FRAY MAGAZINE: Digest Edition

Table of Contents Drink Me – Lola Maby Savor – Anika Kewalramani & Xandra Chen In Defense of Gatekeeping – Margo Morris Ripe – Lauren Horowitz 70 is the New 70: Growing Older with Lyn Slater – Abby Gray Tea – San De Min “Everyone falls in between”: The Queer tradition of breaking tradition at Wes – Mae Cohen Score! – Alex Ober The Digestion of Trends and Ethics – Senica Slaton Digest: Popstar Edition! – Chloe Goorman The Way You Do – Danae Williams Mama Debbie’s Guide to Serving and Eating – Ali Eckstein Collaborator’s list Meet the board

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Drink Me

Shot and Directed by Lola Maby

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SAVOR A project by Anika Kewalramani and Xandra Chen

with Joby Levit, Laila Kewalramani, Meera Nemali, Isabella Miranda, Kofi Agyei-Yeboah, Emmett Levy, Emma Steckline, Sadie Cook, Olivia Andrews, Mikail Haroon, and Dylan Ng

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IN DEFENSE OF GATEKEEPING Written by Margo Morris I am not going to not lie. Tiktok opened up my world view. I downloaded it the summer I was eighteen and it is what cemented my love for fashion. I had been frequenting the runway section of Vogue and had spent too much money on their issues, but Tiktok let me dive way deeper. I fell into exhibits, designers, niche brands, Pinterest, and what it means to sculpt a fashion theory. It gave me a foundation. A jumping off point. But everyone only shared what they wanted to. Nobody wanted to air out all of their fashion secrets—some stuff was too valuable to spread. It was not suffocating nor competitive yet. Maybe a part of this was that having just downloaded TikTok, I was easily impressionable, but I do also strongly feel that there was a time when the runway and Tiktok were strictly separate.

If there’s one word that goes hand and hand with fashion it is inaccessibility. The industry is notorious for being for an exclusive and difficult group of people to get through to. The fashion industry quickly separates those who can afford to buy what is in vogue and those who cannot. If you want to be a part of the club and show it, you better be able to spend $990 on a pair of Maison Margiela Tabi Mary Janes. And they better not be fakes!

Not to mention the horror stories of unrealistic body standards, long hours, massive egos, and empty promises.

Please do not get me wrong, these are all very real issues, I would just argue they are more symptoms of capitalism than fashion. I do not want to waste time going down that road, so I won’t.

On the other hand, there are things that make fashion inaccessible that aren't so bad. For example, knowledge. Just like any other field, you better know what you’re talking about if you want to be taken seriously. The history, the origin, the inspiration, the character, and the development of designers and the culture in general should be integral if you want to call yourself a fashionista.This all takes great attention and intention. As Miranda Priestly so perfectly says, “there is more than meets the eye for any piece of clothing. A sweater is never just blue, it’s actually cerulean [...] in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it? Who showed cerulean military jackets. [..] Then it filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled down into some tragic casual corner [..]

However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs.” Looking past the snideness of her remarks, Miranda does have a point.

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It is dangerous to overlook fashion, and it’s a disservice to all of the hard work that can go into crafting just one cerulean knit sweater.

But what better way to speed past all of this hard work and intention than to have everything you could ever need fed to you in a cute, easy, one minute video?

Tiktok was good for a first real exposure, but soon, people began to use its power to copy and paste links to dupes, links to what you need to buy to dress like a blokette, links to their amazon storefronts, and links to exactly what Alexa Chung or Devon Lee Carlson wore to a 1975 concert, to Carbone, to a Chanel dinner, or what have you. Never before have we had so much accessibility to what people are wearing and where they are getting it from. This has led to a shortening of the trend cycle.

Now, in the span of thirty minutes, you can learn about a trend, see who and how many people wear it, find the link for it or a close replica, and have it express shipped to your house. But promptly, you realize it is just a trend for a reason, ditch it, and move onto the next. Just think about pearl necklaces, parachute pants, butterfly tops, Danielle Guizo sequin skirts, and scarves worn as shirts. They came and they went all before I could say Miuccia Prada. I am not gonna sit here and pretend that I have not done this too. I have! Everyone has!

Even so, it’s important to recognize this escalating volume of microtrends and shortening of life spans in fashion.

People seem to have waived their own sense of style because they have chosen a Tiktoker who will guide them to the next it girl trend.

This destroys the whole point of fashion!

