Sartorial Archivism: From Runway to Real Life

Unlike those with larger budgets, I tend to shop in hindsight. I pay little attention to current season stock because I can rarely afford to pay full retail. Instead I try to keep mental tabs on specific pieces with future sales in mind.

Whenever I become unusually interested in specific garments or items, I try to save the stock photos for inspiration purposes. It is especially fun to see how items were styled for magazine or catalog photoshoots. When applicable, with at least a few pieces in my closet, I have found runway photos. These are often the most exciting. Thanks to digital culture and the ease with which information is shared, I archive photos of the pieces of clothing with the same careful organization as something balancing a checkbook. "Did I already add that? Should this category have its own folder? etc."

 All of these looks are with Marc by Marc Jacobs runway photos and pieces.

Here I took the belted cue from the runway. Since my dress was a size or two, too large and I haven't had time to take it to the tailor, the belted idea really helped. I passed on the striped rainbow brite hosiery. Buy the Peacock Paisley Dress or top here. Spring/summer appropriate dress version here.

Here I passed on the general silhouette of the runway styling but agreed that brown looked nice with navy. I got this top on Yoox.com's final sale a year or so ago. Similar navy ruffle top here and gray tank here. Budget version here . 

Here, the cozy scarf might have informed my decision to pair this dress with a chunky sweater. The dress came from the Barneys Coop in Georgetown. Second markdown sale in Summer 2008. But you can find this dress for almost as little as what I paid on ebay. Or you can recreate the silhouette with layers with a slip like this.

Here the runway dress ended up being far more avant garde and interesting than the in store style. But I ended up playing with the school uniform shirt dress aspect evoked by the runway's mary janes. The dress came from saks.com. The bag came from bloomingdales.com.  You can find the Hillier Hobo in other colors still.

Does anyone else save runway or stock photos of their clothes, compulsively?