SHIFT Magazine // Vol. 3 Iss. 6

SHIFT BICENTENNIAL SHEI MAGAZINE’s Monthly Digital Mini | Volume 3 Issue 6 | APRIL 2017

SHIFT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Aaron Pelo

IN THIS ISSUE

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Courtney Evans FEATURES EDITORS PRINT Lauren Guldan DIGITAL Alexander Rakestraw FASHION EDITORS PRINT Mackenzie Kimball Hannah Wasserman DIGITAL Audrey Klomparens DESIGN EDITORS PRINT Morgan Lovay Xinyi Liu DIGITAL Haley Fox PHOTO EDITORS PRINT Shannon Maiers Becca Rudman DIGITAL Brian Beckwith VIDEO EDITOR Maggie McMillin DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR Elena Odulak

02. masthead

08. casual friday

04. contributors

12. an ode to coffee

06. from the desk of the editor-in-chief

26. the ann arbor film festival: from lecture hall screenings to national celebration

PUBLISHER Kassie Wallace ACCOUNTS DIRECTOR Colleen Natzke MARKETING DIRECTOR Maddy Moog ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Hali Levandoski DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Amber Lam FINANCE COORDINATOR Lauren Ayers EVENTS COORDINATOR Maggie O’Connor OUTREACH COORDINATOR Carly Dineen-Griffin SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Sylvia Sankaran

Our mission is to inform, inspire and engage deeply with the University of Michigan ca provide a marketable media platform for students to push the boundaries of what has

Index | Volume 3 Issue 6

30. an economy of education

44. hail

34. red hot

ampus community at the intersection of student and professional life within the fashion industry. SHIFT is intended to s traditionally been possible within print without compromising the level of quality associated with the SHEI brand.

SHIFT april contributors

FASHION Andy Regos Danielle Colbert

Alana Valko Harsha Kishore

FEATURES Jamie Schneier Torin Rittenberg Brian Beckwith

Aaron Pelo Courtney Evans Haley Fox

PHOTO Brian Beckwith Courtney Evans Haley Fox MODELS Andy Regos Emily Thompson

Benji Bear Becca Rudman

Julia Veeser

The Art of Fashion, SHEI Winter 2017 now available at at our online store

Culture. Lifestyle. Michigan.

SHEI Magazine

BICENTENNIAL

based in tradition; raised through innovation

written by Aaron Pelo photographed by Benji Bear

Letter from the Editor | Volume 3 Issue 5

F

or this bicentennial issue of SHIFT, we’re celebrating a lot more than the University’s 200th anniversary. Our April issue is the last one until September, and for some of us, myself included, the last thing we’ll produce as part of the SHEI team. This past year we’ve committed ourselves to the critical study of fashion, whether that’s looking at fashion as art or as political statement. But I like to think of this issue as one big love letter to the city and the school where I’ve spent the last four years. The University of Michigan and the city of Ann Arbor are very much a part of me, of all of us. This issue of SHIFT explores how.

In the issue we explore some of Ann Arbor’s hidden gems, capturing the unique aura of Ray’s Red Hots, and hit the Palmer field tennis courts in a vintage-inspired spirit-wear shoot. We cover the annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, a staple in town ever since its inception in 1963, and discuss the rise of casualwear in context of our own athleisure-

dominated campus. We also profile Ed Cho, lecturer in the Economics department and winner of this year’s Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching, asking him about his personal style and the financial crisis facing the retail industry.

The pages of our April issue are filled with the beloved people and places on campus and around Ann Arbor. When we began planning the issue, it seemed like a great way to close out the academic year and send off our senior graduates, but now, it feels like the only way to have done it. 200 years as a center of world-class public education is a significant achievement. With such a long history of success there’s endless ways to celebrate.

We’ve found our way. Now it’s your turn.

SHIFT with us.

casual friday

decoding dressing in the age of athleisure

T

where’s no denying that today’s campus dress code features an abundance of sweatshirts and sneakers. However, this move towards comfortable clothing isn’t only reserved for those exhausted students trudging towards 8:00 AM classes. There are a significant number of students sporting leggings and a pair of luxury sneakers no matter what time they’re walking to class.

