CLUTCH issue 25
CLUTCH editor-in-chief meagan smith @therealmeags creative director sam de oliveira @samantha_deoliveira
editor-in-chief assistant caitlyn daley @caitlynndaley creative assistant caitlin madlinger @cmadlinger11
administrative coordinator megan harris @meganharris98 multimedia abby earley @abbyisearley director schuyler hample @nightschuy assistant art natalie cevallos @natcev director alexandra griffin @alexxgriffinn director schuyler hample @nightschuy director
content jacob patel @jakepatell director james hurley @jimmy_hurley director jordan glover @jordannicoleglover assistant ignacia araya @ignacia.jpeg assistant lifestyle lily dominguez @lily_gabriella director leah feiler @leahfeiler director sophia villiers-furze @sophiavilliers assistant
menswear luke burchell @lakeburchell director makayla hineman @makaylahineman director justin degen @justindegen assistant beauty lexie berrett @lexcouer director chris desmond @thextinataylor assistant jessica warsheski @jessicawarsheski assistant stephanie rivera @stephhriveraa assistant trends taylor charmatz @taylorcharmatz director lindsey prendergast @lindseyprendergast director emily malfitano @emilymalfitano assistant styling morgan mccoll director paige levenson @paigemlev moses villanueva @stankuminati rachel viani @rachelviani advertising matthew bodden @matt_bodden director maya villiers-furze @mvillz assistant public relations catherine knetsch @catherineknetsch events director elizabeth teaf @eteaf_ assistant isaac quillet @isaacquillet assistant loren valdivieso @loren.valdivieso assistant demetrius winn @demexrius assistant gabrielle cabaron @gabbycabaron fundraising director staff writers laura kirkpatrick @lauraxoffline samantha lane @sammlaneee l’jai brown @prodbysj teaghan skulszki @sweeteeaa tiffany medina @tiffmedina_ 2 anna wood @4nn4w00d jessica ralph @jessica_ralphy
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Contents 5 8 17 18 20 28 29 31 41 42
Editor’s Note
Loves Me Not
GenZ’s Unspoken Rule
Football School With A Recycling Problem Life of the Party
Selfish Selfness
Vegan-isms
The Morning After
It’s Different at the Top
.106% of Your Day
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Drowning Thoughts
“Sorry, I Can’t Hear Broke”
Bandersnatch and the Butterfly Effect Advertising & Social Change All Work, No Play
LivinCool
The Two Sides to Everything Am I What You Want Me to Be? Timeless Standards
Redefining Self-Care
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It’s been a wild 4 years... As we were sitting on the floor of Meagan’s room on December 9th pouring over the ideas we had been throwing around for the next (and our final) issue, it hit us. At 12:08am, an idea that would take Clutch to a deeper level than it had ever been before came to life. The Pain Issue. Fashion has always been a core value of Clutch Magazine, but we wanted to lead the magazine in a different direction. This direction would focus on a story and that story would be elevated by the fashion, photography, and writing within it. We knew that this would be an unconventional way to approach a concept direction but we had full faith that our team could rise to the challenge and do things a little differently than before. As you flip through the magazine, each shoot you’ll see is personifying a feeling that almost everyone goes through at least once in their lives. Insecurity, Loneliness, Unrequited Love… We wanted our readers to open up the magazine and actually feel something, not look at an image and say “what a pretty picture”. In taking the magazine in a different direction, we wanted to also bring it to the next level by incorporating more digital aspects. While it was imperative that the shoots spoke for themselves, incorporating video and music physically within the magazine would help to bridge the gap between digital and print. The ultimate goal was to set the magazine apart from its predecessors and connect to our audience in a profound way.
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In order to accomplish this, QR codes have been placed on the introduction page of each shoot that can be scanned by the camera on your phone and the corresponding video will appear on your screen. Another personal touch that was added to this issue was a handwritten note explaining each version of pain as it should be perceived with the story that follows. We wanted to give the effect that it was ripped right out of somebody’s personal journal. All of these things taken into account make The Pain Issue the most dynamic one yet. As we get ready to graduate and move on into the next phase of our lives, we owe so much to Clutch. We wouldn’t have learned the lessons we did and be the women we are today without this publication. We’d like to thank our team for these past two incredible issues. We couldn’t have pushed the envelope of Clutch without your amazing ideas, creativity, and willingness to grow the magazine. To our amazing assistants Caitlin and Caitlyn, we can’t wait to see what you two accomplish this next year and just know we’ll be those annoying has-beens showing up at the release party.
