Off The Cuff - Issue 07

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Wild Fleur

12 (Eco)uture: Making Green the New Black

4 22 Layers 32 Control 33 Violation in Art 44 Acceptably Ethnic 47 Inspiration , Appropriation, & the Distinct Difference 58 XL 60 Size Matters

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72 Rococo Denim 73 Style on Film Capturing Fashion through Atmosphere 90 Dinner Party 92 One Among Millions

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Android

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Self Portrait

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Sovereign

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Behind the Veil

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Milk

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Grey Area

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DESIGNER

| PR BRAND OUTREACH

Co-Art Director raeanne villongco Photography Director sarah silbiger Illustrators sophie lindemann | pilar o’connor | kayla cohen Web Editor cristina estupiñán Photography Editors samantha b morse | alison su

sarah silbiger | erin mccarthy Cover Model samantha b morse

Photographers

alison su | alli caulfield | haley abram irene zeng | natalie carroll | nairobi jeanniton sam brooks | rhiannon jeselonis | sarah silbiger

Art Direction Team

pilar o’connor | cristina estupiñán | alisha kothari amber lin | dorian dreyfuss| eunie jang | ivanna lin | gabi dipietro | kayla cohen | kristen cabrera | madison brinser mariah freire | olivia gelard | qian mei | samantha b morse sarah campbell | sophie lindemann | tammy qiu

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITOR IN CHIEF Carli Schmidt Erin McCarthy SENIOR ART DIRECTOR | CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Carpentiere CREATIVE DIRECTOR Deric Hamer Samantha Kelley MANAGING EDITOR Margot Menestrot DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Olivia Simonson DIRECTOR OF FINANCE |

Stylists deedee ogbogu | james krolewski | janna collins | karen an

kendall caputo | lexie bowman | lizzy herzog | mikaela danielle ty

molly glass | natallie mashian| natasha mendoza

nathaniel schmidt | phoebe leung | rachael angeloff

samantha b morse | tatyana khashoggi | zoë nochlin

Hair & Makeup mili hurtado| maya hudlin | nicole haftel

niko cohen | saumya chugh | savanna tavakoli

megan gowen | alexandra delano | samantha b morse Writers & Copy Editors amanda greenidge | anna barry | beatric sclapari

brielle farruggio | brittany kinch | Caroline Hitesman

chloë Hudson | Deean Yeoh | deedee ogbogu | dora agali

emma welborn | emma seslowsky | isabelle davis | isaiah tharan

jacqueline manning | jade fisher | jahnavi de sousa

karishma arora | kunal khunger | mikaela danielle ty | nola schwalb

oleyinka fasehun | ruby king | taiba zahir | teresa brock moneo vinamre kasanaa | lucia tonelli

Fashion Spy lauren moghavem

Finance & Brand Outreach

amy yi | david neary | gabrielle forman | jina rifai lucia tonelli | maggie cheng | nicole liew | kelsey lejuez ella tatum | nicole guenoun

PR gabriella plotkin | shravya rao

Events Team

alicia shamji | bao han nguyen | cole kerrigan

Videographers jamie ferguson | sarah stipanowich | selen terzi

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letter from the editor

So here we are. Another semester completed, another issue printed. Producing Issue 7, we (the E-Board) felt better prepared and qualified to publish a striking, strong and successful magazine. Yet, with confidence comes complacency. Too much faith in our skills has been this semester’s hurdle. Overcoming the urge to binge watch Netflix, or online shop, or nap for several hours instead of writing this letter or editing photos, takes a great deal of self-control; and while we try to manage being students, leaders, young professionals, companions, twenty-year-olds and more, slipups happen. So here we are. After countless slipups. But also after countless hours of balancing photoshoots, papers, parties, politics, projects, professional positions and personal pursuits. While we are only human, we wish for Off The Cuff to continue to be a publication that strives to achieve much more than that. And we hope that Off The Cuff Issue 7 is as beloved and beautiful as ever. Through all our flaws, Issue 7 may be the strongest we’ve ever produced, discussing sexual assault, race, gender and sexual identity, the environment, technology, social media and more. A huge thanks to all you fashion-fanatic, multi-faceted, do-it-allers who balance the world and still worked tirelessly to help produce this issue of Off The Cuff.

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Xox, Carli Schmidt

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Featuring : Wilfred, Aritzia, Cotton Candy LA, Urban Outfitters, Steve Madden

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(Eco)uture:

Making Green the New Black LUCIA TONELLI When we consider eco-friendly fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is ill-fitting burlap dresses, clunky Birkenstocks and brown hemp shoes. The reputation of

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sustainable clothing is not a sexy one—but it’s time we ditch assumptions that we can’t be stylish while maintaining an environmentally conscious ethos—because more and more designers are proving we can.

