Gray Area Mag: Summer 2023

Issue 4, Summer 2023

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Readers, First and foremost, I’d like to thank the unbelievably hardworking GAM Team. Charlotte Podeszwa and Gemma Savitz-Vogel will be carrying this magazine forward but have already succeeded in making this club a campus-wide brand name. That being said, this publication is its community; our layout designers, models, writers, photographers, stylists, editors, and readers contribute immensely to GAM’s survival. Without all of you, there would be no GAM! To the Layout Team: I am eternally grateful for the dedication and support you all showed this academic year. You were the team that created GAM’s first-ever zine. Your creativity continues to shine through in the pages each of you curates.

Since its inception in 2021, Gray Area Magazine has been a creative platform for Connecticut College students to see their ideas come to life; I founded this organization to highlight those student voices. Over the course of two years, I worked to earn the community’s trust and ultimately watched as the magazine began to blossom. We’ve produced marvelous issues, hosted convivial soirées, and, most importantly, consistently welcomed more members onto our team. I am beyond proud of how far GAM has come, but I cannot wait to see what its future holds.

Kendrick Hawkins Editor-in-Chief

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Overwhelmed Baby botox, luxury penthouses, mass shootings, New York Fashion Week, Italy travel plans, natural disasters, and a $2,000 Shein haul. These were all videos I saw in back to back succession on my “For You Page” via TikTok. As most people feel after spending hours scrolling, my attention span was fried, and I felt completely overwhelmed.

TikTok, along with Instagram, are two of the most popular social media platforms for Gen Z. Their algorithms purposefully promote content that leaves its audience more dissatisfied than before they opened the app. This is intentional.

An unhappy person with lower self-esteem is more likely to purchase a product advertised to them. Social media platforms seeking to maximize profits have an invested incentive in recommending content that will either create new insecurities in consumers or exaggerate existing ones. The two common insecurities that algorithms target are wealth and attractiveness, often prioritizing content made by above-average looking young people who come from higher-income backgrounds. The average person will (consciously or subconsciously) come to the conclusion that they are below-average in either department, and they will seek to “remedy” this problem. Brands can then swoop in to address insecurities held by consumers, offering a product that will, in some way, account for their manufactured problems.

The fashion industry has taken social media by storm with immensely successful advertising campaigns, specifically in terms of influencer marketing. Social media’s fastpaced cycles have taken trends from seasonal cycles to weekly cycles. Consumers, primed by their algorithms to be ready to

By Devon Middlebrook

purchase, are often influenced by brands who take advantage of different aesthetic categories on social media. New aesthetics prop up constantly, creating new trends which can be capitalized on, such as Balletcore, which created a new market demand for ballet flats, hair ribbons, shrugs, leg warmers, and mini pleated skirts. Popularized items and themes from luxury designer brands Miu Miu and Maison Margiela trickled down to mid-tier brands such as Urban Outfitters and Free People and finally to knock-off producers Boohoo, Amazon, and Shein.

Fast fashion corporations step in to meet consumer demand, as they have the capital to produce trends and bring them to market in a short amount of time. Shein, for example, became the largest fashion company in 2022, with revenues reaching 30 billion dollars, leading the company to receive a valuation of 100 billion dollars.

However, this mode of consumption has had disastrous effects on the environment, as fashion now represents the third largest polluting industry and accounts for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the products people receive are often low-quality, which, in the best case scenario, need to be replaced shortly after

purchase, or in the worst case scenario, contain harmful or toxic chemicals (such as PFAs).

Now, fast fashion’s negative impact on the world has come into popular debate.

Harsher critiques of consumerism have given way to more palatable solutions. Instead of purchasing from large conglomerates who prioritize selling high quantities of cheap goods, it is perceived as more ethical to purchase from smaller, higher-cost brands at lower quantities. Those who continue to purchase from fast fashion conglomerates are seen as uncaring, immoral, and as part of the problem. But are these smaller, more environmentally conscious brands a solution to the sustainability problem in the fashion industry?

Green-washing, the practice of marketing products as having a low or positive impact on the environment, has become a popular strategy for brands looking to exploit this new group of consumers. The LAbased clothing brand Reformation primarily advertises to the environmentally-conscious, with its tagline “Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option. We’re #2.” While the brand is certainly more sustainable than Shein and operates at a much smaller scale, both companies mass produce large quantities of clothing made up of synthetic fabrics.

Thrifting, or purchasing second-hand clothing from apps such as Depop (which is immensely popular with Gen Z), has been popularized as a more sustainable alternative. While consumers are no longer directly purchasing from small brands or large corporations in attempts to be more sustainable, it is not without its own drawbacks. With increased amounts of people sourcing clothing from charity/thrift outlets, in particular those who make a living off re-selling second hand fashion online, prices have been raised and items are increasingly picked over. This creates a problem for those who depend on thrift stores, which

have historically provided an affordable option for clothing purchases. Additionally, purchasing items on second-hand apps typically requires the items to be shipped, which increases carbon emissions which inherently contributes to climate change.

In a capitalist society, it is impossible to not be a consumer in some aspects.

However, we can control how much we choose to participate in consumerist culture.

There are two main aspects we can focus on. The first component is combatting personal insecurities, which can be as simple as limiting social media usage or quitting social media entirely. This is easier said than done, as many people (myself included) are dependent on social media for social connections or are worried about missing out on trends. It is important to recognize that keeping up with trends does not mean one is fashionable, or that awareness of micro-trends is even necessary. The second aspect is to develop a strong sense of personal style that is independent of the current trend cycle. Take inventory of items you

already own, and note which clothing items you find yourself gravitating to the most and the least. This will help you understand how to style what you already own.

When it comes to purchasing new items, try to do so mindfully. It is important to do research on the product you are purchasing, specifically where and how it is manufactured, what types of fabric/material

it is made out of, and the item’s practicality.

This is a nuanced discussion, and everyone’s approach to the aspect of sustainability is different, but our behavior as American consumers can not continue on the path it is on. The intersection of social media and the fashion industry has proven itself as a toxic one, for both us and the planet.

SHEIN: The Fast Fashion Machine

You’ve surely heard of the fastfashion behemoth SHEIN, right? With the sheer amount of advertising they push on every social media platform, whether it be through the use of influencers, or social-media conglomerates, it seems almost impossible to not have heard of the clothing retailer. The advertising tactic of having influencers on TikTok and Instagram work with SHEIN to post “haul” videos, entailing trying on piles of clothing, inviting one’s followers to visit SHEIN’s pop-ups, and promoting their sales events, has been incredibly successful for the company, pushing SHEIN to the top of the fast fashion ladder, and, in fact, making it the most popular fashion brand overall in 2022 (Haqqi, 2022). What’s behind the company’s ability to pump out clothing at such an astounding rate? The answer to that relates back to its encroaching track record of human rights violations and an environmentally-unsustainable model of production.

The fast fashion giant SHEIN was founded in the city of Nanjing, China, in 2008 by Chris Xu, a U.S.-born entrepreneur and search engine optimization specialist.

Over the years, Shein has gone from being a low-cost Chinese apparel merchant to a global, online-only fashion behemoth.

SHEIN managed to climb in sales from $10 billion in 2020, which was up from $4.5 billion in 2019, to a mind-boggling $100 billion in 2022 (Bloomberg, 2021).

To understand the widespread appeal of clothing companies like SHEIN, the first, most obvious thing to point out is their incredibly low prices. Not to mention, the fact that they ship to 150 countries and regions worldwide. The business-model is akin to that of Amazon’s: a widespread online marketplace brings together about

6,000 clothing factories in China under SHEIN’s label, while internal management software collects near-instant data about which items are selling and which aren’t to visibly boost the popular items (Matsakis, 2021).

