STRUCTURE

STRUCTURE

FUNCTION

THE

STRUCTURE

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SENTIMENT

FORMAL

AESTHETICS

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EDITOR IN CHIEF Maddie Casey

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Simran Gvalani

MANAGING EDITORS David Greenbaum Farrah Haytham

ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Samir A-Rahim

FASHION EDITOR Jessica Brite

ART DIRECTOR Kaela Anderson

BEAUTY EDITOR Daniella Gauld

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Abby Falzone

LIFESTYLE EDITOR Lily Ellwood COLUMNISTS Anjali Dhawan Genevieve Betancourt Meghna Iyer Aanchal Dharmani

PHOTO DIRECTORS Calem Robertson Aung Thant Kyaw ASSOCIATE PHOTO DIRECTOR Angelina Chau

WRITERS

Bri Nnadi, Meghna Iyer, Anjali Dhawan, Lily Elwood, Halima Duarte, Ebube Onwusika, Sara Ahktar, Jess Brite, Rocia Yanez, Grace Horne, Ellie Fulkerson Allie Kuo, Clara McCourt, Sara Chen PHOTOGRAPHERS

Angelina Chau, Meryl Prendergast, Ellie MacLean, Hillary Nana-Adjei, Azra Schorr, Peyton Pollard, Ruby Trvalik, Amirah Ibrahim, Sam Steenstrup, Sofia Cianca, Kimberly Curry, Lauren Looney, Mia Rapella, Coco Lheritier, Simran Gvalani, Aung Thant Kyaw, Calem Robertson DESIGNERS Alexis Knight, Elana Lane, Tanya Kler, Rachel Osborne, Marena Ramirez, Daisy Tuller, Olivia Wang

DESIGN DIRECTORS Olivianne Iriarte Renee Pearce

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Azra Schorr

ASSOCIATE DESIGN DIRECTOR Claire Higgins

COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE Annie Yen

SOCIAL MEDIA DESIGN Ina Chu

MARKETING STRATEGIST Kira Briggs

WOMENSWEAR HEAD STYLIST Hillary Nana-Adjei

PRESIDENTS Sara Chen Isabelle Roberts

MENSWEAR HEAD STYLIST Quirin Emanga

TREASURER Mi'Angela Plater

WEB EDITOR Hugh Ferguson

SECRETARY Thomas Bell

MODELS Quincy Sasson, Luna Bruss, Camron Nodoushani Meghna Iyer, Anjali Dhawan, Morgan Dobbs, Woody Lindor, Sasha Shrestha, Alexi Dagnachew Sarah Shiferaw, Luca Vasiliu, George Bikhazi, Rehan Devaravar, Jordan Abboud, Noah Wendel Inyeneobong Usua, Kesia Davies, Ruby Trvalik, Leo Kong, Remi Cohen, Michele Leigh, Celine Plaisir Anvi Gampa, Erica Jackson, Morgan Knight, Kevin Kiami, Ellen Gebreselassie, Stella Westlake, Hillary Nana-Adjei, Randall Gee, Maddie Casey STYLISTS Randall Gee, Woody Lindor, Jarriah Cockhren, Chengyang Chen, Lucia Maragno, Yeani Kwon MAKEUP & HAIR ARTISTS

Melanie Barest, Azra Schorr

letter from the editor

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For myself and many of my colleagues at The Avenue, this spring has been the final semester of pouring our hearts, our souls, and every creative fiber of our beings into this magazine. For this issue, it felt essential that we chose a theme that would allow us to create the highest-quality body of work that we could fathom, or could muster the effort to create. We strove to choose a theme that would allow us creative experimentation, to broaden the horizons of the topics we would cover and ideas we would engage with, to challenge ourselves and each other, but to somehow still end up with a masterpiece. Structure is the product of that.

Intense brainstorming sessions and discussions finally led us to the idea of structure: “the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex”. As we fleshed this idea out, the pieces fell into place for all of us; faced with the difficulty of choosing a theme that melds with the visions and strengths of each team, we felt that Structure could lend itself very well to success in our separate fields. The alignment of the editorial, creative, and design teams was the signal telling us to move forward.

As an editorial team, we got to explore concepts that we have not been able to in the past. Structure lends itself to that, guiding us to take different perspectives on different types of issues. It gives a very purposeful, specific idea that each piece needed to engage with. Structure is a concept that can be applied to countless topics – many that you wouldn’t think to expect – and our team thrived off of its open-endedness and abstraction. Structure dives into the physical construction of clothing, objects, physical spaces, art forms, and industries.

It discloses what may happen when something goes

against the established organization of an industry or the norms in our practices. It sheds light on the structures that guide the fashion industry and our larger world (of course), and, more importantly, the philosophical thoughts behind it and the long history surrounding them. The ideas within this issue offer a perspective different from a passive caring about a current social issue or trend. Instead, what we found compelling was that they allowed our writers to engage with the topics that we care about in a unique way, and explore the many meanings of the word Structure.

Every semester, I have always said how proud I am of The Avenue team, how in awe I am of the diverse talents and ideas that each contributor has brought to the issue, and how inspired I am being surrounded by the creativity of every person who makes this magazine possible. That has never been truer than with Structure. I am so amazed by the art that each of us has contributed to creating, impressed by the work ethics and creative vision of everyone I’ve worked with, and infinitely grateful to have spent my college years dedicated to The Avenue. In ending such an important period of my life, some thanks are in order: to everyone who I have worked with here over last five years, to everyone who has supported me as a leader and creative, to everyone who has appreciated and connected with our hard work, and to the current team (both editorial and leadership), who I cannot imagine being without. I will truly miss being able to watch the creation of an incredible magazine every semester. Lastly, I hope that everyone reading this finds the issue to be the triumph that I do. This journey has been one of my proudest, and I could not be more proud than to end it with structure.

MADDIE CASEY, EDITOR IN CHIEF

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LETTER FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

From complex social systems to simple physical forms, structure is always present in our lives whether we realize it or not.

During our creative process, we thought a lot about the allure of visual aesthetics and the forms that they create. We wondered about the subjectivity of what makes something visually appealing. Our concepting led us to ask how intentional we are with our stylistic choices. This way of thinking was a reminder to ourselves that no matter the creative process, it is important to question each stylistic choice’s purpose.

In our final spread, we wanted to examine intangibility. By dissecting the structure of sentiment, we questioned the roles of connectedness, growth, and passion in shaping who we are. Our hope is that STRUCTURE offers a creative analysis of the frameworks that guide the way we think, feel, and exist.

With my time at Northeastern coming to a close, writing this letter is incredibly bittersweet. I owe a lot of who I am as a creative to The Avenue and am honored to have been part of this magazine. What makes The Avenue special is this curiosity amongst everyone on the team to constantly want to expand creatively.

Our team is hard-working, adaptable, and always ready to take up a challenge. I am proud to see this reflected in each and every issue we create.

I will always be grateful to The Avenue for introducing me to some of the most talented people I’ve ever met, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this magazine. Thank you to everyone who contributed to STRUCTURE — this issue wouldn’t be possible without you.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.

SIMRAN GVALANI, CREATIVE DIRECTOR

TABLE OF CONTE 0

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010 Tech’s Influence on Fashion’s Future

042 How Much Is Too Much?

016 What's Your Scent?

046 The Critical Role of Makeup in Fashion

022 FUNCTION 034 The Interruption of Song Structure 038 A Critique on the Term “White Passing”

052 Suits: The Timeless Piece 056 THE STRUCTURE OF SENTIMENT

068 Restaurant Design

090 The Beauty of the Ugly

074 The Impact of Euphoria on the Beauty Industry

094 FORMAL AESTHETICS

078 Reinvention and Reverberation: Gender Norms in Music 084 Anti-fashion: A Story of Rebellion

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106 The Story Behind Saint Street Cakes 112 Keeping Fashion's History Alive 118 Internal vs. External Beauty

TECH'S INFLUENCE ON

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The once rigid and traditional fashion industry is experiencing a radical restructuring, with consumers urging for more sustainable and circular practices.

Technology is playing a pivotal role in this change, as science and art collide to create innovative garments using cutting-edge manufacturing processes. The use of biotechnology is changing the structure of the relationship between the structure of the natural world and clothing as we know it — with tech (like 3D printing) advancing the processes by which designers print, place, and mold their pieces. Incorporating science into fashion has paved the way for a new generation of clothing that is unlike anything seen before.

As fashion and technology have become more intertwined, there has been a surge in the inclusion of biology in wearable art as a means of improving sustainability. According to McKinsey & Company, the global textile industry produces roughly 25% of all industrial water pollution, even though only 2.4% of cropland consists of the agricultural production of natural fibers like cotton. As consumers become more concerned with the sustainability and ethics of their clothing, statistics like these become increasingly off-putting. I ts ability to address these sustainability concerns

is, in part, address these sustainability concerns is, in part, why biotechnology has become so popular in the industry. For instance, organismbased fashion, which involves the use of lab-grown microorganisms to produce nontoxic dyes and fibers, reduces the negative environmental impact of fertilizers, insecticides, and water waste used in traditional processes.

The brand NEFFA, a fashion firm focused on reimagining the future of fashion by developing new methods of creating personalized and sustainable garments, is taking full advantage of this collision of fashion and science. Disillusioned with the fashion industry, designer Aniela Hoitinik started the firm aiming to replace wasteful practices in the industry with sustainable alternatives. While most people prefer to eat mushrooms, NEFFA proposes wearing them – in the form of sustainable, vegan textiles.

Through the use of MycoTEX, their groundbreaking manufacturing method, NEFFA bypasses the cost, waste, and laborious processes of traditional cut & sew manufacturing to create custom-fit garments made from mycelium – mushroom roots.

MycoTEX and technology like it allow designers and consumers alike to reimagine the fashion industry by proving that waste and unsustainability are not inherent to fashion.

writing BRI NNADI modeling QUINCY SASSON & LUNA BRUSS photography ANGELINA CHAU design TANYA KLER styling CHENGYANG CHEN

Aside from biology, there are other facets of technology emerging in the fashion sphere, namely 3D printing. Manipulating the structure of clothing through the use of additive manufacturing has been instrumental in enhancing wearable art and 3D printing is used in fashion to create garments with novel shapes and structures. From accessories to prototypes, additive manufacturing has promoted sustainability in fashion and expanded customization options for designers and consumers.

