ÊTRE VOLUME 7

VOLUME VII

FALL 2020

FA L L 2 0 2 0 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Karli Reed

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Trinity Bancroft

CONTENT EDITORS Kelsey Cour Kameron Keel

ART DIRECTOR Tori Suggs

FASHION EDITOR Payton McNeece

SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Alexa Ward

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STYLISTS

Claire Allen Braxton Smith LK McDaniel Suni Crane

WRITING TEAM Sophie Sabri Sadie Ogletree

CREATIVE STAFF

Anna Evan Bristow

BEAUTY TEAM

Lydia Rajaoberison Mary Grace Hunter Kelly Atkison Kalli Hedgepeth Jaylan Gilland SOCIAL STAFF Gracie Hester

CONTENTS LETTERS 4 ARCHIVE 8 DYSTOPIA 11 ENCHANTMENT 16 FLUID 20 SPEAKING JUSTICE 25

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Freshman year when I was looking at ways to get

involved on campus, Fashion Board was always at the top of my list.

Growing up in Starkville, I always saw the shows Fashion Board was hosting and I could not wait to have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing organization. Looking back three years ago, I never knew how much Fashion Board would impact my life, and I am so glad that it has. I have not only joined an amazing organization; I have also gained a family through Fashion Board.

Navigating this semester has not been the easiest job, but the love that every single one of us has for this organization always shines brighter than any obstacle thrown our way. Every member of Fashion Board brings something special to the table, and without all of you, Fashion Board would not be the same. Whether it is backstage letting their creativity shine through the set-up of a show, the Makeup and hair team coming together and creating looks that exceed everyone’s expectations, the models sharing their love for fashion, and the Être team coming together to create such wonderful magazines every year.

Fashion Board, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to serve such an amazing organization as your President this year. It has been one of the best experiences during my college career. I will forever be thankful for all of you.

Love, Merriam

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EDITOR’S LETTER W

ithout the Fashion Board organization, Être magazine would not be possible. I have been a part of Fashion Board since the beginning of my college career. You soon learn that in college you get what you put into it, especially when becoming involved. Fashion Board was my favorite extracurricular organization so I wanted to invest as much of myself as I could. Thankfully, Être magazine allows members to do just that. This magazine has been my creative outlet, my safe space, and my constant encourager to be my true self. Being chosen to serve as this year’s Editor-in-Chief has been challenging, but also my most rewarding experience I have had. With this semester being virtual, it has been hard to connect with peers.

Our Fall 2020 staff has grown to be my small family that pushes, encourages, and grows together creatively.

To my team: thank you for simply being the best.

To Fashion Board: thank you for allowing me to create an issue of Être to show your roots.

And to our future members: thank you for continuing the legacy of Fashion Board and Être. xx Karlyn

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DIRECTOR’S LETTER W ell hello there!

My name is Trinity Parker Bancroft and I am overjoyed you have stumbled upon our magazine. To tell you a little bit about myself, I am a 20-year-old woman from Jackson, Mississippi who has this overwhelming compulsion to adorn everything around her.

Serving as the Creative Director for Être has only given me more opportunities to continue doing what I truly love: making beautiful things with beautiful people. The world, however, does not always accept or celebrate the beauty we want to give. In many instances, we are revealed to times where a lack of understanding or notoriety towards progression is evident. Serving as a facilitator of creativity for our team has helped me see the love and fervor that is within people that seems to be overlooked in the climate we live in today. I can say with full confidence that people from places like Mississippi do have something very special about them. There is an unimaginable amount of people who dedicate so much of their time to adding to that beauty I was speaking about.

To the men and women that make up our Être team, thank you for being those incredible people; People that want to change the world, push the envelope, and will not stand for injustice. This year has been transcending. Being a part of the conception, design, and execution of the seventh volume of our magazine has been something out of this world. I have grown so much from being gifted with this responsibility and will be indebted to Fashion Board always.

I hope you enjoy everything we have put together for you.

TPB

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OUTERWEAR & T-SHIRTS PROVIDED BY B-UNLIMITED

ARCHIVE 8

BY: SOPHIE SABRI STYLED BY: CLAIRE ALLEN PHOTOS BY: ALDEN CHAPPEL

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mid chaos and confusion, it often serves us well to look back on the past and get lost in the comforting world of nostalgia for a moment.

Looking back at the roots of Fashion Board one will find pride and power in the organization’s trailblazing history.

This organization has served as a staple creative outlet on MSU’s campus for decades; its foundation is built strongly upon inclusivity, originality, and the pursuit of beautifully unique art.

Fashion Board is a home for students who find joy in expressing themselves through fashion and everything it encompasses. Members range from every major, size, age, ethnicity, talent, and hometown.

However, it is in these same differences that this unique organization becomes a cohesive body of like-minded individuals who promote and celebrate one another, the Starkville community, and the amazing art their combined talents create together.