The clothing is also presented in polished and pristine advertising campaigns run by SHEIN’s head office. They have poured millions into advertisement campaigns through Google and Facebook, advertisement deals, and even a social media reality show co-hosted by Khloe Kardashian (McCann, 2021). This being said, however, the center of their marketing strategy is absolutely their use of influencers and hashtags such as #SHEINhaul.

For those who do not know, a “haul,” a symptom of the gluttony of late-stage capitalism, is essentially buying bulk in clothing that you won’t even wear half of. To criticize the buying of clothing would make me a hypocrite.

Still, these hauls that are widely popular on social-media platforms such as TikTok promote overconsumption. Add this to the algorithm of the app itself, which to stay relevant on, you must participate in everyday, which then combines with the tendency to overconsume regardless, and the result is mountains of wasted fabric and materials.

To touch on the issue of modern day conformity relating to TikTok’s influence, especially in the fashion world, this form of content also promotes the idea that style is the amount of clothing you have. It does away with the notion that style is meant to be the ultimate form of self-expression, and replaces it with a competition of who is most on trend, most aesthetically-abiding, or god forbid,

most “high-fashion.”

We have the ability to tell the world who we are with what we wear, but the trend of seeking validation through our clothing, which is only further propelled by means like that of social media, have seemed to trump the freeing process of true selfexpression.

When you look at trends in fashion now, they are becoming more and more micro-trends, increasingly getting shorter and lasting only about three months. Conforming to this cycle leads to buying fast fashion, as that’s the cheapest option. This cheapest option, however, leads to the huge consumption that eventually makes the consumer not care about the state or condition of the clothing they buy. Not in regards to tears or stains, but WHAT the clothing is made of and the process that goes into production.

The quality of fast fashion clothing is horrendous, which helps to explain why so much of it ends up being thrown out within a 3-month time period after purchasing.

When you take the time to find pieces of clothing that you truly admire, want to wear, and know will LAST, then you have truly cracked the code on sustainable fashion.

The reason no one wants to partake in this kind of consumption, however, is because of the way in which fast fashion causes the societal devaluation of the labor that goes into making clothes. Of course, if you are constantly seeing $15 price tags and consistent 50% off sales, you’re going to be astounded when you see a sustainably made $300 dress. Yes, the material plays a role in the cost, but what really hikes the price up is the fact that it was ethically constructed (this applies to both production practices and labor practices), which leads me to my next

point: SHEIN’s awful trackrecord of its impact on the environment.

To be quite frank, SHEIN’s mass production of items on a daily basis would not be possible without exploitation; not only of the labour of unpaid workers, but of the sheer amount of energy and natural resources needed in producing that much material. SHEIN gets a product from drawing board, to production, to being live-online in as little as three days (TECHFLIX, 2022). Why is this a bad thing? This model of production leads to overconsumption, which in turn leads to a highly negative impact on the environment.

To put that into perspective, the average American throws away 81 pounds (Portela, 2022), yes pounds, of clothing a year; fast fashion companies know this, therein leading to the production of clothing not made to last: usually constructed of cheap synthetic fibers like polyester, which is essentially plastic. Polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose (Stanes, E. and Gibson, C., 2017), which is especially bad because the industry produces over

100 billion new garments every year (Bloomberg, 2022). We are essentially living on a gigantic pile of plastic.

SHEIN’s CEO, Molly Miao, has stated that each item is produced only in small numbers, between 50-100 pieces a day, before it becomes popular and then mass-produced. But the manufacturers’ rapid use of virigin polyester and large consumption of oil churns out the same amount of CO2 as approximately 180 coalfired power plants, according to a report published by Sysnthetics Anonymous 2.0 in 2022.

As a result, the company leaves about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in its trail, a number that falls well below the 45% target to reduce global carbon emissions by 2030, which the U.N. has said is necessary for fashion companies to implement to help limit global warming.

The fashion industry is responsible for releasing more than 10 percent of carbon emissions (Bloomber, 2022). Many brands that are signatories of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, which is the industry’s flagship climate initiative spearheaded by the U.N., have committed to either halving emissions by the end of the decade or to set science-based reduction targets (Kent, 2021).

Like many other corporations, however, SHEIN tends to avoid these kinds of attempts to make regulations, and instead tries to “internally-regulate” its emissions and abuses. On the heels of coming under fire for fuelling wasteful consumption, for example, SHEIN announced it would spend $7.6 million on a partnership with the nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute, which works with manufacturers to set and implement energy efficiency programs (Kent, 2022).

It aims to reduce supply chain emissions by 25 percent by 2030 through energyefficient projects and a transition to

renewable power for manufacturing. This being said, however, the impact of these initiatives is yet to be seen, especially considering a survey by BCG which found that just 18% of retailers who had previously set emissions targets were on track to achieving them, while another 35% were stalled in their progress (Unglesbee, 2022).

Perhaps the most upsetting aspect of SHEIN’s detriment is its disgusting violations of workers’ rights. A lengthy investigation by Wired first chronicled how both laborers and consumers suffered from the production of SHEIN’s clothing, while a documentary by the U.K.’s Channel 4 found that SHEIN employees were working 75-hour shifts with very little time off. The Swiss publication Public Eye also released a detailed report which accused SHEIN of violating Chinese labor laws. Through independent Chinese researchers tracking SHEIN’s manufacturing and packing process in China and Europe, the report found that many of these manufacturing “plants” were actually being run in informal factory spaces set up in residential buildings.

The conditions of these factories were near Victorian-era. Labor advocacy groups and journalists uncovered evidence that SHEIN’s $12 bikinis and $7 crop tops were being made by people working in unsafe workshops, lacking safety protocols like windows and emergency exits. Many were hired without contracts or minimum wage requirements, thereby allowing the company to reportedly fail to pay its employees properly (Reed, 2022). Channel 4’s documentary, Inside The Shein Machine, sent undercover cameras to film factory workers who were forced to pull 17-hour shifts to make hundreds of garments a day. In one factory, they made a daily base salary of $20, which would then be docked to $14 if any garments had mistakes.

Eventually, SHEIN made a public statement in which they admitted to the breaches: “We know we have a responsibility to safeguard the welfare of workers in our supply chain. In light of the recent report in the news, we launched an investigation into the chain that 2 of our suppliers had unacceptable working conditions at their facilities” (Reed, 2022).

Additionally, SHEIN has stated that all suppliers would be required to comply with a code of conduct based on conventions by the International Labour Organization. SHEIN has also built an in-house team that will monitor its supply-chain partners and is engaging independent agencies like Intertek Group PLC to conduct regular audits of supplier factories (Xiao, 2022).

It is still important to mention, again, that Corporations like this are NEVER willing to up the price of their production, which would inherently come along with imposed regulations. To avoid this additional cost, companies like SHEIN will conduct their own internal-regulations, often times a farce for PR, and wait until public scrutiny is directed someplace else; returning to its unethical business tactics regardless.

Now, you may be a regular consumer of fast fashion, and I have no issue with that, unless, of course, you have the means to do otherwise. The ability to consume sustainable fashion is a privilege, and this is no mistake in the system. Ethical consumption under a capitalist organization of economy is nearly impossible afterall. Those who come from lower-income families don’t have the ability to consume fast fashion alternatives for many reasons such as cost and the exclusivity surrounding sustainable fashion.

Many sustainable brands do not have inclusive size ranges, and other means of sustainable clothing, such as buying

second-hand through Depop, eBay, or in person at a thrift store, are not reliable for everyone either, with the piece that you may want oftentimes being far too small or wildly expensive. Nonetheless, second-hand shopping is the ideal method of consumption when it comes to fashion purely because of the waste that producing new clothing causes.

