Elena Reyes, Elise Hsaio, Emily Farhat, Teagan Hollman, Ana Liu, Megan Dobie
There seems to be a notion in our current media zeitgeist that we are in a new idea deficit. I’ve read many remarks online lamenting that every movie seems to be a remake nowadays, every musical a revival or film adaptation, the media we consume living in an endless self referential cycle. Fashion is not exempt in the slightest from this same impulse. Sitting across from Creative Director, Janaé Dyas this past July, I wondered what hidden benefits lie in this perceived “new idea deficit”. How do we reinvent ourselves with each reimagining? How do we improve and innovate with every retelling?
I realized ideas perhaps should not be seen as a shiny new object we are ceaselessly, rather, an infinite timeline informed by every idea that came before us, and every idea that comes next. Janaé and I discussed this publication’s own 25 year timeline, wondering how to honor our legacy, while creating space for our current and future aesthetics. Thus, Reprise, was born.
In the pages before you, you’ll see how our team chose to reimagine, and reinvent ideas from SHEI’s past. In preparation for this issue, I spent countless hours combing through our 25 year publication history. I noticed so many ways our publication has changed, taking note of ideas I’d like to bring back, and concepts I’m glad we left in the past. Our editors challenged the digital team to think of ways to update past shoots to fit into our current more narrative driven standards. Honoring our legacy while challenging our future. Any SHEI Magazine digital member will tell you that we try to avoid repeating concepts we’ve done before by any means . However, while flipping through a myriad of past SHEI pages, I realized that may be an impossible ask, finding elements we just can’t help but hold onto, elements that inform our publication’s core identity.
Our renaissance lies in repetition. Our reprise is our chorus.
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.” - Paulo Coelho
In preparation for this issue, I spent hours combing through archival SHEI across a 25 year timespan. As I put our history under a microscope, I couldn’t ignore the throughline connecting past with present: whether it’s through fashion, politics or philosophy, our culture constantly recycles itself. I couldn’t help but fall in love with our own magazine’s reinvention. Like origami, our magazine folds into itself so many times it emerges anew.
These repetitions can easily shift from the cultural perspective to the personal. In “‘I Nine!’” Avery White calls our nihilistic attitude toward reincarnation into question: if our culture recreates itself time and time again, is it so far-fetched to believe that our lives, our souls, are undergoing the exact same process? She urges us to contemplate our location in the cycle and how it influences our character.
Still, reinvention can be high risk, high reward, and even high consequence, as Lane Liu explores throughout “In Her Reputation Era.” Evolution is inevitable as much as it’s incredibly difficult. Furthermore, the constraints and impossible standards to which we hold female celebrities have only gotten more severe over the past decade. We demand a new persona from our favorite popculture icon then tear her down when she delivers. We crave strangeness but seek familiarity. Our comfort zone is shaped like a bubble.
SHEI recognizes this bubble and pops it. Our look backward is a look inward; we have found our location in the cycle and the role it plays in our creation. We let our roots breathe in order to grow, but we carry them with us in every SHEI issue. This is our reprise.
SHOOT DIRECTOR
RILEY NEVILLE
PHOTOGRAPHER
ZOEY XIONG
FASHION
JARED RUFFING
PORTER SELFRIDGE
VIDEOGRAPHER
MARGARET MCKINNEY
MODELS
JARED RUFFING
PORTER SELFRIDGE
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
MARGARET LAAKSO
COMRADERY
COMRADERY COWBOY
ADMIT IT,
There was something magical about going to the store with my mom as a little girl and seeing the glossy covers of magazines stacked upon shelves, always captivated by the juicy tabloid headlines and the photos of pop culture icons staring back at me. I would pick them up and immediately enter a magical world of celebrity drama and bold fashion statements. Magazines weren’t just a source of entertainment, though. They have shaped how we see the world by influencing the way we dress, think, and connect with others, while also setting trends and sparking important conversations.
