Fashion Magazine Feature Stories on Campus Fashion
It was 5 p.1000. in Paris, and Erin Garry was thinking about her baby. Non a man infant — just all the same the product of hours of care, labor and cosmos. Monumental Magazine is Garry'southward brainchild, and information technology's growing up.
Garry came up with the idea for a educatee-powered style magazine in 2019, and spent the next twelvemonth building the brand, creating content and gathering a team. She started off overseeing everything, every day of the week.
"To me, it was similar my baby too, then I was a flake hesitant to delegate without fully knowing everyone," Garry said.
But as the mag grew, she constitute a team to entrust Monumental to — a team that would eventually be responsible for putting out the first issue in Feb 2021.
In 2019, Garry thought of starting a fashion magazine at the University of Maryland — something the schoolhouse didn't have. Garry wanted to work in way from a young age, and while student-run publications exist at this university that cover fashion and lifestyle, Garry said she couldn't observe any classes or clubs solely focused on the topic or catered to her interests.
It wasn't until she took a fashion media course in Florence, Italy, an sea away from the university, that she came upwards with the idea behind Monumental Mag.
Nearly two years later, and a twelvemonth afterwards Garry graduated from this university with a bachelor's caste in communications then moved to Paris to pursue her master's degree, a team of well-nigh 50 students launched the magazine'due south inaugural event: "The Intention Effect."
Monumental'south introductory cover, showing a model donning white rounded sunglasses and a floral head scarf looking upward and onward past the margins, leaves no room for misinterpretation: The brand is confident, capable and looking toward a future of more.
The team didn't have a precedent, a large staff or Pupil Regime Association funding, just students were attracted to Awe-inspiring considering it provided a platform for fashion and lifestyle journalism that many said this university lacked. Now, they're preparing to release their side by side edition.
"People are doing this extracurricular because they want to," Garry said. "It just really shows that information technology's a labor of love and something that people genuinely relish doing."
Filling a void
Ane of the starting time necessities for Garry — and arguably the most important — was establishing a proper name. And fashion magazines typically don't only accept names — they have brands. Information technology's nearly everything the name stands for.
The discussion "awe-inspiring" means something important, enduring and larger than life-size.
"Since zilch similar that existed on campus, I idea it was a fitting name," Garry said.
Garry pulled inspiration from Washington, D.C., because of its historic monuments and proximity to this university, she said.
For the brand around that name, the mag established its mission statement, listing iii goals: promoting inclusivity and sustainability, producing unique visual content by taking creative risks and promoting and supporting young creatives.
In the creation phase, Garry worked on the magazine every 24-hour interval, nearly 15 hours a week, she said. Garry said she was nervous no one would be interested. Merely she quickly found that this wasn't the case as she congenital a cohort of about xv people.
Kassidy McDonald, the mag's electric current editor in chief, was amid the first to join the Monumental team and ultimately helped to realize the get-go consequence.
"I was so excited when I heard about this because I know in the journalism school, there wasn't something that stood out to me," said McDonald, a rising senior journalism major.
The university does not currently offer fashion merchandising or design programs, nor did it have a student publication solely defended to fashion or lifestyle, something McDonald said was disappointing.
"I feel like we're a really big school and a lot of people are really into that, and there's non actually a platform for information technology," McDonald said.
This was also true for Kyle Faresich, who graduated from this academy in May after studying communications. His slice, "The Rise of Feminine Masculinity," was featured across iv pages in the result. He was the writer, creative director, stylist and a model for the photoshoot.
Faresich told then Editor-in-Chief Natalie Leinbach that he had never run a photoshoot, with no experience in styling or working camera angles. But Faresich said this wasn't a problem for Leinbach.
"She was like, 'That's totally okay, this whole mag is meant for people to dip their toes into the artistic aspects that they've never got to actually go through with in college,'" Faresich said.
Faresich started at the academy every bit a journalism major, only ultimately switched to studying communications because he didn't observe publications on the campus that explored content he was interested in, such equally fashion and lifestyle.