Quick, waste-reducing prototyping equips designers with a better understanding of the volumes and shapes of designs without the use of strenuous production processes. The resulting designs are also more likely to be viable, which encourages designers to take more risks with accelerated revision and innovation processes.

These developments are especially valuable in haute couture because of the customizable, formfitting nature of 3D-printed garments – brands and

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designers find it easier to create pieces based on consumers’ specific needs and measurements.

Namely, designers like Iris Van Herpen and Zac Posen have brought 3D printed garments to major red carpets like the Met Gala and have implemented use of this technology in traditional areas of fashion.

To the average person, 3D-printed designer clothing may not be feasible for everyday wardrobe. Still, as these manufacturing strategies become refined and popularized, technology like this will become more broadly accessible.

Aside from haute couture, many brands and clothing lines are utilizing 3D printing – brands like Technē, a collaboration between fashion designer Chiara Giusti and digital manufacturing lab Superforma Fablab. Guisti is a proponent of the collaboration of art and science to reform the highly synthesized and duplicative market, encouraging designers to “combine their experience with the knowledge of scientists and engineers to further explore this sector.” By using Fused Deposition Modeling printers to deposit thermoplastic polyurethane onto stretched fabrics, Giusti has created a line of pieces with original 3D textures and geometries that requires fewer cuts and seams than traditional garments, thus producing less waste.

AS FASHION ADVANCES IN A PHYSICAL SENSE, IT INTERSECTS WITH THE DIGITAL METAVERSE IN UNPRECEDENTED WAYS.

As fashion advances in a physical sense, it intersects with the digital “metaverse” in unprecedented ways. Clothing is emerging as a tool to augment these realities through blockchain e-commerce, avatar costuming, and much more.

This use of digital garments most often materializes presently in the form of collaborations between fashion brands and video games. Gucci, for instance, collaborated with Roblox to digitally sell their famed Queen Bee Dionysus bag for 350,000 Robux, which is roughly equal to $4,000. Balenciaga also jumped on this trend by releasing their Summer 21 pre-collection in the form of a video game in which characters are dressed in looks from the collection. With sophisticated graphics and detailed virtual outfits, this collection made waves as a glimpse into the future of fashion and its capabilities.

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These technological advancements shed a light on the possibilities of growth and untapped potential of the fashion industry. Developments in sustainability efforts, textile creation, artificial intelligence, digital design, and blockchain inventory are only scratching the surface of how technology can improve fashion design and industry practices.

Several mainstream fashion brands are taking notice of this change, which is indicative of a widespread trend. As these practices become more popular among mainstream brands, we will begin to see just how big of a role technology can play in restructuring the industry. The future is upon us, and fashion as we know it will never be the same.

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Scen ent?

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What's

Your Scent? writing EBUBE ONWUSIKA modeling JORDAN ABBOUD photography PEYTON POLLARD design OLIVIA WANG

styling YEANI KWON

I watched fifty perfume ads. That’s enough, I feel, to create one of my own. You’re sitting on the bus, when it stops to let in more passengers. A couple of people move past you to find seats, and you catch the scent of the jasmine, rose centifolia, and ylangylang, signature of Chanel’s “No.5”, the world’s most popular fragrance. Your head swivels around to catch the person taking up space with their scent, but then you wake up, reach into your bag and pull out your Chanel No. 5, because – guess what – it’s your scent too. And probably Audrey Hepburn’s as well, because it’s been around for that long.

A whole century has passed since Chanel launched the gold perfume, but the product has remained a staple in the world of scents. It’s so iconic that people still wear it today. But how can a fragrance be that impactful? Maybe it’s the idea of something invisible leaving lasting impressions. Or something diffusible, holding together the aura and confidence that crowns an outfit or personality. Perfumes are often a silent emblem, an invisible trademark.

The class and elegance of a statement scent is something that the fashion and beauty industry will never see the end of, thanks to the esteem that it instills in its consumers and the timelessness of its use.

Fashion houses utilize a lot of creativity with fragrances, and it’s not hard to see the results of that. It shows in the ads, promotions, and physical structure of perfume bottles, from Jean Paul Gaultier’s legs for Scandal to Carolina Herrerra’s stilettos for Good Girl. Nevertheless, in order to understand why perfumes hold such a fun, suave, and steady place in the beauty industry, we have to understand when and why they became so popular and why something being so flexible gives it a firm place within the structure of the industry.

Perfumes of some sort have been around for thousands of years, and they’ve consistently been one of the more common forms of luxury.

As a result, fashion houses across the globe have implemented fragrance lines and they became a part of the fashion brand. The acclaimed Chanel No. 5 was first launched on May 5, 1921. It was one of the earliest perfume lines by a major fashion house, and the impact of the scent on the industry is still evident today as promotions are still ongoing.

(The most recent ad starring Marrion Cotillard was released on October 29, 2020). Many major houses followed suit after the success of No. 5. There have been lines by Dior: ads for “J’adore” and “Miss Dior” featuring Natalie Portman, Lancôme: “Idôle” featuring Zendaya, Jean Paul Gaultier: “Scandal” featuring Parker Van Noord and Imaan Hammam, just to name a few. A lot of the ads that I watched held story lines with majestic scenery and powerful ambience. Perfume ads are filmed like movies because through thirty-second videos, designers must convey the strength and unstoppability that they want their user to feel while wearing the fragrance. In turn, the user watches these ads with the idea of replicating the powerful femme or smooth homme in the video. Fragrances boomed in the 20th century because of the fairy-tales-setin-reality that they told and the way that they made people feel like a stronger, better, more attractive version of themselves. The actors in fragrance advertisements are always portrayed confidently to show consumers that by wearing the perfume, they can mirror this self-confidence and enhance who they are. In truth, our sense of smell is deeply tied to our memory and emotions, so sometimes the right perfume can be exactly what someone needs to feel confident (though probably not as confident as the celebrity actor in a perfectly shot Chanel ad).

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FORGET ZODIAC SIGNS, WHAT'S YOUR SCENT?

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The perfume industry is forecasting a growth of up to four billion dollars by 2025. As a result, it’s not difficult to see why musicians and actors have joined the fragrance market bandwagon. Having fans wear your cologne was a shared bond with the fandom, and can be a way for them to identify with the celebrity. Elizabeth Taylor was the first celebrity to ever create her own fragrance, and she enjoyed huge profits from its sales. Following suit, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, David Dobrik, One Direction, Justin Bieber, and more have released perfume lines over the last couple of decades. Some called it the “Celebrity Perfume Fad”, and these fragrances were usually huge hits for the first few weeks. However, these lines were created mostly as a marketing opportunity and another avenue for profit, rather than for consumers seeking to feel particularly elevated (and the quality generally reflected that).

Therefore, while celebrity perfumes have been popular, designer perfumes have remained at the peak of the lines.

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While fragrances were only a trend for pop culture, they are still story-telling devices in the fashion industry. Elie Saab is constantly creating scents that I personally love, “Girl of Now” for example.

Gaultier’s Scandal ad was lauded for being “contrasted, addictive and sensual, but also fresh and blazing” for men, and Dior’s “And You, What Would You Do For Love?” was named fragrance of the year (2017) for the #diorlovechain it started in order to raise money for the “WE Schools” Program.

Perfumes have created their own niche and use in the industry, and it seems they will remain essential in completing what fashion is for a lot of people — a statement. Perhaps that’s why it will always be in style, because it allows people to feel like they are adding sophistication to their clothing and pulling an expressive symbol of who they are together. It’s the final bow on a perfectly wrapped present, the cherry on top of a banana split sundae.

The stories, empowerment, fun and flair that comes from wearing perfumes are emblems of what fashion is supposed to be: freedom for those who find it as a way to show who they are and what they're about to the outside world. The tangible sense of cohesivity that comes with a scent is contrary to the way a scent works, it’s literally meant to spread out and take up space. But that tells whoever’s wearing it that that’s what they should do too – take up space – because they’re worth it.

Perfumes are not going anywhere because the way that they make people feel is something that simply cannot be forgotten. The structure, composition, and design of fragrance advertisements will only continue to promote these associations between luxury, identity, confidence, emotion, and scent.

Wearers, with the help of their own sense of smell, appreciation for luxury and beauty, and the influence of advertisements, choose a fragrance based on what they feel represents them and who they are.

So forget zodiac signs, what’s your scent?

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FUNCTION creative direction & photography SIMRAN GVALANI art direction KAELA ANDERSON design RENEE PEARCE contributing creative direction SAMIR A-RAHIM contributing art direction ABBY FALZONE contributing photo direction AUNG THANT KYAW & CALEM ROBERTSON & ANGELINA CHAU modeling ELLEN GEBRESELASSIE & KEVIN KIAMI styling direction HILLARY NANA-ADJEI & QUIRIN EMAN stylists RANDALL GEE & CHENGYANG CHEN makeup AZRA SCHORR

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THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF EACH OF THESE OUTFITS CAN CORRESPOND TO THE TACTILITY OF ALL THE “ODD” PIECES COMBINED. THE LOOKS COME OFF AS ARMORED DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF FEATURES THAT CAN BE PUT TO PRACTICAL USE AT ANY TIME.

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a. The skirt is a Burberry pleated double belted wool-blend mini b. The RWG Studio skeleton sleeves combined with the RWG Studio muscle bodysuit give the outfit the added flair of anatomical functionality.

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THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF THE INTERRUPTION OF

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The structure of a song can be compared to the experience of riding a rollercoaster: the pre-chorus is the climb up the slope; the hook is the moment you spend sitting at the peak, watching your feet dangle over a 100-foot drop; and the chorus is the plummet down the track as your heart leaps out of your chest.

The traditional song structure is as follows: verse,

chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus — more simply explained as ABABCB. This outline was routinely used by famous bands such as The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, and is currently employed by contemporary artists like Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez. This structure has been used to churn out hits one after another. While interesting songs can still have a verse and chorus, music becomes unique when artists choose not to follow the classic song format.

The human mind has the innate ability to find patterns in everything around us. Newly released music often sounds familiar because our brains are accustomed to traditional song structure.