We can love Kate Moss’ style and emulate it without copying each and every one of her outfits. Every single person has their own style within themselves, you just need to do the work and dig deep to find it, rather than relying on someone’s OOTD. Who cares that trends disseminate so quickly, why does it matter? Three words: loss of individuality. When I walk down Canal Street towards the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City, all I see are jorts, frilly see-through tops, biker boots, and slicked back hair into braids. It is hard to tell who is who anymore! Is that the bartender who served me last night or a Bella Hadid bot? It is why the collections for Spring Summer 2024 were all monotonous and, to be frank, a bit tragic. As we digest and internalize the same viral media, it becomes harder and harder to be a true individual. Everything has flattened out.

The department stores are now influencing the runway (just take a look at Gucci’s last season) and Miranda’s trickle down theory is no longer applicable.

People are bypassing the time and effort of curating their own style because the trend cycle is moving at demon speed, not letting them take their time to put their own spin on it.

Now, my solution to this issue of the flooding of trends in fashion may make me look like an asshole, but I think it can serve as a temporary fix. In efforts to pull the plug on this problem, I am calling on influencers to gatekeep. A part of the joy of finding your own style is doing the research and finding it on your own.

When I found the perfect pair of red mary janes with the tiniest heel, a la Lily Rose Depp, after weeks of tracking eBay, Etsy, and Ssence, I did not tell a soul where I got them from. It is my work, afterall! So bring on the gatekeeping! I know I know, hot girls don’t gatekeep. But the oversharing of sources and links erases the sense of individuality and inspiration from fashion when everything you could ever want to buy is suddenly at your fingertips.

I am not trying to be exclusive or patronizing, or ride my high horse. The more people who care about fashion the better! I just want expression of the self to stay alive. That is why we love it after all!

So please, do not feel ashamed if someone asks you where you bought your new slingbacks from and you respond with “I thrifted them,” even though you know the exact URL address of the website you purchased them from. Some balance needs to be restored and I think it would benefit everyone if we all just put a little bit more time and effort into how we engage with the fashion world. Go forth and find your own pair of red mary janes, you deserve it!

So I don’t want the world to know where I got my perfect pair of jeans or my very best party dress, sue me! I did research, went through multiple versions, and consulted a lot of different people to get my most favorite items.

And I think it’s okay if I don’t want to share that with people so they can get what took me days of research and deliberation, in about thirty seconds.

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70 IS THE NEW 70: GROWING OLDER WITH LYN SLATER Written by Abby Gray The fashion industry is a hungry beast. Its stomach groans for constant feedings of sparkles and lace, for beautiful young bodies with well-jeweled necks. As it eats, it grows, consuming even more than before. Desperate to sustain the beast, fashion designers and consumers frantically cycle through trends, cooking fast fashion like fast food. Into its mouth we dump striped Zara trousers, tiny Shein swimsuits, and Amazon silver hoops. The beast rips apart these fragile garments and says only, “more.”

Unable to keep up with the demands of our beast, perhaps it is time to rethink our roles as its caregivers. Instead of worrying about which items the fashion industry wants to consume, (right now a plate of coquette with a bow on top) maybe we should begin to explore what the fashion industry cannot consume.

What is indigestible? What would this ferocious beast, lacking the strength to swallow, spit up? What would leave the over-consuming industry wanting and weak, but still empower the fashion-lovers?

There is, of course, something that the fashion industry refuses to stomach: anything aged. It labels trends and fabrics as “out of date” as if they are expired and rotting. Even more viscously, it rejects women who have aged, attacking their wrinkles with serums and potions, telling them to dress with the beige “elegance” that is conducive to fading into backgrounds.

Lyn Slater, known on the internet as @accidentalicon, is a self-described “reformed fashion influencer” and a proudly old woman. She kindly spoke with me about expressing herself through fashion even after the industry designated her as “indigestible.” As she says, “[Y]ounger is not necessarily better.” During our conversation, it became clear that Slater’s perspective on aging inverts the typical. Instead of old age being a degradation of the self, Slater sees aging as an opportunity to reimagine the self: “One of the things I have done repeatedly is reinvent myself.

And part of the reinvention is always what I'm wearing in the new reinvention and how the clothes that I choose are helping me move that reinvention forward.”

As Slater evolves, so does her sense of style- outfits creating chapters of her life. This forms a closet full of Slater’s past selves; clothing that activates her “personal memoir,” and traces the thread of her life in fabric.