In the early years of print, periodicals and other public journals were mostly focused on domestic life, events and news, literature, sewing patterns and fashion tips. As the years have gone on, it seems like there are more magazines that center themselves on specific niche topics, beyond just news and fashion. There are magazines that are solely focused on topics like data visualization, surfing, quality of life, tea, or anything else you could possibly imagine. When I was growing up in the late 2000s, it felt like magazines were so much more than just telling events and stories of the times. They were cultural bibles of the 90s and 2000s, guiding us through the latest trends and all the ways we could be cooler according to the it-girls of Hollywood.
From the cutting edge looks seen in magazines like Vogue to the gritty features of Rolling Stone, magazines were tastemakers, a fact made even
more glamorous by the way they were portrayed in movies of the time. I mean, who could forget 13 Going on 30, where 13-year-old Jenna magically becomes a 30-year-old fashion editor at Poise, a fictional but highly coveted magazine? Or The Devil Wears Prada, where Andy, an aspiring journalist, suddenly finds herself as the assistant to the editor-in-chief of the fictional Runway Magazine, Miranda Priestly? These movies didn’t just highlight how magazines dictated fashion and culture, but they made being part of that world seem like the ultimate dream.
Of course, like all things, the magazine world didn’t stay the same forever. As the digital age picked up speed, everything started to change for printed and physical media. Instead of waiting a month for a new issue of your favorite magazine to drop, you could easily get style inspiration and the hottest gossip with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a phone. The magazine industry took some serious hits during the pandemic too. Covid brought many print publications to a halt, with some shutting down completely and others scaling back to solely digital releases.
Yet, in recent years, there’s been a noticeable shift back toward the tangible. People are tired of the constant digital noise, the overstimulation, and the endless scrolling, slowly bringing in the revival of slow media. Think vinyl records, CDs, digital and film cameras, and of course, magazines. Suddenly, what was once thought to be left behind in the late 90s and early 2000s
IT,YOU MISS YOU MISS
is making a full comeback, and honestly, it feels refreshing. There’s something cool again about flipping through pages, being intentional, sitting down with something and giving yourself permission to savor it, rather than racing through the constant blur of online content.
going to make a real comeback, they need to lead the charge in creating meaningful, inclusive content that reflects today’s readers, not just continue with what was popular 20 years ago.
With this resurgence of print magazines, indie and niche magazines have been gaining momentum. These smaller, sometimes independent, publications are thriving because they’re willing to take risks and offer fresh, exciting perspectives that feel relevant. Meanwhile, a lot of the big names haven’t fully bounced back, and it’s clear why. Many of them are still playing it too safe, offering up the same tired content that brought them success in the past, but there is no room for that in our current world.
If mainstream magazines are going to reclaim their place as cultural tastemakers, they need to be bold. Because let’s be real, despite the iconic status of late 90s and Y2K magazines, they weren’t without their issues. The celebrity gossip was downright brutal, diet culture and fatshaming were rampant, diverse representation was seriously lacking, and toxic relationship advice was given too casually. If magazines are
So, what does risk-taking for big magazines look like in this print revival? It means pushing boundaries in ways that actually matter, like highlighting underrepresented voices, telling meaningful stories, and challenging the rapid fire of trend cycles that social media loves to engage with. For the print world to stay relevant, it needs to continue moving forward, keeping the passion and energy that made magazines iconic, while leaving behind what held them back. The future of magazines lies in thoughtful risk-taking and continuous creativity, and it’s time to see just how far they can continue to evolve.
Welcome to the Dollhouse Revamped back to dollhouse the
SHOOT DIRECTORS
SUBIN YANG
PHOTOGRAPHER(S)
MAGGIE WHITTEN
KAMRYN WASHINGTON
FASHION
SALLY JANG
VIDEO
SYDNEY SEIFERT
BEAUTY
GRETCHEN BROOKES
MODELS NAMES
ELSIE ROGERS
ASMA GUNDY
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
MILCAH KRESNADI
In Her Reputation
n August 18th, 2017, the world was going crazy over Taylor Swift.
