FASHION
The
Issue
CONT
What Gen-Z Doesn’t
Understand About
Personal Style
Sophie Saxl discusses how
social media has taken the
authenticity out of personal
style.
Editors Note
Sabine Fuchs, Eve Kaplan,
and Kate Ragatz.
Is It Fashion Or Is She
Just Skinny?
Celeste Zucker describes the
effect of the fashion industry’s
unattainable standards.
31 A Piece on Sustain
able and Fast Fash
ion
Gemma Luber’s article on
sustainable clothing is ac
companied by Anna Yang’s
sustainable clothing brand
Reimagined.
27 The Polyester Inva
sion
Valentina Selmoni exposes
the uncomfortable darwin
ian evolution in the fashion
industry.
29 Who Are Trends For?
Paloma Rudnicki explains
how trends come about and
the role that social media
plays in this process.
33 Book Columnn: Fash
ion in Edith Wharton
Zohar Lindemann answers
the question “what makes The
House of Mirth Fun? “
13 WE ARE THE CULTURE.
Sharjah M Bodji writes
about the power and impact
of black women’s self-ex
pression.
TENTS
Layout
Maeve McAuley
Sabine Fuchs
25 Beyond Pink and
Blue
Lucy Bakowowski discusses
how non-gendered clothing
rebels against traditional
fasion norms.
15 My Body Is Not A
Trend
Riley Hurley unpacks how
the female figure goes in
and out of fashion.
19 1900s: What Women
Wore
Hannah Yang outlines chang
es in fasion trends throughout
the 20th century.
21 What Season Is It
Again?
Dorcas Tiendrebeogo explains
how the modeling industry
thrives on the exploitation of
insecurities.
Cover
Cover image features
clothing upcycled from
used clothing. Designs
by Reimagined Fashion
Upcycling and photo by
Lucas Zhang.
Art
Anna Yang
Carter West
Josie Hsieh
Sabine Fuchs
Sharjah M Bodji
Sophie Hung
Editors
Almoge Friedman
Clara Tripp
Colette Chang
Eden Hoover
Paloma Rudnicki
Sophie Saxl
Photo by Josie Hsieh
Dear Readers,
ashion is often deemed frivolous, child’s play, and a waste of a woman’s
time and money—the quintessential embodiment of capitalism’s empty
materialism. These notions are not invalid for much of society, but in paint
ing all of fashion in this light, this idea overshadows how fashion can be of
substance—a medium for the reclamation of power for women. Whether they are
reclaiming their cultural background and finding intersections with their identi
ties or finding acceptance for their body and defying societal body standards: for
many fashion is activism. Fashion is history. It is political. And it is most certainly
self-expression. To paint fashion with a broad brush, dismissing its importance,
is to minimize its power to those embodying the pieces and the artists that create
them—including the many female pioneers of fashion.
As American businesswoman and interior designer Iris Apfel once said, “Fashion
you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which
takes years. There’s no how-to road map to style. It’s about self-expression and,
above all, attitude.” This issue covers fashion as more than clothing, footwear, ac
cessories, cosmetics, and jewelry. It sees fashion as an avenue of expression for
identity and recognizes many of the brilliant women behind these expressions.
In exploring fashion, we begin to explore a woman’s reclamation of her own skin.
She is not defined by the pieces of clothing she wears but rather by how she wears
them. She is so much more than her jean size or her bra cup; she is a human be
ing, an agent of her own and not an object of consumerism. To be consumed by the
expectations of society is to be a woman, but to defy these expectations is to be
Godly—and we have many, many young women in this magazine who intend to be
Godly.
Best,
Co-Editors-in-Chief
Eve Kaplan, Kate Ragatz, Sabine Fuchs
Art by Josie Hsieh
What Gen-Z Doesn’t Understand
About Personal
By Sophie Saxl
clectic grandpa, mob wife, coastal grandmother,
rockstar girlfriend: what do these AI-generat
ed sounding phrases have in common? They all
have at some point been a craze among our gen
eration, originating on TikTok and bursting out into the
social world.
Whether it’s categorizing style by musical artist, fruit, or
movie, social media cannot manage to accept style with
out coining a name for it—contributing to our already
overfed mindset,
as we are con
stantly
spoon-
fed with content,
inspiration, and
online fast fash
ion stores pump
ing out clothes
at the speed of
light.
