My First Real Outlet

When I was about 15 years, I was googling 'boho style' one day to get ideas for my own wardrobe and I came across a website that has become an important place of visitation whenever I get an urge to design. Polyvore became a place I visited every day. I could spend hours putting together an entire outfit, from boots to earrings, and then another whole hour designing the layout of my piece.

Now that I think of it, I was really exploring two of my passions when I thought I was simply feeding my impulse for one. My fashion design side loved to put together the perfect skirt with the perfect necklace, and I loved making just the right background and layout so that the entire product that showed up to the public looked all spick and span.

Before I even attempted to use a sewing machine and create my own pieces out of actual physical materials, I turned to Polyvore to sate my thirst for fashion and design. The great thing was that Polyvore provided an almost limitless library of clothing and they were actual pieces of clothing found in stores and boutiques around the world. I enjoyed the possibility that if I were rich I could just set off on a plane and buy an entire outfit that I had just put together. The idea that the outfit I just designed could actually be worn by someone out there, was oddly liberating!

Once I got more into the idea of design as a career, I used the Polyvore site less and less because I didn't like the fact that the pieces of clothing were already out there. Someone else had designed these beautiful dresses and scarves and I was simply borrowing them; I was personal shopping for my own little virtual, invisible paper doll. I wanted to be the one who designed the actual shirt that I found so gorgeous. I was just dressing a manikin on Polyvore, and while at one time I actually thought I would really love to actually do that for a living, I had moved on and was aspiring to bigger and better things.

I recently revisited Polyvore after a long period of absence and am once again enjoying the designing the outfits I can throw together on a whim or with much thought. But now I know I'm enjoying it as a great hobby. I thank the Polyvore site for providing a stepping stone for my creative identity, and I hope it will continue to provide the same outlet for some young designers/artists out there in the future.