xx for the last time,
Meagan and Sam
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Loves Me Not
Directors: Leah Feiler, Lily Dominguez Assistant: Sophia Villiers-Furze Photographer: Rachel Saunders
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Gen Z’s Unspoken Rule Article By: L’Jai Brown
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You often hear a lot of talk about millennials, like a lot, and it usually comes from people a lot older than us who talk about things like millennials not buying diamonds, or houses, or something else they can’t afford because it’s not 75 cents anymore. But you hear a lot less talk about the generation currently making waves around the world – the activists, fighters, and leaders, the kids of the future – Generation Z. We’re the largest demographic cohort still alive, more than Millennials and Baby Boomers. And though we’re often close in age, Millennials and Generation Z are not the same. For one, almost no one in Gen Z is old enough to remember life before September 11th, 2001. As a result, we’ve never known a time when America wasn’t at war; we’ve grown up with it our whole lives. Another difference? We’re the first generation to grow up with the internet at our fingertips, readily available. We’re online almost all the time. We create our own niches and make and sustain friendships with strangers we never would have met in the real world. Social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, and Vine have changed the way we communicate with each other as well, spawning a new internet language, one with its own rules and regulations. Most linguists will tell you that language is a social construct that’s ever-changing, with most of it being a silent agreement between the people communicating that the words they’re using mean what they’re supposed to mean. For example, when I’m talking to my friend about the party I went to last weekend, we’re both in mutual agreement that the word ‘lit’ means fun and not actually on fire. In that way, it’s easy to see how Generation Z have coined their own phrases and penned their own dialect, and it’s not just
words; pictures, gifs, punctuation, and capitalizing have their own usage rules too. Anyone of us will tell you that there’s a difference between ending a phrase with no period, one period (.), and three periods (…). Sure Sure. Sure... mean completely different things, and while something might be funny, “lmao” and “LMAO” mean different things too. We’ve grown so accustomed to our own creation, we’ve pushed these unspoken rules without even realizing it. Try explaining to your grandparents why you responded “skdnfks” to their funny picture in the groupchat. Gen Z has even turned the ageold phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” into reality. Almost anything can be “meme-worthy,” so we take snapshots of our daily lives, freeze-frames of shows or clips we watch, and relate them to our own lives. We often find ourselves communicating simple things, like laughter or suprise, through pictures and gifs, but some of us even find ourselves expressing things that can’t easily be put into words, like complex emotions, fears, or individual hardships through cleverly captioned photos. The greatest thing about our generation is our ability to communicate with each other, to take social media to a whole new level of connection, to make the world seem just a little smaller. Language barriers don’t exist when you can communicate through reactions gifs and emojis.
Football School with a Recycling Problem Article by: Ignacia Araya Illustration by: Caitlin Madlinger
Behold the environment of a college student apartment: you’ll probably encounter red solo cups and water bottles galore. For the 21+, the idea of college decor might consist of displaying old bottles of alcohol on top of the counter on the wall and a makeshift tapestry of cut out beer boxes. The latter is a more eco-friendly way of approaching your drinking habits, but throwing red solo cups in the trash with the rest of the drunk food from the weekend might be taking a bigger toll on the planet than we think. Plastics like red solo cups and water bottles are most convenient for average young adults who haven’t washed a dish since they stepped foot into world of living on their own, but using these plastics on the daily comes at a price; and it’s more than just a couple dollars, it’s pretty much the fate of the planet. With that being said, the amount of plastics that have gone without being recycled is unimaginable. While asking around to find out who’s actually willing to drive 3 minutes are dispose of their recyclables properly, I realized most college students rather stand in line for 20 minutes in the heat to get pre-banded for Happy Hour than make minimal efforts to help out the Earth. Sad!
With this being said, the power to make a difference has ultimately shifted into our hands. The baby boomers are often blamed for ignoring climate change; millenials are already being roasted as it is, and I’m sure our generation doesn’t need anymore backlash. Why not create a name for ourselves as the ones that saved the planet, rather than the ones that made avocado toast trendy? We are at a crucial point where every small initiative counts. Starting at the local level will help reduce the environmental damage that is occurring worldwide. There are constantly pictures circulating social media that show sea animals washed up on the shore with plastic and other hazardous waste oozing from their bodies. Habitat destruction is one of the many harms that come with not disposing of waste accordingly; vacations are all fun and games until you realize that you may be swimming in plastic. Do you want to keep going to Bimini for Spring Break? Probably. Will you be able to if it’s covered in trash in a couple of years? Probably not.