So, why do we
need to have a
name for every
thing we wear?
Because of the eruption of popular style that has con
sumed what it means to “dress well.”
The dichotomy between personal and popular style tears
down creativity and innovation in the fashion industry.
We have learned to only accept unconventional choices
when they are made on the runway and on skinny, tall,
model-bodies. TikTok has been able to push forth this
idea so well because of the structure of the app itself.
Influencers and larger content creators pave the way for
bigger trends, setting a general standard. From this, we
get “micro-influencers,” or those who are able to execute
these popular trends with a consistency and stylishness
about them—perhaps even with a tiny edge to make them
unique. They are able to have a charming relatability but
still have an unattainable quality that influencers do. This
is not to say that these “micro-influencers” don’t have any
of their own personal style, but their influence from pop
ular style often corrupts their ability to display their own
specialized and personal preferences. However, as quickly
as these trends
are created and
m a s s - r e p r o
duced at terrify
ing speeds, they
can be deemed
“over”
at
the
drop of a hat.
The entire pur
pose of TikTok,
and
most
so
cial media for
that matter, is
to gain recogni
tion and spark a conversation—best exemplified by the
comments section. While this can be extremely helpful
for establishing a community around fashion and style,
it can also make it nearly impossible to find a non-judge
mental space to experiment with style and what fashion
means to you. While the comment section can be filled
with support and compliments, it can also push down the
rare glimpses of personal style that we are allowed to see.
The concept of globalization has spawned into the world
When we connect to
brands and clothes for
something deeper than
their luxury allure and value,
we can make these clothes ac
cessories of ourselves.
Art by Josie Hsieh
of fashion and has been perpetuated through media
and online shopping. The world of small designers is
being crushed by conglomerates and cheap wholesale
sites. The minute a small designer strikes their own
creative gold, creating something that—even with
the endless stream of ideas circulating our world—
we have not been able to think up yet, it is copied. It
is plastered onto social media ads, sketchy clothing
websites, non-sketchy superstore websites, and it im
mediately becomes devoid of the original intention.
The quality gets worse, original pictures are stolen,
and the hard work of the designer is crushed by a
completely lifeless company and product. With this
vicious cycle, small designers and businesses are un
able to grow in their craft at all.
In order to understand the fundamentals of style, we
must ask the central question: Why do people buy
clothes? The answer can be found in two main in
tertwined reasons—status and connection. The name
and logo of a brand is a power symbol. On one hand,
it clearly displays wealth and some extent of success,
but it also creates a community. Brands create dia
logues and narratives amongst their collections and
consumers, and being a part of that is an intensely
special thing. The way in which consumers are able
to relate to their clothes and the designers of those
clothes is exactly how we can reach a successful per
sonal style.
As humans, one of the most powerful and natural
forces that draws us in is how we connect to each oth
er. It’s how we build nations, it’s why we fight wars, so
naturally, it comes up in how we express ourselves. At
its core, your outfit is like a thesis statement of your
person. When we connect to brands and clothes for
something deeper than their luxury allure and value,
we can make these clothes accessories of ourselves.
They don’t build our personalities, our personalities
build them.
The true reason we cannot function by dressing as
“eclectic grandpas” is because of the difference be
tween wearing something and styling it. The action
of a purchase versus the action of deciding how the
clothing is going to become an extension of you,
your personality, and your experience. In the time
less words of 102-year-old fashion icon Iris Apfel,
“The key to style is learning who you are, which takes
years. There’s no how-to road map to style. It’s about
self-expression and, above all else, attitude.”
Photo by Josie Hsieh
Is It
or
Fashio
She
Just Skinny
Is
The Effect of the
Fashion Indus
try’s Unattainable
Standards
By Celeste Zucker
on
y?
“I
s it fashion or is she just skinny?”
has become a common comment
on posts of conventionally beau
tiful and thin influencers who
create content centered around their outfits.
The phrase was coined by plus-sized influ
encer Emma Arletta (@emma.arletta), who
tries on the outfits of thinner celebrities and
influencers in an attempt to answer that
question on TikTok.
The New York Post covered this trend and
described one example of Arletta’s content
as an attempt to “style a low-rise
maxi skirt on her plus-size body,
aiming to prove some trends are
simply geared toward women with
model-esque figures.” However,
this statement reveals the socie
tal belief that clothing must flatter
one’s body by hiding aspects that
do not adhere to the beauty stan
dard of thinness.
skin, unfairly critiques what might very well
be fashion.
