We all seem to have an unprecedented amount of free time these days, so whether you're in school writing papers or you're desperate for a creative outlet, you're still on the lookout for content. This list I have compiled addresses resources that can be fun and creative or provides content that’s analytical and rivals the insights of political news outlets.
Written by Sofia Greaves
If you loved Polyvore up until its end, you probably held a tiny bit of resentment for this company, the company that bought them out. Well, don't. They are an underrated platform that is styled like an online magazine with interviews, trend reports, and color concepts. Plus, you can enter any luxury fashion brand, Indie or world-renowned, big or small, and find the brands ready-to-wear items this season. They branch out their content to be a little bit broader than the fashion industry, but even that content does still tie-in to sartorial trends.
Again, if you loved Polyvore up until its close, you might still be looking for a creative outlet that could somehow replace it. Shoplook is constantly changing and adding amenities. You can upload your own images via URL, and they also coded a clipper! It's like nothing changed. Only instead of a black logo, it's blue. There are contests where if you win, it boosts your pages engagement and your artwork is plastered all over the front page. For the creating process, it is not an overwhelming number of buttons thrown at you: ALL the images are separated and categorized between frames, drawings, editorial images, clothes, and blog title clippings to create and organize your ideal mood board or virtual lookbook.
Worth Global Style Network is the world’s leading trend research resource. They partner with companies from all over and in many different industries, not just fashion, to provide insight, but their specialty is fashion. They offer many kinds of reports that range from long deep dives on sustainability and effective window displays for retailers, to libraries of looks from runway shows of designers from all over the world. To access WGSN though, you need to be logged in through your school as a student. If you are not a student and have no access to the exclusive reports, they have a free-to-view blog that is up to par with their exclusive reports and a YouTube channel that evaluates street style seasonally. This is the best resource for people who love diving into research, case studies, and consumer behavior and want to pursue this as a career one day.
Business of Fashion is an intelligence resource targeted to navigate the trends and actions within the fashion industry. They are going to be your best resource for your essays where you have to think of the consumer and how they are affected. You can search for any key term, and depending on how broad you are going, you will be able to choose between "intelligence" articles or "news and analysis" articles. BOF, like WGSN, gives you the most content if you are logged in through your school, as a non-student, you must buy a subscription like you would with the Wall Street Journal. It is the dream company for a serious fashion writer, especially if you are a critical thinker and problem solver.
I threw Pinterest on here because, for a veteran social media website, it is vastly underrated. Honestly, this is how I found most of the websites in this article. You not only can search for specific styles or fashion designers, but the majority of well-photographed images to “pin” are found and connected to this website through an external source. It is the platform made for you to find and organize your personal aesthetic if you are only in the mood to look at fashion as the eye candy that it is and nothing more. I can't think of another website that you can access vintage editorials or runway pictures faster.