Fashion Board is a microcosm that eloquently represents and practices the same values that this university holds strongly to its core. This organization’s diversity, inclusivity and expansion is directly parallel with that of MSU’s.

This university similarly has the distinction of being the most diverse school in the SEC, a renowned research institution and a respected facilitator of higher learning.

What began as a small club for fashion-oriented majors to use as a creative outlet has now become one of the most well-known, respected, and long-standing organizations on campus. It stands as a true testament to the hundreds of members who have come and gone throughout the years as both

trendsetters and pioneers of change.

The Archive provides a visual ode to everything that makes Fashion Board so special today. The clothes, styling and personality of this collaborate effort provide a glimpse into the past; bringing the small sense of nostalgia everyone seems to long for at some point.

Just as any family, each group that follows after the other holds a piece of those before them in their hearts. It is necessary to take a trip down the path of history and learn from those who built the structure upon which we stand.

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Fashion Board as a collective group seeks to obtain inspiration from the past while also diverging those same ideas to cultivate a vivacious future for those who will continue its legacy.

Now more than ever, those who have experienced the welcoming community Fashion Board provides can appreciate and reflect upon its roots and the blooming organization that has grown from them.

Promoting inclusivity, celebrating individuality, and cultivating an ever-expanding community allows Fashion Board to continue to do what it does best – collaboratively create magnificent art.

To those of you before us, we thank you.

To the current members, we cherish you. And to those of you who aspire to continue Fashion Board’s legacy, we welcome you.

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DISTOPIA

STYLED BY: SUNI CRANE PHOTOS BY: SOPHIE CALDERON

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Neutral Colors it’s hard to feel alone when the grass is green and the sky is blue, the birds singing outside help to distract from your solitude, but as the leaves change and the sky turns gray, and all the singing birds have packed up and flown away, no longer distracted by the beauty of summer, you must embrace being alone in fall’s neutral colors.

Kelsey Cour

We never knew what was to come of tomorrow, Or maybe we did and decided to let it linger as a figment of the imagination because it seemed to unrealistic.

Too late.

What has become of the us?

What now? How do we continue?

Not linearly, sharp turns, hills, valleys and bridges.

Its barren, what little remains is our means of survival.

The bare minimum.

Maybe, this can work. Yes, Maybe we can make this work Maybe we can slow from the never-ending race against the human race, brake and shift gears, changing at the most basic level Mutualism.

Or we dissolve into our surroundings, what is left of them.

Kameron Keel

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Surrender the Heart Find me where the wind sings its song, through the tall grass across the open field.

Find me where the hues sing softly, a mellow tone that brings peace to souls.

Find me where the people don’t sing, only listen to the mellow harmony only heard when silent.

I’ll find you there too—but use not your ears.

Surrender your heart, for it will be your only guide.

Sophie Sabri

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Another chapter in the book of life Good times gone by, but not without strife.

Watching from home, merging work and play As new life blossoms and withers away.

We learn to cope, to adjust to the times But we wonder, are we to waste our primes?

Sitting with family and friends alike Watching the news as the cases spike.

But no matter how desolate and unsure we are, We must keep in mind that the future isn’t far; All this soon will be a memory Then this present will be the past we see.

Mark your place, but turn the page— Take a moment to savor this age.

Sadie Ogletree

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CLOTHING PROVIDED BY GEORGE MARY’S 15

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ENCHANTMENT

BY: SADIE OGLETREE STYLED BY: LK MCDANIEL PHOTOS BY: MARY GEORGIA HAMILTON

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er world seemed flooded with bright color. She was baby blues, pastel pinks, light lavenders… The rest of us mixed into grotesque grays when she entered the room. She was everything light. Her smile was composed of pearls, her skin a flawless beige. She seemed to float through life with ease, and we all wanted whatever magic she could carelessly toss our direction. She was the magician,

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and we were her adoring audience. She was sunshine: bright, warm, lovely sunshine, and we were the moon, reflecting her bright light without believing we could generate our own.

But just like the sun, we never dared look at her too long. She was perfect—why would we need to?

She wasn’t who she appeared to be. Eventually her sunshine would fade and give way to darkness, and she couldn’t keep her grip on the warmth anymore. She would go home and let her sun go down, remove the mask of perfection she wore each and every day. She looked in the mirror and didn’t see her pearly smile, smooth skin, or colorful personality; instead, she saw dirty

BEAUTY BY KELLY ATKISON

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BEAUTY BY MARY GRACE HUNTER

pores, uneven ears, messy hair, and a tired soul.

But she knew how we all viewed her, so she painted over her darkness time and time again.

She never let any of us see her without her colorful mask—until one day, she did. She grew tired of wearing the mask, of pretending to be the sun. She bared her real self, her insecurities and her flaws and her darkness. She forced us to try to see her as she saw herself.

That’s when she shined the brightest.