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Director: Meagan Smith Assistant: Caitlyn Daley Photographer: Joseph Suarez
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Selfish Selflessness Article by: Jordan Glover Graphic by: Alex Griffin I like to think that I am relatively observant—perhaps more than the average individual. It stems from curiosity, inquisition, and my mild obsession with attention to detail. When you are observant, you are better equipped for acquiring answers...about virtually everything. I’m observant with people, in particular. Now, I am no anthropologist or sociologist by any stretch of the imagination, but years of people-watching in airports, shopping malls, and beaches have led me to several conclusions that all dance around one central takeaway: human beings possess flawed ethics and communication skills. Your run-ofthe-mill baby boomer will tell you that millennials and members of Gen Z are the poorest of communicators, as a result of modern technology of the 21st century. While contraptions like cell phones and tablets have certainly had their effects on our interpersonal communication, the factors of communication on which I am shedding light have been constants for years, decades, maybe even centuries. Imagine you walk into an elevator, inside of which you are greeted by a stranger. You give the classic “How are you?” expecting “Great! How are you?” in response. Instead, he replies “Honestly not too great. I had a really tough day at work,” and proceeds with a long, drawn-out explanation of the misfortunes he has experienced.
As most people would be, you are completely thrown off and likely regret even asking, since you thought it was an implicitly empty question warranting a short response. Why are we caught so off guard when strangers are candid with us? Why do we instantly judge them for putting their guards down and being vulnerable, rather than taking them in and offering support, human to human. We wear a façade of empathy, of actually caring and being concerned for others, for our own appearance. What people neglect to understand is that you don’t need to know someone personally in order to offer a helping hand. We focus too heavily on shallow small talk, rather than conversation with substance. Why do we get frustrated when our “selfless” acts of kindness aren’t recognized? It’s because they are actually driven by a subconscious, contrastingly selfish desire to feed our own egos, to receive praise. We deem people rude for not thanking us when we hold the door open or say “bless you” when they sneeze, but those gestures should simply be expected of us. We should rewire our brains to obtain satisfaction from knowing that the recipient and to be driven by the desire to do the right thing rather than seek accolades. We must shift our mindset to focus more on the overall betterment of service and keeping the “human” in humanity.
HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY HAVE A NICE DAY
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Vegan-isms Article by: Tiffany Medina The recent rise of self-care is always depicted the same way: the ongoing rhetoric of “treat yo self” illustrated by Instagram-able facemasks, splurging on a $7 latte, barre classes and the suddenly adopted new hobby of journaling. And while the sentiment of self-care can often be perceived as cheesy, the goal—taking care of yourself—is a beautiful one. Though the biggest thing that the conversation is often missing is the aspect of internal self-care. Nourishing from within, in whatever food habits work best for you and your body is truly essential to transform. For some, that nourishment comes from following a vegan lifestyle. The benefits of a vegan diet are plentiful; a plant-based diet is higher in macronutrients, metabolism increases, digestion stabilizes, and energy levels increase. With all these benefits, people are still hesitant to make the change. Why? They worry they’ll starve. But, as an experienced vegan myself, I am here to promise you two things. 1. I never go hungry and 2. Yes, I eat protein. Staying full while eating vegan is a true blessing in disguise. The key: eat more. Plantbased foods are nutrient-dense but lower in calories, so eating when hunger strikes is extremely important. Instead of three meals a day, opt for six small meals with a variety of textures and flavors so you’ll be left fully satisfied and full. The downfall to any vegan diet is not incorporating variety into the foods you eat—falling into the trap of routine meal prepping and being left unsatisfied. This variation of foods should include a source of fat, starchy vegetables and carbs and protein to keep from hitting the 3 p.m. slump. Monounsaturated fats, like the ones found in almonds, avocados and olive oil, help to keep bad cholesterol down and mimic
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the feeling of being full by leaving you feeling satisfied. Fats, whether they be monounsaturated (the healthy kind) or unsaturated (slightly less healthy kind) are full of vital amino acids that aid in digestion and energy levels and shouldn’t be neglected in any diet, especially a vegan one. Surprisingly, vegans eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. And while broccoli, kale, and pomegranates are all superfoods in their own ways, let us not underestimate the powers of the sweet potato. Gourds, squashes, potatoes and other root vegetables are broken down in the body as carbs. Complex carbohydrates (which differ in molecular compound from cookies) take a long time to fully digest, keeping you fuller for longer amounts of time. And the punchline of every vegan joke—the protein. Protein is important in any diet as it repairs tissues and is the basis of healthy bones, muscles, and organs. Protein, when mixed with fibers and carbs, gives a long-lasting sense of fullness. And it’s in more than you would think. Nuts and nut butters, beans and legumes, soy, hemp, chia and flax seeds, quinoa and brown rice, and just about every fruit and vegetable. If going hungry was holding you back from trying out the vegan diet, fear not. Committing to a change is liberating and, in this case, healthy and delicious.