Yet, to say students always dressed down just isn’t true: “When you look back at old pictures of students, it’s jarring. We used to dress so formally, just to go to class,” said Deirdre Clemente, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas American Culture historian in an interview with The Washington Post. The roots of today’s casualwear began with the 1920’s-era introduction of sportswear on to the 1950’s post-war rise of the middle class, following through to today’s onslaught of athleisure on campus.

The introduction of sports culture was

monumental for fashion, as it allowed for new articles of clothing to appear in the public sphere. While looking back at old photos of 1920’s sportswear, it might seem out of the ordinary to regard the ensemble as something casual. However, according to Time Magazine, “The tweed, belted Norfolk suits (complete with knickers and two-tone brogues) of the Jazz Age seem so formal by our ‘flip-flops-can-be-worn-everyday’ mentality, but these garments were truly revolutionary in their time.” Although the 20’s had other major implications for relaxed fashion (such as the addition of pants to women’s wardrobes), the rise of sports culture was especially instrumental in inspiring this initial desire to move towards casualwear. The baseball hats and couture sneakers we see on the streets today are a progression of this sports culture, and it is only magnified – not created - by the rise of premium athleisure.

However, a starker shift to casualwear actually comes from the demise of dressing in order to express one’s place on the socioeconomic ladder. Nowadays, people’s articles of clothing do not necessarily determine their social class; instead, a “middle class” mentality – where your work, not your image, determines your social class - has dominated American culture.

Clemente explains in The Washington Post the concept of collective selection, which means that people do not aspire to dress like the rich; today, dressing becomes a collective decision independent of class. American fashion represents the conglomeration of all classes, and the result is casualwear. The 1950’s marks the start of when people stopped dressing to express their social class and started dressing to express their own individuality. Instead of feigning wealth and masking their true identity, people can explore multiple looks and promote creativity with casualwear.

Clemente agrees, stating that “Casual is the sweet spot between looking like every middle class American and being an individual in the massive wash of options.

This idea of the freedom to dress in a way that is meaningful to us as people, and to express various types of identity.”

The 50’s post-war period also contributed to the rise of casual clothing, as it promoted a “unisexing of our wardrobe” as depicted by Time Magazine. The movement had begun where women’s dress expectations faced a shift, emphasizing practicality as more women entered the public sphere during World War II. As Clemente adds in her Washington Post interview, “Women wore what they wanted, because it didn’t matter — they were on their way to the victory garden — or because they were working at factories, where practicality was more important.” This unisexing has inspired the sweatpants and T-shirt uniform students wear during class or around campus today, as it had triggered this shift towards comfort over one’s perceived appearance, no matter the gender.

This rise of casualwear since the 50’s

has sparked a different kind of movement we see today, one that promotes joggers and sweatpants over traditional jeans and skirts. “You see a lot more women who are wearing tights and exercise pants and exercise tops around,” said Ken Hicks (CEO of athletic store Foot Locker) speaking to The Business of Fashion, because it’s “convenient, and it’s got a better look and is fashionable.” It makes sense that the start of casualwear stemmed from 20’s sports culture, now coming full circle as people are beginning to wear sportswear even outside the gym. Luxury brands have started to capitalize on this trend as well, noticing the importance for American society to dress casual. “Chanel and Dior are already sending sneakers down couture runways,” commented Ashma Kunde, a Euromonitor apparel analyst, in that same Business of Fashion report, suggesting that athleisure has already made quite the presence in luxury fashion. According to Glossy, “A young shopper may not be able to afford a new dress from Net-a-Porter, but she can go to its athletic wear platform, Net-a-Sporter (launched in 2014), and buy a sports bra for just under $100.” This shift to athletic wear is only the next step in America’s quest for casual, becoming more and more apparent not only on college campuses but also on high fashion runways today.

Athleisure seems to be the next step in America’s long history of fashion casualization. Though the future is unclear in terms of what students will start wearing after their joggers are deemed vintage, there’s no doubt that casualwear – this particularly American way of dressing - will continue to live in many different forms, especially on college campuses. As stated in Time Magazine: “Clothes are freedom— freedom to choose how we present ourselves to the world; freedom to blur the lines between man and woman, old and young, rich and poor.”

written by Jamie Schneider

an ode to coffee PHOTOGRAPHERS Brian Beckwith, Courtney Evans, and Haley Fox WRITTEN BY Brian Beckwith, Courtney Evans, and Haley Fox

Lab Cafe Chances are, you’ve walked past Lab more times than you realize. Sitting next to Tomukun Korean BBQ, Lab cafe has no flashy sign and serves to-go drinks in nondescript, white cups and sleeves. Head inside and you will find a cozy living-room atmosphere, complete with mismatched coffee saucers and an impressive library of coffee table books. They also feature an impressive rotating spread of local pastries and sweets, including donuts from Washtenaw Dairy and blondies from Songbird cafe.

