Our Cataloging Guidelines (And, How To Do It Beautifully)

We built Indyx with the goal of giving you visibility so that you can make better wardrobe decisions and achieve more effortless style. And so, you are totally free to use your private digital wardrobe in whatever way best serves you in that pursuit. Your digital wardrobe is first and foremost for you.

But our humble opinion is that your digital wardrobe becomes even more powerful when you choose to share it with others, whether that be inviting in one of our stylists for help or listing on our resale marketplace. And we want to be upfront in letting you know that in order to do this, your main item images will need to align to our basic guidelines. 

It’s nothing fancy, and anyone can do it at home with just a phone camera. We only need to make sure that anyone you’re inviting in - whether that be a stylist or a potential buyer - is able to clearly see and understand your items. 

So, what should you make sure you’re doing?

Our Basic Image Guidelines

Your main item images must adhere to these two guidelines to be able to access styling or resale services. 

1. Use an unfolded flat-lay position

Items consistently look their best when laid flat on any surface (we use the floor!) and photographed directly from above. Make sure the entire item is captured in the image. 

Shoes and structured handbags can be placed standing on an elevated flat surface and photographed straight-on from the side. 

All items should be unfolded and positioned similar to how they appear on the body.

2. No ‘extra’ items

Let the item itself take the spotlight! No hangers, mannequins, shoe boxes or dust bags, please.

Simple, right? Even if you’re not sure yet whether you’ll access these services in the future, it is easy to take note of these two things while you’re cataloging so that you’ll always have the option.

Why Do We Need These Rules?

For our stylists to do their job well, they need to be able to understand the items you’re working with. A picture is worth a thousand words and style is a visual art - and so a clear photo is critical. For example, it would be very difficult - maybe impossible! - for one of our stylists to understand whether your jeans are flares or skinnies if they are all folded up in the photo. This understanding impacts the quality of the outfits they create, and how happy you are with the end result. 

When it comes to our resale marketplace, we want to build a fun, inspiring, and trustworthy place to be - and product photos are a huge contributor to that. Buyers need to understand the item that they’re considering, and research shows that a messy or unclear item photo means that your item will sell much slower, or maybe not at all! 

And so, these basic image guidelines are in place to make sure that we can provide a consistent and positive experience for anyone referencing your item images.

Why Create A Beautiful Digital Wardrobe? 

Okay, so that gets our very basic guidelines out of the way, but we also want to share our best tips to go above-and-beyond to create a beautiful, visually satisfying digital wardrobe that feels like a pleasure to use. 

Why does this matter?

Well, we all acknowledge the impact that a clean, organized - dare we say, *aesthetic* - environment has on our mental health and wellbeing. It just feels good for most of us to surround ourselves with beautiful things. Your digital wardrobe is no different. It will feel more satisfying and rewarding to use a digital wardrobe where you’ve taken care to make your items look beautiful. 

We have seen our Pro-Indyx clients’ faces light up again and again when they see their professionally photographed digital wardrobes for the first time. It really makes a difference in how you view your own items - and our data shows that it also makes a difference in how much value you will get from the Indyx app.

And, it really isn’t hard! If you are already investing the time to catalog your wardrobe, then it’s our perspective that you might as well learn a few quick and easy techniques to make the most of your effort. 

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, we will gently remind you that we designed The Catalog service for this very reason. If you live in one of our serviceable areas, then we can professionally catalog 100 items in just 5 hours, without you lifting a finger. And, our Archivist would be happy to give you an in-person tutorial so you feel fully equipped to catalog any additional items on your own after the session.

You can check eligibility and book for $295 by navigating in the app to Services > The Catalog.

Our tips to create a beautiful digital wardrobe:

In developing The Catalog service, we spent countless hours studying the techniques of professional flatlay photographers. Our goal? To make shopping your own wardrobe feel like shopping your favorite brand’s website - but everything is already yours! 