CLOTHING PROVIDED

BY IT’S A DATE

BEAUTY BY LYDIA RAJAOBERISON

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FLUID W

BY: KELSEY COUR STYLED BY: BRAXTON SMITH PHOTOS BY: MARY GEORGIA HAMILTON

hen first brainstorming with my team on what parts of this shoot we wanted to highlight in this article, I kept bringing up the term “gender fluidity.” “Fluid” was then chosen as the name of this article to be short and more a dramatic play on gender fluidity, which would be the actual topic of this piece. But after days of struggling to come up with the right words, I realized that I couldn’t talk about fluidity without first addressing the fluid.

When a noun, the dictionary defines Fluid as “a substance that has no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure”. The average person could also be defined by this very same definition: “no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure.” By yielding to those external pressures—placed on us by society—we forget that we don’t have a fixed shape. We take our bodies and minds that are so different and do what we think we are supposed to do with them instead of what we actually want.

When an adjective, the dictionary defines Fluid as “able to flow easily.” This is exactly what Fashion Board aims to do: allow us to flow easily. It does this by not only celebrating and accepting students of all genders, majors, sexualities, and backgrounds, but by also encouraging members to use their uniqueness to create something beautiful.

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Beautiful can be anything from a shattered glass ceiling to just a really cool outfit. We have members doing it all.

Members like model, Metri Lyons, who flow so easily despite all the external pressures.

“I’ve been crushing gender norms since before I was able to understand the social change I was making. I never wanted to be limited to an article of clothing or only allowed certain colors in the crayon box,” said Lyons. “I remember as a child getting in trouble if I got caught playing with my sister’s dolls or wearing my mom’s clothes. What is interesting though is no matter how many times I got caught, the moment they left the room, I’d do it all again. It’s simply what I was destined to do.”

Shoot stylist, Braxton Smith, said he has been paying more attention to men breaking gender roles and that is ultimately what inspired this shoot. As a male studying Interior Design— which is a female dominated field—he has experienced firsthand how important it is to live out your dreams no matter what they are.

Our collective hope is that these ideals of self-expression and equality—no matter what gender someone is—will one day be accepted as loudly and unapologetically as they are inside the safe metaphorical walls of Fashion Board. So, we use our platform and members to send messages like this to be shared creatively with others. Women can be engineers; men can be designers. Men can wear makeup; women can grow out their body hair. You only get one life. Be the adjective, not the noun. Flow easily.

Love, Kelsey Cour

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flu•id – /`flooid/ noun a substance that has no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure; a gas or (especially)a liquid. adjective (of a substance) able to flow easily.

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BEAUTY BY LYDIA RAJAOBERISON & KALLI HEDGEPETH

SPEAKING JUSTICE

BY: MULTIPLE MEMBERS STYLED BY: KAMERON KEEL & KELSEY COUR PHOTOS BY: OLIVIA DICKEY

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As a Black member, how does Fashion Board allow you to express yourself?

“Fashion Board allows me to be myself because of the constant acceptance from everyone in this club” Alexis Drake “Being Black on Fashion Board to me means that I get to add in a different perspective of fashion than what we normally see” Faith Hughes

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“For years Black people have been excluded from the highest houses of fashion. Our beauty didn’t meet the standards of their “aesthetic,” but we now recognize that as racism. Being Black on Fashion Board is being the representation I needed as a child.

Black queer people being able to occupy spaces and be as gorgeous as they want to be — as gorgeous as everyone else” Metri Lyons

BEAUTY BY LYDIA RAJAOBERISON

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. BLACK IS STRENGTH. BLACK IS LOVED. BLACK IS EMBRACED. BLACK WILL NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE. 27

“I grew out of my comfort zone since being in Fashion Board. Fashion Board has allowed me to be myself by letting me explore my creative side that I never knew was there, while also allowing me to meet some creative and fun people in my major” Courtney Blair “To me, Fashion Board is an organization that thrives on diversity, and Fashion Board allows me to be myself by pushing me to open my mind when it comes to creativity” Kendra Montgomery “Once I became a member of Fashion Board, I instantly noticed and loved the inclusiveness. I loved the amount of black ladies and how everyone was comfortable doing ANYONE’s makeup” JayLa Dorse

“Fashion Board allows me to be myself by giving me the opportunity to express my voice and style in all aspects of the organization” Jamarcus Sutton “Being Black on Fashion Board allows me to be comfortable in my skin and allowing me to express my creativity with no judgement” Mackenzie Rainey “Fashion Board Allows me to express myself through my style of clothing, the express yourself section of the fashion shows (where you bring clothes from your closet) is one of the ways I show my style to the audience. Being Black on Fashion Board is having a voice and seat at the table.”

Jazzmin Butler

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“Fashion Board allows me to stylize myself with aesthetic uniqueness without the judgement of those around me” Joshua Major

“Being Black on Fashion Board gives me opportunity to display the beauty of differences, the beauty of kinky curly roots, full lips, dark skin. Being black on Fashion Board is a chance to unapologetically showcase who you are regardless of the narratives you are expected to fit and inspire other Black people to do the same. Being Black on Fashion Board is powerful” Kameron Keel

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