Sustainability is a term that people love to throw

around, though it has still yet to permeate mainstream fashion. It’s ironic how an industry that directly aligns with current trends has largely disregarded the modern urge for sustainability.

For many designers, going eco-friendly is not easy;

incorporating sustainable fabrics can be taxing both stylistically and economically. Still, brands are facing an increased public interest in greener fashion options and transparency in their production practices and they are beginning to respond accordingly.

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Featuring : Selected Homme, Uniqlo, & Gitman Brothers. Vintage

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Featuring : Kimchi Bue, Rare London, Nine West, & Boy Brow by Glossier

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In the past year, New York, Paris and London fashion weeks proved that the use of organic materials is the future of fashion. When Stella McCartney showcased her sustainable Spring 2016 collection, she dominated fashion news and became a trailblazer for other big name designers.

At the same time, Karl Lagerfeld presented an eco-friendly collection for Chanel’s Spring 2016 collection at the nature-forward assembly at the Grand Palais in Paris, proving that haute couture could become even more elevated with, as he coined it, “high fashion ecology.”

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Still, can we shop without having to wonder what graves our garments are digging? To put it (not so) lightly, can we look good without killing animals and destroying our ever so fragile environment?

With the right amount of awareness,

public motivation and accessibility, the answer is yes. Sustainable fashion starts far before a garment is sold and extends past the last time a person wears it. Decisions regarding how raw materials are grown, then how they are processed into garments and finally how they are recycled after they’re disposed are important considerations for designers everywhere.

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As eco-style emerges from the dark

caves of stigma and scoff, efforts to create a widely accepted eco-consciousness are moving in the right direction. With solid tweaking and some minor public brouhaha, the fashion and environmental industries may finally unite.

Fashion is, after all, an expression

of modernity and it would be careless for the industry to ignore environmental consciousness as it occupies our global ethos.

Creative Director Featuring

MADELINE CARPENTIERE GIULIETTE PFEIFFER

DARREN HOFFMAN SAMANTHA WONG RUIQI MA VICTORIA GRUENERT

Photography Hair & Make Up

HALEY ABRAM MAYA HUDLIN

NICOLE HAFTEL

Styling

MOLLY GLASS

TATYANA KHASHOGGI zoë nochlin KAREN AN SAMANTHA B MORSE LEXIE BOWMAN JAMES KROLEWSKI

Art Direction

SOPHIE LINDEMANN

SARAH CAMPBELL

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Featuring : Acne Studios, Farewell Studios, Aeropostale, & Alpha Industries + Ace Hotel

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Featuring : Farewell Studios, Kit and Ace, & J.Crew

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Featuring : American Apparel, Lizwea Religion & Rocked Garage

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Creative Director Featuring

DERIC HAMER GABRIELLA PLOTKIN

BIDEMI PALMER MATTHEW HARTNETT

Photography Hair & Make Up

ALLI CAULFEILD SAMUYA CHUGH

NICOLE HAFTEL

Styling

PHOEBE LEUNG

JAMES KROLEWSKI

Art Direction

PILAR O’CONNOR

KAYLA COHEN

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Featuring : Shoptiques, TOBI & Glossier Rose Balm

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Violation in Art JAHNAVI DE SOUSA

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Art and violation—where do these two meet? Both can lead to events that last a few seconds or a few hours, moments that can change your life forever.

Both art and sexual assault inhibit house parties, frat scenes and classrooms. They observe you from dark alleys and brightly lit streets, in buses and trains, pubs and cafes: they are everywhere.

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THEY ARE EVEYWHERE Art and violation meet in photoshoots, songs, music videos, movies and paintings which depict a sexually violent act as aesthetically pleasing, and to a certain extent, acceptable.

Dolce and Gabbana’s 2007 ad campaign and

Maroon 5’s “Animals” music video are two high profile examples that glamorize the acts of sexual predators and assault. Similarly, Indian photographer Raj Shetye’s photoshoot, which shows images of

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a woman being manhandled on a bus, was met with an angry backlash, as it strongly resembled the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape.

While a majority of these pieces incorporate

vile concepts and images for shock value, some try to make a statement about these heinous acts. Art is often intended to be appreciated primarily for its beauty and emotional power and these works are not.

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Thus, some portrayals hope to draw one’s attention to the horrendous nature of these acts, and by making the victims look attractive, encourage empathy (and maybe even sympathy) for them. Maybe that’s what the Bulgarian magazine 12 was going for in its 2012 shoot of models with carved and bruised faces. Maybe.