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Director: Sam De Oliveira Assistant: Caitlin Madlinger Photographer: Joseph Suarez
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It’s Different at the Top The Scandal that Rocked American Universities
It’s natural for parents to do everything in their power to get their kids into college. For the middle class, you pay for SAT classes and call it a day. If you have money to spare, you donate a building or two. Hey, maybe even a bench to get on the Dean’s good side. If you’re Lori Loughlin and others involved in the college admissions scandal, you pay millions of dollars to take away the spot of another student in order to cheat your way through the system and get Olivia Jade into college. Federal prosecutors found 50 wealthy parents guilty of using elaborate ways of getting their kids into colleges ranging from Yale to University of Texas. One tactic involved used Photoshop as a means to play off that the student was on the rowing team in high school, another involved faking a learning disability; the list goes on. Some teens were unaware of their parent’s crimes, but one of the most prominent individuals involved in this scandal, Olivia Jade, was well aware of what her parents were up to. Olivia Jade is seen in a Youtube video saying that she does want the experience of game days and partying, and that she doesn’t really care about school. What is most disheartening about this scandal is the implications that it has about the admissions process and economic inequalities. College is already competitive as it is; lecture halls are packed with students trying to get by both financially and intellectually. There are thousands of people to compare yourself to and it’s a constant battle of trying to work harder than the person next to you in order to either graduate at the top or be
prepared to take on the real life dog-eat-dog world. Such lecture halls have no place for people who don’t care to be there, and quite frankly don’t deserve to be there. Students end up paying millions of dollars back in loans, while business leaders and actresses can snap their fingers, pay their way through the inner workings of the flawed system, and receive a college acceptance letter with no economic repercussions (until they get indicted). People like Olivia Jade took the spot of someone much more qualified and prevented another student from getting a well deserved education. For some, higher education paves the way towards the middle and upper class; a bachelor’s degree is almost like a right of passage into getting a job and financially climbing your way up. Teens involved in this scandal don’t necessarily need this push in order to be successful since they are already wealthy; so what was the motivation for committing these crimes? Perhaps it was to spare the kids the embarrassment of telling their Youtube subscribers that they’re not going to college and will be advertising makeup products the rest of their lives. Since financials are not an issue, the only option that remains for why these parents felt the need to execute such a scheme falls on social standing. If you put two privileged young adults next to each other and one has a bachelor’s degree and the other doesn’t, it is expected that the one with higher education will be more widely respected... until a scandal breaks and they need to drop out. Article by: Ignacia Araya Graphic by: Schuyler Hample
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.106% of Your Day Article by: Jessica Ralph
92 seconds. Just a little over a minute and a half—what can be done? Microwave a bowl of oatmeal, send a text to a friend, say ‘hello’ to someone in passing. 92 seconds. Wait at a red light and scroll through your timeline, pay for groceries at a supermarket, go to the bathroom or brush your teeth. A blip in the day, hardly significant in the 24 hours of everyday life. Barely memorable. A micro-moment compared to the 86,400 seconds in each day. 92 seconds. The amount of time it took you to read this introduction. 92 seconds—how often someone in America is sexually assaulted. The conversation on sexual violence has changed—the topic is no longer swept under a rug and hushed away, rather, has become a topic deeply concerned by many and openly discussed. Rallies and protests of people gathering together, linking arms of suffering or sympathy, and taking a stand are occurring on a regular basis. The statistics—nine out of every ten victims are women, eight of every ten acts of violence are committed by an acquaintance or friend, and nearly 2/3 of college students experience some form of sexual harassment—are broadcasted on billboards and pamphlets on campus. The conversation about sexual assault is more open in 2019 than ever before. The conversation about sexual assault victims, however, remains a terrifying example of our previous view on sexual assault as a country. The treatment of victims today is something our grandchildren will look at in distaste. Shame, mocking, threats, and the cringing jab from phrases like “you asked for it” or “drink less” seem antiquated and out-
Graphic by: Alex Griffin
dated for our generation. Yet like a ghost from the past, these views manage to creep their way into the minds of people everywhere. The distrust of victims seems to have prompted a ‘you’re lying until proven trustworthy’ and an emphasis on ‘innocent until proven guilty’; the immediate default that the victim is lying about the charges is terrifying. Research shows that victims become less likely to report on their charges due to the decreasing amount of successful prosecutions. 63 percent of cases go unreported to the police, ruling out the chance of every receiving justice. As more celebrities, athletes, and political elites are brought into the limelight for the charges pressed against them, it should give hope to victims. But more of those who are charged come out of the courtroom unscathed. What people fail to realize is the effect sexual assault has on victims for the rest of their life. The effect of sexual assault is in every breath victims breathe, until the day comes where you push it aside and burry that trauma into the dirt where it belongs. The day where someone reaches out, grabs your hand, and promises you things will get better. That hand was reached out to victims following the prosecution of Harvey Weinstein. A singular act of bravery by a group of women catalyzed a movement—a shift in the behavioral standards tolerated in the workplace. As of the beginning of February, 71 high-profile figures were either removed from their roles or voluntarily stepped down after being charged. This cascade of change is what victim advocacy needs.