Essentially, having a commonly-used structure in most music satisfies the human need to hear patterns. However, interrupting song structure challenges the brain’s preconceived expectations, covertly forcing the audience to pay attention to the broken norms in the music. This isn't a new concept in music; musicians have been doing it for years in order to differentiate their artistry from what has been done before.

writing ELLIE FULKERSON photography KIMBERLY CURRY

Some of the most influential music of the past generations are the songs that have broken song structure, by artists like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and The Beatles. “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin is famously known to be one of the best songs in the world, according to Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. But, the song structure of “Stairway to Heaven” more closely aligns with a poem's structure than that of a rock song. The song is broken up into three stanzas, each of which have their own distinct melody and speed.

The melody also closely follows the instruments, which is relatively atypical for musical composition.

Similarly, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of the few songs on the playing field which follows no structure, comprising several atypical sections.

Songs like these have proven to the rest of the music community that finding success in breaking song structure is possible.

The interruption of structure today is often aligned with breaking the confines of traditional music filed under a certain genre, whether this is the mold of production, song structure, or timing. Musicians including Tame Impala, Lorde, Maggie Rogers, SZA, Jaden, BROCKHAMPTON, Tyler the Creator, and Frank Ocean have become successful because of the genius in their compositions; they challenge the norm and allow for space and non-traditional song structure. In the sense of space, there are songs that allow physical space in their music, having a certain section of the song that is void of sound or by letting “air” into their music. “Breathe Deeper'' by Tame Impala does a great job at this.

modeling AISH ASHANABUOVA & KAYLA ANDERSON design ELANA LANE styling YEANNI KWO

In the song, he stops the beat at around 5 minutes in, only to start again using a different beat for the outro. By giving the song two different outros, he gives a space for listeners to think about the meaning of the first half of the song as well as about the music production. The listener has to fill that space with their own thoughts about the music.

Another great example of space in music is “Good Days'' by SZA. SZA creates a level of airiness in her music that transfixes the listener into feeling like they're floating. At the end of the song, she cuts all singing to give this overwhelming feeling of calm.

The allowance for space in music takes a lot of constraint from the artist's sense to let the musical production stand out above their voice.

Many of these artists have broken onto the pop music radar because they have broken through the wall of historically popular music structure, and are now celebrated for bringing fresh, highly creative, and innovative music to our ears. Maggie Rogers, for example, gained recognition for her genre-mixing in “Alaska,” successfully bridging the gap between electronic, folk, and pop music. The mix of lyricism and electronic music is balanced by changing the typical song structure to allow for breaks throughout the song.

Continuing to look at songs that have done well in the current music circuit, “One More Year” by Tame Impala, “BLEACH” by BROCKHAMPTON, and “Nights” by Frank Ocean all reject the typical ABABCB song structure. Not coincidentally, all of these artists are closely aligned with the production of the music they create. Musicians that both produce and write their music have full control over

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the entirety of their music, giving them the freedom to make unique bodies of work. Unfortunately, very few artists can do this while simultaneously being a part of well-known industry labels – popular record labels often dictate a formulaic song approach designed to crank out “pop hits.” The ability to self-produce allows for innovative creative independence to make not what is simply familiar, but instead, something sonically unique.

In the last five years, the capability to write, produce and release music has shifted from solely large record companies to including home-recording solutions. As technology makes it possible to create music from your home, new artists have entered the playing field. As a result, there are more opportunities for breaking the mold and finding success in uniquely formatted music.

The ability to create pop music is no longer held only by artists with record labels behind them, but also self-established creators. With the advent of streaming services, songs no longer have to follow the three-and-a-half-minute timeline required by radio to allow for advertising. The freedom that self-producing music has given artists has led them to create the music that they want to and thereby has created a listening audience that demands more and more musical diversity and interest.

Musicians who are breaking the molds of music are the ones we must keep our eyes on to find the new generation of artists who innovate. Music is far different now than it was 50 years ago, and it will be far different 50 years forward. It is clear that the future of music will be full of unique arrangements that we’ve never heard or conceived of before.

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I N T E R R U P T I N G SONG STRUCTURE CHALLENGES THE BRAIN’S PRECONCEIVED E X P E C TAT I O N S

A CRITIQUE ON THE TERM

WHITE PASSING 3

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Styles and trends help people explore and express new aspects of themselves, but they can also unwittingly inflict damage. Issues can arise especially with those that are physical, rather than material. In the last decade, beauty trends in the U.S. have shifted – we have begun to see fuller brows, darker and thicker hair, curls, curves, and everything in between as desirable. Social and traditional media have overflowed with advice on the maintenance of long hair, hacks on how to get fuller brows, workout routines, fillers, cosmetic surgeries, or excessive tanning. To many, these are new “trends” — but in reality, they are the natural features of many people of color, while historically, most beauty trends have centered on a white, European beauty standard. For as long as eurocentric beauty standards have existed, women of color have tirelessly attempted to change their natural appearance in the face of discrimination against and disdain for those same features, often experienced in their developmental years. Now, these women who grew up hating their natural appearance are seeing those same features praised on celebrities and models, sought after by many, and replicated through makeup and cosmetic procedures (often by white women).

Women of color go through their vulnerable years being berated, put at a disadvantage, because of

writing HALIMA DUARTE

the features that they have no control over. They are told to straighten their hair, are teased because of their lips, are forced to hear biased stereotypes of their heritage, or are told that they are too “mature” for their age. Even if they aren’t explicitly directed to reject their own bodies, the praise for white features and practices (and the established norms and beauty standards that surround them) create an internal pressure to conform. They are often forced to change themselves to avoid conflict, to adapt to a world ruled by whiteness – changing their clothes, “fixing” their hair, and doing whatever they can to assimilate. Now, after years of that struggle, they are compared to their oppressors. They are told they look like those who held the eurocentric standards they never could because white women are now copying the features blessed upon women of color naturally. This is what creates the issue with the term “white-passing,” as it has been coined, being adopted in modern rhetoric.

Although people have the freedom of choice to change their appearance when they feel fit, the issue that is created with white women participating in these specific trends is the resulting invalidation of the trauma and discrimination that has historically followed women of color. Instead of being able to embrace the natural beauty of their features or working through the discrimination they have faced

illustration ELANA LANE

design ELANA LANE

for their looks because of these trends, women who have a “trending” appearance are often marked as “white-passing.” Because the features of so many different races and ethnicities are now seen as desirable (and because many white women have resultantly adopted less eurocentric looks), women of color are less able to visually distinguish themselves as being part of a specific group. Rather than connecting with the beauty of their race or ethnicity, many women of color are being alienated from it or barred from identifying with it – because white people are now seen with their features, they look “white.”

The term white-passing generally refers to a person of a set racial group who can be perceived as white based on their phenotypes. This could be because of their natural hair color, the lightness of their skin, or other features that are not stereotypically indicative of their group or heritage. Now that white women have appropriated traditionally ethnic features, the interpretation of what is white and what is not has changed. Many features are no longer “stereotypically indicative” of any group because features typical to various ethnicities have become sought after and replicated, conglomerated into the current beauty standard. This interpretation tells people of color that there is no difference between them and those who have just adopted their trending features – they lose a part of their ethnic identity. Years of trauma, hate crimes, racism, or xenophobia are essentially made irrelevant because they are now identical to the majority – a majority that must be white, because that is how white people look, now. Referring to someone as “whitepassing” almost tells that person that the pain, distress, and agony that came with harassment and the enforcement of eurocentric features are not real, just because they decided that their features

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HAT WILL HAPPE N THE FUTUR HEN TREND

are finally acceptable to the public eye. As ethnic features are becoming desirable and are sought out by white women, women of color are being told that they are no more than their former bullies, that they can’t truly identify with their ethnicity, and that the discrimination that they experience is not real – all because they “look white.”

The harm in framing women of color as “white passing” comes with the way that we categorize people based on their level of whiteness – is being white the ultimate quality for a person to strive

towards? In considering people based on their proximity to whiteness and drawing comparisons based on it, we are centering whiteness as the superior race and writing different ethnicities off as other. Comparing people of color to how white they are furthers a white supremacist narrative and ignores the cultural importance of a person’s race or ethnicity (outside of not being white).

What will happen in the future when trends shift once again? Are Black, Indigenous, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander, Hispanic, all women of non-white ethnicities supposed to just get used to being discriminated against again? Will they be expected to change themselves again to deal with the world built against them? It seems that, at least based on historic behavior, people will continue to appropriate for their own gain with no appreciation or understanding of how it may affect those around them. Trends will once again be taken from minority communities for personal gain. What we can do as a community to support one another is to promote cross-racial alliances, further people’s understanding of the issues of appropriation and comparison to whiteness, celebrate the unique aspects that come with each person’s ethnicity, culture, and origin, and show appreciation of the beautiful, diverse features everyone holds – instead of holding those of one group superior.

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The first rule of maximalist interior design is the cliché: there can never be too much. Place brightly colored throw pillows on your patterned couch amidst walls covered in wallpaper and vintage art.

Maybe add a side table that’s too visually interesting to actually be functional, just for good measure. If you want something, embrace it.

The second rule of maximalism is the honest one: personalize your space until it feels like you. While this is the true, defining ethos of maximalism — that your space should feel like your space — the first rule is the one that people tend to associate with the design. Earning nicknames like “grand-millennial” and “cluttercore,” the perception of maximalism focuses on “stuff,” i.e., how much stuff you acquire, what you do with it, and where you put it.

In simpler terms, the maximalist aesthetic can be described as “a lot.”

It’s a noticeable contrast from its antecedent: minimalism. As the name suggests, minimalism seeks to eliminate the excess from your home.

This tends to mean farewell to the dozens of throw pillows, the orange couch, the patterned wallpaper, and hello to white walls, clean lines, and rooms that prioritize only the necessities. In terms of extreme minimalism, think of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s formerly shared home. In 2019, Kim referred to the all-white house as a “minimal monastery.”

Some Twitter users considered it more similar to a “rich mental asylum.” Kanye, who participated in the design process, shared photos on social media comparing the home to the “Sunken Place” from Get Out.

YOUR TREASURED POSSESSIONS DO NOT NEED TO BE EXPENSIVE, THEY MUST ONLY MATTER TO YOU.

writing GRACE HORNE photography SOFIA CIANCA

modeling REMI COHEN & LEO KONG design RACHEL OSBORNE

While minimalism seems to be the current favorite of the wealthy — as they spend millions to eschew worldly possessions and discard objects as proof of some moral ascendance — historically, this was not always the case.