This mindset is not the fault of individuals,
but a culture that is obsessed with appear
ance and, in America, a standard of unfeasi
ble thinness.
In her book, Beauty Sick: How the Cultural
Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and
Women, Renee Engeln applies her research
at Northwestern University and interviews
with people of all ages surrounding women’s
body image. Her subjects carry evocative
and relatable life experiences and support
her explanation of what she labels “beauty
sickness”: the effort that women divert to at
tempting to be in line with society’s impos
sible beauty standard.
In a culture obsessed with appearance, or
a “Beauty Sick” society, women learn that,
as written by Engeln, “the most important
thing they can be is beautiful.” As a result,
women pour time and money into trying
to look like the beauty standard—one that
is always impossible to attain due to air
brushing, Photoshop, and other façades of
This mindset is not
the fault of individ
uals, but a culture that is
obsessed with appearance
and, in America, a standard
of unfeasible thinness.
While Arletta aims to
focus her content on body pos
itivity, when trying on a ‘snatch
ing’ swimsuit, she remarks that
maybe it will help her attain her “dream,”
gesturing in the shape of an hourglass. This
is not a critique of Arletta’s content, but in
stead, it reflects a broader issue seen in fash
ion culture: people feel the need to question
if trends are “meant” for all bodies, primar
ily because of the connection be
tween fashion and the promotion
of an impossible beauty standard.
Determining a piece of clothing as
‘only flattering for skinny people’
(she’s just skinny) if it exposes more
10
Photo by Sadhbh Kilroy
11
mainstream media. In the film industry, for
example, women feel the need to conform
to these beauty standards; a 1999 study
showed 76% of actresses playing central fe
male characters in primetime sitcoms were
of below-average weight (meanwhile 3% of
U.S. adult women were underweight).
Fashion itself is an art of expression, and
there is nothing wrong with using it as such.
In contrast, however, the current fashion in
dustry innately focuses on the marketing of
clothing rather than its consumer’s individ
uality. People want to see models living the
life they dream of, whether that’s someone
backpacking in Patagonia or a happy fami
ly wearing matching pajamas on Christmas
morning. So, brands seek models that are
conventionally ‘attractive’ because that’s yet
another thing customers long for: to be at
tractive.
As teenagers, we can focus on consuming
brands and content that promote healthy
messages about women, avoid ‘body talk’
about others and ourselves, and view our
bodies as something that has a function, not
just an appearance. We can facilitate con
versations about fashion that move beyond
bodies: fashion should be a way for people
to explore identity through clothing, not fix
ate on if a swimsuit offers the illusion of an
hourglass figure.
12
Photo by Josie Hsieh
13
WE ARE THE
CULTURE.
Being a Black woman has always come with “expectations.” You must speak
with purpose but not with too much anger or volume in your tone that you
intimate the white man and are branded “ghetto.” You must straighten your
hair because “kinky,” textured hair isn’t allowed in these white spaces in or
der for you to be respected and deemed “professional.” You are under obli
gation to dress in clothes that display your wealth, earrings that don’t pose a
threat, or gold jewelry that doesn’t echo the sunseeker aspect of your beau
tiful Black vessel.
Self-expression for Black women means defying the laws of society and
breaking the expectations that have been chained to us since birth. Self-ex
pression’s requirement for us is the action of daily rebellion against our gen
erational trauma and abuse that has held our bodies captive since slavery.
Malcolm X once said it best, “the most disrespected person in America is
the Black woman.” The act of disrespect comes in various
forms, including degrading, stealing, and lack of access.
Black women have consistently been subjected to mistreat
ment within the media and police systems. I vocalize these
concerns and problems Black women face because that
is the foundation of why self-expression through how we
present ourselves to the world is so important. Our clothes
let the box society has put us in collapse as soon as we step
into the fabric. It tells society that we are more than our
oppression. Black women use the torches of our fashion
choices, our “ratchet” hoop bamboo earrings, brown lip
combos, and cosmic, voluptuous crowns to tell our stories.
Here is a collection of Black women reclaiming their pow
er through fashion. Fashion is their outlet, professing their
freedom and making their voices heard.