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Directors: Taylor Charmatz, Lindsey Prendergast Assistant: Emily Malfitano Photographer: Julian Randall
drowning thoughts
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“Sorry, I can’t hear broke” Article by: Meagan Smith and Sam De Oliveira Illustration by: Meagan Smith If you haven’t seen the memes, then you probably don’t know that this phrase is now directly associated with the newest tech craze, airpods. Scroll through social media and you’re bound to find several witty photos, gifs, and posts alluding to this upscale accessory. Memes like young, smiling Miley Cyrus with poorly photoshopped airpods in her ears or screenshots of home screens that slyly flex the use of airpods started popping up everywhere. Little did we know, all of these memes played into Apple’s own marketing scheme. Upon the release of Apple’s airpods back in December 2016, the company saw that their newest accessory was not catching on as quickly as they had projected it would. It took about two years for the trend to finally catch on. And once it did, it spread like wildfire. It is interesting to point out that companies understand how our generation consumes social media and that memes
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would eventually lead us to purchase a product. So naturally, the introduction of this airpod meme influx worked to their advantage and Apple watched the money pour in. It seems like everyone has jumped on the airpod train as a result. These wireless earbuds provide a convenient and sleek way to listen to your favorite music and podcasts, which plays into their appeal. Airpods are also rechargeable and have a relatively long battery life. But if you catch the unfortunate sound of the low-battery tune, you may start to feel panicked. Your options: choose to wear them anyway so you can pretend to not hear the haters you pass by on your way to class, or succumb to the embarrassment of showing the cords of your regular old headphones— the choice is yours. This is how far the airpod epidemic has gone, and it’s all thanks to Twitter.
Bandersnatch and the Butterfly Effect You may have heard of the futuristic British television series that has been blowing minds and igniting discussion since its grand Netflix debut in 2011. Inspired by “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror” delivers dystopian scenarios based on the belief that society is headed toward its ultimate self-destruction as a result of rapidly advancing technologies, throwing its viewers into heightened states of paranoia and perhaps even causing them to unplug everything from Keurigs to washing machines. The film takes place in 1984 and unveils the story of a programmer working to adapt a choose-your-own-adventure fantasy novel into a video game. Viewers are given the power to control the plot by making various decisions between ultimatums, scene after scene. “Life imitates art,” as they say—well it just so happens that our lives unfold the way the Bandersnatch plot unravels, which manifests the butterfly effect with every decision made. Like virtually all theories that have formed the foundation of what we know about modern behavior, the butterfly effect is rooted in science. Its origins lie in the hands of former mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz, and his observations with global climate change through this chaos theory. In a lecture delivered at the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, Lorenz introduced the question “does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set a tornado in Texas?” As one would imagine, the proposition was initially interpreted with ridicule, but the first impression of a far-fetched idea turned into an existential topic of discussion for myriad contexts. Lorenz framed this scenario as to illustrate the grand impact a seemingly trivial act can have on the grander scheme of things. While a butterfly’s single flap would not directly cause a tornado in Texas, its contribution to a series of weather patterns and air movement could, in theory, be that extra factor that becomes the catalyst for a natural disaster—but that’s the catch. There is no way to know whether it was that butterfly, that breeze from California, or those windmills from Kansas. We must treat every piece of the puzzle with equal measure and importance, as it is never 100% certain as to the impact it can have on the greater picture. Think about how you’ve met your friends, boyfriends, or girlfriends in the past. However you have met these people was determined by a simple decision you made to be in that exact place at that exact time. Our fate lies in every carefully measured decision we make. Article by: Jordan Glover Graphic by: Schuyler Hample
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Advertising & Social Change Article by: Anna Wood Advertising has long been a vehicle for social change, from the age of Rosie the Riveter to today. Gillette released an advertisement in January of 2019 that focused on the slogan ‘The Best a Man Can Get.’ This slogan has been used by Gillette for over 30 years to attest to the quality of their razors, but this campaign aimed to redefine that slogan to mean something else: the best men can be. Gillette’s attempt to tackle the issue of toxic masculinity through examples of men holding other men accountable and teaching young boys how to be emotionally vulnerable did not go unnoticed, though it was met with mixed reception from the public. Although the Gillette was lauded with much praise, a significant number of people criticized this advertisement because they understood the message to be that men should not be masculine or enjoy ‘manly’ things. However, if refraining from catcalling women, getting into fistfights, or bullying peers is considered to be “an attack on masculinity,” it seems that that is the root of the issue in itself and the advertisement was successful in highlighting that.