On the three-year anniversary of her hit single,“Shake It Off”, Swift silently and suddenly removed all traces of her presence from the Internet. Chaos ensued, with fans clamoring to Twitter and Instagram to speculate about the pop star’s next move. This mysterious purge of her previous image came to be established as part of the launch of a brand new album, characterized by Swift’s reclamation of her identity amidst a dramatic controversy with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
Seven years later, the genesis of Swift’s reputation era is just one example in the plethora of revolutionary brand shifts Swift has accomplished in her decades-long career. From the soft pastels and sighing ballads of Lover to the raw, folksy tunes of folklore and evermore, Swift has continuously and successfully rebranded her image with each new record. Like her predecessors Madonna and Lady Gaga, she has mastered the art of reinvention—keeping audiences guessing to ensure that there is never a dull moment.
Although the arrival of new eras is exciting for both fans and the cultural zeitgeist as a whole, this strategy of reinvention stems from a much more sinister necessity. Without reinvention, there is no renewed interest, and without renewed interest, musicians, especially women musicians, lose both money and relevance. In her 2020 documentary, Swift herself acknowledges that without reinvention, female artists are out of a job—that unless they can keep themselves shiny and new, society becomes sick of them.
In fact, countless pop stars within the last few years have altered their image for the purpose of their artistry. Both Billie Eilish and Lorde have shed their dark, moody personas for brighter, softer looks aligning with their recent music releases, while Dove Cameron has done the opposite, stepping away from her Disney channel roots and embracing jet black hair and a signature thick-winged eyeliner. Other Disney stars like Miley Cyrus did this too; the girl associated with Hannah Montana was replaced by a raunchy, sexually confident Miley who swung around naked on wrecking balls.
Of course, this reinvention isn’t always spurred by the desire to maintain an audience or stay relevant in the culture; humans are constantly changing, and it is only fitting that a person’s artistry should align with their identity. However, there is something to be said about the fixation that the media and society as a whole have on women’s appearances. Artists like Shawn Mendes and Harry Styles have gone through similar shifts in their sound, but they aren’t expected to completely transform their image. At their core, they are able to remain essentially the same person, while their female contemporaries must undergo dramatic makeovers in their branding, physical appearance, and persona in order to maintain a connection with critics and their audience.
This short lifespan of female celebrities’ relevance and favorability in the public eye can be seen with another phenomenon—what cultural critic Rayne Fisher-Quann has coined “being woman’d”. From actress Anne Hathaway to singer Olivia Rodrigo, there seems to be a depressing inevitability that society will, almost overnight, collectively turn against a woman, crucifying her for being too visible. Songs become annoying, interviews are blown out of context, and people insist that they never really liked her that much, anyway. Most often, these mass shifts in opinion occur at the peak of the celebrity’s career. Right as Taylor Swift’s popularity heightened to unfathomable success with her worldwide Eras tour (now cited as the highestgrossing tour in history), the New York Times released an article literally titled, “Taylor Swift Needs to Become Other People.” Right as Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress (and fell, again) at the 2014 Oscars, public opinion spun her into a calculated “pick me girl” playing up a role for the male gaze. Lawrence, though, had predicted this shift, saying, “Nobody can stay beloved forever...just wait: people are going to get sick of me.” Much like with the demand for reinvention, society seems to despise women who have too much power; they’re either too cool or not cool enough, trying too hard to be relatable or not relatable at all. They have
Reputation Era
committed the crime of daring to be seen.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
KATIE KELL
While women face significant damage to their careers based purely on “vibes,” their male counterparts remain unscathed for similar or much worse controversies. Tom Holland’s inability to withhold confidential work information has been framed as an endearing quirk, and Mel Gibson’s expulsion from Hollywood after scandals about being racist, homophobic, and abusive lasted only a decade before Hacksaw Ridge received a whopping six Oscar nominations. Men are afforded mistakes, flaws, and human indecency; women must eternally strive for an impossible standard. The price of fame is a hefty one, and for women, it unfortunately does not exclude the annulment of personhood.