In portraits and homes belonging to Western aristocracy throughout different eras, socalled “unnecessary” objects and possessions were opportunities to showcase wealth and extravagance. Rather than just letting objects speak for one’s personality or your identity, they sought to garner a perception that a person hoped to achieve.

With these objects, you weren’t just the owner of them, but a person with the means to be the owner, a person with the cultural know-how to understand a good purchase or investment, a person with the wisdom to collect things.

Due to the specific circumstances of collection, maximalism in this form could only be enjoyed by the rich. It was a state of differentiation between the wealthy and the working class. Maximalism, as a modern design choice, still shares similarities with its origins, even as more people are able to become collectors and curators of their own homes.

The recent revitalization of maximalism has coincided with the current pandemic — beginning with stay-at-home orders and continuing through 2022. This isn’t a coincidence. As we spend more and more time in our homes (or more likely for those reading this, dorms or apartments), there’s an increased desire for these spaces to reflect our personalities.

styling CHENGYANG CHEN

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Some of these changes are more contained, like curating the perfect Zoom background so your classmates think you’re cool and your co-op supervisor thinks you’re responsible — we’ve all been there. But some of these changes are bigger in amount but smaller in their intimacy: the adopted succulents, the handmade blanket that inspires both pride in the creation and constant fear that it will unravel, the books that double as decor and reading material, the photos and posters that are all relics of lives well lived — as fewer friends, acquaintances, and guests are allowed into our spaces, there’s an opportunity to recreate these spaces as entirely for us, by us.

The appeal of maximalism, beyond a reasonable backlash against minimalism, is this recentering of oneself in the home. Rather than focusing on aspirational purity — like some promoters of minimalism suggest, abandoning household objects on a whim, instead of through conscientious and personal design choices — maximalism urges people to create a space that mirrors themselves.

For some, this could mean a more minimal approach, and to most maximalist designers, the point of maximalism isn’t to simply acquire objects with no end in sight, but to create this place of self-reflection.

All this to say that maximalism isn’t just its historical roots — it’s something more.

The design style is still not universally accessible — it is easier and cheaper to live with fewer unnecessary belongings. But, even as maximalism found its roots in extreme wealth, modern maximalism turns more toward surrounding yourself with beloved items. In an era when so much of our lives still seem to be confined to our homes, what’s wrong with making that our favorite place to be?

Maximalism has shifted into a celebration of self and the things that we love. It is about the care that we put into objects; your treasured possessions do not need to be expensive, they must only matter to you.

My childhood bedroom is coated with relics from my life. When I talk about it, it is less of an ode to the (admittedly embarrassing) amount of Post-It notes, torn out journal entries, and photos of my friends, and more of an explanation of who I was through the belongings that I treasured. My first good grade in ninth grade English, the corsage from junior prom whose flowers have long since died, a “Best Dad” sticker that was an inside joke with someone whose name I can barely remember. While the room is perhaps not the peak of interior design (every time I go home, I contemplate what it would mean to fully redo it all), the four walls always feel like me.

Material possessions are not what give our lives meaning, but they can shape the outline of who we are and everything (or everyone) we’ve loved — and this aesthetic encourages us to embrace that. So hang up those photos, that artwork, too, and don’t forget about displaying that poster your mother swore up and down you didn’t need, because maximalism is about following no one’s rules but your own.

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THE CRITICAL ROLE

writing JESSICA BRITE modeling INYENEOBONG USUA photography AMIRAH IBRAHIM design TANYA KLER

styling LUCIA MARAGNO

Competition shows like Next in Fashion, Project Runway and Glow-Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star all showcase editorial makeup as an element in pulling off a successful model look or campaign — however, what many might not realize is just how much of an impact it can make. Stylists, designers, and makeup artists all work together to create an aligned vision for what they want the audience to take away from the produced content. So, to put it simply, editorial magazine shoots and fashion runway shows are the culmination of the work of creatives across several industries.

While runway shows are first and foremost meant to showcase and promote designers’ new collections, they are often created with the intention of sharing the story behind them. This is where a model’s makeup comes into play, acting as the bridge between the articles of clothing and the show’s general ambiance, delivered by the set design and music. In a broad sense, outside of the outfit itself, makeup most directly impacts the theme and tone of an overall look.

For example, if a show is meant to deliver a more accessible, or “everyday”, tone, it is likely that the makeup would lend itself to be more natural — with the artist using flawless skin techniques to highlight the model’s natural features, while ensuring everything looks precise to give off an editorial feeling. If the creative vision for a show skews more avant-garde, makeup artists likely have more creative freedom and construct statement looks — whether that be with color block looks that reshape a model's face or with the use of face jewels to bring a three-dimensional element to the look.

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This kind of editorial makeup has existed in the industry for nearly as long as fashion shows have been around. Long before the rise of social media, editorial shoots and runway shows served as the primary space for makeup artists to showcase their talents in a way that spotlit them as industry leaders. Nowadays, it is easy for media consumers to overlook the importance of makeup in shoots, since we are so used to seeing extravagant makeup looks on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where this type of content has become abundant.

In the world of runway makeup artists, icons like Val Garland and Pat McGrath are recognized as pioneers in the fashion industry for bringing their bold and creative looks to runway shows since the 80s and 90s, respectively.

In a 2019 interview with Dazed Beauty, Garland expressed that when she is crafting looks for shows she “always like to create characters, to tell stories, hopefully, some interesting ones. [She doesn’t] like to follow rules or trends.”

The idea of creating characters is something that holds true for most makeup artists, as they focus their looks to tell the story of the designers or convey the theme of the show that they are working on. Just like in a story, these “characters” are used to help deliver a narrative.

For example, in the Gareth Pugh SS16 show, the rather eclectic makeup helped tell the story of the Soho, London nightlife collection. Garland created masks out of sheer tights using different pigments to draw on bold eyeshadow, thick black brows, a red lip and a beauty spot. Explaining the vision behind the idea in an interview with AnOther Magazine, Garland described that they wanted to place the looks in the 80s disco scene, because that is what inspired them. This is why they went with the signature electric blue eyeshadow of the 80s, “It was all about theatre, about becoming your alter ego. Once they put on the stockings, the girls became these plastic mannequins.”

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The “Mother” of makeup herself Pat McGrath works similarly to Garland, envisioning her beauty looks as ones that not only complement, but add to, the designer’s vision.

In addition to the creative vision, much of the impact and success of fashion shows can be accredited to the makeup itself, in the way that it helps audiences digest and interpret the designs presented to them. This is because many shows use makeup as the one consistent piece throughout their entire presentation, to help every piece of the collection feel connected.

This stands true even for makeup looks that may come off as rather simple, like the looks used in the Versace SS22 Ready-to-wear collection. The show opened with models dressed in essentially full black ensembles, with accents of colors brought in with small embellishments like safety pins. As the show continued, each of the outfits progressively brought out more and more color until full monochrome pink, green and blue looks walked the runway. Under the creative direction of McGrath, all of the models had a fresh face base with neon washes of color that covered the whole lid and winged out.

Having this idea of color introduced in the beginning of the show, rather than just randomly popped in the middle, helped tie the show together, from the very beginning to the end.

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Hair also plays a role in creating this narrative or “character,” as related by Garland. Vogue does an incredible job at executing these creative visions, especially through their cover shoots. With a styling, makeup, and hair team, the magazine is able to convey key points from each of their cover stars’ stories and visually pull it into a look.

Think Taylor Swift’s May 2016 Vogue cover, a teaser for her (then upcoming) reputation era (the look was encapsulated by a short bleach-blonde bob, short silver dress, and bright red lipstick), Billie Eilish’s June 2021 old-Hollywood-glamor cover (which told the story of reclaiming her own style complete with pin curls and blush rose-toned makeup), or Lorde’s August 2021 “Force of Nature” cover (styled with wet slick back hair, light gold eyeshadow, and natural blush that fit the aura of her recentlyreleased album Solar Power).

As much as makeup is used to enhance the natural beauty of models, it independently has the power to tell a story. By using makeup as a storytelling tool, makeup artists are able to solidify narratives in a way that has an immense impact on the way that fashion looks, and even entire collections, are interpreted by audiences.

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SUITS: THE T I M E PIECE 5

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L E S S writing ANJALI DHAWAN photography ELLIE MACLEAN

modeling ANJALI DHAWAN & MORGAN DOBBS & WOODY LINDOR design ALEXIS KNIGHT styling WOODY LINDOR

No matter the era, the suit has remained everpresent as a staple clothing ensemble, adapting to the culture and needs of society at the time.

The suit has never left; it has just changed.

The first time we saw apparel like the contemporary suit was over a hundred years ago, when, according to GQ magazine, men abandoned stockings, cropped trousers, waistcoats, and frock coats for a more practical trouser-jacket ensemble.

Following its introduction, the structure of the suit, as that of most fashion pieces, has reflected its culture and context. GQ gives the example of the Great Depression and World Wars, when fashion was nowhere near the top of economic priorities.

Men were far more focused on necessities, like making a living. Apparel manufacturers had to prioritize military uniforms, leaving far less room for variety in fashion. To accommodate these more utilitarian needs, the suit was simplified; these suits were made out of rayon (a lower-quality fabric than wool and tweed) in neutral colors (like navy blue, black, and brown) and were designed to be functional rather than stylish, with straight-legged trousers and relaxed-fit jackets.

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In parallel, as women broke into the workforce and feminist movements pushed for equality across genders, women attempted to find as many ways as possible to gain status and respect in a maledominated society. As described by Vogue, the women’s pantsuit originated in the 1920s, but it was hardly accepted; only fashion’s elite could embrace the style. Even then, most women who wore suits still faced social outcry. The traditionally masculine silhouette clashed with societal expectations of women, so much so that women could be arrested for “impersonating a man” by wearing a style that was so traditionally masculine, according to Vogue.

With time, however, things started to change in women’s fashion. Designers like Yves Saint Laurent began designing and selling women’s pantsuits and Vogue magazine began publishing early articles predicting the rise of the pantsuit.

As women worked their way into more prominent positions in the workforce, they found ways to advocate for more equitable treatment, and one of the more subliminal ways this could be done was through the clothes they wore. Wearing a pantsuit, which was visually similar to a men’s suit but more

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tailored toward a woman’s body, mirrored the look of male peers, quietly asserting a more equal status with men. With time, the suit steadily evolved into a staple women’s style. Dressing in suits, women wore the power that they were working so hard to earn.