It is important to note that the ones buying fast fashion because it is all that they can afford are not the ones contributing to the dominance of fast fashion. This is because, generally, these people cherish their clothing and don’t have the disposable income to be buying new clothes every couple weeks. But the people who buy $900 SHEIN hauls, who throw out their clothes every two months, who criticize others for wearing outdated trends; how do we justify that clear example of gluttony and disregard? These people tend to add to the widespread feeling of shame or pressure felt by others to throw away clothing and abide by trends, but that model of consumption, as we have seen, is not sustainable; not only for the earth, but for one’s own self.

When you break it down, style is not what is trendy or desired, and abiding by that model of consumption will hurt not only your pockets but also your morale; clothing is a creative medium that anyone, yes, even you reading this, can use to fully express yourself and uplift those around you. When fashion becomes a competition of comparison and wealth, it is no longer about the clothing but rather the approval of others; living by the word of someone else is the definition of living inhibited.

Wear what you want! The important thing is just to be conscious of your consumption.

By Caro Klipp-Kaplan

Engineering Groundbreaking Fashion

From skirts that open and close like petals on a blooming flower to dresses that print receipts, artist and designer Cameron Hughes is changing what it means to create fashion in the 21st century. Hughes creates high tech pieces that blend engineering and fashion by making garments that move with the wearer using built in motors. Hughes’s designs have exploded in popularity in the past few years, having been worn by Gigi Hadid, Doja Cat, Charli XCX, and Dylan Mulvaney, just to name a few. Hughes’s illustrious clientele is made even more impressive by the fact that he is completely self-taught and self-made.

Hughes represents a new generation of artists who have learned their crafts from the internet and built their brands on social media. Cameron Hughes and his work stand as strong examples of the power of the internet, the blending of classic and futuristic aesthetics, and the new ways in which the fashion industry is being revolutionized.

One of the most unique aspects of Hughes’s process is that anyone can view the entirety of it for free on his TikTok where he has amassed over 650K followers by posting in-depth tutorials for each of his projects. For example, when Hughes created a robotic petal dress for TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, he walked his audience through designing the dress, creating prototypes, 3D printing and sewing each component, and coding each movement the dress made for Dylan’s performance.

According to an interview with Vogue, Hughes creates these videos in part because much of his design knowledge came from watching tutorials on the internet; he explains, “[I] learned almost everything from YouTube and maker blogs.” Hughes’s tutorial videos are not only fun to watch, but also allow other artists and designers to learn new skills for free in the same way he did.

Another reason Hughes’s designs stand out is his glamorous and often campy style. Hughes’s style is heavily influenced by the New York City club scene since he began experimenting with robotic clothing to stand out at clubs in the first place.

Hughes’s designs often harken back to old Hollywood aesthetics with frequent use of feathers, lush color palettes, silks, and satins. These classic designs only add to the surprise when the dresses begin to move with the use of modern motors and computer code. In his videos, Hughes details how he disguises exposed electronics by transforming them into statement pieces of his garments, often by covering them with 3D printed cases or heavily patterned fabric. The results are pieces that, when moving, provide no evidence as to how they operate beside a slight whirring sound from the motors. Hughes studied sculpture in college along with a few engineering courses and explains that he is “just sculpting with fabric now” and that his “ability to make these designs is rooted in skills [he] learned while working as… [an] engineer.”

Hughes goes on to say, “There are quite a lot of engineers that go into sewing and making fashion… It is just a different medium. Fabric and thread instead of injection molded plastic and screws.” In his work, Hughes blends his artistic background as a sculptor with his engineering skills to push the limits on what is possible for the future of fashion.

Photos from cameron-hughes.com

In the future, Hughes plans to expand his business and social media. As of now, Hughes creates all of his pieces in his New York City studio apartment, so his first plan is to move into a professional studio space that can house all of his work, tools, and materials. Additionally, Hughes has plans to transform his one-of-a-kind pieces into a complete collection. In his Vogue interview, Hughes explains that he “would love to show a full collection of crazy oneoff designs and ready to wear in New York Fashion Week.” While Hughes embarks on his journey of building a brand, he intends to bring his TikTok audience along to show “an actual look at how it’s done, from incorporating the business, to getting a studio space, to making tech packs, shooting campaigns, auditing factories, making the actual clothes, showing at NYFW, and then working with retailers and shipping everything.” As for his next celebrity client, Hughes has his sights set on Lady Gaga, who embodies his bold, innovative, and campy design style, and who his fans have been begging him to work with. When asked about Gaga, Hughes exclaimed, “I know it will happen. It’s just a matter of alignment for a project that would warrant my work.”

Overall, Cameron Hughes represents how technology and fashion can be combined to create cutting-edge designs.

Moreover, Hughes has created a brand for himself by connecting to an online audience and taking them along for the ride as he works with celebrities and eventually creates his own collection. Artists like Cameron Hughes leveraged new technologies and social media to create a new age of fashion that is more experimental and creative than ever.

By Skylar Gould

The Dressing Room Formerly known as Swap Shop, The Dress-

The idea for Swap Shop came from a

ing Room is an on-campus clothing shop.

group of students while they were taking

The Dressing Room is designed so that

a course titled, Applications of Sustainabil-

students can both donate clothes they no

ity. The students, including Enso Tran ’22,

longer wear and take items from the shop

proposed the idea of a shop to donate

free of charge. Originally, the campus store

and reuse items among students. Once

was an initiative spearheaded by the Office

Enso became a sustainability fellow leader,

of Sustainability in efforts to combat cloth-

during his senior year, he chose to focus his

ing waste on campus. Recently, the Office

efforts on making the idea of Swap Shop a

for Gender and Sexuality renovated the

reality. With the help of his team, Enso led

space to include personal hygiene products

the efforts to open the shop, and they held

and reorganized the store to dispel any

their first open hours in the spring of 2021.

gender-separation between clothing racks.

The GSP office recognized the value of the Swap Shop, providing additional resources to make the shop more centered around equity, where they guaranteed gender-affirming clothes for students seeking a free wardrobe. The Dressing Room holds open hours for students to drop off or take clothing. They also offer the option for students to make an appointment with a personal stylist from the GSP office. Currently, student fellows from the Office of Sustainability volunteer to supervise open hours and maintain the organization of the space at the beginning and end of their shifts.

While the focus of The Dressing Room has shifted to provide more resources for students and create a more equitable campus, efforts towards sustainability are still a large part of The Dressing Room’s mission. As a community, it is important that we continue to support ideas like Swap Shop to evolve our culture around sustainable practices. So, avoid throwing out your clothes or buying new. Try visiting The Dressing Room and swapping some pieces of clothing!

by Gemma Savitz-Vogel

Color Theory:

Heather Evered

Building a Wardrobe You Actually Like

If you’ve been around me at all this semester, you’ve probably heard about my experience getting my colors done. Yes, it was amazing, and no, I will not shut up about it. Growing up, we all saw the “what season are you?” quizzes and the articles telling us what colors we should or should not wear. People with dark hair were automatically winters, while golden blondes were summers. Well, according to a woman named Jennifer in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, we have it all wrong.

only to rip them off with such theatrical flair. She claimed the fast transition helped her to see the differences between colors more clearly, but it was fun nonetheless.

Every now and then she remarked about how a certain tone would make our eyes look brighter or our skin look dull.

Ultimately, I was declared a winter, and my brother was an autumn. I cannot confirm that winter colors necessarily make my eyes brighter, yet sitting in that chair really made me believe it.

Jennifer works as a consultant for House of Colours, a London-based company specializing in using color theory to help people feel more confident. At its core, it is a way of straying away from trends and creating a wardrobe full of items that all suit not only you, but also each other. As my brother and I sat in her office, Jennifer explained how they have expanded the traditional seasonal categories to be more personal. The seasons are first separated by warm vs. cool and then by high vs. low contrast. For example, winter colors are cool with high contrast, while autumn colors are warm with low contrast.

