Digital
Volume 6 | Issue 4
who’s on staff?
editorial EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alana Valko CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kenzie King FEATURES EDITOR Sophie Cloherty PRINT FASHION EDITORS Nick Farrugia Jenny Ruan DIGITAL FASHION EDITOR Alexa DeFord DESIGN EDITORS Mackenzie Schwedt Manda Villarreal PRINT PHOTO EDITORS Katie Corbett Evan Parness DIGITAL PHOTO EDITOR Francesca Romano STREET STYLE EDITOR Lucy Carpenter MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR Natalie Guisinger
business PUBLISHER Claire Dickerson ACCOUNTS DIRECTOR Colleen Jones MARKETING DIRECTOR Molly Shulan FINANCE COORDINATORS Kate Burns Drisha Gwalani EVENTS COORDINATORS Paige Dobies Courtney O’Beirne OUTREACH COORDINATOR Ellery Benson
VIDEO EDITOR Hayley Danke
SALES COORDINATOR Julia Barofsky Kira Mintzer
DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR Alice Huth
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Liz Haley
ILLUSTRATOR MANDA VILLARREAL
SHEI /’sh(ay)/ Magazine was founded in 1999 as an Asian Pop Culture Magazine and became affiliated with University of Michigan Student Publications in 2013. Our Digital Magazine, known as SHIFT at the time, was launched in 2015. Since then, SHEI has grown to campus wide recognition as a publication that students can come to for fashion, art, and culture commentary and inspiration.
in this issue
MASTHEAD 0 LETTER FR S THE HOLIDA RH YEA DECE
02 ROM THE EDITOR 06 SEEING RED 08 AYS: A MEANS OF MANIPULATION 14 HINESTONES AND REBIRTH 16 A MEAL WITH FRIENDS 22 AR OF THE METAL RAT 24 HANDS 34 EMBER STREET STYLE 36
letter from the editor
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We are celebrating a lot right now: the bridging of a new decade, the 20th anniversary of SHEI, and of course, the holidays. SHEI was founded in 1999–exactly two decades ago the world they pondered had yet to include much semblance of digital realms. I hardly reached year three of my life in 2000, so I’ll save the nostalgia for those who experienced the decade with memories other than a Barbie dream house. Still, with this issue, I can not help but wonder how our articles, photo shoots and street style would appear 20 years ago. Much about the holidays remain predictable: they come every year at the same time and they are filled with tradition. Photo shoots in our Celebration issue reflect this predictability—tinsel, rhinestones and the color red linger throughout imagery. Celebratory dinner parties commonly commence during the holidays, but we often equate ‘dinner
party’ with adulting. One of our writers has a dinner party on a college campus, and reminds us that even everyday meals can be a celebration on page 22. What we discuss still touches on some uncertainty. In the decade of online shopping and the demise of brick-and-mortar stores, digital purchasing has turned into a strategic, capitalist game. Whether you celebrate or fear the gamification of e-commerce, we introduce the topic on page 14. According to Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the metal rat. What that entails will be different for each person, but our team provides some interpretation on page 24. The trends of the next decade— in fashion, in business, in life—will change, but celebration during the holidays will remain. As predictable as the holidays may be, it is nice to have some stability. And why not have that stability be tradition and celebration with loved ones?