Cultural revolutions starting in the mid century brought equally revolutionary takes on suit style, from bold prints to bright colors to creative designs. According to GQ, in the 80s, for example, with an elevated national focus on economic extravagance and the iconography of the wealthy businessman, men found ways to claim this status in the fashion of their suits. The “Power Suit” was a way of life for men in business; wide-shouldered jackets, pinstripes, pleats, and other embellishments became a way for men to conspicuously show their wealth or exude confidence and style.

In recent years, major houses such as Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, and Versace have continued to design iconic looks for the runway and increasingly for countless fashion-forward celebrities. What was once an exclusively utilitarian garment is now

glamorized by celebrities on runways and red carpets. Zendaya has made waves in suits made of crushed red velvet, hot pink, and ombre pink sequins - so much so that magazines like Insider have dedicated countless articles to her love for the style. Harry Styles has headlined a world tour wearing unique, custom Gucci suits for each show, often featuring bold prints or sparkles. Even Lady Gaga has made statements in head-turning suits.

Most notably, as reported by Harper’s Bazaar, she wore an extremely oversized power suit by Marc Jacobs while speaking about the power of women in the music industry. Ultimately, with the influence of these high fashion designers, the major celebrities who wear their designs, and consumers’ endless love of such a classic style, the suit persists as an iconic silhouette upon which to base new designs and new trends.

The suit is more flexible now than ever, whether in the fashion-forward creations of famous designers or the street style outfits of everyday people. It’s easy to see how this irreplaceable style isn’t going anywhere. That’s the beauty of the suit — it’s absolutely timeless.

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photography AUNG THANT KYAW art direction KAELA ANDERSON creative direction SIMRAN GVALANI contributing creative direction SAMIR A-RAHIM design OLIVIANNE IRIARTE models HILLARY NANA-ADJEI & MADDIE CASEY & RANDALL GEE contributing art direction ABBY FALZONE styling direction HILLARY NANA-ADJEI & QUIRIN EMANGA

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When I walked into Pammy’s, passing the thick velvet curtains that kept the winter cold at bay, I immediately knew that I had entered a special space.

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writing ALLIE KUO

photography LAUREN LOONEY

design OLIVIA WANG

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This Cambridge restaurant invited me in with low, warm lighting and made me feel at home with its equally warm service. Throughout my meal, I couldn’t stop looking at the dining room from the comfort of my booth seat, taking in details like the vases of fresh flowers and the large communal table in the center of the room. I was as infatuated with the space as I was with the food in front of me.

When I decide to eat out, I often do so because I want an experience. I do not want to be sitting at my own dining table — I want to be transported to a place that enhances this simple act of eating, whether it’s a Michelin-starred restaurant or a counter-serve cafe. And so often, we take a beautiful space for granted. We sit, surrounded by details born out of thoughtful decisions, without giving them a second thought.

Days later, as Pammy’s remained in my mind, I considered more deeply the idea that ambience does not create itself. There are elements that occur organically — the bright hum of a dinner rush crowd, the groups that linger deep into dessert and digestifs — but for the most part, restaurants are carefully planned spaces.

A restaurant’s design is born from the collaboration between architects and interior designers who create spaces that speak to its diners. There are logistical questions, like where the bar will be, how the existing architecture of the building will play into the design, and what kind of lighting will light each area of the restaurant.

From there, each design studio follows their own process with a client to develop the space. Jeffrey Katz, co-owner of C&J Katz Studio in South Boston, finds that each project takes a different path.

“Sometimes the concept is well-established and

AMBIENCE DOES NOT CREATE ITSELF – IT REQUIRES CAREFUL AND DETAILED PLANNING

we’re creating an environment that works with the client’s vision. Sometimes they come to us with nothing more than a menu idea… There is no set approach,” Katz said.

Some clients of C&J Katz Studio include B&G Oysters, Sportello, and No. 9 Park. A client’s vision may not always be clear, and Katz said it’s their job to tease a concept out of whatever they’re given.

“Some can articulate what they are hoping for very clearly. Some depend on us to help define what they are after. The goal is to make the best possible version of what the client has in mind — even if it’s vague,” Katz said.

It’s a deeply collaborative process that ensures that a restaurant’s final form is expressed to its fullest potential. Matt Arnold, an architecture associate at Hacin + Associates, has worked with clients who know — or don’t know — what they want that final form to look like. With Shore Leave, an underground tropical bar in the South End, the studio posted 50 adjectives on the wall and asked their clients to eliminate the words they didn’t like, leaving the ones that would embody their future space. On the other hand, with Flour Bakery + Cafe, a beloved Boston chain, Hacin + Associates was presented with an existing idea that needed tweaking.

He pointed out that the involvement of chefs in these projects tends to be higher than clients in other projects, like residential spaces.

“We digested the current design concepts used in their spaces and came up with a plan to interpret the existing attributes but re-envision them in a slightly more elevated way,” Arnold said. Those digital menus you see at Flour locations across town? That’s just one way Hacin + Associates found a way to incorporate consistent branding for the chain without starting from scratch.

Like any other art form, restaurant design finds inspiration from all facets of life, from a restaurant’s actual surroundings to destinations across the globe. Because a restaurant is nothing but a kitchen without its customers, an architect or designer must consider how these aesthetic ideas tie into the diner’s experience.

I saw this successfully executed at Pammy’s, my thoughts mirroring what the architects at BLOOM Architecture wanted to capture with the space.

“Remember that chefs, who are often heavily involved in the design, are creatives and bring a lot of visual ideas to the table,” Bloom said.

“They generally want to see a lot of options, and they continually introduce changes, almost like perfecting a recipe.”

However, there’s a reason restaurants turn to design studios for their expertise. These teams know how to bring their client’s vision to life while balancing the integrity of the initial vision. It’s not just about picking out chairs and wallpaper — it’s about creating a cohesive feeling, one that is not dictated by its individual elements. Rebecca Rivers, an interior designer at Hacin + Associates, says the job of a designer is “to make a space feel like a perfect fit when you walk in.”

“All aspects of design, from layout to lighting, are working to build the ambiance of a space that feels great, even if you might not be able to pinpoint what it is when you walk in,” Rivers said.

“We drew [inspiration] from many sources, the common features being intimate lighting and casual comfort. The idea was that the food would be at the highest level, but the décor would not be intimidating or formal like many high-end restaurants. People can come dressed casually and enjoy one of the best meals in Boston,” Derek Bloom, president of BLOOM, said.

Similarly, Katz says that the “aura, or the attitude” is the first thing he notices in a space, and that’s what C&J Katz Studio tries to capture in their work.

Much like Katz and Arnold, Bloom said that every restaurant follows a unique design process after basic spatial concepts are established — these are the “technical requirements that support the visitor experience, such as the commercial kitchen, accessibility, egress, bathrooms, storage, [and] prep space.”

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“It’s the most elusive thing… We’d be pleased if guests didn’t remember details of the space as much as they remembered how much fun it was, or how elegant it was, or how warm it felt,” Katz said.

Next time you go out to eat, remind yourself to not take the experience for granted. It’s a time to tuck away your phone, tune in to the people and space around you, and engage all of your senses. Think of it as more than just dining — immerse yourself in a space that was thoughtfully designed for you.

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euphoria THE IMPACT OF

ON THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY

HBO’s hit teen drama Euphoria premiered in Summer 2019 with an award-winning first season, centering around an unnamed LA suburb teeming with raunchy, avant-garde teenagers. The characters donned carefully-crafted makeup looks and outfits and dealt with a host of society’s most prominent issues with E-cigarettes and opiates glued to the palms of their hands. From unraveling complex relationships and family dynamics to the intoxicating environments and immaculate cinematography of house parties and amusement parks, many compared watching the show for the first time to feeling like they were in a fever dream, completely immersed in the emotional realism that director Sam Levinson worked diligently over months with the cast and crew to create and convey to his audiences.

While the show quickly became known for its stunningly heightened portrayal of high school life and the second season has maintained the popularity and role in pop culture amassed by the first, perhaps one of the show’s most lasting impacts has been that on the beauty industry.

The show exhibited a level of expression through makeup that had seldom been seen in the commercial space before Euphoria’s premiere.

writing SARA AKHTAR design DAISY TULLER

modeling NOAH WENDEL styling JARRIAH COCKHREN

Unlike many teen dramas in the past, the characters of the show regularly donned vibrant, artistic makeup looks with jewels lining the creases of their eyelids, and smudges of graphic liner and glitter all over.

Spearheading the revolution was Doniella Davy, the head makeup artist on the show whose main inspiration stemmed from Gen-Z’s expressive looks on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. “I’ve admired the Instagram accounts of many Gen Z artists, not just makeup artists, but just, like, people that are just doing makeup on their [accounts],” Davy told Entertainment Weekly. “No better example of this [makeup] exists out there other than what Generation Z is doing right now.”

Davy’s mission with the show was to disrupt the structure within the industry by bringing creative, yet wearable looks to mainstream television to mirror the current generation of teenagers; “The Euphoria style of makeup I really believe already existed. And it was just a matter of myself gathering it all up and putting my own aesthetic twist on it as an artist

photography RUBY TRVALIK

and then pushing it forward into the limelight so to speak.” She, along with Levinson, hoped to inspire self-expression in the audience and to challenge existing beauty and makeup norms: “That’s what Sam, the creator, wanted for the characters. There’s no set look. The kids are constantly in flux. They’re constantly evolving.”

own boundaries and take a break from the previous era of Glossier-style minimalist beauty. Davy was suddenly receiving millions of tags per day on Instagram and TikTok of fans recreating her and her team’s looks. With Davy and her team having used products from their lines to create the looks, brands such as Stila and NYX began to produce content revolving around Euphoria and how fans could recreate the eyeshadow looks adorned by their favorite characters.

This was achieved through the creation of makeup looks inspired by Gen Z, and style icons such 60s supermodel Twiggy and legendary jazz singer Nina Simone, whose rhinestone-centered eye looks formed the basis of actress Alexa Demie’s iconic teal cat-eye liners and smoky eyes throughout the season as Maddy Perez. The makeup was meant to engage with viewers as an alternate mode of storytelling, with Demie’s looks mirroring her character’s bold nature: “I wanted Maddy’s liner to be reminiscent of a shiny knife when the light hits it because of the way she cuts through everyone’s bullshit in this episode,” said Davy in an Instagram post.