Artistic portrayals, when done with the right amounts of sensitivity and dignity, such as Yana Mazurkevich’s “Dear Brock Turner” shoot, can work wonders and gives a different, more insightful perspective to a topic that has been discussed so regularly. We have become desensitized to it. When done right, artistic representations and portrayals can change the world. Or at least be an unequivocal catalyst for change.

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Creative Director Featuring

MADELINE CARPENTIERE HOLLY STEWART

VYNIQUE WALKER JACK BRICKNER

Hand Models:

DERIC HAMER

OLIVIA GELARD NATHANIEL SCHMIDT

Photography Hair & Make Up

IRENE ZENG MILI HURTADO

MAYA HUDLIN NIKO COHEN

Styling

KENDALL CAPUTO

VYNIQUE WALKER MOLLY GLASS ZOË NOCHLIN

Art Direction

TAMMY QIU

OLIVIA GELARD MARIAH FREIRE

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Featuring : Urban Outfitters, Madewell, Uniqlo, & Glossier Rose Balm

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Featuring : Charlotte Russe, Primary, Daisy Street, H & M, Pretty Little Things, Real Techniques & ColourPop

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Inspiration , Appropriation,

& the distinct difference

DEEDEE OGBOGU

The fashion industry is a diverse field, filled with plenty of avenues for inspiration, choices, diversity and ideas. As an industry that is so vast and multifaceted, it has a powerful influence that affects consumers everywhere by exposing them to certain fashions, trends and models. However, the industry does a grave injustice to their consumers by insensitively appropriating and generalizing others cultures. Especially, when these cultures are appropriated in a monolithic and unintelligent way. The industry steals from other cultures and erases origins with models who do not represent or understand the culture—who are white, more often than not. Even though diversity and inclusivity are growing on the runways, ad campaigns and magazines, it moves at a glacial pace and is still met with choices that revert the progress being made.

One of the biggest fashion controversies to date is Marc Jacob’s spring 2017 show for New York Fashion Week (NYFW). His models (most of them white) wore colorful faux dreads. When met with backlash, Jacob’s responded that he “[…] does not see color” and “[…]funny how you don’t criticize women of color for straightening their hair.” Jacob’s statement trivializes the notion that people of color, and their culture, can be taken in bits for public consumption. The shallow modification of culture leads to mass misconceptions and assumptions that can further stereotypes, harm a person’s self-worth and lead to a lack of understanding about that particular culture.

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“JACOB’S STATEMENT TRIVIALIZES THE NOTION THAT PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND THEIR CULTURE, CAN BE TAKEN IN BITS FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION.”

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Featuring : Adidas, Nasty Gal, Windsor, American Apparel & Real Techniques

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In 2012, Urban Outfitters won a case against the Navajo Nation allowing the clothing brand to name some of their products as “Navajo.” The desire to market “ethnic” clothing overruled the legitimacy of an actual culture. The Navajo people did not see themselves represented in the clothing; instead saw another vapid attempt at taking furs, general geometric shapes and brown hues, essentially creating what they thought was Native American culture and capitalizing off of it.

Junya Watanabe’s spring/summer 2016 show took fashion influences from different countries within Africa. The clothing style and pattern was based off of Kente cloth, which has its roots in present-day Ghana, and the facial “scarifications” of the models are taken from the Karomojong or Karimojong

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Featuring : Rothco, Dana Ashkenazi, Fila, BDU woodland Camo

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“THERE IS A FINE LINE BETWEEN TRULY APPRECIATING A CULTURE AND PAYING HOMAGE TO IT OR SIMPLY REPRODUCING IT,”

people of north-east Uganda. Watanabe took some of the defining characteristics of these African cultures and displayed it on mainly white models, indicating that cultures can be commodified and altered, yet never credited or respected to an appropriate degree.

There is a fine line between truly appreciating a culture and paying homage to it or simply reproducing it, taking some features of it without respect or a full analyzation the impact. When people of color witness their cultures represented in erroneous or superficial ways, they internalize the notion that minorities are not as valuable and important as their cultures that are marketed. It shows that the identity of the minority can be thrown out because their “ethnic qualities” have been used up and they are no longer a substantial part of the culture. To take bantu knots, a West African hairstyle, and call them “mini-buns,”; to take Native American headdresses and wear them to music festivals; to wear box-braids, baby-hairs, du-rags and face tattoos, which are heavily intertwined with prison culture; to appropriate sombreros, bindis, etc.; and to package them up, slap them onto white people and rename these cultural practices violates the meaning of diversity and inclusivity.

