From the top: Graphic Designer Samantha browsing a vintage magazine, Marketing Writer Angela’s work in progress, and Creative Stylist Annie creating her moodboard.
Have you noticed we love vintage? Our 2012 Holiday Collection is a homage to vintage mail-away and department store catalogs, and we drew endless inspiration from those catalogs’ kitschy tone and look, perfectly poised models, gorgeous garb, and from the fact that we know you love vintage as much as we do.
Our team looked at retro Christmas catalogs from staples such as Sears and Montgomery Ward. We wanted you to feel like you were flipping through one of those old catalogs, with the anticipation of finding that perfect party outfit or presents for loved ones, but also with the convenience of being able to this on your phone, tablet, or anywhere else. Ultra-modern meets marvelous mid-century!
Read on to hear how our campaign stylist, writer, and graphic designer’s individual inspirations came together to bring our stylebook to life!
The Styling
“The styling was pulled from two major vintage influences: 1950s pinup glamour and 1920s art deco sophistication,” says Annie, our Creative Stylist. In her moodboard above, Annie sought images of hourglass and A-line silhouettes, paired with the deliberate poses found in catalog modeling.
The Copy
Marketing Writer Angela using good ol’ pen and paper.
Putting words to our fantastic photographs is something Marketing Writer Angela enjoys, and for this stylebook, she flipped through vintage ads to pull out keywords that matched our holiday vision.
“I looked for that classic advertising tone in my inspiration — snappy, directive, and clever. It’s subtle, but you know it when you read it,” says Angela. “Also, being cognizant of the non-aspirational themes in advertisements of that era (which I discussed in yesterday’s Vintage Sexism post) also helped me bring out the best of the era.”
The Design
Meanwhile, Graphic Designer Samantha began putting the aspects of the catalog together as if they were pieces of a grand puzzle. Inspired by retro catalog pages such as the one above, Samantha sketched out a similar plan for our stylebook, as you can see below!
“Vintage catalogs were all about fitting a lot of product into a small space, and we wanted our design to reflect that in an elegant way,” she says.
With all of those elements together, there’s only one last wish we had — to be able to print this out and mail it!
What inspires you in your holiday stylings and decorations?
21 loves 
that has got to be the best Stylebook I have seen!
Thank you, Cat! So happy you like it.
I love how you found inspiration in our favorite vintage classics!
Love, love, love all things vintage! Check out my vintage store http://www.vintagepod.com for great finds and use the coupon code FALL2012 at checkout for 20% off!
Is it just me, or do her feet look strangely positiioned?
love the behind the scenes peek! such gorgeous inspiration… hoping for a little Modcloth this Christmas now!
How do I get the stylebooks? I would love to see this one!!
Hi Sylvie! Thanks for commenting. Here’s our holiday stylebook: http://bit.ly/12juNbk :)
The “behind-the-scenes” look is very cool for us creative-minded chicks that love modcloth – I love how much y’all know “us”! Love, love, love MC!
Hi ModCloth!
For some reason, I was not able to view the Holiday Stylebook on your website. :( :( :(
Is there another way?