As mentioned by Vogue, “Euphoria’s aesthetics ignited a cultural fervor that inspired everything from social media trends to themed parties—even influencing runway shows at New York Fashion Week so heavily that W magazine dubbed the phenomenon “the Euphoria effect.”

Hunter Schafer’s character Jules Vaughn had a similar inspiration. Like Hunter herself, Jules is an artist. Davy wanted to challenge makeup and gender conformity, having an element of experimentation to each look Schafer wore to symbolize her character’s relationship with femininity and sexual identity as a trans woman, often incorporating neon doodles or intense graphic inner corner liners to convey the character’s inner thought processes.

In the end, Davy and Levison’s efforts hardly went unnoticed.

Social media’s reaction after the show premiered in 2019 exceeded the showrunners’ expectations, as well, with Gen Z and millennials thoroughly moved by the vibrance and experimental nature of the show’s makeup looks, inspiring many to push their

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Shows at NYFW 2019, such as those of Jeremy Scott, Christian Siriano, Chromat, The Society, The Blonds, and more, featured models in bright green and neon eye makeup, referencing Euphoria’s vibrant compositions. “I am [seeing more makeup] this season, people seem to be more into it,” said Diane Kendal, a makeup artist backstage at Tory Burch. “They’re talking about that show ‘Euphoria’.

It is funny. I have to watch it.”

As a college student, walking into house parties sometimes feels like I have entered the same fever dream-esque world featured on the show. A haze of smoke and dimmed magenta lighting, and I half expect to turn a corner to see a glittery, cokedup Zendaya doing lines off of a coffee table with Labrinth’s soundtrack blaring in the back. Instead, I am met by a tamer, although highly expressive generation of individuals, who have taken the core ideals that Davy and Levison sought to integrate into their work, and manifested them into their lives through their fashion choices, makeup looks, and more.

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DISRUPT THE STRUCTURE DISRUPT THE STRUCTURE DISRUPT THE STRUCTURE

REINVENTION & REVERBERATION: GENDER NORMS IN MUSIC Are there “eras” within a life?

“Women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard at 35,” Taylor Swift explained in her documentary “Miss Americana.” “Everyone is a shiny new toy for, like, two years. The female artists have reinvented themselves 20 times more than the male artists. They have to – or else you’re out of a job. Constantly having to reinvent, constantly finding new facets of yourself that people find to be shiny.”

In order to be successful, women in the music industry are faced with a choice: to relent to an impossible task, or to be forgotten. This stems from problematic assumptions based on their age, gender, and race which create imbalanced pressures on female artists – the law of the land in entertainment.

These unspoken rules affect singer-songwriters like Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, pop stars like Ariana Grande and Katy Perry, and rappers like Nicki Minaj and Doja Cat. To sustain interest in a brand, reinvention is necessary, especially for an artist tied to a particular image. Breaking a woman’s life into “eras” is one way to keep it exciting for the public. Women in music are expected to find their niche, then find appropriate new ones to keep their audience interested, tiptoeing around criticism to form their art.

And yet it’s not enough.

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writing CLARA McCOURT photography MIA RAPELLA

modeling CELINE PLAISIR & ANVI GAMPA & ERICA JACKSON design MARENA RAMIREZ stylists WOODY LINDOR

REINVENTION ISN'T BAD

Cyrus has since moved into psychedelia, country, and rock n’ roll sounds – a full 360-degree turn – yet Cyrus has still been met with condescension.

“Few other celebrities have put their misguided attempts at an image makeover on full display as Cyrus has, and after back-to-back eras as a twerking shock jock and a Flaming Lips psych-pop princess, the sweeping rock homage of Plastic Hearts initially comes across as playing it safe,” reads a review of her 2020 album “Plastic Hearts” in Rolling Stone.

Reinvention Lorde’s “Solar Power” took the introspective songwriter from the moody art-pop of “Melodrama” to the sunny beaches of self-acceptance in her 2021 album. On paper, this is the perfect reinvention, mirroring the singer’s growth from a lost teen to a fulfilled adult. However, the public didn’t seem to think so.

Such is the central hypocrisy of the music industry: reinvention is both necessary and demonized. Fear of change permeates the public as women attempt to progress their careers.

More of the same

“It is the first Lorde album that doesn’t try to tug on your sleeve, or stare directly into your eyes. It feels like doing less,” reads the 6.8-rated Pitchfork review of “Solar Power.”

But what happens if a female artist doesn’t reinvent? What if she wants to follow in the footsteps of, say, Ed Sheeran or John Mayer as they put out album after album of mellow guitar ballads, racking in millions of dollars in the process? These male artists are never called “boring” for not progressing in their art, instead called “clever” for sticking to a certain image, in an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it manner.

The album garnered mid-to-low reviews, with many of them lamenting Lorde’s apparent abandonment of the sad-girl aura of her previous album. An album celebrating her happiness was called everything from “drab” to “boring” to “basic.”

The public criticized the reincarnation of Lorde’s artistry, instead wishing for more of the same.

Variety praised Ed Sheeran’s newest album “=” for its similarities to its predecessors. “The songsmith unashamedly sticks to his winning formula on album four, which makes perfect sense commercially,” Variety wrote in its review.

“Nothing against Lorde,” reads a tweet from a fan, “but being happy is corny.”

In perhaps the most famous celebrity reinvention of the past 10 years, Miley Cyrus shed her good-girl image for a hypersexualized version of herself at an infamous performance at the 2013 VMAs. While fans lamented the death of the “old Miley,”

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Similarly, Ariana Grande’s “Positions” was a direct successor to her albums “thank u, next” and “Sweetener.” In the album, Grande does what she does best – belted pop hits and ballads, characterized by catchy lyrics and production. As follow-up to her previous two albums, “Positions” was called “unoriginal,” “generic,” and “nothing new,” and was even deemed the “most boring Ariana Grande album.”

Grande openly spoke out about the actions women in pop supposedly have to take to make their album a success.

“My dream has always been to put out music in the way that a rapper does. I feel like there are certain standards that pop women are held to that men aren’t,” Grande told Billboard in 2018. “We have to do the teaser before the single, then do the single, and wait to do the preorder, and radio has to impact before the video, and we have to do the discount on this day, and all this s–t.”

Moving along Unfortunately, the impossible standards that women are held to are unlikely to ever disappear.

In the music industry, there will always be a fresh face, there will always be a downfall, and there will always be a comeback. It’s cinematic; it’s exciting for the public.

However, the toll this takes on female artists should be recognized. When will female musicians be permitted to have a “formula” or a “familiar image?”

Reinvention isn’t bad. In fact, switching up a narrative can be beneficial commercially, and more importantly, artistically. But the artists should be in control of when they do and don’t — not public opinion.

The only way this can happen is if heavy-hitters like Swift and Grande continue to speak out on behalf of women in music, and uplift the voices of artists who experience different forms of prejudice as well and are often further hindered by them (like those based on their race, ethnicity, or sexuality). This creates a conversation, but more importantly, a community. By opening up the topic for discussion, female artists of the future will be less afraid to establish creative control in their work. These actions are baby steps to dismantling the gendered hierarchy present in the music industry.

"Be new to us, be young to us, but only in a new way and only the way we want," Swift added in her documentary. "Reinvent yourself but only in a way that we find to be equally comforting and a challenge for you … That’s what I thought they wanted. I had to deconstruct an entire belief system, toss it out, and reject it.”

antifashion:

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a stor y of rebellion

writing LILY ELWOOD modeling ALEXI DAGNACHEW & SARAH SHIFERAW & SASHA SHRESTHA photography HILARY NANA-ADJEI design RACHEL OSBORNE styling RANDALL GEE

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THE BREAKING OF CONVENTIONS IS NECESSARY FOR THE WORLD OF FASHION known as dominatrix-chic anti-fashion. Jean Paul Gaultier was using underwear as outerwear, putting harnesses and pasties on Eva Herzigova, creating a full body and face houndstooth bodysuit inspired

by Leigh Bowery, and originating the optical illusion catsuit. More recently, in the 2000s, Iris van Herpen built her brand upon fashion combined with technology, using her craft to make exaggerated shapes, and, as the maison of Iris van Herpen says, transcend boundaries.

Designers like Mugler, Gaultier, and van Herpen

have utilized their runway shows to feature wearable art, garments that are beyond the confines of what fashion previously had been.

Without anti-fashion, the borderlines that have been defined for conventional fashion would never have been pushed back. Especially now, anti-fashion is refreshing for audiences amidst the hundreds of extremely similar fast-fashion brands — doing something new is necessary.

The opposite end of the anti-fashion spectrum is amorphous, basic clothing that breaks fashion back down to its essentials. This version of the anti-fashion movement, associated with hippies and “bra-burning” feminists who fought against consumerist systems, began in the 70s. Feminists also used this movement to rebel against the (then male-dominated) fashion industry that had created restrictive, impractical clothing for women. Drab, muted colors are the staple here, and it makes

Rejecting fashion – whether by creating over-thetop, avant-garde looks or by wearing the simplest outfit possible – inevitably makes a statement. By stepping out of the bounds of “normal” fashion, you are immediately intertwined with years of anti-fashion history that has offered political commentary, refused gender roles, and reversed conventions. Anti-fashion is really defined as any attempt to rebel against mainstream fashion standards, the fashion industry, and the rules put in place within it.

The concept itself is rather ambiguous – where do we draw the line between mainstream fashion and that which rejects it? Anti-fashion, in the first sense, is about constructing a garment that is so otherworldly and novel that it has never been seen on runways before. It is finding something beautiful in a look that is strange and outside of the fashion norms. It breaks boundaries intentionally, meant to make onlookers think after they leave the room. It’s about defiance and creation in the excess.

The 80s and 90s are really where this kind of anti-fashion began, and are the decades where most avant-garde origins lie. Questioning the real meaning of beauty and what was truly aesthetically appealing (or unappealing) to viewers, designers were drawn to silhouettes and structures that broke ideas of what fashion “should” be. Mugler, at this time, was conceiving over the top shapes for women’s bodies and pioneering what is now

a radical statement against spending frivolous amounts of money on excesses of clothing.

