Catching up on Google reader and clicking through links this afternoon, I came across the Macy’s Design Challenge. Every day there is a different prompt and selection of clothing. You create a set using pictures of clothing and accessories, give it name, and then enter it in the competition. Whoever gets the most votes in a single day wins a $500 gift card to Macy’s. Sounds a lot like Polyvore, but with much higher stakes. Here’s what I came up with today (vote for me!).
Those pants spoke to me and said “build an outfit around me!” The clothing itself and the accessories almost tell two different stories, but I think they work together because of the metallic yellow. It matches the sparkle in the top and opens the door for printed yellow shoes – which in turn allow for a pink bag.
Putting this together isn’t as easy as it looks. I mean, it’s not rocket science either, but once you choose the clothing you also want to arrange in a way that makes the items look good, and like they go together – not like they were just tossed onto the page. You decide which items get the foreground, which items are in the background, how you want to use white space, etc. Every womens’ magazine has a section where they show a sampling of items arranged on an otherwise blank page (ie, no text to work around), and I have new-found respect for the people who put those pages together.
Naturally, after experiencing the joy of fantasy styling it was inevitable that I finally turned to Polyvore. I’ve been avoiding the site because I knew I would likely spend way too much time there. I, er, actually spent two hours creating my first set (I even worked through hunger, because nothing tastes as good as fantasy styling feels). I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of items I could choose from and didn’t know where to start, so I decided to get inspired by accessories. I quickly found these accessories:
Deciding between the black clutch with a skull clasp and the Alice in Wonderland purse, I envisioned a powerful yet whimsical woman. I chose the black bag, which took the whimsy out of the equation. She needed a jacket too.
I loved the double breasted jacket with the dress and necklace, but decided that the rest of the accessories (which I was completely wedded too) didn’t go with a preppy/menswear look. I definitely wanted a studded jacket, but something form-fitting to maintain a bit of the femininity. The earring needed to be edgy and interesting, but nothing that competed with the already statement-making rings and necklace.
I looooove the concept of zipper earrings, but including them would have been telling too many stories in one outfit. Here’s my final product (and the accompanying description).
Inspired by the Aces ring, I wanted to create the image of a tough female, who would kick your ass and win all your money at a game of poker. Both the Aces ring and the four-finger skull ring reminded me of brass knuckles. The sheath dress underneath it all and the women on the perfume bottle convey femininity underneath the tough exterior. With the jacket on all you would see is the gold streak at the bottom, but without the jacket the tough necklace is revealed. That necklace is also key to uniting the mixed metals (gold + silver) across the entire outfit.
You can view the set details here.
What's your opinion?