These Boots Were Made For Walking

from modmuze October 2022

Between Heaven and Earth

MADE FOR WALKIN’

The American cowboy is inspirational. What makes the cowboy inspirational is the wild dream it stirs that a small part of us wishes we were him. We fantasize about ultimate freedom from society, a strong spirit, open land, and the thrill it allows. There’s something romantic about that way of life. Something simple. We can picture ourselves in a vast empty desert sleeping under the stars. It’s so contrasting to daily life that it allures us. The cowboy symbolizes the American spirit, strong, wild, unique, and free.

The influence of western fashion embodies this dream. Cowboy hats, colorful boots, sturdy pieces of denim, romantic tops, and minimal makeup bring the cowboy spirit into the homes of fashion lovers everywhere. The geographical boundaries that once held cowboy fashion to the west and southwest no longer exist. Walking down the street in any major city, you are absolutely sure to see a pair of leather Luccheses passing you. It is no longer confined to the functionality and utility intended for western wear but takes a new meaning. It spreads the American spirit to everyone through fashion. It promotes freedom, carelessness, and no ties to where you stay. Slipping on boots and a hat gives us the confidence we often see in western cowboys. We walk with intention; whether a night out, a first date, a concert, or work, we plan to do something specific.

Truly the cowboy spirit isn’t a sum of fashion or occupation. It’s represented in each of us by something different. It’s the wish to succeed, to prove ourselves, to run freely and conquer. Slipping on boots and a hat gives us the confidence we often see in western cowboys. We walk with intention; whether a night out, a first date, a concert, or work, we plan to do something specific. Fashion is also a means of reflection. If we cannot actually live out the cowboy lifestyle, we can at least adopt its values in our life and express them through the means of fashion. It’s a chance to align ourselves.

Photographer: Tenley Bogle (Guest) Stlyist: Faith Bollom Models: Selvey Russell, Tatum Johnston

13 going on 30

The 1976 Collect

From being a little kid wishing you were older so you could wear makeup and high heels to anticipating your 16th birthday so you could finally drive yourself to school. Finally, turning 21 and feeling like a real adult because you can order a drink at the bar. For most of us, it’s always been about looking forward, but then the forward comes, and all we want is to go back to times that seemed easier with no responsibilities and the endless possibilities ahead.

Look at the classic 2004 movie 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Gardener. All she wanted was to be “thirty, flirty and thriving.” She had everything she ever thought she wanted with a wish on a birthday candle. Once in that place, she realized all the things she overlooked and underappreciated while they were happening in the moment.

We, too, are always wishing for another birthday candle to blow out to hand us all the things we want out of life, but we forget to live in the moment we are in. We memorialize these different times in our lives and represent them in our minds as a collection of the best moments, but that’s not a reality. It’s an ideal. College is one of those times we love to look back on or look forward to, and yearbooks are the physical, living memory of those times, but they sit collecting dust on our coffee tables.

Thus, presenting Modmuze’s class of 1976 in the 1976 collect. A memorial to college life at Oklahoma State - the years never to be forgotten.

Wishing that the years never end

Valedictorian

Class President-1976

Photographer & Stylist: Emily West (Guest) Models: Cayden Copeland, Claire Hosterman, Trudie Taylor, Clancy Fallwell, Hayden Holland

Senior Cheer Captain

Věra Chyitlová’s 1966 stroke of genius, “Daisies,” is a difficult film to pin down. A landmark of the Czech New Wave, the film was made nearly 60 years ago, yet stylistically feels like it is from the distant future and thematically seems to be made for right now. At its core, it is an embrace of impulse and forgetting consequences. It celebrates lack of meaning and throws away tradition. There are a few parallels between the movie’s events and the realities of today. These are about the conditions of our current world, the weights it has placed on our shoulders, and the ways we can throw them off.

The opening scene of the movie goes something like this. Two young women talk and decide that the world has gone bad. They conclude that they should go bad too. For the rest of the run time, they show no reverence for the customs of the modern world, going wherever their whims take them.

Daisies is a movie for right now because, once again, it seems the world is going bad. I needn’t go into why people disagree on current positive and negative events, but a sense of doom pervades. To quote gen Z’s it boy, Timothée Chalamet, “societal collapse is in the air.” Timmy might be being a bit dramatic, he’s an actor, after all, but deep down, there is a common feeling that things are getting worse. So this is your excuse to dive deep into the mania of Daisies.

The girls (it bears mentioning now that they are both named Marie) begin in their bedroom, where there is a sense of listlessness. This is a scenario that I feel I have found myself in too many times over the last couple of years. When I

was sent home from school in the spring of 2020 to continue classes online, my world was shrunk to a few rooms and a computer screen. When I caught COVID-19 in the fall of 2021, I saw hardly anyone and spoke only a few sentences a day for the duration of my quarantine. To sum it up dramatically, I’ve been ready to leave my room for two years. Maybe you have too. We have survived a global pandemic and itch to go out into the world and again make our marks on it. The concrete is almost dry, but there is still time to press in your hand print. The girls in our story are ready to do the same. “Where to?” asks Marie. ”Someplace where something’s going on.” answers Marie. So the adventure begins.

It is an adventure that finds them reveling in the things the world has to offer, from simple pleasures to existential revelations. They have a feast that evolves into a food fight. They disturb the peace. When men call to confess their love to them, they ignore it, preferring to remain unburdened by the powers that be. Over and over, the message is that there is ultimate freedom to be had by those who dare to be themselves.

Daisies’ absurd, speeding story is complemented by an experimental filmmaking style that had not been done before and has not been replicated since. Chyitlová and her team cycle through zany color filters, double exposures that look like acid trips, and jump cuts that keep you off balance. All these choices inject joy into the experience. Just as the girls found freedom in letting go of society’s expectations, so may you find freedom in letting go of your expectations for the film. Let it do its thing, and then do yours.

Photographer: Eliza Sowle Stylist: Eliza Sowle Models: Bailey Sisk, Claire Shuster, Hadley Dejarnette, Nora Kauffman

Girlhood Photographer: Kylie Nelson Model: Megan Fillo

Playing dressup, talking in bed for hours, silly photoshoots, pages and pages of magazines: the joys of female friendship. This shoot is brought to you to share the wonderful world of girlhood.