Before attending the Hermes lecture in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts last Monday, a large crowd of fashionistas and designer connoisseurs met in Wilson Hall to create Brown's first fashion publication — "Unhemmed."
Frustrated with the lack of "fashion-related things" at Brown, visual arts concentrator April Zhang '13 decided to take matters into her own hands. She wanted to create a student-run magazine that accurately showcases fashion and style at the University.
"I think there is a void on campus this magazine is really going to fill," said Zhang, who has been making clothes since her parents bought her a sewing machine in elementary school. "We want to have trend reports that can be applied to our lives and our budgets."
"Of course we love Bottega Veneta and Marc Jacobs, but we want to know about students' trends," said Monique Batson '13, one of the editors of the new up-and-coming fashion magazine.
The magazine will be published online only.
"We could have never printed this to the standards we want — we just don't have the budget right now," Batson said of the group's decision to publish online. "Plus, this way we can create a more dynamic interaction with our readers. We can update our blog between issues, add links and videos and make it really fun."
"We are college students, and we need certain outfits for certain things, and we all have different styles," said Batson, who defines fashion as wearable art.
Batson, a designer, is excited to create an innovative layout that will captivate readers' attentions. She still has not chosen one, but she said she keeps waking up in the middle of the night with "crazy ideas."
Both editors agreed the first gathering was a success. At least 60 people turned up, and over 70 signed up on their listserv. Last night, the first staff meeting took place, at which writers, photographers and section editors were selected.
"‘Unhemmed' … is an unbelievable opportunity to be involved with a publication that is still defining its own voice and establishing both an identity and a presence within the Brown community," wrote Vivian Carlson '14, one of the new magazine's staff members, in an e-mail to The Herald.
"There are so many great ideas floating around," Zhang said. "We have gotten a great response, and there are so many people who want to work with us."
The first issue will come out April 8. Until then, the staff members will work on writing articles, "getting the word out" and "executing ideas to the best of our abilities," Zhang added.
"This is our baby — we are super excited and we hope everyone is going to like it as much as we do," she said.
"Yes, it's going to be great," Batson agreed. "It's our mission."