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Creative Directors

MAYA HUDLIN

DERIC HAMER

Featuring

RISA RICE

SAM C MORSE ANNA HOGAN LAUREN OUBRE

Photography Hair & Make Up

NATALIE CARROLL MAYA HUDLIN

ALEXANDRA DELANO BUKOLA ALI

Styling

LIZZY HERZOG

LEXIE BOWMAN SAMANTHA B MORSE

Art Direction

RAEANNE VILLONGCO

CRISTINA ESTUPIÑÁN

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62 Size Matters TABIA ZAHIR From a Muslim-American woman in hijab to Young Thug’s androgynous “No, My Name Is Jeffery” album cover, fashion has the ability to disruption preconceptions and start conversations. Liberating oneself from the shackles of societal standards, stereotypes and gender roles can be an extremely empowering feeling. Especially with their seemingly indestructible grasp on society—but women are rebelling. The key to opening these locks has been to be unwavering and unapologetic about one’s identity, a needle to be found in a haystack of obstacles.

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If we take a look at the modeling industry, it is clear that we are spoon-fed an idea that beauty does not only equate to how slender one is, but also how tall. Even in plus-size modelling, model Ashley Graham, who along with many others taking social media by storm to challenge our standards of beauty, is not just curvier than the mainstream figure but stands tall

Featuring : J.Crew, Ralph Lauren

at 5’9”. The modeling industry’s standards have seeped into the retail world, where it is nearly impossible find a variety of figure-flattering petite clothing outside of the small section in department stores. In fact, what we deem “petite” should actually be the “normal”, considering over half the women on earth are below 5’4”.

Petite women face a lot of stereotypes simply because

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of their height and size. They are often boxed up into the characteristics of cute, sweet and innocent when this is not true for all petite women, all the time. “The first thing people say when they meet me, or when I’m being introduced to others, involves my size,” says Carli Schmidt, Editor-in-Chief of Off The Cuff. magazine, “Like ‘isn’t she so cute and little,’ or ‘she’s so innocent,’ when really I think I’m quite strong and am a leader; I don’t use little, sweet or innocent as traits for myself.

But those traits of strength aren’t mentioned with me and I’m sure for lots of other petite women.” When a holistic individual is consistently constrained to three sole traits, it makes one believe that that is the only quality about them. It becomes a distortion of body image and a diminishing of confidence.

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Featuring : J.Crew, Ralph Lauren, Ann Taylor, ASOS, Zara, Top Shop, Forever21

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Featuring : Acne Studios, Zara, H & M

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68 Reflecting on our societal ideals of hegemonic masculinity, it is no surprise that these petite stereotypes exist. There seems to be an Ariana Grande fetish; petite, cute, gentle women with a dash of sexiness.

A short stature is “controllable,” a “good woman” is subversive. A woman’s strength and domination are threats to the fragility of masculinity. Our idealizing of hypermasculinity is constricting men to shackles as well. Petite men are ridiculed for their looks and their manhood is questioned, especially by other men. Our definition of masculinity must be the metal the locks are made of, the essence of and driving forces for our rigid social constructs.

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When a petite woman expresses any “masculine” qualities, it is a disruption, a deviation from the expected. We see this visually expressed through sharp cut pant suits and oversized wool coats. We see this through demeanors of confidence and being in positions of power, all typically associated with manhood. Many women like Schmidt see and love the complex, unique layers of character and self within them, but find it hard to be normalized in the constructs we are confined in. Too tall, too short, too loud, too quiet. Until we rebel against the “too” we consistently perpetuate, we will never be truly liberated. We will never be truly empowered.

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Creative Director Featuring

CARLI SCHMIDT KAITLIN TSAI

MILI HURTADO ELIZABETH ADESANYA BAO HAN NGUYEN LAUREN OUBRE

Photography Hair & Make Up

SAM BROOKS MEGAN GOWEN

SAVANNA TAVAKOLI

Styling

MIKAELA DANIELLE TY

RACHAEL ANGELOFF ELIZABETH HERZOG DEEDEE OGBOGU NATASHA MENDOZA

Art Direction

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IVANNA LIN

Featuring :Supergas, Madewell, Urban Outfitters

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Featuring :TUK, Vintage Talbots

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Featuring : Pink Naked Princess, Louis Vuitton, Free People

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Style on Film

Capturing Fashion through Atmosphere RUBY KING

Several pale, silk heels sit on a brocade bench, decorated with jewels, taffeta ribbon and shiny brooches.