Alana Valko Editor-In-Chief
SEEING RED
STYLISTS ISABELLE FISHER KARLY MADEY NATALIA NOWICKA CAROLINE WHITE MEGAN YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHERS FRANCESCA ROMANO EVAN RUSSA VIDEOGRAPHERS SOPHIE HERDRICH GRAPHIC DESIGNER MACKENZIE SCHWEDT MODELS CHLOE CHODOROW SHAUNIE LEWIS
Red Coat - Forever 21
Black Dress - Urban Outfitters Cheetah Coat - Nordstrom Shoes - Aldo Socks - Urban Outfitters
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THE HOLIDAY a means of manipulation Giving thanks on the fourth Thursday of November is not always the wholesome act we pretend it is. For as long as holiday purchases make up twenty percent of retail sales in a given year, Thanksgiving is nothing but a precursor for capitalism’s preferred holiday: Black Friday. What we cannot give thanks for today, we apparently buy tomorrow. The term ‘Black Friday’ possesses a long history. This starting mark for the race of the holiday retail season is grounded in the period of rapid industrialization which marked the turn of the twentieth century. Department stores stocked with mass-produced goods served a newly conscious middle class. Excitement over the new, upscale marketplace put high strain on retail employees. In the 1950s, the workers of these shopping hubs would commonly call in sick on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The day became known as Black Friday for it’s negative associations. To discourage the implications of this term and to encourage consumers to participate in the madness, public relations experts twisted the term to reflect a family-centered preparation for Christmas. In the 1980s, the public grew more
realistic about the monetary implications of the day. To say a company is “in the black” is to say that they are profitable. In contrast, to be in the red means to be unprofitable. The process of retailers going “back in the black” during holiday sales became a commonplace explanation for Black Friday’s significance and naming. With the finish line falling on New Year’s Day, the holiday season became ripe for retail cooptation. The bombardment of advertisements which pervade this period have historically sparked increased competitive sentiments among consumers, thereby straying from those themes of generosity largely expressed on Thanksgiving. Inherent to human behavior is comparison to our peers, and retailers target this weakness during the gift giving season. One modern retail method that plays on the competitive spirit is gamification. Gamification is a design strategy which manipulates an information system on the user end with actions and motivations which mirror that of the gaming experience. Within e-commerce, retailers essentially drive consumer behavior via rewards, points, and tier systems, en-
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couraging both loyalty and satisfaction with the brand at large. Beyond additional incentivisation, the gamification of e-Commerce enables the collection and analysis of increased quantities of data. This details the habits and preferences of their customers, encapsulating an omnisciency which every company seeks. Evident is the two-fold nature of such systems, as the design elements which actuate the feeling of a game form a suite of affordances which aid both the user experience and company progression. Predictable facets of human behavior are specifically targeted via gamification methods. Intrinsic motivations are channeled via score achievement, individualized challenges, and the enjoyment of interacting with virtual characters. Extrinsic motivations, manifested in friending, liking, and profile set-ups, invoke the same social competitiveness native to holiday gift-giving. Brands across the spectrum are gamifying the shopping experience of their customers. On the luxury end, Louis Vuitton matched Lightning, a cartoonish heroine from Square Enix Studio’s Final Fantasy game in their SERIES 4 advertising campaign. The immersive imagery of this digital figure carrying Maison’s handbags bridges together Lightning’s association with female courage and power with luxury envy. Alternatively, Urban Outfitters has initiated a brand new rewards program for this holiday season. Each purchase grants the user twenty points, the act of writing a product review offers five, and even the simple act of browsing the site or app awards a
point. Certain point attainments elevate the user’s status to ‘silver’ or ‘gold’ tiers. And progress is tracked to ensure the longevity of participation. The user gains a sense of achievement via point accumulation, and the sociality of the tier system inspires the same middle-class discontent invoked a century ago by the strategy of the department store. The heightened tensions of the days between Thanksgiving and New Years form manic consumer culture enforced by the collective. Gamification is merely a marketing strategy which serves to enhance the customer experience during a frantic holiday season, while at the same time providing meaningful feedback for the company on the surge of products purchased. As technology continues to allow for the development of digital experiences, it logically follows that the simple, often mundane act of shopping would be converted to an act of consumer manipulation. Gamified tactics, although mutually beneficial for the buyer and seller, do little to alleviate holiday spending grievances. The allocation of specific names for days which signal large scale expenditure simply wasn’t enough. The dual push of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has only been inflated by the gamification of online mediums. The Information Age may offer a novel level of potential, but it also begs a future of increased access to the innate motivations of the individual by groups who wield serious economic power. It seems there is no escaping the less-than-wholesome promises of days filled by the contrasting hope of fairy lights and mistletoe. WRITER HANNAH TRIESTER GRAPHIC DESIGNER MANDA VILLARREAL