In a world where celebrities are treated as products to be bought and sold, the emphasis on image and branding makes women especially vulnerable, considering society’s preoccupation with women’s appearances. While fame has always undoubtedly been an unstable way to make a living, it is made even more so through our collective fixation on how women are perceived and how they present themselves. The question, then, is this: how can we as a society alleviate this pressure and scrutiny, if at all possible?
Because this issue is rooted deeply in the broader patriarchal system, there may not be an immediate solution that can be implemented en masse. It’s important to remember that issues like these are not examples of the patriarchy as a whole, but symptoms of it—no one should feel individually responsible or at fault for partaking in or being complacent in the unwarranted backlash against certain female celebrities. The patriarchy affects us all, and it’s easy to get caught up in the wave of opinions flooding your feed or unknowingly internalize misogynistic opinions online. That being said, there are ways we can be more conscientious to improve our own ways of thinking and help out in our immediate communities.
One way to do this is through slower and more critical consumption of media. Social media has made it exponentially more difficult to hold nuanced, meaningful discussions, and people’s opinions are often presented in ways that are created to grab your attention or be quick and easy to read. When taking in all this information, ask yourself: why might this person think this way? Is there a genuine and warranted reason for this criticism, and if not, what is the real reason behind the backlash? How have other figures in the public eye been criticized (or not criticized) similarly?
On a broader scale, it may also be beneficial to deemphasize the image of women celebrities. Whether they are music artists, actresses, writers, content creators, or any other occupation, their work should be the primary focus of their career (or perhaps their personality, if their work is driven by their presence on the Internet), not their appearance or persona. In real life, this could be implemented through fewer news headlines that spread gossip about their personal lives, respect and maintenance of boundaries from fans during public appearances, and overall, the restoration of the personhood of these celebrities’. Although this transition would require a mass societal restructuring, it can be done; past feminist movements such as #MeToo have proven that the cultural attitude towards how we treat public figures can be transformed if enough people participate. The change begins with us.
ENCHANTED BEYOND THE DEPTHS
SHOOT DIRECTORS
REAGAIN HAKALA
PHOTOGRAPHERS
EMMANUEL CUBBA + CHLOE KIRILUK
FASHION
CHRISTINE KIM
VIDEO
CHLOE KIRILUK
MODEL
BOBBY CURRIE
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ERIN JANE HOBBS
WRITER
AVERY WHITE
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
AVERY WHITE
Seven plus two, plus two, plus two, plus five equals eighteen, and one plus eight equals nine. Although unaware of the existence of mathematics—or the knowledge of how to formulate grammatically correct verbal statements (let alone numerology), I like to believe that my soul was rather familiar with said mathematical equations. In other words, I was born with the innate knowledge of my life path number and first expressed this around the age of three.
Whether it is ancient wisdom like astrology or modern personality tests like Myers Briggs Type Indicator, I have always been fascinated by the art of understanding myself and others. Perhaps the reasoning behind this can be explained by the complex systems themselves; how having my Chiron placement in Aquarius or simply being an INFJ-T both contribute to my desire to obtain such information. Until they are no longer considered pseudosciences I may never know of their scientific validity, but what I do know is that they have left me spiritually enamored. And for me, that is sufficient.
Does everything need to be backed up by evidence to be proven beneficial anyway? Or does the dismissal of and stigma against practices like these gatekeep us from our highest potentials? And maybe it is not that the astrology and personality phenomena are not real, but rather constructed on a unique type of logic that we have not yet discovered a way to measure properly…? While these are rhetorical questions, they serve a precise purpose: if tools like astrology or Myers Briggs Type Indicator feel useful to people, then is that not rather beautiful and worth examination?