Comme des Garcons, for example, in the SS84 show, presented a runway full of models adorned with shapeless, black or gray clothing. One New York Times journalist was quoted saying that “either the Japanese movement is the most exciting thing to happen to fashion in years, or it’s an outrage, a travesty of what clothes are supposed to be about.”

It was so utterly basic that it was something unseen on runways before. Despite not creating something outrageous or extravagant, this show was still able to make audience members question whether it actually was fashion or not. Minimalist choices on and off the runway often make for an astounding repudiation of existing fashion ideals.

Even today, anti-fashion continues to take new forms as Generation Z increases their involvement in the industry. It could be argued that the current movement for sustainability among the younger generation is the newest evolution of rejecting fashion. Just by knitting yourself a sweater, you are actively rebelling against today’s highly saturated fast-fashion industry. Gen Z’s engagement in climate justice has led many of its members to refuse buying clothing from large corporations (or any new clothing at all), only participate in thrifting, or in some cases, create their own clothes. This act of resistance against the exorbitant waste by fashion conglomerates seems like a resurgence of the 1970s-era anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideologies that fueled the first phase of anti-fashion.

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We also see anti-fashion evolving for Generation Z especially on TikTok, where teenage and youngadult content creators push the boundaries of what constitutes an actual outfit. @Griffinmaxwellbrooks, for instance, has said that “there is no such thing as ugly. There is only hot and camp.” Much of their content revolves around creating wearable art for everyday outings, from using a headlamp as an accessory to wearing torn mesh bodysuits and dresses. @Tinyjewishgirl has been known to break the meaning of fashion every time she so much as puts on a pair of earrings. Her followers watch her videos to see her pair a Thomas the Tank Engine vest with a striped shirt and banana-printed pants, or a Hello Kitty Band-aid with a fuzzy bucket hat, a wrap-top made out of a scarf, and cheetah print pants. The new era of youth fashion often grapples for ingenuity, with creators like these on TikTok finding the most unusual ways possible to stand beyond the outskirts of traditional fashion.

Anti-fashion, in all of its variations, has continued to revolutionize what it means to wear clothing since its inception. The breaking of conventions is necessary for the world of fashion to stay relevant.

Fashion and anti-fashion cannot exist without the other, constantly reacting to the products that come out of the other side. Anti-fashion will undoubtedly continue to evolve and find new ways to truly astonish the public and fight against normalcy and the fashion establishment.

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THE BEAUTY OF THE UGLY

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Pat McGrath is one of the biggest names in the beauty industry, but she isn’t popular for playing it safe. McGrath cultivated her fame through bold experimentation of beauty trends, single-handedly changing the standard of a once rigid statute of beauty. McGrath is known for the fruition of so many outlandish looks, many of which stand by her rebellious nature – following the rules is not up her alley. McGrath’s rejection of the status quo has led her to create numerous trends within the last twenty or so years, all of which have remained prevalent (and many of which were seen as “bizarre” or “ugly” at the time).

From introducing blue mascara at Stella McCartney in 2012, to normalizing gem studs in 2014, McGrath has changed the name of the beauty industry permanently.

Apart from testing the existing model for doing makeup, McGrath has experimented with many of her own styles. One of McGrath’s most memorable looks took place in 2014, when she covered a model’s face in gems at a runway premiere.

Refracting light from the hundreds of opal-tinted sequins and sparkles, the look didn’t exactly scream glamor. Of course, her idea implored confusion; not everyone understood her vision.

But the controversy and the floating around of ideas was exactly what made her work so

writing ROCIO YANEZ modeling KESIA DAVIES & RUBY TRVALIK photography SAM STEENSTRUP design MARENA RAMIREZ

influential. McGrath would not be where she is today if she had decided to stick to wellestablished standards of what was considered “beautiful” throughout her career, and the makeup industry as we know it would have been left untouched, rigid standards of beauty and all.

Things that are beautiful aren’t always pretty (and vice versa), but how is this distinction established?

Beauty, for decades, has been a clear-cut definition of what societal norms have deemed it to be.

Despite beauty being an entirely subjective matter, it has been ingrained into our brains as objective, and we have been taught time and time again that “beautiful” things are the ones that fit a specific mold. Straying far from this mold is something that very few have dared to do, until now.

The idea of “ugly” aesthetics has recently entered the social forefront, coming in different waves of TikTok trends. The app has allowed people to express themselves creatively through external forms, putting on display controversial, head turning looks. Many creators on the platform have gone viral for their eccentric makeup looks or outfits, cultivating a melting pot of both negative and positive feedback. One creator that has stood out among many is @TinyJewishGirl, a fashion blogger based in New York City who has made it

styling RANDALL GEE

her mission to emphasize the dichotomy between the ugly and the beautiful. Clara Perlmutter, the mastermind behind @TinyJewishGirl, has built an army of supporters who, much like her, have dared to push the boundaries of what is deemed “aesthetically pleasing”. Although Perlmutter makes her mark on the world as fashion Tik Toker, she has also displayed many controversial beauty looks, making them all uniquely her own. As she plays with clothing textures and colors, Perlmutter experiments with makeup, adding a new sense of depth into an already larger-than-life outfit. Instead of sticking to tradition, Perlmutter bends the boundaries that have long been held by makeup artists. Whether it be adding bright pigments onto her eyes, lightening her eyebrows, or highlighting her under eye circles; none of her looks are quite the same, nor do they fit within the standard societal parameters of beauty. As she gains more and more attention from the public eye, so do Perlmutter’s makeup patterns, allowing the idea of ugly looks to flourish. Hundreds of thousands upon millions of other creators have followed in her footsteps, pushing the boundaries and creating a new definition of what attractiveness and beauty are.

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As ugly aesthetics makes their rise, so too comes back the overall societal acceptance of extreme aesthetic trends. TikTok has become the social media app to express creativity and liberality and has become a catalyst for ugly trends, but other social media platforms are also forums for the growing appreciation of the ugly. Millions of people get their fashion and beauty inspiration from social media, making it so that we (theoretically)

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MAKING NONCONFORMITY A NEW STANDARD

have the power to control trends with one simple Instagram post. The newfound widespread appreciation of the “ugly” aesthetic has boomed within the last couple years, and along with it numerous subgenres of acute aesthetics that part from typical rigid standards. These little pockets of extremities have slowly but surely started to normalize and welcome the element of ugliness into our everyday lives, and honestly, it’s about time. Our current ideals of beauty are long overdue for reinterpretation, so what better way than to implicate elements of mainstream ugliness into our routine? We have been following the same strict mold for decades, rendering ourselves to the harsh critiques that come from breaking away from the mainstream. “Ugly beauty” has made it possible for people to explore their creative boundaries, take risks, and feel beautiful within their own skin – a concept that previously withered within the lines of unrealistic beauty standards. This phenomena is one that has spread to all demographics across the world; ugly beauty’s versatility does not contain a label. It does not discriminate, but welcomes differences, encouraging judgment-free fashion choices.

Beauty itself is meant to be experimented with.

It is meant to test limits and incite conversations; fashion and beauty are constantly subject to change, making them moldable mediums free from limitations. The media has become inundated with the same recurring interpretations of what “fashionable” is, but at what point does this get too repetitive? Style advocates everywhere have taken their definition of ugly and applied it to new ideas of beauty and fashion across the world, making nonconformity a new standard. Ugly fashion’s spark introduces a new, colorful light to rule breaking principles in the beauty world. Eradicating the strict confines of beauty standards allows for us to take control of our creative freedom and express our true tastes, making it our generation’s prerogative to change the narrative of what beauty is. Incorporating elements of ugliness keeps our lives from becoming dull and emphasizes a concept that we’re all desperate to internalize – beauty is exactly what you make of it, nothing more.

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creative direction SIMRAN GVALANI art direction KAELA ANDERSON photography CALEM ROBERTSON design RENEE PEARCE contributing photo direction AUNG THAT KYAW & ANGELINA CHAU modeling STELLA WESTLAKE contributing creative direction SAMIR A-RAHIM contributing art direction ABBY FALZONE styling direction HILLARY NANA-ADJEI & QUIRIN EMANGA stylists WOODY LINDOR & YEANI KWON make up MELANIE BAREST

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THE STORY BEHIND

SAINT STREET CAKES Looking for something different, Morgan Knight started Saint Street Cakes in her apartment kitchen during her third year at Northeastern University.

While studying political science, she entered the third semester of pandemic classes, looking for something different. We spoke with Knight to delve into the establishment of her cake business, her passion for baking, and her daily activities as a small business owner.

How did you decide to start your business?

In the middle of the pandemic, I was looking for a passion-project-combined-side-hustle. It was one of my best friend’s birthdays, so I made her a birthday cake. People were really into it on social media, and a ton of people started swiping up and asking where they could buy one. From then on, half out of boredom and half out of really wanting something to be passionate about, I thought it would be really fun to start a cake business.

From that first cake created on Jan. 26, 2021, Saint Street Cakes would grow into a rapidly expanding

writing SARA CHEN design DAISY TULLER

modeling MORGAN KNIGHT

endeavor. Knight then faced new challenges of not only creating a business from the ground up, but also establishing new systems of operation.

What does a ‘day-to-day’ or in your case a week look like?

So I usually spend one day doing the baking for the week. I bake most things a few days in advance or the night before, and then I decorate the day of. On my days that are filled with classes, sometimes I’ll bake at night. The days where I don’t have classes, I always decorate my cakes the day of their pick up so that they are super fresh. Most days, something is going on in the kitchen, and a lot of times I am doing homework while cakes are in the oven.

Most full time corporate operations don’t need to factor in the appliances of a college kitchen or the fluctuating course load of homework and midterms, but Saint Street Cakes proves that a personalized touch to the intimate care of food services is more important than these rigid structures.

photography COCO LHERITIER

Can you describe the structure of your business, and how it differs from other corporate institutions?

As a small business with a presence on social media, I think that the structure of Saint Street Cakes has been a lot more sprawling compared to that of larger corporations. I only make around 3-7 cakes per week, and probably have only made under 300 cakes in the history of the business running. However, because so many more people follow along on social media, the structure is a lot more community based. When over 60,000 people are regularly seeing those cakes, it makes what could be a really small business into something more. Only 61% of my followers are from the United States, so I think that it’s really fun that the community of Saint Street Cakes is a lot bigger than just the amount of cakes I make per week.

