Make Your Own Style Collages

This week is a special one. It marks the first month anniversary of Rethinking Style and the last few days of my summer break, so I’m going to pull out all the stops and unleash some crazy, eye-popping, thought-exploding pieces! If I make a glorious spectacle of myself, so be it. Who’s with me?

Without further ado:

Style Collage: A visual, often multi-dimensional collision that showcases you at your best: your aesthetic, your dreams, your ideas.

Today, I have five ideas to fire up your muse, brighten your walls, and set that creative streak ablaze!

1) What keeps you up at night? What makes your heart race and your head feel like it’s about to go into labor? What’s taking up the most of your dream-space? Stop what you’re doing right now and put it into pictures! Put it up on your wall as high as you dare.

There's no wrong way to do it.

[My current Rethinking Style inspiration mantra/vision board. Woohoo!]

2) Milk the irretrievable intertwining of life and style. Celebrate the original incarnation of beauty with aesthetics that make you tick. Make your life philosophy your style philosophy. Surprise yourself.

French Kiss Life

[Prints and views that make me gasp, and a fabulous little truism by Danielle LaPorte]

3) Ruthlessly tear out images that inspire your style and collage them on the back of your door. Don’t edit. Layer over as time goes on. If you’d like, put yourself on the map!

Your style. Layers. Put yourself on the map too.

[Years of cutouts (layers upon layers lie underneath the one you see), and a superb portrait of me by Ryan Novelline.]

4) Love your all-time real-life muses. Who styled, created, and lived with your idea of genius? Honor their greatness with a fabulous montage that resonates with why you are passionate about their work.

Celebrate and honor your all-time muses!

[Dedicated to the late Alexander McQueen, complete with silk petals, copper wire, and tulle.]

5) Your closet is a style collage. Does it speak to you, of you, for you?

My closet collage - prints and colors and patterns!

[Prints, colors, and textures galore crammed to overflowing. Here I have to be honest with myself. Though every girl might dream of a spacious, organized walk-in, this vibe is much more me :P ]

Extra collage tips:

  • Find your mojo. I slap on images and leave things raw and asymmetrical. You might be the same way, or perhaps a bit more streamlining is in order.
  • Get creative with your sources. Magazines are the standby, but the digital world is at your footstep. I hoard 15,000+ images on my hard drive. Tumblr and blogs are also great, for both pictures and quotes.
  • That being said, certain magazines are golden. My friend recently gifted me a copy of Wad from France, and I could have gleefully ripped out every other page.
  • Experiment! Take a brush and paint into magazine cutouts, mix words and images, and bring in 3-D elements. The McQueen montage above has wire crocheted into it.
  • Be brave. Take risks. So what if the last time you picked up a glue stick was in fifth grade? Artistic talent, like style, is about mindset, not skill.

If you’ve read this far, drop everything and try your hand at a collage! I’d love to hear about your adventures.

How do YOU find inspiration and manifest your style?

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Posted by on Aug 24, 2010 in Articles | 1 comment
  • http://alamodest.com Rachel @ a la Modest

    I’ve always thought about doing this, but I never got to doing it! This is a good reminder for me, really. I like looking at collages more if they’re not the actual blogger’s own photos.