So what are the next steps? Since getting my colors done, I have been slowly transitioning certain pieces out of my wardrobe. Will I ever get rid of my favorite pink dress? Absolutely not, but I have started prioritizing deeper colors over pastels. Jennifer told me a complete wardrobe rework usually takes about three years, maybe even longer if your colors aren’t trending at the moment. However at the end of that period, you are left with a wardrobe that matches and emphasizes your natural beauty. This is a great basis for a capsule wardrobe and for being more intentional about clothing consumption! I cannot recommend this service enough, and I would like to extend a huge thank you to Jennifer at House of Colours for getting me started on my color journey!

The process itself was super simple. We each got sweet, little smocks, and I even got a hair net to block what I would soon learn was an incredibly unflattering hair color. For the next 45 minutes, Jennifer tied little color swatches around our necks

Fashion and Sustainability: Looking at Two Small Businesses on Campus If you were asked how our college is sustainable, you might say that the lights in showers turn off after 5 minutes to conserve energy or that we have a pretty robust garbage and recycling system. Maybe you’ll mention the energy conservation challenge happening or the fact that we have a social justice sustainability pathway.

Still, you are probably wondering how we are actually contributing to sustainability. I want to highlight two small businesses on campus: Ratamakes and Josie’s Closet.

Ratamakes is founded and owned

by Emiliano Camero Cortez, whose pieces have recently had their time in the limelight during POCA’s annual fashion show.

Ratamakes was established in July of 2020.

Interest in fashion started in Emilianos’ childhood when his grandmother made hats, scarves, and mittens by hand. When he recalled his time shopping in thrift stores, he said it was embarrassing at first because, “you always want what others have, you always want what’s new as a kid.

I didn’t understand why we had to thrift. I didn’t know it was sustainable. It’s a reflection of how much money we had and what we needed to do.” Emiliano also noted that he uses a lot of flowers in his work, particularly in flower earrings and jackets, and how this comes from the early influence of his grandmother. “She was always super colorful. She incorporated flowers in her work.”

Emiliano told me about the boredom he faced during the start of the pandemic and how he turned to crochet as a way to pass the time. “I came across this

by Rose Gruber

Brazilian woman on youtube and I learned from her. I started with stuffed animals.” I asked why he started with stuffed animals and Emiliano talked about how, at the time, he spent a lot of time with his younger sister. He helped her with coursework when her schooling went digital and started crocheting stuffed animals and making small trinkets to play with his sister. This was also a healing process for him, “the past couple of years, as a queer person, I always pushed away femininity. I always loved Lisa Frank’s stuff, cute things, but when I realized how gendered things were and I came out, I wanted people to see me as more masculine so I pushed that all away. But I love that stuff, I love Hello Kitty, so this was me letting myself enjoy cute things. It was a way to reclaim that femininity.”

designing my own stuffed animals.” This only benefited his business. People clearly enjoy his designs as he continues successful sales at Unity Markets. He advertises that he serves both English and Spanish-speaking people. Since then though, he has become tired of crochet, so he is more focused on jewelry and wire-work and it looks like he is equally as talented! He has also found that, despite these pivots, his audience has not pulled away. He still makes clothing and stuffed animals, even if that is not his main focus anymore, but he said this about re-finding his creative freedom, “It’s like baking. If you’re making cupcakes, you’re starting out with the same base ingredients.” So while he may not take as many creative, client-based commissions, he still continues what he started his business making.

Soon enough, people would commission Emiliano asking, “Can you make me this?

Can you make me that? I needed to monetize this!” Realizing there was a market, he decided to start Ratamakes as an official business, signing up for Unity Market which is now an annual spring event. Asking how Unity Markets have gone for him he said, “I was scared the first time. I had no idea what to make… Every time I’ve been to a market, I sold at least half of my stuff.

There was one time I sold everything.” He realized just how much of a demand there was and talked about the hard part of starting your own business, “The first two years of Ratamakes, I was pumping stuff out; I was making 20 earrings and several stuffed animals a day. For a long time, I took commissions. I got tired after a while.

I didn’t have creative freedom. Often I was making things online so it was not my own.

Some people would say, ‘Make me this, but do whatever you want.’ I started

While he is focused on his business, he does not see this as a final destination.

He told me how he has met serious entrepreneurs, people who say “Here’s my website, here’s my manufacturer.” This is part of why he appreciates the platform that Unity Market provides; it connects business owners from different backgrounds, with completely different businesses together.

“It gives us a platform to actually be seen.”

You can sell some of your things in a “garage-sale-esque” fashion or hand out business cards to potential clients, all in one place. Unity Market is not the only place Ratamakes takes his business. “I’ve sold in Chicago parks because the park district has a program, ‘queering the parks.’ I was part of the team. It’s a youth-led program. We provide food, std testing… There’s games, concerts, we paired with sustainable programs that would give out free binders and underwear.” He wants to continue these ventures, stating he does want to and plans to be at Unity Market this year. He talks about how fashion can be a safe

venture and an inclusive outlet for young creatives, planning to bring cross-stitched pride pins. “I don’t own anything pride… making these, I low-key had to hide them in my house. I came out when I was 10, so they know that I’m queer… It’s interesting because there’s the intersection of being Hispanic, I’ve had to come out three times to them. I don’t know where they stand right now. I’m wary about showing too much femininity.”

Emiliano spoke with me about his relationship with art and his impressions of the art world. “When I was really young, I wanted to be an artist but that fell off because artists are poor and I wouldn’t make money… One of the things I try to incorporate is the hand-made aspect of things…

It’s what I saw in music, in decoration, in folkloric dresses. I went to a half-Catholic, half-Muslim elementary school. Until 2nd or 3rd grade, we actually learned Arabic. It’s hard because I’m technically an immigrant but I don’t feel like one. I don’t feel like I have the immigrant experience. I try to include these colors and flowers because it reminds me of my childhood, the music I listened to.” Surprisingly, he feels unconnected with his work, despite his clear talent. “I don’t look artsy, I don’t look fashionable. I look bummy. I don’t look like I make this stuff. It’s very un-artistic. This doesn’t look high-fashion. It looks like it was made in Mexico, to me at least, in my eyes.” His work is very meaningful to him and occurred during a time when many of us were grappling with what to do with our time, ourselves, and reflecting on our identities.

“Something I want people to know is that it’s like my journey with my own self-acceptance. It’s okay to be feminine and to like pretty things. I’ve seen older men buying small pretty things and not holding themselves to a standard… I’m still conscious that I’m learning to be comfortable in my

own body and expressing myself.” College, as many of us know, is a time when most grapple with our identities and presentation.

Emiliano has, and will likely continue to make, stuffed animals, pins, hats, bags, jackets, and jewelry, but is “in the process of learning how to make clay earrings,” wanting to incorporate more metal, beads, and clay. Despite making some flower jackets, “I wouldn’t say that I’ve made clothes. I have made a couple of sweaters and jackets but I don’t know if that’s what I enjoy the most… Last year, I crocheted during class, in meetings, and in SGA. It’s just something to do with my hands. I’m never not doing something with my hands.

It’s a stimulating experience.”

“Right now, I’m designing for Poca’s fashion show. I’m crocheting a top for it…

I’ve wanted to take art classes. I remember a first-year seminar about quilting and sewing and knitting. I don’t know why I didn’t [take it].” I asked why and he responded with a familiar comment, “I don’t see myself as an artist. Maybe it’s intimidation.

Maybe it’s two things: not seeing yourself as good enough, and I don’t want my creative freedom taken away.”