But these clothes and memories do not sit rotting in her closet. Like all good memoirs, they point towards the future and indicate where one might go next. Lyn, constantly inspired by reinvention, is already working on her next project. She has decided to reinvent and reanimate these fabric-memories. Rejecting wastefulness and overconsumption, Lyn’s next chapters of fashion relies crucially on the years and clothes she has already lived in. She plans to upcycle all the clothes she received during her influencing career as @accidentalicon, making new collections out of the old. She calls this next phase “de-influencing.”

Slater searches for something “new” but this newness is not to be confused with youth. In fact, it stands in opposition to the standards of youth still imposed on older women. She says, “[O]nline women have gray hair, but they're thin and they're fit.

And, you know, it's sort of looking like you can be young for the rest of your life. And that is so not what aging is. And it's a very privileged view of age.”

The fashion industry’s prescription for acceptability is still spoken through the language of youth. Less wrinkles. More eye creams. Less sagging. More surgeries. It asks old women to look as though they have not lived. In feminist circles, the aging process is a complex debate.

One side insists that looking beautiful and young is be empowering; that botox and anti-aging diets are examples of women’s authority over aging. The other side (that Lyn aligns herself with) dissents. Lyn articulates her stance: “[I]f I have to spend money, and I have to go under a surgical procedure to make people think I'm beautiful, then there's something wrong with who I want to think I'm beautiful.”

The best example of Slater’s thoughts on aging is represented by a project she did with four Parsons students before the pandemic. They wanted to represent Slater’s modern understanding of aging and initially asked her to bring in clothes she wore when she was younger. But instead of trying to recapture Slater’s youth, they pivoted, and made something completely fresh and completely unique. They created their own textiles for the project, choosing to honor Slater’s penchant for reinventing by inventing something of their own.

Although she is certainly still influencing, Slater no longer considers herself an “influencer.” She posts less often on @accidentalicon and does not accept sponsorships. This latest shift is triggered by the fashion industry’s attempt to make Slater more digestible.

She began to be grouped in with the “instagrandmas,” a category she fervently rejects: “Instagrandma implies reproduction. You were a mother now you’re a grandmother.”

She explains this is an ageist and sexist repackaging of women as reproductive objects. When asked what her current role is in the fashion world, Slater replies, “I really don't have one. I'm pretty much a writer… I think what I've been doing now is writing about clothes instead of putting them on my body and writing about how they make me feel or what I need them for instead of putting them on my body and taking a picture of it…. And I guess that's part of the reinvention.”

Slater’s dress is an intimate expression of who she is and who she wants to be.

By pushing the boundaries, she allows herself to always be more than she was - inventing and reinventing. She wrote in her blog, “we did a lot of rebelling in the 1970s. How ironic is it that in our 70th decade we are doing it again?” The fabulously indigestible Lyn Slater gives us a glimpse into the potential richness of our futures. Each year is an opportunity to be better and older reinventions of ourselves.

TEA

BY SAN DE MIN

Shot on location at the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies.

Life begins and ends with tea

FROM LEFT: Delia wears a silk floral slip from Barbizan.

Leandra wears a red floral print dress from Reformation.

Dikshya wears a white camisole from Brandy Melville, skirt from Fiemaoves. Kayla wears a lacy skater dress from American Eagle. Isha wears a white ruffle romper from Princess Polly.

Floral arrangement of tulips and lilies. Fine China by Mikasa.

Gaile wears a black dress from GAP, Sapphire pendant necklace from Pandora, Hoop earrings from Three Coins.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Models, Delia Jaffe, Dikshya Kuikel, Leandra Sze, Isha Bah, Kayla Harrison.

NOT PICTURED: Model Gaile Ng.

By San De Min Photographed by Lucas Buu-hoan with Zachary Berkenkotter Production Design by Oliver Brown and Erick Buendia Hair and Makeup by Sophia Appel and Tasmiah Akter Produced by Xandra Chen and George Yardley

“EVERYONE FALLS IN BETWEEN”: THE QUEER TRADITION OF BREAKING TRADITION AT WES Written by Mae Cohen The gay of today is not the same gay as tomorrow. Just as queerness is never one thing, queer fashion is miscellaneous.

It shifts and cycles. As years go by, and governmental policy changes, queer expression takes different definitions.

Yet somehow, Americans have continuously relied on queer people to define how we dress.

