As I perused the style notes and community lookbooks on style.com, I came across a tab that read “Fashion is Love,” created by a user of the website and an obvious fashion enthusiast. I had never really looked at the community lookbooks that were compiled by subscribers until I saw this particular tagline. It grabbed my attention because it is so undeniably true: Fashion is purely a derivative of love. It comes from love because it exemplifies elements of your style that come from you personally. The lookbook itself contained almost 200 images of handbags, runway shots and close-ups of shoes that sparked the creator’s love for fashion.

I have tried to comb over the reasons as to why I love fashion or why I love certain trends of fashion, but it is an impossible question to figure out. Just like you can’t explain why you are attracted to certain types of guys or girls, you can’t really describe the reasons as to why you prefer feather earrings over pearls or high-heeled stilettos over wedge boots. Fashion is all about taste, and in many cases, this taste turns into love.

I encourage those trying to define their fashion tastes to create their own lookbook, so they always have an idea of what they think would be preferable to wear for different occasions. Utilizing the Web to create a lookbook, whether through a website like style.com or a blogging website like Tumblr, is an accessible way to express what you love at the moment. The Web offers feedback from fellow users as well as an abundance of tools to research current fashion trends.

Of course, you could always approach the lookbook by taking a more old-fashioned route. Resorting to different magazines and books and clipping out different images and photos allows the same satisfaction of creating a personalized fashion palette that you would obtain from the Web. Creating a scrapbook or a collage will allow such a lookbook to be at your disposal for reference and updating whenever you feel some fashion creativity coming on.

You might not realize it, but you’re always picking out trends from movies, music videos and album covers, random people on the street or in class, in magazines and on television. You could probably add five accessories, handbags or tops to your lookbook everyday without even thinking twice. At the least, we all keep a mental lookbook to a certain extent.

If I were to compile a lookbook right now it would most likely consist of dark brown Steve Madden army boots (with an adorable coat of flannel inside the boot), washed out cropped leather jackets, back crocheted tights, baggy jersey shirts that hang off the shoulder, purple or deep brown nail polish, and knit legwarmers to go under UGG Boots. In a matter of literally 30 seconds, I was able to put together a lookbook straight from memory.

Creating these lookbooks is obviously time-consuming, but it can’t hurt to take a quick look at what people have put together on the Web. Sometimes it’s nice to see what those not necessarily affiliated with the fashion industry have to say about their “love” of fashion and what items fall under such a category. Compiling a personal lookbook might equally inspire other young women and men interested in fashion; all it takes is a little time, research and creativity.