Style Board Ideas For Creative Inspiration

Winter is the perfect time to craft some genuinely unique fashion ideas for new clothing lines. Starting a clothing line starts with a lot of creative planning. A style board is a surefire way to get those creative muscles working overtime.

What Is A Style Board?

A style board, or a fashion mood board, is a creative compilation emerging designers use to form and execute ideas. They’re not exclusive to the fashion industry, either.

For example, wedding planners and interior designers include style boards to bolster their respective projects.

Famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, Queer Eye‘s Tan France, and fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg used images, colors, ideas, and more to achieve success.

It’s simply part of the creative process in fashion. While we wish that great ideas came to us overnight in a flash, we often need a little guidance and a helping hand.

Tan France states how important mood boards are for more than planning, as exhibited in his tips for online shopping:

“A mood board gives you an image to work with, making it easier to shop because you can use the board as a reference point. The mood board helps keep you on track…The mood board also makes it easier to shop because it serves as a reference point and a guide. If it doesn’t tie in with the mood board, it probably doesn’t fit the look you are trying to achieve.”

So, you can see how far-reaching style and mood boards are in numerous facets of artistic fields. Their influence on behavior, ideas, and more make them integral to a good design.

Designers can organically craft fashion sketches and plans for clothing lines. However, using a style board gives the individual a chance to push their creative potential out of their comfort zone. Plus, it helps your chosen clothing manufacturer help you.

How To Create a Style Board

We love a good brainstorming session. Style boards make those ever-important sessions with our clients even more meaningful.

Luckily, creating a style board is easier than you think. You don’t need prior fashion design experience, a degree, or any qualifications—just your brain.

But let’s look at some solid ideas to inspire your own clothing line. These foundations you lay will help you, the creative planning team, and the pattern maker when the fashion tech pack finally sees the light of day.

Here are some great tips for mastering a fashion style board to unearth unique ideas and finally create a clothing line worthy of a fashion runway.

Create Colors

A fantastic way to get the ball rolling on your style board is visualizing the colors you want to use in your clothing samples. What colors define your clothing line? Is it warmer earth tones, evoking a cozy autumn evening?

Or maybe your style is reminiscent of an icy January morning? Either way, picking out basic colors for your style board builds an excellent foundation for your own clothing line. Colors open the floodgates, so to speak. They usher in more creativity, ideas, and possibilities.

Outfits That Inspire You

A surefire way to achieve a great design is by referencing outfits you love. Whether it’s in an issue of Elle, Vogue, or even on Pinterest, picking outfits that breed your creative ideas is essential.

Fabric You Want To Use

Picking out a fabric to use in your clothing line is a big decision to make. As such, using various fabric swatches to help inspire your future choices makes the decision a lot easier going forward into the design process. Not to mention making it easier on the expert sourcing the fabric.

Especially if it’s a hard-to-acquire sustainable material. Regardless, like colors, the fabric can flick the switch of fashion creativity.

Don’t Give Up On The Style Board!

After you start clothing manufacturing, you may feel tempted to ditch your board. Don’t do this!

Like the creative process, the board is constantly changing in small ways. Even after a clothing line reaches completion, consult your board. Did your ideas come to light, or did the finished clothing samples ignite new creative decisions to pursue?

Let It Flow

Let the creative process unfold naturally. That means not dallying around trying to make your style board the best-looking. This, like brainstorming, should be a natural process. Let your ideas and inspirations flow into your style board. Think of your board like a stream of consciousness writing style, having the creator spontaneously come up with ideas, words, and topics on a whim.

Your board allows you to see the bigger picture, nuances to your future design, and how you can make your product stand out.

Keep An Eye Out

While you need to let things play out organically, it’s still important to monitor your patterns and fashion motifs in your creation. Seeing these patterns through the general designs and smatterings or color and cutouts is the key to a successful fashion brand.

Style Boards: More Than Just A Collage

While it’s fun to think of fashion style boards as nifty collages to compile ideas, they serve as a crucial jumping-off point for your fashion brand.

Some of the most famous fashion designers tapped into creative ideas to plant and nurture the seed of creativity, eventually creating their own clothing line.

Before starting your own clothing line, crafting a comprehensive style board is the key you need to get the ball rolling.