We’ve all heard queer fashion stereotypes: bisexuals with cuffed jeans, solely feminine style for gay men and archetypal masculine dress for lesbians, and many, many other contrivances.

While queer fashion is truly never one thing, and it is negligent to place LGBTQ+ people into boxes, these queer trends are markers, often used to indicate solidarity and make identity distinguishable to others of their likeness. This tactic has been used for most of recent history, as homosexuality was hidden given its legal implications and sinful status. This led queer people to create underground spaces where they could express their sexuality freely. Drag balls, originating in New York City in the 1860s, are a prime example of a queer subculture that used fashion as a way of expression.

Subculture was and continues to be an important aspect of queer fashion, even as it slowly grows more mainstream.

Photographed by Lucy Cabaniss Much of LGBTQ+ style has to do with performance and taking on personas.

This is seen most clearly in the art of drag, an instrumental element of queer fashion and entertainment.

Given the struggles for societal acceptance of gay men and transgenders, many resorted to drag as a way to express their creativity and identity. Drag is liberating for many queer people, and drag artists each have an individual aesthetic that they choose to convey and use other characteristics such as voice and movement to achieve a uniquely queer and beautiful expression of their art. Despite being rejected by larger society, queer people like drag performers have found their voices through fashion, defying conformity and creating new spaces to shine.

Performance and personas are a form of expression, often translated into art through choice of clothing, but cross-dressing is seen beyond the drag community. Beyond being an art form, it is a form of protest. While women, gay and straight, have challenged gender roles by wearing pants since the 19th century, the antifashion movement rose with lesbian feminism in the 1970s. These women actively acted against societal norms through androgyny, openly wearing clothes such as suits and baggier silhouettes. This is a trend that still appears today in lesbian fashion and other queer communities, and I often see it at Wes. Anti-fashion, or breaking stereotypical gendered boundaries in

clothing choice, is a part of the queer community as a form of resistance. However, it has also been hard for the community to show open defiance. Oppression has resulted in something often called “masking,” where queer people dress and act in a way that is ‘socially acceptable.’ As homosexuality has grown to be largely acceptable in American culture, masking has become less necessary, and queer expression has blossomed in mass media.

Queer influences on fashion stretch beyond community dress codes, resistance and masking, and underground subcultures. Queer people have always been an important part of fashion in broader culture, from factory work to designing. Some of the most famous brands today, including Dior and Balenciaga, were founded by gay men. Today, award-winning shows like Rupaul’s Drag Race have allowed queer voices to be uplifted, and has empowered drag artists to market their own brands, bringing queer culture further into the mainstream. Furthermore, social media has allowed younger members of the LGBTQ+ community to express themselves to broader audiences. Consumption of queer fashion by the public can be negative due to the availability of cyberbullying, but it mainly serves to make queerness accessible, and it starts trends! The media, then, has not only created a more accepting space for the LGBTQ+ community, but it has allowed queer fashion to become not only about resistance, but about aesthetics, thus making it available to becoming trendy.

In the broader world, queerness may not be fully accepted. But at Wesleyan, it is. Queer styles that were once intended to challenge conventional society have now become the norm; merely artistic, stylish choices at liberal places like Wes. We have a large queer community, so what does queer consumption look like here? Where do the gays of Wesleyan get their fashion inspiration from, and what are our views on queer consumption?

When asked about styles that he identifies with, George ‘27 explained, “That twitter account that made the ‘he/they of the day’ memes- I really like how they dress. So I try

to copy their style.” George describes why he dresses the way he dresses: “Now that I’ve had top surgery and feel more comfortable in my body, I feel like I can wear different kinds of clothes that aren't too baggy or just neutral.”

For many queer students, Wesleyan provides a safe space to express themselves. Will ‘27 noted that denim has been a trend he’s seen in queer spaces, and Alexis ‘27 has noticed mixing of patterns. Furthermore, several students I interviewed agreed on common markers of queer expression including facial piercings, dyed hair, and playing with both masculine and feminine in day-to-day looks.