To the iconic drum intro of Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy,” a girl picks the shoes from the bench, pair-bypair to try them on her beautiful feet. Amidst the collection of elegant and fashionable heels,

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there’s a pair of bright canary yellow pumps with a silver medallion and a pair of black silk pumps lined in grey fur (the original Gucci fur loafers) which she finds the most attractive of them all.

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In her salmon pink taffeta gown, she reaches for a pair of pale blue silk mules, swaying her feet on the elegant carpet where a glass of champagne and high-top Converse sneakers rest besides her.

The girl is Marie TheAntoinette. girl is Marie Antoinette.

The year: 1774.

The year: 1774.

Upon its release in 2006, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette caused a major stir among critics. One, for its effort to paint the doomed teenage queen and the decadence of the ancien régime in a more sympathetic light, and two, for its apparent disregard of historical reality. Marie and her friends frolic around Versailles with flower crowns and pink hair, partying to the tunes of New Order and Siouxsie and the Banshees in shoes designed by Manolo Blahnik.

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The film, like the rest of Coppola’s work, lends itself to a narrative that remains timeless—fresh, yet uniquely nostalgic with each view.

The atmospheric quality in her films not only distinguish herself as an auteur, but also as a fashion influencer.

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Featuring : Misguided, TopShop, Zara, & MLV

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Featuring : D&G, Please Overalls

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Fashion is rarely just about the clothing we decide to wear.

In examining those peak, influential moments in fashion, it’s apparent that they have never been about a single garment or trend but about the all-encompassing mood that a designer or a director creates.

It was the modernity of Christian Dior’s New Look modeled on the cobblestone streets of Paris. It was Anna Wintour’s first Vogue cover in 1988, a beaded Christian Lacroix jacket paired with low-rise jeans and a carefree smile. It was Scarlett Johansson in a pink wig singing karaoke on a Tokyo night in Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Moments that felt definitive of a specific emotion or the culture at the time.

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Today it is Alessandro Michele, the newly appointed Creative Director at Gucci, showing that fashion goes beyond what someone is wearing.

In his SS17 Ready-to-Wear collection, Michele set the mood with a hazy pink fog that wafted throughout the room. Guests were seated on luxe sofas as Florence Welch performed a selection of William Blake poems. Models floated down the runway in glittering, richly colored ensembles that shifted between shadows like jungle animals, concocting an unforgettable atmosphere of heady, eccentric romance.

Just as Michele has captured specific moods and atmosphere with his groundbreaking collections, Coppola has done the same with her films; using setting, music, color schemes and wardrobe to capture a fleeting human experience.

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Fashion is rarely just about the clothing we decide to wear. Fashion exists in the way we walk down the street, in the book we decide to pick up that day, in the music we listen to on our daily commute. It is the emotions that captivate us, and how we choose to wear them.

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Featuring : Caron Callahan & Acne Studios courtesy of Steven Alan Newbury Street

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Featuring : Corset by Niko Cohen

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Creative Directors

NATALLIE MASHIAN

ERIN MCCARTHY

Featuring

KAITLIN TSAI

SARAH CAMPBELL MELODY EATON VICTORIA GRUENERT SARA LOZANO

Photography Hair & Make Up

NATALIE CARROLL SAUMYA CHUGH

MILI HURTADO

Styling

SAMANTHA B MORSE

NATALLIE MASHIAN DEEDEE OGBOGU MOLLY GLASS

Art Direction

KRISTEN CABRERA

DORIAN DREYFUSS

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One Among Millions DEEAN YEOH In an attempt to understand a lifestyle that revolves around the social discourse that engulfs daily decisions, from clothing to pronoun, I embarked on a soul searching discovery to understand gender neutrality and what it means to live a life where uncertainty and confusion encompass the norm of those in the transgender community. While this article cannot perfectly represent every unique individual and their connection with the trans community, I hope it is an eye-opening piece that encourages readers to open their hearts to all possibilities of the unknown.

“I didn’t feel like I was a guy stuck in a woman’s body,” Abel*, a

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member of BU’s Trans Listening Circle (TLC), mused while reflecting on the moment he metaphorically “lit the agender dumpster fire.” He rolled his eyes, smirking at the thought: “It wasn’t so dramatic.”

Gender, like many things, is often overlooked in life.

It is not just male and female; a spectrum of nouns can take the place of the shades of gray that fill in the range of color between the black and the white. From a young age, we were taught the seven colors of the rainbow—not just the red and violet that complete either end, but the gradation and transitions from the warmth of red to the cool tones of blue, articulated through the colors in the middle that should not be neglected. If this is accepted, then why does society choose to pigeon hole people and ignore the entire spectrum of gender identification?