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While Gillette focused on a specific issue, Pepsi’s April 2017 advertisement with Kendall Jenner did not seem to stand for anything at all. It began with a diverse group of people moving from their jobs to the streets, and ended with Jenner
Graphic by: Schuyler Hample leaving the set of her photo shoot to join the crowds and solve the conflict by handing the police a can of Pepsi—all with no easily identifiable purpose. Rather, it seemed to simply portray generic social justice. This ad quickly accumulated a significant amount of backlash, and Pepsi eventually pulled it. Many viewers rejected the implication that the simple exchange of a can of soda can bridge the gap between the police and protesters, because police brutality has been a serious issue in the United States, leading to the deaths of many black men. There was also strong sentiment that this advertisement minimizes and mocks the struggles that people who are actually in the front lines of social movements face. The response to these kinds of advertisements often raises questions about what kinds of companies can make politically charged statements. By analyzing these situations and the responses, one can tell that it is not necessarily the brand, but rather how it chooses to spread the message that determines the audience’s reactions. In addition, the position that the company already holds in the market is important to consider. As long as companies continue to make political statements with their advertising platforms, there will be support and there will be resistance.
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All Work, No Play
Directors: Luke Burchell, Makayla Hineman Assistant: Justin Degen Photographer: Abby Earley
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LIVINCOOL Upon receiving his college degree in communications, Emanuele D’Angelo was instructed by numerous individuals that, in order to maximize his success in the industry, he needed to create a portfolio of his work. This was the pivotal moment that birthed a brand that has been exposed to millions thus far. In 2008, Rome-based photographer, Emanuele D’Angelo, launched his lifestyle blog LIVINCOOL. Keeping a consistent focus on fashion and music, D’Angelo fueled his blog with content while working to build his digital portfolio. His career accelerated as he attended fashion weeks, worked stylish events and photographed nightlife, taking every opportunity to capture moments through his creative lens. As the years passed, D’Angelo graduated from lifestyle photography and found his niche in editorial, portrait shots. His audacious and provocative, yet highly respected style captured the fascination of many and, as a result, he began working with the sexiest names in the fashion industry. Fast forward to December 2017, D’Angelo used his rapid-growing presence on Instagram as a platform to launch his own clothing brand called LIVINCOOL. After his evident success in 2017, D’Angelo embarked on a world tour, hosting LIVINCOOL pop-up shops in New York, London, Milan and Paris. During his layover in London for the brand’s Selfridges’ pop-up shop, I had the opportunity to sit down with D’Angelo and gain insight on what Article by: Laura Kirkpatrick Graphic by: Schuyler Hample Photos by: Emanuele D’Angelo
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it truly means to be LIVINCOOL. Why LIVINCOOL? “The name of the brand came from my blog. Back in 2008, I really liked this Snoop Dogg song called ‘The Cool.’ So I decided to combine the word ‘LIVING’ with ‘COOL.’ What inspired your transition from lifestyle to editorial? “I used to focus on shooting street style and stuff like that. At some point I was getting tired of taking the same photos that everyone else was taking. I wanted to start doing my own thing and start creating photos in my own vision. I now use that vision to capture people, and the photos I take reflect the message of my brand. Changing my style and taking more editorial shots allowed me to work with different brands and meet new people — who were the right people. Working with Emily
Ratajakowski basically helped expose my work to everyone. She’s helped give me exposure with everything I have done. I guess that’s how you could say I began working with the ‘big names’ of the industry.” You are within a tight circle involving some of the biggest fashion pioneers of our generation. How were these relationships formed? “About six or seven years ago when I was at Paris Fashion Week, I began to hang out with Virgil. At this time, he didn’t have his brand yet and was just there with Kanye. I then met Jerry [Lorenzo] through Virgil and we would hangout while Virgil would DJ the after parties. We were all basically at the same place at the same time. I really like hip-hop and, at the time, there was not a whole lot going on for that type of music – But when Virgil would DJ, he would bring out all these people and I would just be there in the crowd taking photos for my blog. That’s how I met them.” Right now we are standing in Selfridges next to Gucci and across from Off-White. Did you ever anticipate that LIVINCOOL would grow to the scale that it is today? “Definitely not… no. I am still processing it, but it is good. December 2017 was when we launched. People really seemed to like it, especially the people that I put it on. I have a lot of friends who owned their own brands who helped me and gave me advice when I was starting out. Being around Fashion Week, I knew the right buyers and the people in the show rooms which definitely made it easier starting out; but I never imagined it being this way.”
