Last night, I sat down and updated my style binder.  This is the fountain of my wardrobe inspiration.

For the uninitiated, a style binder is a collection of images of outfits. For me, it’s a way to  notice patterns in what I like, pick up trendy ideas and plan my wardrobe. I have been keeping a style binder for over a year now, and it’s been helpful. I focus my time and energy so I know what I need for my wardrobe and how I can wear the things I already have in new stylish ways.

For my style binder, I tear out pages from catalogs that come in the mail. Now and again, I print images out from online, but the majority are pictures from catalogs.

What I did last night was group my images into four separate categories: spring/summer pictures, fall/winter pictures, striped shirt pictures, and knitting inspiration pictures.

Since I was just updating my binder, I went through what I had and took out anything I didn’t like anymore. Then I worked through each of my four categories to scrapbook my images. Sometimes I wrote little sticky notes to point out something notable about a particular outfit. See the note above? Definitely going to keep an eye out for a preppy belt like that for the fall.

So if you are playing along at home, so far we have selected our color palette for the fall, and now we have collected together images of outfits we would like to emulate. Stay tuned to Planning Week to see the rest of the process!

PS Planning a haircut this weekend. Here’s a sneak peek at what I want. I can’t wait!

Welcome, any new Gussy Sews friends! Do you keep a style binder? Or do you have an electronic version? Where do you get your wardrobe inspiration from? I would love to hear!