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Featuring : Kimchi Blue

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“I didn’t feel like I was a guy stuck in a woman’s body.”

“I was dressed as Death for Halloween,” Abel said. “I had skull makeup on and everything—it was sick. Anyway, I was leaving this party with my friends and a guy turns around and asks what I’m dressed as. When he sees my face he says, ‘Oh! I thought you were a guy!’ And I said, ‘I am.’ The guy responds with ‘BULLSHIT!’ And I think to myself, ‘Oh here we go again…’”Abel and the unknown, drunken male engaged in

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a heated argument for 30 minutes. At the end of it all, the stranger walked away “willing to accept Abel’s perspective” and Abel walked away exhausted from convincing a stranger that one’s assigned gender at birth does not have to define them forever.

This is just an excerpt of the day-to-day social

discourse endured by Abel and the many other members of the transgender community.

Abel came to Boston University as a freshman

seeking understanding and belongingness after graduating from an all-girls high school. “I didn’t even have the vocabulary to think about [my sexuality]!”

When asked about his personal interpretation of the

the gender spectrum, Abel responded with “Oh, I’m sure we can find one on Google,” and proceeded to ferociously scavenge for a quadrated graph of the gender spectrum.

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97 And there it was, clearly labelled and coordinated by color gradation.

As someone who considers themselves a liberal-thinking millennial, I was astounded and disappointed at my ignorance to the existence of something so available on the Internet. In this moment it occurred to me how normal, prevalent and representative my ignorance could be in the non-trans society.

Yes, Google is a source of immense knowledge, but the first

step to learning is finding out what questions to even ask. For the nontrans community, an eloquence in the vocabulary needed to ask these questions may not be so apparent, making it hard to decide what to type into the blinking cursor of a search engine. At the same time, as Abel puts it, “there is a time and place for conversations.� Outside a Halloween house party is definitely not one of them.

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Featuring : Levi’s Supreme, & NEXT

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No, it is not the obligation of the transgender community to educate the world at the convenience of others. There is an unspoken, fine line between a fear to question commingled with a fear of exposure that segregates the nontransgender and transgender communities. But these shackles of fear are not something that the welcoming embrace of open arms can’t break for us all to take a step into each other’s territory of unknown for a change in scenery.

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Creative Director Featuring

DERIC HAMER RAPH PETRIG

FRANCIS SMITH DARIA BLACKWELL ALEXA GREER KIERA SULLIVAN MAX A. BREWINGTON

Photography Hair & Make Up

IRENE ZENG SAUMYA CHUGH

NIKO COHEN

Styling

ARI SAKSONOV

JAMES KROLEWSKI

Art Direction

IVANNA LIN

OLIVIA GELARD CRISTINA ESTUPIÑÁN

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Self Portrait ISAIAH THARAN

When I came to college, I deleted nearly everyone off my Facebook. I made it even harder for people to find me by changing some of the letters in my name to random Greek and Cyrillic symbols; I have never really been the biggest fan of social media. I only made a Facebook account in the first place because my girlfriend insisted that I did. While I’ve had trouble in the past using social media, the interplay between this technology and fashion has fascinated me more than the sites themselves.

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Technology’s influence on fashion is not too indiscernible; new ideas spread much more quickly through technology than, say, by means of carrier pigeons. It is now easier than ever to tell our friends about a sick new Gucci collection or what trends are featured on the runway.

BUT HAS FASHION ALSO INFLUENCED TECHNOLOGY?

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Featuring : Sweet Little Things, Vinyl

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It has. This influence is seen in social media and in the way our profiles have become extensions of our sense of style. Take our Facebook ‘walls’, for example. They expose one’s style just as much as their dorm wall does whether it is plain or plastered with posters and polaroid shots.

You need only to take one look at your friend’s online profile to observe the similarities and differences between what they upload and how they present themselves in real life. You can easily identify the individuals who overdress both online and off, just as much as you can pinpoint the flannel-wearers with ironic, photo-shopped profile pictures.

Some choose to misrepresent themselves online—aspiring for a style they either may not be comfortable with in real life, or that they may only reserve for special occasions—whereas others are conspicuously absent from their own profiles. As anyone who has the misfortune to follow me on Instagram knows, I mostly post pictures of the ‘weird’ and ‘cool’ stuff I find, and include shitty puns that I base my outfits on.

This relationship between fashion and technology flows both ways and designer’s social media pages typically reflect the style they later incorporate into their future ideas. It is essential for the various pieces of every designer in each house to differ from one another.

