9. My Autumn Mood Board

Waxed leather, unexpected neutrals, skirts, and layered minimalism

Since I was a teenager, I’ve loved putting together mood boards. They're a fun way for me to communicate my ideas about what I want to wear and who I want to be. Back then, my boards were cut-up issues of Teen Vogue and Spin plastered with pictures of Kirsten Dunst and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. At the time, 14-year-old me found it tough to explain my varied thoughts and interests with words, and I always found that I could communicate most coherently through images.

Now, Pinterest makes it easy to save and organize photos with just the click of a button, but it’s a different kind of mental challenge to actually give myself a topic and lay out the images myself. Come to think of it, the exercise of creating mood boards is how I developed my stylistic point of view (my "eye")—through having to consider the way images flow together and collectively tell a story. I decided to make a mood board as I prepare my seasonal shopping list and am excited to share it with you!

Below, you'll find a shopping roadmap of the visuals and references grabbing my attention this season: waxed leather, unexpected neutrals like chocolate brown and mushroom grey, skirts, striking shades of blood red and yellow wheat, layered minimalism, skirts, structured outerwear, clean lines, ballet flats, and did I mention skirts?