One thing he has more control over is the future of Ratamakes. “I want to keep this as a hobby. I love making cards, sketching portraits of friends, creating, and making. As long as I’m able to, I want to keep crocheting stuff. I’d be willing to do markets so I could decide what I want to make and how much. I’d still take commissions, but not a ton. I like artsy stuff. I don’t want to marry any one thing. I don’t want to limit myself. That’s why it’s Ratamakes.

I’m not married to it but I don’t wanna give it up.” Emiliano takes a very laid-back approach to his business. You know precisely what you are getting. Find him at future

Unity Markets, possibly the next fashion show, or at his Instagram, found below.

The next small business I want to highlight is Josie’s Closet, founded and owned by Jocelyn (Josie) Pinero. Her business was established in the fall of 2021. She says the idea for the business came from her boyfriend at the time, now her husband. At 16, as one of the youngest members of her family’s church, Josie would receive bags of donated clothes.

While she kept some of them, she ultimately donated a considerable chunk of the clothes to prayer tents and Goodwill.

Whenever she would donate clothing, Josie and her husband would always joke, “[They’re from] Josie’s Closet!” He suggested that she start a business with all her donated clothes. Then, the pandemic hit. Fortunately, people used this time to revamp their wardrobes. This is when I personally saw a rise in maximalism. Josie’s partner told her, “I feel like this is the best time to do it.” So, she started her research: she watched countless Youtube videos and talked with many people including deans and the Holleran Center to set up a pop-up shop on campus. Josie’s Closet was finally

presented to the public at her first pop-up shop outside of Cro. I remember that day fondly as I not only acquired my first item from her shop but also learned Josie got engaged!

“I started selling clothes at thrift prices. People would ask me, ‘When’s the next one and do you accept clothes?’

That’s when I began to communicate with other businesses and Unity House.” Because of the increasing presence of entrepreneurs and small business owners on campus, Unity Market was created. This was also when Josie started accepting donations on campus. It all moved so fast and Josie said, “I was still figuring it out. I was still figuring out what IS Josie’s Closet?” She realized she needed to brand her business as she was already developing a clientele. She also had the chance to do more non-profit work which has always been important to her. She connected with The Church on bank street and worked the “New London Sale Fest.” Not only was she connecting with local churches, but she was also gaining local clients. Since then, Josie established a Depop account to concentrate sales since she does not have a permanent pop-up shop. This way, she can keep the business online, get back to her role as a full-time student, and continue her non-profit work in person.

The more I talked with Josie, the more I realized that her faith plays a major role in her business. “I am a believer in Jesus, and I try to follow what the word says, I don’t follow any specific denomination.

I decided to actually pursue that relationship with the Lord in college. I had been wanting to do stuff like this [Josie’s Closet] before college. The original vision was to create a foster care system and provide clothes for children.” Now, she enjoys seeing clients fall in love with what she calls

“pre-loved treasures.” Josie said, “I want to show that the clothes are pre-owned, but I don’t want people to equate preowned clothing to used clothing. I want to show that these pieces were loved once before, or else why would I have bought them? Now, they need a new home to be loved. I want to emphasize love. It’s not like they can never be loved again. I want to call them treasures.”

Josie’s Closet has been successful from the start; Josie feels like her business is well-known, especially on campus saying. People continually ask her if Josie’s Closet is going to be at Unity Market. Josie said, “I want to build trust with my clientele and make it clear what I stand for…

Clothes are part of your identity. It’s how you express yourself.” The last thing she wants to see is clothing and the resources required to make them go to waste. This is why the clothing drives and clothing swaps at Conn are essential to businesses like hers. When I asked if she planned to continue and expand the business after college, she said without hesitation, “Definitely yes. My hope is to continue pop-up shops. I would love to continue my connection with churches in the area and continue my services. I’ve been leaning toward an online platform for Josie’s Closet when it comes to the business side of things. That’s what my vision is right now. I want to do missionary work after school. I will travel and continue the work I started here. My intention is to live in the community. You think you’re helping a community, but if you don’t know their needs, you’re harming them. I want to be living there for a while to get to know the culture, values, and beliefs. I want to know the history of that area so I could be more sensitive and share what has worked for me and what may help them. Everyone has a sense of goodness and a desire to live an enjoyable

life, but not everyone has the resources. I will learn and gain perspectives I’ve never seen before.” This is how she sees herself giving back and continuing to pay it forward.

Because her business is based on a continuous cycle of finding new homes for pre-loved treasures, I had some questions about sustainability. “I did a lot of research on clothing, the production of clothing, and how much waste there is when creating new clothing. I strongly believe we have all the clothes we need on this Earth.

We can just continue using the clothes we have and spark new joy rather than creating new clothes. In terms of sustainability, it’s just using what we have. We’re harming this Earth more, harming ourselves. When we get into this consumerist mindset, it hurts our mental health as well. We’re just using clothing to fill that void.” When I mentioned how thrifting has become a trend, especially on social media, and how that trend affects businesses like hers, Josie said, “It can be harmful when people upcycle and upsell. I don’t do that. Everything is donation based.” Josie also offers image consulting to her clients. She looks at what is in their closet, discovers what sparks joy for them, and gives them the language to feel empowered and informed the next time they shop.

Pierce’s POV

by Pierce Marra

Shopping is a craft based on personal opinion and style. Buying things we find appealing is the entire process, but what happens when in this process, it becomes necessary to re-evaluate the ethics of modern day consumerism?

In a world where clothes and shopping sometimes seem to dominate everyday life; there is a constant battle to remain ethically conscious and still buy things we find desirable. Sustainable clothing doesn’t always reflect in quality or design, and while shopping ethically is the goal, it isn’t always so accessible.

When examining top competitors in the “sustainable fashion” realm, one can’t help but notice the elevated prices. Take Everlane, for example, a brand that markets itself as “sustainable and ethical”, but has found itself embroiled in contradiction over the validity of these claims. A simple cotton dress retails for $168, which doesn’t seem to be “sustainable” to most. Brands like PACT, Boden, and Pangaia offer sustainably sourced and made products, but once again, at high prices. Sustainability should never come at a true cost. One of

my favorite ways to purchase things from brands like these without having to pay full price is through sites like Depop, Poshmark, and eBay. Especially in the pandemic, digital/online thrifting became increasingly popular, making it more accessible for people to buy the clothes they wanted not only easier, but for better prices.

Entering college, part of me was sad to be leaving behind all my favorite haunts at home: sushi restaurants, taco places, and even the supermarket that I’d learnt the ins and outs of since childhood. Something I didn’t anticipate missing so greatly were my favorite local shops. I had discovered various boutiques, consignment and thrift stores, and other storefronts offering curios and other knick-knacks.

One of my favorites owned by a hometown local, Lunchbreak Vintage in Swarthmore, sells new and old inventory sourced from all over, featuring rare collector’s items like Eagles windbreakers and one-of-a-kind Levi’s. When coming to Conn, along with Goodwill and other shops, I was eager to explore what New London had to offer in terms of vintage retail.

Back in November, I ventured to the Goodwill in Groton with my friends to test the waters of southeastern Connecticut’s selection. We came away with a plethora of amazing finds, from vintage blazers to tote bags to Marc Jacobs sweaters. When shopping at Goodwill, however, I always felt as though I wasn’t supposed to be taking advantage of their low prices; like I was taking away from others. Upon further research, I was reinformed of Goodwill’s mission. According to their website, ​​Goodwill strives to “enhance the dignity and quality of life of individuals and families by strengthening communities, eliminating barriers to opportunity, and helping people in need reach their full potential through learning and the power of work”. In short, any and all proceeds going to the Goodwill corporation are put to good use. The company aims to provide clothing at affordable prices for all, and with the way they give back, it doesn’t matter by who or in what way Goodwill is being utilized; it will benefit the community at large through job training, homelessness outreach, and rehabilitation.

