the elements of design that appeal to me. But the research is just so fun for me, and then the process of cutting out the images, arranging them, and gluing them, is just so calming and satisfying.

I am still getting used to the process of collages on the computer, the subtleties and texture of the different papers, and you can't be as precise on Polyvore as you could be with Photoshop. It's just not the same as working with paper, scissors and glue, and you can tell from my sets that I'm a little rusty with digital collages. But, I predict lots of time spent on Polyvore making more of these.

(my collages via polyvore.com)