It gets easier to create when you know what you want to create.
It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to learn that a lot of things people work on don’t have a driving vision.
Maybe it’s a theater thing. Maybe it’s just a creative industry thing in general. But for the longest time after transitioning out of theater I simply assumed most people had a vision for what they were doing.
Because artists always do.
It might be a shit vision. It might get lost or muddled. It might be disjointed and not hold water, it might actually be three warring visions in a trench coat.
Of course, you hope it’s a clear, cohesive, unifying, moving vision. But even if it’s a bad vision that falls apart, at least at the beginning there was a vision for the project.
Because without vision, what prompts you to start the project? And if you don’t know where your project is heading, how could you possibly decide how to get there?
I’ve always approached personal style the same way I approached costume design. Start with the vision of the person. Then generate the personal style of the person. Then pick clothes to fit the vision.
Fortunately, lack of vision does not come up very often amongst my clients (business or style). But what does happen is the vision changing, or getting muddled, or getting lost amongst the day-to-day of everything.
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- How does a non-profit bridge clarity of vision in the mission to clarity of vision in the operations?
- When should you pivot away from your original vision?
- How do you redesign your 16 year old website?
- What do you wear to an interview on an entirely new aspect of your career?
Those are some of the questions that have come up over the past month and all of them in some way are struggling with a lack of clear and cohesive vision. And all of them translate to personal style.
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I’m working with a textile focused non-profit client on implementing some more streamlined business systems. In this instance the vision for the whole organization is crystal clear. The vision for how the day-to-day operations and systems should run has become muddled.
Translated to personal style this comes up as a crystal clear vision for your life, and a muddled vision for your day-to-day clothing. And we come to questions like: how do you reorganize your closet without clearly knowing how you want to wear your clothes?
To get back on track, clarify the connection between your vision for your life and how that plays out in your closet.
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I’m working with the founder of a next-gen fabric start up. She’s a creative, she went to fashion school, she has a vision. Her vision was B2C next-gen fabric handbags, but she is getting non-fashion industry advice to focus on textile manufacturing rather than B2C finished product commerce.
Translated to personal style this comes up as “I knew my style, now something has changed.” And the question becomes: should I pivot to something new or recommit to my original vision?
To get back on track, requires taking the council of external voices, but ultimately tuning back in to your inner voice and making your own decision.
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I’m working with myself on redesigning HollyChayes.com. Redesigning my website has been on my list for longer than I care to remember. I’ve had some version of this website for about 16 years. There have been a lot of projects over the years, so how to honor what was while building towards the future it is pretty daunting.
Translated to personal style this looks like designing a closet that can honor who you were, while serving who you are, and is prepared to handle who you are becoming. And the question becomes: what does a closet that works for your present and future, while honoring your past, look like?
To get back on track, start with deciding how much weight to give each piece. Is it equal? Do you want to skew towards the future and use your closet to manifest? Do you want to skew towards the past and treat it as an archive? Do you want to skew toward being exactly where you are?
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I have a friend who does astrophotography and was invited to participate in a fireside-chat-style conversation about her work. She has no clue what to wear yet. She’s given tons of presentations in her past careers, but nothing like this, and not about her art before.
The question she’s facing is: what is my vision for myself in this new phase of my career? More generally it is: how do I want to present myself to the world?
To get back on track, answer that question “how do I want to present myself to the world?” as honestly as you can for where you are right now.
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Four unique situations. Four unique questions. All coming back to: what is the vision?
Once we name, or clarify, or decide, or envision for the first time the vision, the details can begin slowly falling into place.
Like the gravitational pull of a planet or the destination for a vacation, a project’s vision gives the tasks, to dos and decisions a focal point.
It’s like trying to plan a trip without any idea of where you’re going to go. “Travel more” is harder to plan than “go to Paris” or even “go anywhere as long as the flight is between $X and $Y on one of these three dates.”
A vision. A feeling. A mood. A vibe. A something. An anything that gives you a direction to point your feet, and to gut check decisions against.
Start with the something. Because “fix it” or “make it better” or “I REALLY NEED TO SOLVE THIS!” Doesn’t tell you which flights to book or month to go in or even which map to pull up.
And if you don’t have that something yet, make it your first priority.
As always, if you’d like to work together, schedule a call and we’ll get the process started.
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