This is about fashion school lol. Manifestors / law of assumption people, keep making moodboards ily.
I’ve accepted that I fundamentally hate making mood boards, which is honestly a dangerous thing to admit as a fashion student, but here we are. Every time someone says “start with the mood board,” a part of my soul quietly leaves the room. Because why are we asking me to explain the vibe before I’ve even lived inside it. Why am I being asked to know what I’m making before I make it. That’s not process, that’s clairvoyance.
Mood boards feel like being forced to pitch a personality you haven’t developed yet. Like, hold on, I haven’t even spiraled properly. I haven’t touched the fabric. I haven’t messed up. I haven’t had the emotional breakdown where the idea finally reveals itself. But you want me to confidently assemble twelve images from Pinterest and pretend they mean something cohesive? Be serious.
And the thing is, I can make a good mood board. That’s not the issue. I just hate that it comes first. Because when it comes first, it turns into a costume. A promise. A hostage situation. Suddenly everything I make has to obey a collage I assembled while half dissociated and over-caffeinated. Now I’m not discovering anything, I’m just trying to fulfill a contract I made with myself too early.
For me, the work comes from staying inside the mess. Touching things. Doing something a bit ugly. Letting the idea show up late and slightly uninvited. Meaning doesn’t arrive pre-packaged. It condenses. Slowly. Against my will. And only after that does a mood exist. Only then does it make sense to look back and go, oh, that’s the world I was in.
So yes. Mood boards come last. Or not at all. At best, they’re documentation. Evidence. A crime scene photo. At worst, they’re a lie we tell to look organized. I’m not anti-visual. I’m anti-pretending I already know who I am before I’ve stayed with myself long enough to find out.
Anyway. If my grade suffers, so be it. I’ll be in the corner, weaving something questionable, minding my business, and letting the vibe catch up later.
(From someone who gets straight A+ for all design projects *wink*)