"I would just really want to emphasize I exercise capeesh that this magazine came about," Faresich said. "I feel like mag just isn't on the table in the journalism school, so it's absurd to actually have a way and lifestyle magazine on campus to resort to [for] any artistic visions that you might have."
The journalism college does not currently offer abundant classes for students interested in feature writing, amusement and civilization reporting or a magazine journalism runway.
In an e-mail to The Diamondback, journalism dean Lucy Dalglish said, "Discussions have been underway over the summer almost adding more features/amusement/civilisation reporting and writing courses. However, nosotros do non anticipate adding a magazine specialization that would offer multiple such courses in a sequence at this time."
In a statement to The Diamondback, academy communications managing director Natifia Mullings wrote, "We have bookish majors in marketing, communications, journalism and studio art, as well as several departments that let students to focus their studies on way." Mullings also wrote students are encouraged to reach out to the Role of Undergraduate Studies if they're interested in building their own academic program.
For rising sophomore Katherine Mahoney, a journalism and studio art major, Monumental was her introduction to this "other" side of journalism — the side Faresich, McDonald and Garry all felt was defective in the journalism schoolhouse.
Mahoney works at the magazine as a layout and design co-director and helped to get together the starting time outcome, all before she's had her first in-person college class.
"I feel similar in journalism classes, you test the waters with sports or broadcast and actual news or community news, but yous never really go into fashion," Mahoney said.
For Mahoney, Garry and the team, putting out the kickoff issue, "The Intention Issue," was a moment of pride.
And it was a moment Garry had planned to be a part of in 2019, but as the COVID-19 pandemic striking and the university went online for the balance of the 2020 spring semester, plans changed.
"We'd hoped to produce the showtime result spring 2020, but obviously that didn't happen," Garry said. "We started to plan, and then everything kind of went to shit."
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Garry graduated final leap — online.
But Monumental lasted through its first turnover and a pandemic to produce their founding issue, which was defended to Garry.
"The Intention Issue"
Titled "The Intention Effect," the theme is meant to reverberate the "unique opportunity" almost a twelvemonth of lockdown gave for introspection, wrote and then Editor-in-Chief Natalie Leinbach, who succeeded Garry, in the issue's introduction.
Leinbach, in her letter from the editor, carefully outlines perspectives and questions provoked in the pages — questions of purpose, quality, direction and opportunity, all framed within the context of way and lifestyle. The outcome touches on topics that intersect with beauty and fashion such every bit sustainability, quality, race and gender identity. The pages also include product reviews and trend tracking equally well.
Bundled across 60 pages are 11 stories and v photo spreads spanning multiple pages, fabricated from the efforts of about 50 students.
Faresich's piece about feminine masculinity lives across iv of those pages, with 10 pictures interspersed throughout an article that talks almost the history of gender-fluid fashion, the fluctuation of trends and changing expectations.
Faresich'due south slice is lit with purples, pinks and blues — colors often used in cinema to illuminate a character's sexuality or queer identity — and covers topics from the habiliment choices of Will Smith and Harry Styles to men dressing in feminine habiliment during the Ceremonious War as a form of entertainment. The layout intertwines the mediums, with bold, vibrant images providing a interruption between sections of text, illustrating the cohesiveness of the magazine as a whole.
There'southward a meshing of styles and designs, giving the volume a feeling of individuality coexisting. The varying typography and art mediums used to tell the stories make it reminiscent of indie magazines and experimental pieces.
Simply behind the vibrant and dynamic pages were hours of producing, editing and learning, made possible past the funds raised from a GoFundMe page, which has raised more $ii,000.
McDonald had requested SGA funding for the mag prior to the outset event's release to help comprehend photoshoot and artistic product costs, just the asking was denied due to funding and direction discrepancies.
Monumental creators are savvy with their production, still, and use their own resources to fashion a project, McDonald said.
"[There are] ways you can practice it without spending a huge amount of money," she said.
Emma Rubino, the senior marketing, promotions and public relations manager for the magazine, nodded to the cohesive mixing of media throughout the issue.