Comet Coffee This small cafe tucked away in Nickels Arcade makes one of the best cups of coffee in Ann Arbor. Plus, with Babo next door, you can grab some lunch without leaving your computer unattended for more than 2 minutes. Experiment with one of their world-renowned roasts, or try something a little sweeter! My personal favorite--The Cafe Dulce--is made with their house-made caramel creme syrup.

Roos Roast Roos Roast has been around Ann Arbor for a while, but a new location on Liberty has made their coffee more accessible than ever. They may be famous for their Lobster Butter Love (described as “smooth and buttery”), but their cold brew is my personal favorite-- and it packs quite a punch! If you’re feeling hungry, head in on any given “Burrito Friday,” or grab an avocado toast any day of the week.

Mighty Good Coffee Mighty Good Coffee roasts and brews their own coffee, and it is -- dare I say it -- mighty good. Best of all, they have two walking-distance locations: one on the corner of South University and Washtenaw, and the other on Main Street in Kerrytown.

The South U location fills up pretty quickly on a busy weekend, so I highly recommend making the trip to Kerrytown (you can also grab some brunch first at the Broken Egg, located next door).

Black Diesel Black Diesel is located a bit south of campus at Packard and East Stadium, but it is worth the trip. With ample indoor seating and a large outdoor patio with umbrellas and fire pits, there is always a spot to study.

In addition to their full coffee selection featuring specialties like nitro cold brew, Black Diesel’s food menu contains items including pastries from Zingerman’s and gelato. I definitely recommend you check out this Ann Arbor hidden gem before you graduate!

Avalon Cafe & Kitchen New to Ann Arbor, Avalon is not to be overlooked. Originally a bakery in Midtown, Avalon has become a Detroit staple because of their incredible baked goods. This Avalon location also sells sandwiches and salads, and has a great selection of Michigan brews on tap. Avalon is located at 120 E. Liberty, and opens at 7 AM on weekdays for you early risers.

THE ANN ARBOR

FILM FESTIVAL From Lecture Hall Screenings to National Celebration

In 1963, the art community of the University of Michigan joined hands with the city of Ann Arbor to create not just an annual tradition, but a form of national celebration.

George Manupelli, an artist, filmmaker, and Professor of Art at the university, reached out to colleagues and collaborators to start a festival that exhibited films shot on 16mm film and push the boundaries of experimentation. What was born was a celebration of independent, experimental, bold, and avant-garde films and filmmakers: the Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF).

The AAFF originally began as a part of the University of Michigan. Films were screened in Lorch Hall, the university’s economics building. In 1980, the festival moved to the Michigan Theater, an Ann Abor landmark, to accommodate more viewers. Soon, however, the Festival became independent from the university, declaring itself a not-for-profit organization.

The Festival became an avenue for upand-coming artists to display their work to a community that welcomed experimentation.

The AAFF has historically prided itself on tackling potentially taboo subject matter like of nudity, LGBTQ film, and racial identity.

In the past, the Festival has even hosted famous artists like Andy Warhol, George AAFF 55th Poster and Program Guide Published by the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Lucas, Yoko Ono, and more, showing their works to a global audience during each artist’s early career. Adding to the oldschool indie charm, the Festival only just began accepting digitally-formatted film in 2003.

This year, the AAFF celebrated its 55th anniversary. More than 180 films, videos, and live performances were featured throughout the five-day celebration–the most popular event being the animated short film competition because of its more familiar setting for new audience members.

The films in competition are highly selective, chosen from a pool of over 3,000 submissions from more than 60 countries.

For many, the AAFF will be the first time they see a story told through 16mm film, collage or claymation techniques. The festival exhibits to viewers just how many ways a story can be told.

Many of the filmmakers in competition attend the festival each year, participating in Q&As after their own film’s screening, or chatting with audience members in the theater lobby on how they went about conveying the message they wanted to communicate. This director-viewer dynamic creates an intimate setting where the audience members and film creators can

interact, with the viewer able to ask their burning questions and the filmmaker either giving them an answer or merely adding to the intrigue.