rhinestones and rebirth DIRECTOR JACOB WARD STYLISTS ANTHONY HYUNH YOUMNA KHAN KARLY MADEY PHOTOGRAPHERS FRANCESCA ROMANO RITA VEGA VIDEOGRAPHER MIRANDA FELTY GRAPHIC DESIGNER MANDA VILLARREAL MODELS NICOLE BANCHIK STEPHEN BUCKLEY LIV TU
Dress - Revolve
For the younger generation, the art of the dinner party is a dying one. During our time in college, a normal meal is a rarity and a meal with friends is even more so. When the work begins and we all seclude ourselves into our respective academic corners, meals are often used as reprieve rather than as socialization. I do this too. When studying or work gets tough I either skip meals or just eat them quickly and get back to work. Myself and many others consistently value convenience over the taste or quality of a meal. Why is eating food viewed more often as a chore than a pleasure? When I step back to reflect on food, I find that it takes great importance in my life. Not only has cooking been a way for me to connect with my mother, but it has also been a way for me to express love. Sharing a meal with friends rarely happens for me, which is sad because it doesn’t seem to be the fault of myself or my friends. Sharing food should not be a special occasion, but rather it should be something common place in everyone’s lives. Everyone deserves to have the love of their friends reaffirmed on a regular basis. In order to put food back into perspective for me, I decided to throw a dinner
A
l a e m
party. The only way to reconnect with food is to actually cook and share it. There is no amount of reading or youtube videos that can ever encapsulate the actual feel of cooking and eating. That is why I set out to deliberately cook and to deliberately eat with friends. When I sat down to plan this dinner party there was a fear looming over me. I felt as if the dinner had to be immaculately prepared––everything intricately put together into something that worked harmoniously. I felt that every part was supposed to collect into this great event that no one would forget, an event that would really call into question the role of meals in everyone’s lives. In the process of planning, however, I found that the dinner was never going to be perfect, it was going to be mine. I began by toiling over recipe books trying to find something that would encapsulate the mood that I hoped to convey. This resulted in an incredibly long list of dishes and an even longer ingredient list. I realized that my ambitions were both too complicated for the short amount of time I had and too expensive for my wallet. After a week of putting the project on hold, I realized that cooking some-
thing that I would normally eat at home would be better for everyone involved. The dinner ended up being a hodgepodge of roasted vegetables, pasta, and salad. Nothing too fancy but still satisfactorily labor intensive. This simplicity is nothing that I am ashamed of because my food is a reflection of me. The food should be good for me first and foremost, the project was not to impress my friends but rather to enjoy a meal with them. If I am too caught up in the food, it doesn’t let me enjoy the company. Figuring out the people to invite was the easiest part. The group was simply five other people who I truly enjoy spending time with and who I am proud to call my friends. While friends are easy to come by on a college campus, the capacity of friendship varies. Coming to college has really let me find friends become more a reflection of who I am rather than just out of convenience. It seems that the great friendships that I have in college are greater because of a combination of me being a more fully developed person as well as the fact that there are more people. This makes it so that the people who I am friends with have more in common with me. All the people who I surround
with
myself with I see some part that I truly respect. The food is a way that I am able to voice this respect. The dinner party took place at my friends home, where four of the five people at the party lived. The house is the place that we all originally bonded. Therefore decor was unnecessary. It simply seemed superfluous. Any decor that I put out would either be too much work or be ignored. The bare essentials for the party were friends, food and our memories, nothing more and nothing less. This dinner party was by no means anything remarkable in the larger scheme of any of my friends lives however, it was an enjoyable night with friends and that’s all that I can hope for. The food wasn’t perfect, the decor was nonexistent, but none of that mattered. I expressed my love and appreciation through food and we were all happy just to be with each other for an hour or so. The question that I pose to the reader is, why not throw a dinner party yourselves? Deliberately carving out a couple hours for those you love can be affirming for both people. Spending time for a meal is time well spent. We all have to eat no matter what, so why not eat with friends. WRITER WILL PEDERSON GRAPHIC DESIGNER MANDA VILLARREAL