These different design philosophies have become increasingly ubiquitous. Whereas it may have used to take an expert to differentiate Dior and Gucci suits, now this difference could not be greater. Some houses have embraced subtlety and rarely incorporate more than three colors in an outfit; others issue 07

“TECHNOLOGY HAS ALLOWED US TO CHANGE THE WAY WE DRESS” have taken the opposite approach, often including more than three colors per square inch of fabric.

Technology has allowed us to change the way we dress, in addition to the way we present ourselves. While anyone can point out how much polyester we wear nowadays or how embroidery can be sewn onto anything in seconds, some designers are innovating. The most striking of these innovations involve 3D printing. Of these 3D printed clothes the one that doesn’t just strike me as designers having fun, but rather as something that could see usage is the Kinematic Petals Dress by Nervous Systems. The wearer can make the fit whatever they want, truly blurring the line between flesh and fabric.

I started thinking about all of this when my mom—who wears cargo shorts at every opportunity—told me she was featured in a New York Times article about the most stylish middle-aged women on Instagram. I was shocked until I took a look at her pictures and saw they were mostly images of our house and of nature. She has always had a flair for interior design; her walls are lined with weird psychedelic paintings, rather than traditional Bar Mitzvah photographs. But thanks to social media, she got to express this passion in a way that would have once been impossible.

Featuring : Acne Studios & UniQlo

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Creative Director Featuring

ERIN MCCARTHY JACK BRICKNER

NATHANIEL SCHMIDT SAMANTHA B MORSE MIOLANI GRENIER VARSHA SRIVASTAVA

Photography Hair & Make Up

HALEY ABRAM MAYA HUDLIN

NIKO COHEN

Styling

KAREN AN

TATYANA KHASHOGGI SAMANTHA B MORSE JAMES KROLEWSKI

Art Direction

MADISON BRINSER

ALISHA KOTHARI EUNIE JANG

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Behind the Veil

Featuring : Silence and Noise, Old Navy, Kimchi Blue & Boy Brow by Glossier

ANNA BARRY

Hiding behind the veil of social media allows us to share an idealized version of ourselves with the world. Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr—you name it—has consumed our lives. We post glossy photos to attract likes so we can boost our self-confidence. The more likes we get, the more we feel like royalty. We stray from posting photos of ourselves with real emotion because we want to project an image of ourselves as beautiful, happy and social. Social media serves as a stamp of approval from our peers. We compare how many likes we get with the number of likes our friends get. When we do not get enough likes, our self-confidence is depleted and we feel as if our crowns have been stripped from our heads. We lose focus on our inner beauty and the beauty of the world around us. This the epitome of social media: it has created an epidemic of negative self-worth and competition.

On January 17th, 2014, a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) student named Madison Holleran took her own life.

She has stood as an example of the detriments of social media on young adults’ mental health.

Holleran was a beautiful, smart, talented student-athlete at UPenn who, through the lens of social media, seemed to have it all. Her Instagram was filled with photos of her smiling with friends, sentimental quotes and picture-perfect scenery. However, outside of social media, she was struggling with college classes, running and finding her place in a new environment away from her tight-knit family. She was a perfectionist who was unable to see that she was doing so well and had such a great life. She had worked hard to get to UPenn but was unhappy with how her life was unfolding there. Although Holleran did open up to her parents about her depression, it was too late. She let the world of social media get to her. Like many others, she would scroll through social media and see a million smiling faces from college and high school who seemed to have it all. She wanted a life just like the ones they portrayed.

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Holleran talked to her friends at home who were also feeling unsettled at school, but she felt that their social media accounts, plastered with photos of them smiling with friends, did not match up to what they were saying.

She believed that her friends were happy and had their lives together when in reality they felt the same way as her.

Just like Holleran did, people often use social media as a way to compare their happiness to the masses when they themselves are also selectively choosing images that promote their lives in a positive light. Social media can play a large part in molding happiness.

I, like many others, have fallen prey to the social media trap. When I got to college I felt lost; I was not the vibrant, happy person I was in high school, and turned to social media to fill that void. I found my answer to my unhappiness through envy and competition.

On social media, I saw high school and college friends constantly posting photos of themselves surrounded by smiling faces. Like Holleran, I was envious of the life that these friends projected. I found myself comparing my life to the lives of those who seemed to have it all. They were beautiful, always happy and confident. On the other hand, I lost touch with my soul and lost my confidence. I began to question what was wrong with me and why I was not as happy as others were in college. I became disheveled. I began to compete with others on social media, and I wanted my life to be as picture-perfect as theirs.