When I asked several queer students whether they followed trends, there were mixed responses. Will expressed that he loves trends, while Lauren ‘27 said that she tends to go against them. Alexis explained that, “Everyone falls in between. There’s always a time when something becomes trendy and I get inspired to think of clothes in a different way.” For her, trendiness and individuality can coexist, and be inspired by one another. My photographer for this project, Lucy ‘27, agreed, saying “I think it’s a little of both. I take certain inspiration from friends and what I see online, especially in queer communities, but I also like to make my own twist on them,” She went on, “I feel like there’s always a push to be individual.” After being asked if her goal to dress uniquely stemmed from her queerness, she explained that, “When I thought I was straight I would shop at Brandy Melville,” which is a stereotypically straight and ‘basic’ brand. However, when she began figuring out her sexuality, she had also started to experiment with her style. Forming one’s identity internally comes along with figuring out how you want to express yourself externally. Many queer people enjoy taking inspiration from current queer trends and forming their own unique sense of style because they feel different from the rest of society. Both of these modes of queer expression are seen at Wes. Nearly all of my interviewees remarked that they shop secondhand: a trend in itself. The trend of thrifting

grown largely because of social media. Lucy noted that, “People with good style are queer, [however], because of mass media, consumption of trends has caused ways of communicating queerness to be blurred.” This is clear at Wesleyan. Social media has greatly broadened the scope of fashion as a whole. But, as Lucy recognizes, styles that become trends usually originate from or are influenced by the queer community, such as Carabiners on belt loops and straight men painting their nails. Malachi ‘27 pointed out that, “It’s hard to tell at Wesleyan,” as familiar aspects of queer aesthetics are used by more than just queer people here. At Wesleyan, markers of queer identity and trends in the LGBTQ+ community are often worn by everybody, both due to the influence of consumerism by accessible fashion media, as well as from the queer student population themselves.

Thus, while there are many ways to ‘be queer’ and express oneself stylistically, the lines defining sexuality in fashion which historically were so apparent are no longer there. Queer people no longer need to hide their sexuality, and straight youth are learning to break the boundaries that once separated the two groups. Wesleyan perfectly exemplifies this blending of style, queer culture, and progressive change. Social media has influenced the accessibility and popularity of queer style. Rather than thinking of queerness as a trend that can be consumed, we should recognize that queer fashion being sought-after is a form of acceptance. While queer expression should never have to become part of the norm to be accepted, with the dissemination of queer culture, it does not have to be. Paving the way for new styles and paying homage to their historical pasts, queer fashion continues to push boundaries and erase ones of the past. At Wesleyan and beyond, queer people will continue to be the trailblazers in fashion.

THE DIGESTION OF TRENDS AND ETHICS Written by Senica Slaton How we interact with trends as a society is problematic, as I have come to learn from my own experiences. We are quick to “digest” a trend, just as we would with food, and similarly, it does not take long for the discretion to hit its peak, and the trend is on its way out. In recent years, I have thought more about my role in this consumerism and what practices I can take to shop more ethically and sustainably.

To intervene in the waste-making cycles of trends, I have begun to take the time to research where I am buying from, investigating if they take part in ethical practices. This means integrating the way the clothing is made, who is making each garment, and how frequently they are produced. I have found this important as someone who cares deeply about social and systemic justice; one of the best ways to combat issues is with your money. If you want to help something stop working as well as it does, you find ways to prevent them from getting money to be able to work, so I brought it upon myself to only shop at stores ethically. This has caused my shopping to slow down tremendously, as I have found that a lot of times, I would only buy clothes that were on trend rather than buy clothes that I wanted because I was afraid of not looking trendy or cool. When I started researching what brands and stores are ethical, I immediately realized that worrying about what was on trend would not be able to be my top priority when shopping. Still, I could focus more on my style and how I wanted to dress.

This was also in part because the more research I did, the more I found that ethical stores and brands are not common, and they are also not cheap. This has extremely limited the places I shop, especially as someone who wears plus-size clothing.

Even so, it is something important to me, and I can afford to do it.

One of the most frustrating things about this store cleanse was that it was hard to find affordable clothing options because the selection was extremely limited. I shopped at the same five stores repeatedly: CHNGE, Reformation, Pumiey, LA Relaxed, and Yes Friends.

While before, the stores I shopped at produced various items throughout the year, following mainstream trend cycles, the current stories I shop at some while have a wide range of old, while others will switch off what they off based on the season or what their consumers want. And each store has a purpose for me now. For example, I get my nice dresses from Reformation. And I get my basics from either Pumiey or Yes Friends. My shopping experience is so different now; for the most part, I shop online. I am rarely ever in stores, and I know my measurements by heart, so I can easily navigate size charts to get what sizes I need.