frie
nds
year of the
Metal Rat DIRECTER JUAN MARQUEZ ROBINA RRANZA STYLISTS JUAN MARQUEZ ROBINA RRANZA PHOTOGRAPHERS JUAN MARQUEZ ROBINA RRANZA GRAPHIC DESIGNER MACKENZIE SCHWEDT MODELS SAM KING VICTORIA RINALDI SOPHIE SCHWARTZ
Hands
You are young. You are naive. You are immature. Fine. I do not want to change the world. I want to revolutionize it. I want to turn it upside down. I want to shake it. I want to teach it. I want to mold it. How? It is simple: with my own bare hands. My hands have done much good already, but they yearn to do more. They want to cure, to heal, to see that they have saved lives. They want to understand, to learn, to educate. But most of all, they want to pull people up when they lie helpless on an unforgiving ground. My hands, like the hands of others, navigate existences. Their skin softens and hardens. They grasp loving hands, hating hands, brave hands, helpless hands, determined hands–and sometimes–no hands at all. My hands wave “hello” and “goodbye” to friends and strangers alike, ac-
knowledging the significance of both connection and separation. My hands have held the aged hands of my father’s mother as we breathe words of love as she departs for her home–Pakistan. Purple veins: a map of her travels and hardships, twisted like the limbs of an ancient oak, visible and clear and proud. It only takes a few broken phrases of Urdu and English to transcend the language barrier that used to stand tall between us. The soft rubbing of thumbs, the tightening of fingers; it is clear. My hands clasp each other in somber prayer as I long to understand a world where millions of women die of preventable causes during childbirth, where over 60 million girls are forced into unwanted marriages, where thousands are killed in the name of God. But prayer can only do so much, and action must be taken. How will I put these hands to work? My fingers hold white chalk, moving
across a blackboard in a downtown community center. From right to left, it takes a moment for my hands to get accustomed to the fluid strokes of the Arabic language. They attempt to familiarize my students with its tones and words and phrases. I am pleased to share my love of a language that for many has exclusively negative associations. My students long to learn, even when others are scared to listen. My hands rest in my lap, fingers intertwined. In Saudi Arabia, they have no other ones to hold. It is not appropriate. Why? I struggle to fully understand a culture that is both my own and yet foreign. My hands lightly grace the carpets of mosque floors, fingers digging into the plush pile. They tremble as they hold the Qur’an, questioning if they believe every word written within its pages. Do they belong here? My hands belong to me.
WRITER HEBA MALIK GRAPHIC DESIGNER MACKENZIE SCHWEDT
DECEMBER
“I get m Bella Ha
STREET STYL
LYNN HAYES @lynnhayess my inspiration from adid and Pinterest.�
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ANONYMOUS
GRACE KENT @graceakay “A dark, gloomy day calls for fun pants!”
JO C @ “Wow, I feel
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EVAN HAMMON @__evanhammon__
CHANG @em0jo great!”
DAN (right) @_danthethird “Cozy vibes. C
d Classic pieces.”
JONAE @_.thatsvve “I dont really have a particular style. I just wear whatever is flattering to my body and I feel comfortable in. I have my own unique take on what I wear.”
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MIRIAM LUPOVITCH @mir.frieda “This jacket is actually my dad’s. It’s a ‘loan’ but he’s never getting it back.”
ASHA CHERNINA @masha.chernina “Does my face have to be in it?”
ANONYMOUS
NATALIE GUISINGER Managing Photo Editor @natguisinger “Although fall is my third favorite season, I’m a huge fan of autumn fashion. I am going to a gala in Detroit tonight and I actually got this dress at a vintage shop in Detroit. Apparently it’s from the 70s. My grandma is my #1 inspiration for fashion and in general. She’s so cool. When she was my age, she would wear ray ban aviators, moped to her job at the factory where they made Lipton soup, and not give a fuck about the guys who catcalled her along the way. I’m excited to see her over Christmas.”
SIDA (STAR) ZHONG @rikdada “I decided to wear the pants with the vibe of fall.”
DAN NEUROTH “I always try to dress like a dad.”
SHIMON @shimon
MARGARET SMITH @margaretsmith05 “Dresses are my go-to. You give me an event and I’ll have a dress for it.“
NTI SENGUPTA ntis
JORDAN CERIO @jordanncerio “I love wearing my colors with pride in a fashionable way.”
LIZ LIMA @lizardlima Me: “I hope you guys lose!” Liz: “You too!”
AMY, JASON & M @amy_wex @los_zeldez @me “As comfy and fashion possible. And because the Runway, this is po
ALEC ANGEL @julzmidds Alec: ”I made it myself.” Me: “So you killed it yourself?” Alec: “Well, yes.”
JULIA MIDDLESWORTH & SHANNON MAGUIRE @julzmidds @shanmags “We always always always go all out!”
MEGAN egzelds nable as of Rent ossible.�
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