Throughout New London, I’ve found a couple shops that somewhat rival my favorites from home: Sandy’s Bargains, which offers consignment clothes and accessories for all aesthetics and age groups; and Pennywise Consignment in Mystic, a shop similar to Sandy’s. What I’ve found is that sometimes you just have to try things out and explore in order to find a trusted and reliable shop that supplies clothing that you like.

To make shopping sustainable, it must first be sustainable for all. Shoppers shouldn’t have to choose between enjoying shopping and honoring their principles and morals; there is a way to do both, all without breaking the bank. Shopping has always been one of my favorite experiences, and it’s even better when I know I’m doing it well: ethically, and supporting others through my purchases.

All You Need to Know About GENCO

by Kendrick Hawkins and Charlotte Podeszwa

Generation Conscious is a sustainability initiative founded by Greg Genco. Genco grew up outside of Jamaica, New York, right across from a landfill sight. After developing asthma because of his proximity to the landfill, Genco explored ways to implement sustainability in our everyday lives, whether that be laundry, showering, or brushing our teeth.

GENCO creates zero waste and zero carbon. On college campuses across the US, you will find GENCO machines filled with detergent sheets that can be thrown into the wash. These machines serve as easy kiosks for students to collect environmentally-friendly sheets instead of using pods or liquid detergents that are unethical and harmful.

About 1% of the Company is run by students; student interns exist all over the country. We had the pleasure of interviewing one of them: Farah Najjari. Farah oversees the program here at Conn. “A lot of it [her role],” Farah says, “is based on students creating content for GENCO, i.e. photoshoots, TikToks, documentaries, zines, newsletters, blog posts, etc. The goal is to encourage people to use the product through accessible marketing.

When people see that students are involved with and working for the company while also utilizing the products, they feel inclined to get involved themselves.”

GAM: “How did you get involved with GENCO?” Farah: “A student from the Class of 2022, Milo Becker, connected me. Originally, I thought that the sheets were a scam. I am not going to lie. I take really good care of all my clothing. A lot of my clothing is very old, so I didn’t trust the product at first.

But that’s a common misconception people

have. They assume that because it’s a sustainable, atypical brand it is ineffective, low-quality, and harmful to your clothing.

So for me, I had to unlearn the mindset claiming that something will not work just because it is a little better for the earth or better for us. So, after I started using the sheets, I volunteered and eventually became a hired intern. Even though the position was only meant to be a 6-week gig, I ended up sticking around and doing more for GENCO. Now, I help other people get involved.”

GAM: “Do you work with GENCO across college campuses? Do you work with other people involved in the company?”

Farah: “Yes, we have an assembly program where we meet on Zoom with students from all different schools. There is the fellowship assembly, the outreach assembly, and then there is the campus-based assembly. This gives us a chance to meet virtually with all the people who are a part of GENCO. We get feedback on our projects and

give each other updates on what needs to be changed/reworked in the company. Our mentors are Greg and Cricket, the CEO and the ESG Manager for the company. It is very rewarding because aside from what we do to promote the product and the company, we get a lot out of it as students.

It is a very good way to open up our creative interests, without having to work a regular shift handing out sheets.”

GAM: “What do you find the most gratifying?”

Farah: “Unfortunately, the machines on Conn’s campus are not working. But what I think is cool is that, here and there, I’ll get emails from people who let me know they are out of sheets and want more. I feel like when the machines are functional, it’s more transactional; people just grab their sheets and go. So, when people still reach out to replenish their supply of sheets, it makes me feel really good. It is also great to read/ hear the feedback on GENCO products.

Even when people say they want to get involved with shoots and stuff, it’s really nice to see that people are interested in some

thing that you wouldn’t necessarily be interested in. I think that is what is most rewarding, the community behind Generation Conscious, at Conn and beyond.”

GAM: “Do you know if students continue working for/with GENCO after they graduate? Or do they often move on to advertising/marketing?”

Farah: “Aside from the undergraduate students that work for Generation Conscious, we have Columbia and FIT graduates who are still doing creative work for GENCO. So, there is no limitation on what you can do for GENCO. It doesn’t matter if you’re an undergraduate student or graduate student, or if you’re 10 years out of college. If you have an idea and it works well, you have the freedom to do that, which is really cool. I know two or three alumni who left Conn and are still using the products and are involved with Generation Conscious.

I think that it comes from the fact that it’s not a business, it’s a big family, and we support each other, and we want to continue to do that.”

FLYING THE NEST

C

by Ella Rudisill

harlotte von Meister and Danielle Sturm founded The Nest, a sustainable fashion collective in Providence, RI, with the intention of fighting overconsumption and textile waste through decluttering services, establishing a secondhand store, and hosting community events such as sewing and knitting workshops, tailoring services, and clothing swaps.

Coming from different backgrounds and educational pursuits (Danielle graduated from Johnson and Wales University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports, Entertainment, and Event Management and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, and Charlotte holds a degree in fashion marketing and management from Savannah College of Art and Design and is KonMari method certified), the two provide unique insight to managing and developing The Nest. I reached out to Charlotte and Danielle to talk about their business model as well as what they see as the salient issues involved in the future of fashion.

How a sustainable fashion collective stays grounded in a fast fashion driven world.

Ella Rudisill: Could you start by outlining the goals that you had in mind when you started The Nest, and what you were aiming for in your business model?

Danielle Sturm: I think what comes to mind is just community first, and when we started I think that was one of the first things we wanted: to find our own community and to bring people together around a sustainable cause. So we’ve always been community first, through our marketing and the events we host. They may not generate revenue, but the fact that we’ve been able to cultivate this community and hear feedback from them and mold the business model into things people actually need, that was the goal first. And then, I would say about a year in, we just used all the feedback from that first year to really hone in on what our business was, but it was really just community driven.

Charlotte von Meister: Yeah, and there’s this great sense of eagerness to learn, like Danielle and I, when we first were starting The Nest, we were like, “We want to learn how to sew our own clothes and reupholster furniture,” and this sense of wanting to learn but not knowing how to do everything. Putting community first lets us cultivate a community of people who have

these technical skills, and we can all teach and learn from each other… Another goal of ours was just to make a sustainable impact, and to be totally honest, we knew what we were doing was going to have an impact, but I think we’ve really been able to look at what our impact is and what kind of metrics we base ourselves off of, and you can see that in the metrics report we put out about two months ago. But still, that’s ever-changing, so we are still trying to pinpoint exactly the impact we are having. What we’ve found is that it’s really hard to do because no one’s doing this work or caring about textile waste. So, we’ve done so much research over these past few months talking to waste management, the state, and the Rhode Island Resource Recovery who is supposed to manage textile recycling. We found out that they don’t manage it at all. We see that as an opportunity for us to move into that space and figure out how we can quantify what we’re doing because we all know it’s making an impact, and we all know we need to change the fact that it’s not being recorded and monitored. What we’ve found in our research is the organization

“no one is taking responsibility for the textile waste in Rhode Island” that has been hired by the state is just selling it off to third parties like Goodwill or Savers which then is ultimately shipped overseas and flooding other foreign landfills. It’s not like our textile waste is being broken down or dealt with here; it’s all just being punted to other countries to ultimately become their problem.

Danielle: That’s where, full circle, The Nest comes in… educating people on how to buy, giving them resources to upcycle their clothes or swap them within the community, hitting all the pinpoints along the way, and lessening the number of textiles going overseas and then coming in and filling that last gap.

Charlotte: In our journey from where we started to where we are now, we’ve educated ourselves on the end of a life of a garment: ways to consume less, make a garment last as long as possible, make your own clothes, and educate people on where your clothes are going after it’s done living in your closet.