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The Two Sides to Everything— and Everyone [a film review of Us by Jordan Peele] Article by: Jordan Glover The freshest face to the horror movie scene, Jordan Peele, shook the world to its core with his production of Get Out back in 2017. The film highlighted a wide spectrum of racial motifs, shedding light on the dark horrors of the ever-so-prevalent racism in America—everything from police brutality, to cultural appropriation, to the slave trade. Leading up to Get Out, Peele had worked mostly with comedy, well-known for his series Key and Peele, but he has introduced Hollywood to a completely revolutionary genre of dystopian horror that takes elements of history and politics and turns them on their heads. Peele suggests watching his films more than once in order to catch all of the hidden messages. As a radical enthusiast of Get Out, I had outrageously high expectations for Us, Peele’s second highly-anticipated horror film released just last month. Us completely surpassed whatever expectations I had upon entry into the theatre, and picked my brain unlike any other film before. Us proved to be way more than the perceived storyline of a family faced with its evil doppelgangers plotting to kill them; it took pre-existing parts of history and provided alternative, plausible reasons for their existence according to Peele’s own personal paranoias, fears, and conspiracy theory beliefs. For example, a prevailing concept in Us is Hands Across America, an organization that was active in the 1980s and raised money for those in poverty to fight hunger and homelessness.
Around this principle, Peele also introduced to viewers the historical conspiracy regarding potential underground tunnels that exist below the United States that have never been explored, and how these could potentially breed life forms with which we have never come into contact. Peele applied the Hands Across America organization to the plot, in addition to the underground tunnels, to provide a potential theory explaining what lives down there: this idea that we all possess a “tethered” version of ourselves: a soul-less clone. Hands Across America was a chain of these clones forming together to defeat the versions of themselves that had better lives. In Us, Peele paints a world where human beings exist above the surface, and their tethered clones live underground in the tunnels, existing as mere vessels of those aboveground beings. They exist without souls, and instead live like zombies. Peele has a gift of producing an idea that seems incredibly farfetched and a stretch of the imagination, but by the same token, could absolutely be plausible, as nothing has been proven to make us suppose otherwise. His horror film style aligns closely with that of Black Mirror in this regard. Maybe we do possess clones of ourselves that live in these tunnels, or somewhere else on earth. There is no way to prove otherwise…
Graphics by: Schuyler Hample
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Am I What You
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Director: Lexie Berrett Assistants: Jessica Warsheski, Christopher Desmond, Stephanie Rivera Photographer: Lauren Amanda
Want Me to Be?