How do you think small businesses disrupt but also exist within the structures of capitalism?

Food is a really important and interesting way to disrupt the larger systems that currently exist within capitalism. So much of food is heavily commercialized, with the care often taken out of the creation process. However, small businesses, specifically those that take place inside a kitchen, bring love back into food.

I have been working with this company called No Issue that makes the paper that I line my cakes with. They are completely carbon neutral and recycled paper that is food safe, so they’re a really cool company. I’m, hopefully, about to have a collaboration with a carbon neutral and sustainable kitchen cleaning company. So I am trying my best to make a sustainable kitchen, and supporting other small businesses that are working to disrupt the structures of capitalism.

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How does social media play a role in Saint Street Cakes?

It’s definitely a core part of the structure of Saint Street Cakes. I can only make so many cakes as a full time student, but Saint Street on social media is so much more than just the people that are eating the cake. Getting to communicate with people who are interested in baking has been one of the most rewarding aspects.

The appeal of business has always been integral to the identity of Northeastern as an academic institution. Arguably, the sole purpose of co-op has been to arm future working students with the fortification of work experience, in order to enter the job market as a strong candidate. This intense drive to prepare students for their future can also sometimes create hard boundaries of definite paths to success, but Saint Street Cakes seems to be an example of how passion can lead anyone towards a blending of different worlds.

Northeastern can sometimes have some rigid divides between colleges on campus. What would you say to students in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities about starting a business?

I would say to CSSH students looking to start a small business that they get into it for the right reasons, and make sure it's something that they are passionate about. While you are a student, if the work that you are dedicated to isn’t something that you absolutely love, starting a small business might not be the way to go – it is a 24/7 job. At the same time, I think that students are more often discouraged from pursuing their passions. If you have a passion and are interested in something with the arts, it is really cool to find an outlet that I wouldn’t otherwise have.

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THE UNEXPECTED AND SWEETEST PATH

BRING LOVE BACK INTO FOOD

Part of Saint Street’s identity is also seen through Knight’s personal interests. So much of her audience connects with her as a person behind the business, which makes her followers into engaged supporters. There are clear traces of her identity, role models, and future throughout the identity and soul of Saint Street Cakes.

If you, Anthony Bourdain, and Ina Garten were sharing a meal, what cake would you make them?

If I were having a meal with them I would want to make them something really important to me. I would probably go with a chocolate base, because it is my favorite flavor. A salted caramel ganache center because chocolate and caramel is a dream combo. If you’ve ever seen a Persian Love Cake, I would decorate it like that. I would do a lot of fruits and nuts on the top, specifically pistachios and pomegranates. Pomegranates, because I am a Jewish woman so those are important to me culturally (and I also think pomegranates bring a lot of rich flavor). I would like to toss in some interesting flavors for both of them.

What was your favorite cake to work on?

My Phoebe Bridgers cake that someone commissioned for her Northeastern CUP performance. I really liked working with the colors, and as a huge fan of her music I thought it was fun to combine her “Stranger of the Alps” cover with the “Punisher” cover. As a really big music fan, I listen to a lot of music when I am making my cakes – a good amount of Phoebe Bridgers mixed with soul music. I just made a playlist called “Saint Street Cakes: The Ultimate Cake Playlist,” which is on my Spotify (@Morganclaireknight) if you want to see what I listen to in the kitchen.

What are your future plans for Saint Street Cakes?

Saint Street will be relocating. After graduation, I will be moving to New York City, continuing a politics and law career. I am bringing Saint Street with me; hopefully one day it will be a multiple city venture with physical locations. My big dream for Saint Street Cakes is for a brick and mortar location that is a cool bakery but also a community space where people can gather, listen to music, hang out, and eat cake.

Who are your role models in the personal aspects of food and culinary businesses?

Personal aspects of food would definitely be Anthony Bourdain. I am a really big fan of baking, but I also love cooking. The way that he approaches learning about food [is something that] I respect so much. Cooking has so much to do with love and culture, which he consistently brings to the table.

He’s definitely my biggest inspiration in terms of showing what food can mean to people. In terms of business, Ina Garten is one of my biggest inspirations. She was someone with no professional experience who worked in politics. I always joke [that] I am going to pull [an] “Ina Garten” one day after working in policy for a little while.

Similar to many graduating seniors, the paths that Knight structured freshman year have morphed into entirely new shapes and creations throughout the pandemic. While Knight may have started Northeastern with a plan in politics, her journey of operating an internet-famous bakery from her apartment kitchen is proof that the structures of success and passion have no clear outline. The fulfillment of vulnerable care that goes into making something meaningful for ourselves and others is the unexpected and sweetest path. @SAINTSTREETCAKES

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KEEPING HISTORY It is typical for museums to host temporary fashion exhibits, and oftentimes display some of the most important clothes in fashion’s history. Think of the “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” at the Brooklyn Museum, and countless exhibits on John Paul Gaultier and Coco Chanel currently circling throughout renowned museums of the world. Each one of these serves to immortalize the history of fashion and tell us the story behind important trends through the lenses of fashion’s most prominent artists.

With the accessibility to fashion that is possible through modern developments like social media and the internet, trends can more often come from everyday people. However, major designers have historically driven the major conventions and styles in fashion, and have set much of the groundwork for the industry that we see now. Today, major houses usually take over from trends’ beginnings to bring them further recognition and additional power (and to further commercialize them). Changing styles and fashion phenomena, like a particular style of shoe or silhouette of skirt, hail from shifts in society. These

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milestone changes can be preserved for eternity in the form of clothing.

Chanel is one of history’s most iconic artists, whose story is often told through museum exhibits. By utilizing insights gained while living in a French orphanage, Chanel popularized the chemise dress.

According to a 2004 essay by The Met, it became the match used to set the Victorian woman ablaze.

The dress encouraged comfort by pioneering the use of jersey and offered women a chance at the freedom that came with the first waves of feminism, but it also kickstarted Chanel’s career as the mother of the modern woman. Chanel stopped designing during World War 2, but fashion continued to evolve in her absence.

Following WWII, Christian Dior created a suit so emblematic that it was soon known as simply “The New Look.” A 2012 Vogue article described that Dior’s inspiration to design The New Look began after he noticed how fashion had changed during the war. While Chanel wanted to embrace modernity in her designs, Dior hoped to recapture romance lost to the war in his work. He brought

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writing MEGHNA IYER modeling CAMRON NODOUSHANI & MEGHNA IYER photography MERYL PRENDERGAST design ALEXIS KNIGHT styling SAMIR A-RAHIM

THEY EXIST FOR US TO LEARN FROM AND TO SAVOR MOMENTS OF GREATNESS

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a hyper-feminine silhouette back to fashion and aimed for every piece of clothing to be its own sculpture of art. Both Dior and Chanel incorporated different perspectives into their designs, which gave consumers of fashion different styles to pick from and the ability to develop personal style.

Each of their labels still uphold the legacy of their namesakes by creating new pieces inspired by the essence of what the brand was built on.

Famed designers, like those aforementioned, are often the center of museum exhibitions in order to celebrate the ways that their designs and ways of thinking have revolutionized the industry. Exhibits transport us back to and preserve these pivotal moments in the development of fashion — allowing us to appreciate the work that resulted from the contributions of one individual and how it shaped the industry as we know it today. The clothes in museum halls commemorate the work that went into creating them, the society that produced them, and the promise of a bright future for fashion. They exist for us to learn from and to savor moments of greatness. Exhibits that celebrate fashion movements (rather than individual designers) are just as essential.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosts one of few exhibits that preserves more than just the works of pioneers to the industry.

The exhibit “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” captures the growth of fashion and serves to inspire newcomers to the industry to continue producing novel ideas.

One piece featured in the “Lexicon of Fashion” that honors the contributions of a new designer is Prabal Gurung’s SS20 iconic ‘Who Gets To Be An American?’ dress, which was inspired by Indian saris and traditional Eastern clothing. In his design, Gurung encapsulated elements of his personal journey to America, advocated for immigrants, and acknowledged the tumultuous political climate surrounding immigration. This dress reflects both the political and fashionable conditions at the time, with the pieces being used to make a public statement about policy. This moment, captured by Gurung and preserved in the Met exhibit, inspires empathy and understanding in so many individuals, and that understanding of the meaning within garments resonates with each observer. What gives clothing the significance that makes it

worth studying and remembering are what inspired its conception and how pieces were once worn, whether that be in real life or the runway. Visitors are given the opportunity to serve as a witness to the dreams woven directly into the fabric of the dress, getting a glimpse of what it felt like to be an immigrant when Gurung created this piece.

Clothes like this evoke feelings in people when they see them and help us to foster new connections, brainstorm novel ideas, and fuel pushes toward change – and preserving our knowledge of them is essential to maintaining this inspiration in the future of fashion.

Trends, especially today, change quickly. They are influenced by their surroundings and adapt quickly, so as to not be left behind. In one season alone, we might cycle through hundreds of trends. FW21 had vesting, statement coats, suitwear, leather, and more. Not all of these can be frozen in time in a museum somewhere and the fashion industry moves far too quickly to develop attachments to even a majority of these trends. Museums do not preserve fast fashion or trends mass produced in

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conglomerate factories. Instead, we save the pieces that expert designers brought groundbreaking trends into and custom-stitched them with such exquisite skill into a work of art.

What makes fashion so special is that it is art that people can breathe life into by wearing it to express themselves. It’s art that entwines together our roots, our upbringing, who we are today, and the journey it took us to get there. It is easy to relate to and can be personalized to each individual, but there’s the lived experience of clothing that brings people together in a way no other art form is able to. That’s exactly what exhibits like the “Lexicon of Fashion” represent. It is a collection of wearable art, and identities, inspired by communities of people to celebrate and document the values that grounded us at different points in time.

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WHAT MAKES FASHION SO SPECIAL IS THAT IT IS ART THAT PEOPLE CAN BREATHE LIFE INTO BY WEARING IT TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES

INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL BEAUTY

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AND DISMANTLING INTERNALIZED BEAUTY STANDARDS modeling LUCA VASILIU & GEORGE BIKHAZI & REHAN DEVARAVAR

photography AZRA SCHORR design CLAIRE HIGGINS styling JARRIAH COCKHREN

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