"I remember that anybody does such a good job of really putting in the time and endeavor to exist intentional with what they are researching," Rubino said. "And I retrieve that's what really makes all the issues come together and work."
For Mahoney, who worked to assemble pages using InDesign, this feel helped her realize her interest in graphic blueprint. And seeing the finished slice, Mahoney said she felt proud of what they had produced. She wants readers to give the piece due diligence and non but gloss over the pages.
"Definitely accept an open mind and realize that even though it is a college magazine … I feel like it seems like information technology'due south higher than that," Mahoney said. "The journalists or other students who actually write these articles … they don't feel like they're merely higher students just doing it for extra time."
Brian Cleveland, who works as a multiplatform editor for The Washington Postal service, taught a news editing form at this academy, which McDonald was in during the bound 2020 semester. Cleveland also taught Garry in a previous class, so he knew of Monumental as it was in development.
"I thought that they did a actually great job," he said. "It looked actually nice, very professional."
He noted the theme was fitting for college students navigating an inaugural issue amid a pandemic, adding that seeing former students, immature journalists, bring an thought to life was overnice.
"I am very proud of them," Cleveland said. "I think it'southward very easy to take an idea of something … just actually bringing that to fruition is very hard, you know, that takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of try and time."
With the launch of the upshot, each student involved had to put a piece of themselves out there, and producing a project like this can become a challenge. Rubino and McDonald, forth with Jessie Garten, the magazine'south digital and web manager, all said they each took their own risks in the effect, from writing about unfamiliar topics to exploring politics as information technology relates to fashion.
McDonald said she read over the pages a "crazy" number of times, editing and looking for any errors — ultimately just a couple small-scale spelling mistakes got by them, she said.
And every bit the team looks frontward to their second issue, McDonald said their experience working remotely last time has prepared them for the second fourth dimension around.
"We did it mostly remote last year," she said. "Then nosotros're gonna pull it off, of course."
Revival
Monumental Magazine announced in July that their 2d digital publication, "The Revival Issue," will be released on Aug. 30, the starting time solar day of this academy's fall semester classes.
Co-ordinate to McDonald, the upcoming edition volition be colorful and middle-communicable, with the same categories as the commencement issue — fashion, culture, beauty, lifestyle and campus. However, it will delve more into changes coming out of the pandemic.
"A couple pieces in this edition discuss how the pandemic has affected people personally whether it'south affected mental health/course/personal life/relationships, and how this period moving towards existence normal again calls for a revival of creativity, new ideas, and new projects," McDonald wrote in an e-mail, adding that the magazine will examine a postal service-pandemic fashion manufacture and the resurrection of certain trends.
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The Awe-inspiring squad is also looking to expand their staff and positions, McDonald said.
Garten, a rising senior studying communications, said the promise is once people write 1 story, they'll feel drawn to stay on and continue into a position.
"It'due south a very inclusive environment that when they write that one article, they want to do more than and then it turns into a more than defended position, which I recollect is important," said Garten, calculation that's how she originally got involved.
While promoting diverseness is ane of the values in their mission statement, McDonald acknowledged in that location's room for growth within the system.
"I definitely think that we can ever be more inclusive. Recently, I don't call up we've had as much push as we did earlier last year," McDonald said. "But I experience like that'south something everyone tin can always piece of work on."
With the magazine's foundation not far in the rearview, the team is looking to ensure their respective positions will exist filled earlier graduation. Underclassmen such every bit Mahoney have already started learning higher roles, which Garten said is really nice.
"I promise it stays like that in the future," Garten said. "Nosotros have a couple girls who have contributed and then much, a couple freshmen already — which is really promising."
So far, Monumental has lived up to its name, enduring creation, turnover and an unrelenting pandemic.
Sitting in her tiny studio flat in Paris well-nigh the Louvre Museum, Garry, who is now studying at the American University of Paris to become her master'south in global communication, reflected on the magazine she called her baby and the pride she felt reading the first issue.
"Information technology was then cool to see it come to life and I was really impressed, especially given the year that they had," Garry said. "Just to take that I thought was really awesome — and made me proud."
This story has been updated.
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