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Timeless Standards
Article by: Teaghan Skulszki Illustration by: Caitlin Madlinger
Beauty follows no jurisdiction of time or culture. No matter when, where, or who, beauty has been bestowed by various women over the years. From the black kohl eyeliner of the ancient Egyptians to the lip kits of today, women have served looks since it all began. In a dynamic and ever-changing world, body standards have undergone many metamorphoses that have led to revolutions of today. When we think of beauty trends we jump to the groovy sixties, bold eighties, and grunge nineties. However, go back in time much earlier than the past century and you’ll see examples of beauty in the biggest moments of human history. In 1292-1069 B.C. the ideal woman was slender with a high waist and slender face. In ancient Egypt, fashion and sexuality were emphasized in beauty standards. These same standards can be seen once again through the Roaring Twenties. You can compare the ancient Egyptian body standard to that of the 1920’s flapper with a powerful slender figure. However, In the 1920’s the flapper was idealized with a short pixie cut instead of the sleek bob of regal Egyptian women. Where Gods and Goddesses have their playground, Ancient Greek beauty standards emphasized the magnitude and lavish lifestyle of their Goddesses. From 500300 B.C. the body standard was full-bodied women who were “plump” and fair skin. We see this trend reoccur in a modern display of American ‘Goddesses’. During the Golden Age of Hollywood (1930s-1950s) you can see full bodied women on the forefront of the movie scene— the most famous of these being Marilyn Monroe. On the other side of the Globe, we can see the body standard from the Han Dynasty in 206 B.C. - 220 AD. The Han period, which is considered the Golden Age in ancient China, idealized an innocent figure. In this period,
slim waist, pale skin, large eyes, and small feet were admired. Fast forward thousands of years, and we see this trend reappear, but in the sixties. At a time hippies roamed the planet dancing their way festivals, the idealized body at the time resembled that of the Han Period. The ideal women of the sixties were willowy, thin, and adolescent physique. It is with the eighties that we see the biggest transition of the ideal physique, one not modeled off one already placed in history but for the first time ever we see the emphasis of athleticism and fitness. With the turn of neon and crimped hair we see a new transition of what is considered “sexy.” In the eighties, athletic, tall, curvy, and toned was the ideal figure. For the first time, fitness was considered in the ideal body type. This trend of the eighties can be most compared with today’s standards. Combined with the Kardashian craze, and endless fitness models on Instagram, the ideal woman’s body of today is contradictory. There is a new expectation— no thanks to the Kardashians who have the help of surgery, lasers, and personal trainers— where the stomach should be flat and the waist very small, but accentuated by disproportionate curves that petite women typically don’t possess. And our entire generation is expected to literally Keep Up.
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Redefining Self-Care Article by: Tiffany Medina Illustration by: Caitlin Madlinger
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Face masks, manicures and eating your favorite foods can deem you a “self-care queen” if you read through your Twitter timeline. But does this really protect and maintain your well-being or just offer a temporary relief? Spending too much on face masks and materialistic items can cause other stresses in your life and that is why it’s time to redefine selfcare to truly bring out the best in yourself. Self-care and self-love go hand in hand. Many times, happiness is sought after externally with relationships, friends, materialistic goods, food and the list can go on. Although indulging in the things you love and spending time with the important people in your life are crucial, it is equally important and okay to enjoy your own company. Taking care of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically can lead to overall happiness internally and those around will notice your change. This can be as simple as setting time for yourself to get your life together, finding a new love for art, or starting at the gym. Finding your happiness leads to an overall change with your state of mind. Surviving the balancing act can be tough. Giving your 100% to every part of your life can be more exhausting than helpful and leaves no room for yourself. Once you give yourself away to all these sections of your life, you won’t be able to set yourself apart from it. You should define yourself in what you enjoy, your hobbies, and what matters most to you.
Small practices like taking up a yoga class or drastic choices like a lifestyle change can create a euphoria in yourself that will make you fearless. You won’t care about the opinions of others and the unknown once you are satisfied with who you are. Fearlessness is one of the greatest gifts that come from loving yourself. You won’t be afraid to take up a new class, change your pastimes or do what you love since you’ll have the confidence and won’t need the approval of others. Of course, this isn’t as easy to achieve as it is to write. But practicing self-preservation and maintaining your well-being will get rid of the negative thoughts in your head and replace them with positivity. Without negative thoughts, you won’t be scared of going out of your way for your happiness or even be scared by the thought of the unknown – the future. One of the most important parts of achieving self-love is surrounding yourself with your biggest fan group. Friends who don’t support you or silence your thoughts are not going to help if you’re constantly surrounded by negative thoughts. Friends who care for you and inspire thoughts and creativity within you will bring you happiness. Giving good into the world, even small acts like taking care of a sick friend will bring you happiness knowing you are doing good... and as the old saying goes, good karma will come back to you.
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CONTRIBUTORS Rachel Saunders @rachsaunders
Loves Me Not: Morgan McColl, Olivia Larson, Julian Randall, Esper Supplice
Life of the Party: Sophia Villiers-Furze
Joseph Suarez @wdyk_joe
Julian Randall @jewlzrandall
Abby Earley @abbyisearley
The Morning After: Enas Abdelhaq, Hoda El-Koussa, Schuyler Hample, Tia Cappuccio
Drowning Thoughts: Spencer Kane
All Work,No Play: Steven Corin, Gonzalo Londono, James Hurley, Wyatt Anger Am I What You Want Me to Be?: Janay Delisma, Logan Thompson, Gabriel PĂŠrez, Lucas Mateo
Lauren Amanda @laurenamandag
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