Ella: How do you acquire pieces that you have in store, and how do you balance curating the store towards your typical

clientele without creating additional textile waste?

Charlotte: That’s honestly the reason why our community has grown so much; we keep our selection highly curated. It’s not your typical thrift shop experience because the pieces are handpicked, so it’s not like you have to spend hours digging through to find a good piece. You come in here, and you will absolutely find something that fits your style. Our inventory is sourced through several local vendors, some are upcycled designers or vintage resellers who curate their own collections. I’m also a certified professional organizer. We offer decluttering services, so when you hire us to do decluttering we will go through your closet and consign anything you’re discarding that is sellable and ultimately sell those pieces here. We’ve also cultivated a

partnership with a textile recycling center in Massachusetts and we’ve gone through and been able to source pieces from them.

Danielle: Something else cool about our decluttering services is that we get a lot of our personal products from those clients. That type of service is something a lot of people need but don’t know they need. Not only does Charlotte come in and curate your closet but she also takes your discards, and we try really hard not to donate to a Goodwill or Savers. We’ll donate to local nonprofits, homeless shelters, and women’s shelters so that they are actually being used here. And then if things are baggy or damaged we take them to the textile recycler.

Charlotte: I’ve found that often the reason I’m hired is that people don’t know where to discard all the excess. At the end of the day, they don’t want to deal with their discards, so I go in, and we talk about their closet, personal style, and consumption habits including how and where they shop.

Usually there is so much stuff that they get rid of that there is a sense of shock from how much they discard that they end up being more conscious consumers. Then I take on the responsibility of their discards, redistributing them to the proper channels.

Ella: Where are you donating them?

Charlotte: Recently, we partnered up with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Rhode Island, so after decluttering sessions and clothing swaps that’s where all of our donations are going. We’ve found that they are the best local partners because, with the work that they do, they keep it in our community.

Ella: Would they accept donations from the general public as well?

Danielle: Yes. There are bins in any state.

You can find them on their website-- where you can drop off clothes for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Ella: What kind of questions are you asking a client during a session, and what should people be asking themselves if they don’t necessarily have the resources to book a full session but want to get started on the process of decluttering?

Charlotte: Every client reaches out for a different reason, but I would just say, talk out loud to yourself if you’re going to declutter on your own. I find that in my sessions my clients get rid of a lot more than they anticipated and a lot more than they would if they tried to declutter on their own because when you choose to keep something, if you’re keeping it within your internal monologue, you make up a lot of reasons as to why you can’t let go of something.

“It makes total sense in your head, but then as soon as I’m there and you speak it out loud it sounds silly and you realize that you don’t need to keep it anymore.”

Also, go through your underwear and sock drawer. It’s our most utilized and least appreciated drawer.

Ella: How do you balance advertising and being a profitable business while also avoiding promoting overconsumption?

Danielle: I think that’s something we’ve thought a lot about from the beginning and, honestly, it was really hard for us to

start putting up products on our Instagram because we’d be like, “Don’t buy! Don’t buy!” We’re at a point where we are okay with telling people that if you are a part of our community, want to be a part of our community, support what we are doing, or shop with us then you are supporting our education and community-first style of marketing. The only way we can continue going is if people support us. We’re not a nonprofit; we sell a product and also sell a product on behalf of other community members. I think it just goes into this whole story of supporting a small business: liking their mission, what they’re doing, and how transparent they are.

Danielle: We’re getting to a point where we’re very transparent that all of our sales go back into creating new workshops, paying the people that we need to come in and do research and development in creating these new workshops and creating these services that go back into the community.

Charlotte: And all the revenue that we’ve generated so far, we just keep putting it back into the business and have a bigger reach to push the business and mission forward.

Charlotte: I feel that all we’re doing is offering a sustainable alternative to buying new, so we’re not just a store. We have workshops and events, and we offer decluttering services, so any way you want to participate in our community is great, and all we’re doing is offering alternatives. You can shop our curated secondhand collection or take a sewing class to learn how to make it yourself, join our knitting club to knit it yourself, and generally encourage people to be more sustainably minded when they approach their closet.

If you want to learn more about The Nest and Danielle and Charlotte’s future endeavors, you can visit The Nest at 1155 Westminster Street in Providence. They are located on the second floor of the mill building next to Ogie’s Trailer Park. You can also follow them on Instagram @the_nest_ pvd or visit their growing e-commerce site thenestpvd.com. Also on the website, you can access their Impact Report for 2022, blog, decluttering services booking, and calendar of community events for the upcoming month.

An interview with

Laura Reid

Laura Reid, a retired mother of two, spends most of her time on her farm in upstate New York. She loves gardening with her husband, and spending time with her cat while she drinks hear coffee in the morning. Upon first glance, my mother does not come across as someone who would live a completely different life at work from the one she lived at home. I vividly remember when my mother would return from her busy work day, dressed in her clean black pantsuit and hauling a large handbag through the doorway. I would run up to her and hug her tightly, and I could smell the scent of freshly printed magazines on her as if she had worn it as perfume.

My mother has been an inspiration to many. As the Vice President of Production at Hearst Magazines, not only has she proved her worth within a male dominated industry, but also proven to my sister and myself that we can do the same. I decided to sit down with my mother to understand the trajectory of her career, and what it was like to work in this industry.

Molly: What inspired you to pursue a career in magazine production, and how did you get started in the industry?

Laura: I always loved magazines and newspapers as a kid. My father had his master’s degree in English literature and when he wasn’t working at his job as a technical editor in the aerospace industry, he liked to write for the local newspaper just for fun. My mother worked in the local library for many years so there was always talk at home about books, magazines, newspapers, etc. I got involved with my school newspaper in middle school and was editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper my senior year. In college, I was very involved with the layout of the school newspaper my freshman and sophomore year and became the managing editor my junior year. Lots of late nights writing and editing

articles and getting things ready for the printer every week. I liked the excitement of creating pages, turning it into a publication, sending it off to the printing plant, and then to see the results of all that work in a printed publication that was distributed around campus the very next day. Wow! I found it all very rewarding. There’s nothing like seeing a fairly quick tangible result for all your effort. So — I got the media and publication bug pretty early. I graduated from college and started working for a very small magazine right away. Eventually that magazine was bought by a large New York City-based publishing company and I started working for them. Eventually I got a job working for an even bigger NYC magazine publisher and I stayed there for more than two decades before moving to another large publishing job for a bigger job where I was the head of production. All in all, I worked in the industry for almost forty years. Some days were very difficult for sure, but for the most part it was a great ride.

Molly: What are some of the key skills required for success in magazine production, and how have you developed those skills over time?

Laura: I learned quickly that success wasn’t necessarily about how good I was at a particular technical skill and that there were more general skills that were important and really could be applied to any career— things like good communication and organizational skills, the willingness to try new things, to work hard even at tasks that seemed menial or boring, to show up for meetings on time and prepared, to be curious and informed about the company I was working for as well as the industry and the world at large, etc. More important than any of this though I learned to be resourceful and to realize the importance of working as a part of a team. There was

a lot to learn from the smart people who were all around me and they could learn from me, too. The work “team” is usually more productive than the individuals working separately. I found this to be true more often than not.

Molly: Can you walk me through your typical workflow for producing a magazine, from ideation to final print and distribution?

Laura: Things have changed a lot in the last decade or so in the magazine industry — with the advent of digital and the fact that you can essentially read a magazine in print, or on the internet, or on your phone.

Way back when I started in the industry everything was just about the printed magazine. In simple terms — there were basically two components and this is basically still the case: editorial and advertising.