Numerology, a concept that is old in age but has become the newest device for me to get to know myself further. With my return to Ann Arbor for the new school year brought an inclination, whispered softly in my ear by the universe—one that left me with an insistent urge to research my life path number again and this time, further in-depth. I listened intently.
What began as a casual inquiry rapidly metamorphosed into a serious mission. My birthdate of July twentysecond, two-thousand-and-five was now translated to mathematical summation: 7 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 5 = 18, which reduces to 1 + 8 = 9, or my very own life path number of nine. Following these minor calculations, I had attained a higher sense of enlightenment that happened to juxtapose my intrinsic prioritization of creativity over methodicalness.
In true twenty-first century nature, I turned to ChatGPT which spat out the comprehensive guide I needed to induct myself into the elaborate world of numerology. My robot counterpart described being a nine as
being a humanitarian, with wisdom and spiritual awareness, having a noteworthy emphasis on artistic expression, but burdened by difficulty letting go, challenges establishing boundaries, and setting extremely high standards. It also informed me that numerologists collectively believe life path nines to be old souls who are undergoing their ninth and final incarnation on Earth, meaning I have lived a supposed eight (!) other lives before (OpenAI 2024).
I can clearly see this in the distinct way I act, think, and sense the world around me. Not only did I receive confirmation of my deep connection to spirituality, but of my probable and numerous past lives too—where I promptly spiraled into retrospection. Who was I before?
What historical periods have I lived through? How long did I live for on average? Was I happy in each life?
Between a point of exploration and reflection, the universe whispered in my ear once more, but at a louder volume. I was being drawn towards recurring memories from my childhood, routine occurrences so prevalent that various members of my family still bring them up today: the phenomenon that anytime someone would ask how old I was around the age of three, my response was always, without error, “I nine!”
While rediscovering an interest in numerology, I realized a possible spiritual explanation as to why I used to claim to be a nine-year-old girl as a toddler. My theory is that I must not have fully understood the question yet, but possessed an inner wisdom that I was being asked about my birthday and another concept relating to that of
which I could not comprehend. Therefore, could my soul have remembered my past eight lives? And being the vessel of my soul, did my brain subconsciously think best to reveal my life path number instead of my age? Did my response manifest as “I nine,” since it was being conveyed by my toddler self prior to formal education in the English language? And did the linear perspective humans place around time warp my answer? Is what was filtered out supposed to be “I am a life path nine?!”
Now despite translative limitations, I became obsessed with falsely bragging about being nine. Eventually, I did outgrow upholding the repetitive lie, of course to only be reminded of it once I turned nine for real. My family and I never had a lead on the context until oddly enough, soon after my nineteenth birthday. It is safe to assume that I have been enthralled by this fresh download. After essentially my entire life of attempting to decipher the reasoning behind “I nine,” I at least now had a hypothesis to offer and it was rivetingly mysterious. The fact that such a striking personal revelation derived from a so-called pseudoscience was indeed satisfying as well. Returning to a state grounded in logic, systems like numerology can aid in understanding, acceptance, and betterment in the world around us within both a personal and societal context. Even if they are not officially recognized by the scientific method, it encourages rebirth. The idea of reincarnation emerges into the mystic realm, where souls are granted the
opportunity to try again if they were not successful in their assigned duty.
What arises is the chance to tear apart each aspect of your life that does not serve your highest good and to start over clean. To only then soon find it gets messy again. To be continuously born anew. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over; infinitely, because life never stops, it just evolves and transforms. Shall you become the next leader (1), peacemaker (2), creative (3), builder (4), adventurer (5), nurturer (6), seeker (7), power (8), or humanitarian (9)? Your future equations knowingly await you.