Sharjah M Bodji
14
Photos by Sharjah M Bodji
MY BODY IS
NOT A TREND
rom the Waif models dominating 1990s
runways to the Kardashian-inspired
BBL look of the early 2020s, women’s
bodies have historically been reduced
to trends. Perfect curves, big boobs, and jut
ting collarbones go in and out of fashion as if
our bodies can magically morph into whatever
is deemed “beautiful.” The definition of what a
“beautiful” woman looks like is ever-changing,
and this leaves women around the world with an
unhealthy relationship with their bodies.
While ancient sculptures and paintings por
tray women of many
different sizes, beauty
standards in the 20th
century took a turn
for the worse. With the
newfound spread of
mass media, standard
beauty ideals became
easier to access. In this
era, women with slen
der, flat-chested bodies
were glorified for their “boy-like” appearance.
This was the beginning of a culture that cele
brated dramatic weight loss and the alteration
of appearance through methods such as breast
binding, which was commonly employed at the
time.
In the 1940s, however, women began to focus
their efforts below the waist. Slender legs were in—
meant to be shown off by midi skirts and high heels.
In the 1960s, body insecurity only became worse.
Supermodel “Twiggy” became an icon of the early
60s, earning her nickname from her extremely thin
figure. During this time, the ladies of Miss Ameri
ca Pageants and Playboy magazines noticeably in
creased in height and decreased in waist size. By
the 90s, the ideal female figure was the tall, skinny
girl society idolizes today.
The turn of the 21st century only amplified the
unattainable standard of thinness sported by top
models. The infamous era
of “nothing tastes as good
as skinny feels” was in full
swing, wreaking havoc on
the mental health of many
across the globe. A Com
mon Sense Media report
stated that, between 1999
and 2006, hospitaliza
tions for eating disorders
spiked 119% for children
under twelve in the United States. When mass me
dia constantly promotes one beauty “ideal,” women
everywhere—young and old—internalize it.
With trends, you are able to try on a shirt or a pair
of jeans and buy something if you like it. But body
types can not be bought nor discarded when they go
in and out of style. Fortunately, the 2010s brought
By Riley Hurley
To the higher
powers at Vogue
and Victoria’s Secret:
confident women are
ALWAYS in style.
15
How the Female Figure Goes In
and Out of Fashion
Art by Josie Hsieh
16
a wave of “body positivity” (now referred to as
body neutrality) to the public. Celebrities such
as Lizzo and Kim Kardashian showed off their
curves, and diverse body types walked the run
ways for the first time. However, with this shirt
came the obsession with having an “hourglass”
figure and perfectly round butt emulating those
of an Instagram influencer.
Within the last few years, the ideal skinny body
has returned to dominate mass media. Kim Kar
dashian’s “crash diet” is published to detail how
she fit into Marylin Monroe’s iconic dress for the
Met Gala. An article from the New York Post
claims “Bye-Bye Booty: Heroin Chic is Back.”
Heroin Chic idolizes very thin women with
prominent collar bones and thigh gaps. The ar
ticle appears to be correct—Kim has seemingly
dissolved her BBL and there is an Ozempic (dia
betes medication) shortage due to many using it
for unhealthy, fast weight loss.
Years of working towards body acceptance and
bringing diversity to the fashion industry are
seemingly slipping down the drain with the re
surgence of this “thinner is better” mindset. Mil
lennials are still coping with the mental health
effects of the first era of “heroin chic,” and now
Gen Z girls and women may face the same issue.
#Thinspo may have been banned on Instagram,
but ultra-skinny celebrities and influencers once
again walk the runway and dominate “for you”
pages.
We need inclusion, diversity, and healthy re
lationships with our appearance. We need to
change our internalized beliefs and the media’s
view of what a woman should look like to bet
ter the lives of our future daughters. My body
is NOT a trend. It’s what carries me throughout
life, from yoga to the beach to shopping with my
girlfriends. All of our bodies deserve to be loved.
To the higher powers at Vogue and Victoria’s Se
cret: confident women are ALWAYS in style.
17
Art by Sophie Hung
18
he 1900s was a century marked by but cer
tainly not limited to two world wars, the
women’s rights movement, and the civil
rights movement. Through this turbulent restruc
turing of American society, women did not stick to
wearing whalebone corsets and long, thick skirts—
though that is how many dressed as the century be
gan. With the popular “Gibson Girl,” an ideal of a
“New Woman” who pursued education, romance,
and independence, women’s fashion in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries was primarily a callback to
the Edwardian-era style: opulent and formal, with
structured bodies, long skirts, gloves, hats, and an
umbrella, according to the Library of Congress Blogs
in 2021.