While I still have the occasional moment of weakness and shop at an unethical store for items I can’t find elsewhere, shopping through the lens of an ethical consumer has entirely altered my shopping experience.

And with this change, I have noticed how much fashion trends no longer matter to me.

As I find it harder to affordably and ethically follow them, I no longer desire the instant gratification of wearing the newest trend.

Now, I focus more on buying clothes and accessories that I like, that I will wear for a while, and that look good on me. Rather than being able to buy a bunch of clothes that I thought I might like or would wear one day, I now will put a lot of stuff in my cart that I like and then weed through everything before I buy it until I get to a total that I am comfortable with.

In watching my consumption habits change, when I started thinking about ethical fashion, I started to wonder about the shopping habits of others. I spoke to some students on campus about their experiences with shopping ethically. One thing that came up most frequently was thrifting. I do not thrift frequently, as I typically have difficulty finding things I like and will wear in my size, but many students I spoke to were avid thrifters. Further, they expressed that they had been shopping secondhand since childhood.

One student said, “I remember thrifting since I was a little girl. This is the first place my family and I shop before trying chain stores. Mainly because going to a mall or shopping name brands for five people is unaffordable and unrealistic as it is for most Americans.” She also spoke about how important it is to ensure that thrift stores stay affordable for the general public, as she had experienced people who could afford to shop at name-brand stores go through thrift stores to buy items and resell them for a higher price on Depop. When this happens regularly, thrift stores are no longer an affordable option for people who need these items.

When thinking about digestion and fashion, everyone should think more critically and carefully about their consumption habits. Whether they go out of their way to find ethical stores or thrift, it is important to be conscious of one’s shopping habits and the effects of fashion beyond the clothes we wear. Either way, when we digest fashion, we must think about how our planet and society digest what we do after the trend ends.

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High School Sweetheart...

Erick Buendia ‘26 save

The Girl Next Door Darlene de la Cruz ‘25 save

Isa Lozado ‘26 save

Y2k Earthy Girly

Cute & Comfy

save Sierra van Wijk ‘25

Statement Streetwear

Brianna Johnson ‘24 save

Sleek & Chic Baddie

save

CJ Joseph

Outdoorsy

Ava Guralnick ‘25 save

College x Rebel Aesthetic

Judeley “Truey”

Jean-Charles ‘24 save

Vintage & Retro/70s inspired

Akhil Joondeph ‘26 save

The Way You Do Walk this earth the way you do People always gon’ try to tell you how to fit in your own shoes Doesn’t matter if they took them right out ya closet It’ll only belong to their bodies until they say you can have it They’ve got us stuck in a box Feeling forced To assimilate To accommodate To their expectations To their standards of beauty Yet still left to be misrepresented, underrepresented, or not represented at all But something in you knows that it’s time to sing a different tune To not fit in

To not fit in To break the frame Walk this earth the way you do Cause ain’t nobody gon’ ever walk it like you No more spending time looking for who you are in someone else “You set the trends Don’t let anybody or anything dictate your decisions except for yourself” Easier said than done sure But never impossible Don’t get me wrong, I understand the other side of the coin When we grow up we reflect back onto our previous times How it would’ve changed us How we would’ve perceived ourselves Telling ourselves “If I had seen more of it, I definitely might have been a lot more excited about the ways I was able to display my body in my most comfortable fashion” But that time has long passed Because we wait on them to get it right And they never do

They don’t understand, they don’t see it The sweat, the tears, and years Of dedication to be standing where you are I’ve always been told When you wait for someone to do something you expect You end up waiting forever Well time’s up And we’re done waiting It’s time to walk as our higher selves To acknowledge where we come from To highlight the paths that we are going on But to always be where we find our happiest, authentic self is Speak those beautiful truths of affirmation When you put those clothes on: “I’m the only one that looks like me doing it like me” When you strut down the streets of your city “Your hair is not ugly or unprofessional. Your skin glows in the sun. Own it.”

When you look in the mirror:

“I am who I am and I don’t have to fit in no where” People always gon tell you what you can and can’t do But who are they?

And more importantly who are you?

To your younger self: “Trust your instincts and wear what makes you happy; conformity is not fashionable.”

“Wear what the hell you wanna wear and stop tryna be like everyone” “If you feel at peace in your choice stay at peace, and give them a better reason to stare by wearing it better than ever before.”

“Be confident in who you are!”

And don’t forget to walk this earth the way you do Cause ain’t nobody ever gon’ walk it the way you do!