ISSUE 15:SPRING 2004, SPRING 2007
INSPIRED BY:
ISSUE 10:SPRING 2004 TRUE COLORS
ISSUE 15:SPRING 2007 PG 63
PHOTOGRAPHER
AVA MUNTER FASHON
KAAVYA CHAVAN
GLORIA YU BEAUTY
SIDNEY VUE MODEL
EMMA ZHANG
DESIGNER
ISABELLA SCHNEIDER
JESSICA KROETSCH
SHOOT DIRECTOR
THE NAUGHTY NOUGHTIES:
PHow low can you go with Alexander McQueen’s bumsters?
op princesses and bedazzlement, platform flip flops and Fergie, Bratz dolls and Britney: the 2000s were a time of wild abandon and pure ditzy fun. Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of “y2k” fashion. Viral TikToks feature spiky hairstyles, Nelly Furtado songs, and clips of The Simple Life with Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton. The cycle of trends favors a 20 year pattern. There was 90s does 70s, 60s does 20s, and now 2020s does y2k. This trend has even been reflected in the upper echelon of fashion. With Paris Hilton walking for Versace and grungey denim at Blumarine, the noughties are officially back. Low rise jeans have experienced a huge resurgence in the past few years. The low rise trend originated in the 60s — think Cher-style hiphuggers. Revived in the 90s through sensations like the Alexander McQueen “bumsters,” cult brands like True Religion and Baby Phat
Fergie takes risks with her microscopic skirt!
ruled the world in the early 2000s. Celebrities like Paris Hilton and Keira Knightley graced red carpets with jeans dipping dangerously low. Nowadays teens scour apps like Depop for the aforementioned jean brands. Thrifting is huge, where low rise jeans are stocked in abundance. However, baggy low rise is sometimes preferred over the tighter bootcut styles of the 2000s. Buying jeans a few sizes too big and letting them hang low on the hips, is the modern “effortlessly chic” take on y2k denim. The queen of y2k, Paris Hilton, famously said, “Skirts should be the size of belts. Life’s short. Take risks.” This was certainly the case in the early 2000s; the micromini skirt reigned. Pieces like Diesel’s belt skirt and Miu Miu’s khaki micro-minis have stormed the runway and the internet in recent years, marking the bold return of skirts so tiny you could use them as a headband. In 1926, George Taylor coined the term “hemline index”
Look at how Paris Hilton rocks the low-rise jeans!
IS FETCH AGAIN
WRITER
Isidora Purrier GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Kim K’s SKIMS is bringing the velour tracksuit back to modern fashion
after studying the relationship between skirt lengths and economics; during times of prosperity skirt hemlines were shorter. In the Roaring 1920s flapper dresses were shorter than had ever been seen before. In the economic boom of the1 960s the mini skirt was conceived. In the 2000s skirts reached daring lengths and the 2020s continued the movement. However, in this age mini skirts have had to reach even higher heights as they had in the past to be deemed as “risqué”. The 2000s placed its stamp on the 2020s when Kim Kardashian released a velour tracksuit set along with a photoshoot with Paris Hilton for her brand Skims. In the noughties, Britney Spears shopped in a light blue tracksuit with shield sunglasses, and Lindsay Lohan walked the runway in a tracksuit, flip flops, and scarf. The popular brand Juicy Couture sold velour tracksuits in any color you could ever want with “JUICY”
Lara Ringey
rhinestoned on the ass. Now teens scour thrift stores for anything velour that their mom probably used to own and Juicy Couture still sells similar tracksuits offering a “casual luxury” take on the everyday sweatsuit.
The cycle of trends always begs the question: what’s next? So what is next after y2k? The rise of social media app, TikTok, has expedited the age-long cycle of trends. New ideas pop up everyday, ushering in new fashion inspo around the clock. At the moment, “King Kylie” is back along with Tumblr and a fascinating online obsession for 2014. The boho chic messiness of the Olsen Twins, Jane Birkin’s nonchalant Birkin bag, and coked out Kate Moss have received viral status online, signifying the return of indie sleaze. This fall throw on your Doc Martens, furry hat, and slept-in eyeliner and strap in for a messy, yet sexy ride.
Britney Spears sporting the iconic Juicy Coture brand