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Featuring : H&M, Victorias Secret

“ The truth of the matter is that we are all perfectly imperfect. �

I felt that I was not worthy unless I got enough likes.

This competition and the desire to be like others ate me from the inside out. I became less confident and more unhappy with myself.

After months in a deep hole of low self-esteem, I realized that all it took to be happy was to stay true to myself. I stopped worrying about building up my stash of rowns in order to feel like royalty. Instead, I crowned myself for honoring my soul and for being strong enough to fight the negative veil of social media.

Behind the smiley images that people post on social media are real people who feel real emotions. They are not always happy. They are not always surrounded by millions of friends. They cry over homesickness, bad grades, break-ups, et cetera. There is no perfect person who is always smiling or put-together. We hide behind the screen which lets us project an idealized image of ourselves that we want the world to see.

The truth of the matter is that we are all perfectly imperfect. This is what makes us special. We hide behind the veil of social media. We aspire to pile on the crowns. We cry and become disheveled when we get dethroned. We lose focus on what matters: our confidence and our happiness.

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Creative Director Featuring

MADELINE CARPENTIERE LAUREN MOGHUVEM

MAYA TAYLOR HUNTER COUGHLIN SAMANTHA WONG

Photography Hair & Make Up

ALISON SU SAUMYA CHUGH

MILI HURTADO

Styling

MIKAELA DANIELLE TY

ANNA COLLINS NATALLIE MASHIAN SAMANTHA B MORSE PHOEBE LEUNG

Art Direction

RAEANNE VILLONGCO

DORIAN DREYFUSS GABBY DIPIETRO

Featuring : American Apparel, Forever 21, TOBI & Boy Brow by Glossier

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Featuring : Free People, American Apparel, Cynthia Steffe, Prim by ColourPop, & Boy Brow by Glossier

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TATYANA KHASHOGGI

MADELINER CARPENTIERE

Featuring

SAMANTHA B MOSE

BAO HAN NYUGEN

Photography Hair & Make Up Art Direction

SARAH SILBIGER SAUMYA CHUGH KRISTEN CABRERA

CRISTINA ESTUPIÑÁN

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Grey Area EMMA WELBORN

“That’s not ladylike. Cross your legs. You shouldn’t wear something that short. Don’t talk like that.”

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Most girls have been here and upon hearing those words, scream a little inside. Yet, us girls are expected to stay silent, nod our heads, laugh it off, or display some other nonchalant reaction.

Double standards! We are raised to behave and think a

certain way, and if we stray off the path given to us then we are expected to keep it hidden, be ashamed and change our ways. We exist in this cloudy grey area, where it is no longer distinguishable between what is right and what is wrong. We cannot voice our opinions and problems with our sexuality, identification, preference or abuse. Instead, we are forced to stay quiet and fight through this alone, for fear of being ridiculed and stereotyped. During such a confusing part of life, individualism is forced upon us, but we cannot embrace that too much for fear of standing out.

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We are drowning in a society that is supposed to be a place of comfort for us, a safe haven. Instead we are strangled by the doubt that our voices will be heard.

But that is not our future; we have to unite to pave the way

for the following generations, while influencing our city, country

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and world. We have proven that we will not stay silent, that these chains cannot restrict us any longer. Assumed gender roles need to diminish, and people should not be held to those expectations.

Growing in numbers, we can be the difference—we will break the stereotypes while still promoting love and unity. We will not be stopped; we refuse to back down. The murky waters drown us no longer, and never again will someone be able to use the excuse of a “grey area.” There is equality to be attained, and we want it now; together, we will achieve harmony. No longer are we prisoners.

And yes, our oppressors should be scared.

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Creative Director Featuring

DERIC HAMER XINRU HUANG

SARA LOZANO TEDDY TRON JAY DOMINO

Photography Stylists

SARAH SILBIGER KENDALL CAPUTO

LEXIE BOWMAN TATYANA KHASHOGGI JAMES KROLEWSKI

Hair & Make Up

SAVANNA TAVAKOLI

SAMANTHA B MORSE

Art Direction

AMBER LIN

QIAN MEI CRISTINA ESTUPIÑÁN

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supporters: THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR PUBLICATION.

FAREWELL Studios

Real Techniques

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Glossier

Music Business Club

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EM John

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Sargent Activities Center 1 University Rd Boston, MA 02215

Kristen Loves Photoshop

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1400 Stellar Drive Oxnard, CA 93033 https://colourpop.com/

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Boston University Boston, MA 02215

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