The workflows around each were (and still are) a bit different but decades ago both workflows ended up in film that would then be packaged up and mailed overnight to printing plants for production there, involving huge printing presses, lots of ink and paper, and then distribution(typically via trucks) to newsstands or to the postal service for subscription copies. Many, many steps involved in this process still today although now the editorial and advertising data (not film) is distributed digitally and of course much faster and to all different outputs (print, web, phone, social, etc.).

Still, there are lots of complications and plenty of people involved in managing the technology so that the final output — the final product — is still true to its mission and true to its original design even in all its differently distributed formats.

Molly: How do you ensure that the design and layout of a magazine aligns with its target audience and editorial mission?

Laura: A lot of this depends on the decisions of the folks at the very top of company management. There are lots of meetings between editors on the editorial side of the “house” ,publishing companies are often referred to as “houses”,and the magazine publishers or chief operating officers on the business side of the house. It can get a little contentious sometimes as the editorial side might want to do something that the business side is concerned about — like covering a story that might be controversial and maybe an advertiser won’t like or maybe a particular story that might make an advertiser look bad. These kinds of things get hashed out in meetings and conversations (sometimes with great difficulty) but what both sides typically come to agree on is a focus on mission — why does this publication exist and are we properly serving our audience? There are always focus groups too that involve subscribers where the management gets reader feedback. Plenty can be learned from letters to the editor, comments via social media, and that sort of thing. Adjustments on editorial or advertising content, the look and feel of the magazine, things like design, typeface, paper quality, etc. are often made as a result of reader feedback. The environment in a publishing company is always very dynamic as every day brings the opportunity for something new and different to be created and to quickly appear in the marketplace. It’s all very fast paced.

Molly: What strategies do you use to manage the timelines and budgets for magazine production, and how do you balance competing priorities?

Laura: Meeting deadlines doesn’t end with handing in all those college term papers and being aware of the finances in any situation and sticking to a budget will always matter too. No matter what career you have you’ll always be up against a deadline

for something. Making sure that all the players working on a project are clear on their roles, what work they are responsible for and on what timeline is key to the success of any project. Every team member has to buy in and be held accountable for their piece (this is where good managers and good delegators really matter).

If things are not going according to plan and it looks like a deadline is going to be missed or a budget is going to be blown, best to always raise concerns as early as possible so that adjustments can be made.

Things happen. Delays and surprises are part of life. I made a lot of mistakes early on with taking on too much and not managing priorities well and maybe not raising my hand early enough when the road to completing a task got bumpy. I learned that it was ok to let others take on some of the load and that it was more important to do a few things well than to do a lot of things and just perform in a mediocre kind of way. It’s okay to do great work and allow plenty of room for your teammates and colleagues to do great work too.

Molly: How do you collaborate with editorial teams and photographers to create engaging and visually stunning content for the magazine?

Laura: What I really liked about the jobs I’ve held was the role I played in helping editors, writers, designers, photographers see their vision successfully come to fruition. Maybe more important than anything was that I always respected their talents and I knew that with my skills and those of the staff around me, I could help them achieve whatever it was they were hoping to do. I listened, I asked questions. Once you’ve earned the trust of the people you work with and have shown them that you will do what you say you’re going to, all sorts of doors open up. It sounds simple but it’s pretty amazing to realize that not

everyone is good at doing what they say they will.

Molly: How do you measure the success of a magazine, and what metrics do you use to evaluate its performance?

Laura: To be successful a magazine has to be financially stable. This means that readers are willing to pay for the magazine and in most cases it also means that advertisers are willing to pay for advertising space in the magazine as well. So it’s always a balancing act as to how much revenue is coming in from readers and how much revenue is coming in from advertisers. Recent years have been very difficult for the magazine industry as the business models had to be significantly adjusted as digital production began to outpace print production. It was a lot easier way back when to know that money would be coming in from basically two revenue steams — readers and advertisers. Now — there are so many different revenue streams and they’re often not as profitable as one might hope. Plenty of magazines that were around for decades have ceased publication as a result. Still, the industry continues to attract super talented, engaged, smart people and the marketplace will always be hungry for good content.

Molly: What do you see as the biggest challenge for magazine publishing today?

Laura: I think a big challenge is related to the stunningly easy spread of inaccurate reporting or misinformation. The magazines and newspapers of yesterday provided content that was curated — as in... it was up to highly respected and experienced writers, editors, designers and the like to make considered decisions about what content was put in a publication for public consumption and in what format. Now, anyone can put pretty much anything out

in the universe for public consumption and readers are not always good at being able to spot what’s good information and what’s not. So much uncurated content out there and people are often not willing to spend the money for curated content. It’s a big problem.

Molly: What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in magazine production, and how can they best prepare for success in the industry?

Laura: Given all the changes in the industry, it’s probably best to widen the scope a bit and focus more on “media” or “publishing” rather than just “magazines”. If you’re very lucky, exceptionally talented, or have an industry contact (!), maybe you’ll be able to start in a junior position at one of the larger publishing houses. More likely though, you’ll have to be willing to start at a small start-up, get some experience, and see if you can leverage that experience for a job with more responsibilities at a bigger company. The first few years can be difficult in terms of finding your way and making enough money to support yourself but if you love it, and are willing to work hard, and show respect for the talents of those around you, your chances for success are much improved.

by Molly Reid

Thoughts from Rose Gruber, GAM’s Director of Institutional Equity and Inclusion

As the Director of Institutional Equity and Inclusion for Gray Area, as a student in the social justice and sustainability pathway, and a person who cares deeply about the ways institutions and populations interact, this semester encompassed many issues that affect students campus-wide, while still feeling deeply personal. Students standing up for one another, united, is profoundly moving, and something I am grateful to have witnessed personally, as other Gray Area members likely feel. I can admit that many of the spaces on campus, including our own club, are mostly White and largely need to do more to be inclusive. It is not enough to “commit ourselves.” Part of my duty as DIEI of GAM was to embody the value of uplifting marginalized voices, and that project will be passed down to the next DIEI of Gray Area. It should not end with me, and it won’t. As one of the few BIPOC members of several clubs I have joined over the years, Gray Area has been one of those that have felt most welcoming, which I understand may not be a sentiment shared by my fellow BIPOC peers. Some of our peers have never felt welcomed into these spaces on campus, and part of the work for every DIEI of every club is to resolve this issue despite our lack of experience with these positions and the very real work it takes.

I firmly believe that just like with Conn, clubs need a cultural shift. Diversity efforts should not start and end by asking our BIPOC friends to be in our publications or come to our events. Similarly, inclusivity should not start and end with each club meeting.

We need to remain connected, outside of these

organizations, in order to stray from tokenization and build a more well-connected community built on trust and inclusivity. I will be the first to admit, I wish I had done a better job, and I wish I had had more ideas of how I could do something meaningful with this position. In the same breath, it is not solely up to the DIEI to do this work. This work involves an active, engaged approach by every member of our clubs, especially those serving leadership roles.

DIEI does not mean the recruitment of diverse members, it means retaining members, fostering a welcoming environment, including people that have previously been excluded, being available to hear concerns, and working WITH leadership, not alone, on how to resolve and reconcile differences and issues both before and as they arise. While we have already expressed our support of SVE and the protests this semester, I want to personally ask you, “What have you done that was exclusionary?, Who is in the room, who is not, and why not?, and How can I personally contribute to changing the culture of my club and who feels welcome?” This is because I firmly believe that it takes an honest look at one’s own actions, not just critiquing the actions of others, to be part of the change we wish to see in our clubs across campus and the society we all share. As much as I would love to continue the work here, especially knowing and having experienced what I have now, I sadly cannot. My hope is that the questions will spark an inner and external dialogue.

On behalf of Gray Area, we demand change right alongside you.