These are all the very same techniques that our Archivists are equipped with, but we are happy to share our trade secrets to help make your self-cataloged wardrobe as beautiful as it possibly can be. 

Seek out natural, indirect lighting

Artificial light can alter the color hue of your item, and direct sunbeams of natural light can cast distracting shadows. We recommend cataloging during the day near a window, with all artificial lights turned off.

Use a neutral colored background (like a sheet or towel)

We like to brag about our automatic background removal - it is amazingly good! - but shooting on top of a colored background can reflect that light onto your item, skewing the color balance. To avoid this, we recommend shooting on a relatively neutral colored background. Our Archivists use a beige mat, but a white sheet or towel works great. 

Wipe off your phone camera lens

It sounds silly, but don’t forget! We all tend to have a super thin film of schmutz on our phones that can make photos come out just *slightly* blurry. Wipe your camera lens with a towel or cloth - even your shirt! - before you start to make sure your images come out crisp.

Position the camera completely parallel to your item

Capture the entire item while coming in close to fill the frame

Not too far, not too close. Aim to just fill the frame with your item, without cutting off any parts of it. 

Button buttons & zip zippers

You don’t need to do them all up - especially if that isn’t how you wear it! - but this will help your item appear much neater by giving a little structure. 

Lay down the item with straight shoulders

It all starts from the shoulders! When you lay your item down, make sure that the shoulders are straight and even. This helps keep the entire item looking neat.

Fold, tuck, or drape so as to appear how it does on the body

Admittedly, this tip takes a bit of artistic interpretation - and practice. But here is why it matters: presumably, you will want to use your photos to style outfits. These outfit boards are a visual representation of how the outfit will generally appear on your body. So, you want your item photos to reflect that as closely as you can….without them actually being photographed on a body. 

As an example: a flare maxi skirt can be pulled out very wide when laid flat on the ground. But, on your body, it doesn’t appear nearly that wide - it has some drape. And so, when photographing that item you’ll want to try and re-create that drape. Otherwise, the photo will look very foreign to you. 

Another way to think about it is if you are trying to choose between smoothing out “wrinkles” to make something completely flat or giving the item shape, you’ll want to prioritize shape.

A very small, specific tip that makes a big difference? Tuck the armpits behind the body of your tops, and the crotch behind one of the legs of your pants.

Tuck sleeves close in to the body

This tip operates on the same principle: you don’t walk around all day with your arms sticking straight out to the side or permanently bent at the elbows. So, if you photograph your items that way, it is going to look very odd and unnatural! 

Pin the shoulders where you want them to stay, and drape the sleeve down next to the body. You can leave a tiny bit of space between the body and sleeve, but we usually like to then tuck the sleeves slightly underneath the body.

Shoot shoes directly from the side, with toes pointed in a consistent direction (we prefer to the left!)

Place shoes on an elevated flat surface like a desk, dresser, or table, and shoot them directly from the side. Remember: get as parallel as possible!

More unstructured shoes like strappy heels or soft tall boots can be laid flat like clothing and shot from above. 

We think it is nice to pick a toe direction and stick with it for a consistent look. We prefer toes pointed to the left, as inspired by The RealReal product imagery. 

Always shoot handbags from the front

If the handbag is soft and unstructured, this will mean laying it flat and shooting from above like clothing. If the handbag is structured enough to stand on its own, we prefer shooting from the side like shoes. Either way, the photo should be of the front of the bag. 

Buckle belts and shoot from the side 

Buckle your belts (again, emulating how it would appear when worn!), position them on an elevated flat surface like a desk, dresser, or table, and shoot from the side. 

That’s it! With these tips, you are equipped with all the same techniques as our professional Archivists - just without the 10,000 hours of practice. But rest assured that the learning curve is quick. We truly believe that anyone can do this!

And, if you are ever having trouble with anything, feel free to shoot us a note at [email protected] and we’d be happy to help.

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