As of late, I’ve been spending a lot of time feverishly pinning on Pinterest. When I first became active, I was very open and pinned anything that resembled something that I deemed interesting. Now, it has become a more vetted process that is more time consuming, as well as an all encompassing love affair. But much like love, I find myself having very high pinning standards. I have to love and never want to forget the image – that’s the criteria for a pin or repin. But really what are we pinning and why? And after hours glued to our mobile devices, tablets and/or computer screens looking at beautiful image after beautiful image, what are we left with? Does the contents of the photos seep into our brain leaving us brainwashed with wanderlust, mind-blowing shoes and great style? I say, YES.
As fate would have it, new hairstyles, color palettes, silhouettes and small detail in my wardrobe have suddenly found its way into my morning routines of grooming and daily outfit selection. And I’m having more fun with my outwardly, outfitted expression than ever before. I remember picking up this book called “Creative Visualization” by Shakti Gawain after I heard Natalie Massenet of Net-A-Porter speak about it in an interview. The idea of creative visualization is that through meditation and positive thinking, you can visualize the things that you want in your life. If you are consistently placing yourself in that state of mind, then the things that you desire can become apart of your new reality. Now, as far fetched as it may sound, I believe there is a slight correlation between the enlightenment process of creative visualization and pinning on Pinterest. Now just, hang in with me for a second.
Source: teen-witches.tumblr.com via Lala on Pinterest
Pinterest gives us a platform to keep all of favorite images and video in one place to refer back to for backburner projects, general inspiration, new hair styles, home DIYs, recipes – you get the picture. But when we’re pinning out of habit and compulsion to use the platform, something else happens – our taste sharpens. We’re not going to pin just for the hell of it anymore, we’re going to pin the things we want to see in this digital world we’ve created with images and a community that reacts to said images. Eventually what I’ve found is that we want to recreate the sentiment, style, mood or even recipes of our digital world in our waking lives. So then, things get a lot more narrow and focused. If I have a successful board that garners more attention than others, maybe I’m more inclined to pin on that specific board. But it’s the content of the images on that board that can change the way you think about escorting those ideas into your everyday life.
For instance, I love neutral colors in my own wardrobe, so my first Pinterest board was called “A Neutral Inspiration” – the one board that seems to be the most followed of all of my 23 Pinterest boards. So now, my affection for neutrals in my wardrobe has heightened, but it also has become more focused because of the contents of the images that I pin. I found myself using new neutral hues as a base for my daily outfitting instead of creams and browns. I attribute my Pinterest board to the reason, I’ve now incorporated more burgundy as my base and worked new neutrals around it – like my recent purchases of a burgundy bomber jacket from Madewell or a burgundy fur trim coat from The Kooples or a burgundy tee from Joe Fresh.
It’s about visualizing the ideas that you get from influences of everyday life, pinning the references to those influences onto your boards and then bringing those pins into your daily life by point of purchase or by trying that out that new nail DIY that you pinned. After all, no one wants to live in this fantasy world simply online. They want to “creatively visualize” that digital life to be their waking life, and if they can’t afford that Maison Martin Margiela overcoat they pinned last week, they’ll stop at nothing to have the closest thing to it. I believe that Pinterest is already influencing our purchasing behaviors. The things that we pin are usually the things that we want to buy or try. And those pins are likely to wind up in our closets, medicine cabinets or apart of our new beauty regime. So, be careful what you pin for, you may just may buy it.
Are you an avid Pinterest user? Do you notice your pins slowly creeping into your every day?
Resources:
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
The Astounding Power of Pinterest, Fast Company
Common Missteps Your Brand is Making on Pinterest, Fashion’s Collective
Lala Lopez, Pinterest