MAMA DEBBIE’S Guide to Serving and Eating

ng eati U YO are ? ugh eno !

uiz he q t e tak

by Jenny Ongele, Sanaa Mia, Josie Schiff, Ali Eckstein

models: Mari Tall, Lucia Glatz, Lauren Schweitzer

uiz results: 0+: You could write your own cookbook! Anything you serve p always turns heads and you are almost gluttonous in your bility to eat everyday. Save some slay for the rest of us!

0-60: No crumbs! You swept up the competition!

0-50: You’ve passed the test! Congrats on your healthy diet f slay 0-40: Not bad! We like what you bring to the table and we ant to see what you serve up next.

0-30: Still hungry! Feed us!

0-20: To be honest? You left some crumbs. Try to clean up ore next time.

-10: It left a bad taste in our mouth, sorry. You are not ating enough.

1. Do people ask you for fashion advice?

2. Have you ever been featured on Fray fits?

3. How long do you spend picking out your outfit?

4. Do people describe you as a fashion icon?

5. Do you describe yourself as a fashion girly?

6. On average, how many compliments do you get on your outfit per day?

7. Are you America’s next top model?

results! flip for

TOTAL

give yourself a number from 1-10, then add up your points at the end for your result!

Are you Eating Enough?

Recipe for

Success!

Serving a delectable look requires a dash of poise, a sprinkle of elegance, and a whole lot of flair.

1. Make sure everything you serve up is perfectly on trend. There is no eating without consumption.

2. Choose elements that compliment each other and create a delightful blend of flavors and styles.

3. Presentation is everything! Garnish your look with accessories which accentuate your best features (and hide the worst ones) 4. A sour attitude will ruin your look! Always be sweet, even when you feel awful. Saltiness is so out right now.

5. Remember, you’re prettier when you smile! You should really smile more.

Serve your look with a side of confidence, a hint of charm, and a dollop of grace. Bon appétit, darlings!

Quiz results: 60+: You could write your own cookbook! Anything you serve up always turns heads and you are almost gluttonous in your ability to eat everyday. Save some slay for the rest of us!

50-60: No crumbs! You swept up the competition!

40-50: You’ve passed the test! Congrats on your healthy diet of slay 30-40: Not bad! We like what you bring to the table and we want to see what you serve up next.

20-30: Still hungry! Feed us!

10-20: To be honest? You left some crumbs. Try to clean up more next time.

0-10: It left a bad taste in our mouth, sorry. You are not eating enough.

1. Do people ask you for fashion advice?

2. Have you ever been featured on Fray fits?

3. How long do you spend picking out your outfit?

4. Do people describe you as a fashion icon?

5. Do you describe yourself as a fashion girly?

6. On average, how many compliments do you get on your outfit per day?

7. Are you America’s next top model?

results! flip for

TOTAL

give yourself a number from 1-10, then add up your points at the end for your result!

Are you Eating Enough?

COLLAB Aisyah Nurriza Sita McGuire Zach Berkenkotter Lucas Buu-Hoan Margo Morris Richik Acharya George Yardley Chloe Goorman Wiktoria Ostrowska Rae Sustana Bella Solimine Sarah Asiedu Livesey Abar Jasper Fletcher Lola Maby Maira Carloni Calum Wolfe-Thompson Chloe Schaeffer Gavin Brangham Lucia Glatz Montaña Mac Katkavich Daniel Silverstein Lillian Hoefflin Kyra Fox Owen Chestnut CJ Joseph Isa Lozado Akhil Joondeph Brianna Johnson Judeley “Truey” Jean-Charlees Darlene de la Crux Ava Guralnick

ORATORS

Owen Forbes San De Min Lucas Buu-hoan Oliver Brown Zachary Berkenkotter Sophia Appel Tasmiah Akter Erick Buendia Isha Bah Delia Jaffe Leandra Sze Kayla Harrison Dikshya Kuikel George Yardley Ali Eckstein Jenny Ongele Sanaa Mia Josie Schiff Mari Tall Lucia Glatz Lauren Schweitzer Laila Kewalramani Meera Nemali Isabella Yoon-Miranda Kofi Agyei-Yeboah Emmett Levy Emma Steckline Sadie Cook Olivia Andrews Joby Levit Mikail Haroon Isa Lozada Lewis Woloch Alexa Romney Alex Ober Kavi Talwalker Eliot Kimball