However, in July of 1914, as the world was thrust into
World War I, many American men were drafted
and sent overseas. Unfortunately, this
resulted in a shortage of workers
for many industries. To miti
gate the quickly crashing econ
omy, women began working to
fill these labor holes,
which meant that
lacing and large
pearl necklaces
became
work
hazards.
As women ventured into
factories to support
war production, their
prescribed
uni
forms
ranged
from
men’s
overalls to
simple cotton dresses to trousers and tunics over
skirts—a type of fashion never seen before. These
trends persisted even past the war, shifting women’s
fashion to be more casual and
practical. Out were the cumbersome petticoats and
whalebone corsets, and in came shorter
skirts, freer silhouettes, and more serviceable suits.
Posters depicting an American woman draped in the
United States flag and working in a field were titled
with the motto “Sow the Seeds of Victory” and dis
played across the country; hundreds of other posters
encouraged women to work. After the war, a desire
for women to have a cylindrical silhouette or shape
emerged, which led to the flapper style of the ‘20s.
During the ‘20s, there were both massive technolog
ical advancements and social reform. In August of
1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right
to vote. Henry Ford’s advancements in the au
tomobile industry were the “hot new thing”
and enabled adventurous young Americans
to go wherever their hearts desired. With this
newfound freedom in transporta
tion and many more factors, it is
no surprise that young women
of the ‘20s experienced such a
massive explosion of radical
reform in their mindsets.
Soon, flapper fashion be
came much more than
fashion and represented a
wild, carefree lifestyle for
younger women. As the
History Channel says, flappers
and women of the ‘20s were
considered the first gener
1900s
Wha
Wor
20
also begun to limit materials to conserve resourc
es for the war. New restrictions ranged from only
four available colors of shoes to a complete ban on
elastic in clothing. Out of these restrictions, how
ever, bloomed new, scandalous garments like the
two-piece swimsuit. Though this new garment was
arguably “inappropriate,” it was non-negotiable that
cutting off the middle of the swimsuit saved fabric.
There also came famous utility clothing designs by
designers such as Claire McCardell, who introduced
the “Popover Gown,” a denim-wrap front dress,
in response to a Harper’s Bazaar challenge. Albeit
cheap (only around $7), it was still practical, casual,
and extremely fashionable to wear: McCardell’s sig
nature style. More than 75,000 dresses were sold in
the first season.
In the decades following, women’s fashion mainly
split into formal, high-end fashion (super
models, Dior, and the British royal family)
and more casual wear. The hippie movement
also ushered in clothing with peace signs, tie-
dye, and bell-bottom pants, symbolizing
free love and freedom of expression,
whereas the upper-class ladies’ fash
ion continued to revolve around
designer brands like Versace and
Guess. Even today, women’s clothing
continues to evolve as trends furthered by
social media pop up left and right, which
begs the question: what will we be wear
ing in just a few decades?
ation of independent women. Flappers wore short,
loose-fitting dresses with low-hanging necklines,
and contrary to the austerity the previous genera
tions upheld, they traded corsets for bras and linge
rie and cut their hair for sharper bobs.
Unfortunately, not all state governments were fans
of women wielding what was considered sexual free
dom and wild, hedonistic ideals. Utah, for instance,
attempted to pass legislation mandating the mini
mum length of women’s skirts—to be enforced with
a fine as punishment—and Virginia tried to ban
dresses that revealed too much of a woman’s throat.
Women wearing “inappropriate” bathing suits were
escorted off beaches or arrested. Even women’s rights
activists like Lillian Symes criticized the movement,
thinking the flappers had overstepped boundaries in
their pursuit of a new style.
However, the stock market crash of 1929 and
the beginning of the Great Depression
squashed this lifestyle—a new era of
frugality made flappers seem hor
ribly out of touch with the current
economic state.
Just a decade later, World War
II broke out, impacting the
fashion industry in unprecedented
ways. On June 14, 1940, Hitler invaded
Paris, the then-center of fashion. Pop
ular brands either shut down or fled
the city, stopping production, and
those who stayed open were cut off
from the outside world—meaning
there were fewer fancy clothes avail
able to the majority of the population.
The United States government had
at Women
re
By Hannah Yang