This year, the festival ran a series called Off the Screen!, an intermedia series of cinema screenings, workshops, and performances around Ann Arbor. Local artist Osman Khan, also a member of the University of Michigan faculty, displayed choreographed imagery with video pre-captured from drones combined with real time streaming of video captured by drones on site. Not only was the performance an embodiment of the boundaries that artists in the festival try and push against, blending video and live streaming to create a completely new, interactive piece of art, but it was also a reminder of how the AAFF began–through university faculty and student participation.

The AAFF’s foundation is rooted in the university, and even today the university helps sponsor many of the festival’s events.

Perhaps fittingly, one of this year’s festival sponsors was the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute–a nod to the frame of mind one might ought to have when watching some of the experimental films. Many newcomers of the festival leave film screenings with a wide-ranging scale of emotions. Some are puzzled and frustrated, others are laughing and joyous, perhaps because the film

competitions are filled with stories that are so unconventional and unfamiliar in their creation that each one calls for its own distinct mood and reaction.

For instance, in this year’s competition for best animated short film, a story about a child’s experience with an alcoholic parent was shown within the same hour as one lampooning comical society’s obsession with social media. While the characters and content were poles apart, both communicated powerful messages through their respective technical triumphs and their willingness to bring avoided issues out of the dark.

When George Manupelli started the AAFF over 50 years ago, he had a simple dream of supporting filmmakers that were bold in their technical approach and visionary in their thematic scope. Over time, though, the AAFF has become more than a multi-day festival–it’s an adventure into the unknown, a departure from school for students, a moment of escape for workers, and a thrill for the filmmakers who get to see their achievements come to fruition on screen in front of an eager audience. Even more so, the AAFF is a time of cohesion for Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan alike a celebration that began in the halls of the university, but has evolved into so much more.

written by Torin Rittenberg

AAFF 54th Poster and Program Guide Published by the Ann Arbor Film Festival

The Economy of Education An interview with the Golden Apple recipient Ed Cho written by Aaron Pelo, photographed by Benji Bear

Edward Cho, lecturer in the Economics Department at U of M and winner of this year’s Golden Apple Award on personal style, his ideal last lecture, and the retail bubble.

AP: The Golden Apple award is the only student-given award for outstanding teaching. Describe the experience of winning the Golden Apple and what it means to you.

EC: In the actual moment of winning the Golden Apple, it was an overwhelming and an almost out-of-body experience for me, as the Golden Apple Award Committee had worked hard to make it a complete surprise in the middle of my 300+ Econ 102 lecture (special thanks to senior Rachel Liang for putting in so much effort overall on my behalf). It took a few days for it to actually sink in, and then I quickly realized I had to give an hour long university-wide lecture! I viewed my Golden Apple speech as a special opportunity to think about what I would want to say in my “ideal last lecture.” The following question motivated my talk: What ‘lessons’ would I tell myself, if I could go back in time? Once I decided on this approach, everything fell into place.

I’m not saying it was easy to write, because it was very difficult for me to do. It was very personal, but I’m so happy I took this approach.

AP: Style involves more than just dressing well. It’s about presentation, character, self-expression. How do you see personal style playing a role in your job as a lecturer and educator?

EC: I see myself as an educator first and a take a lot of pride in that, because I know that I’m helping others build skills that they will use later in their lives. I often reflect back on some of the teachers I had when I was in high school and college, and they left an indelible mark on me because they cared a lot about both their student’s

learning, and the students themselves. My “style,” is to think about the classroom as a dialogue with the student, and to make the experience interactive. For me, teaching is primarily about student engagement, and to think about how the concepts are relevant to the student in the real-world. At least that is the goal, even if it doesn’t always work out that way. I move around a lot as I speak. I also try to reach the person sitting in the back of the room, just as much as the student sitting in the front row.

AP: You teach in the Economics department. In the fashion world, superstores like Macy’s, JCPenny, and Sears are struggling to compete with online heavyweights like Amazon. What are your thoughts on the supposed retail bubble?

EC: I think the rise of online shopping is a result of at least two large forces. First, people like the convenience of shopping online because you can do it from the comfort of your couch, and buy an item with a simple click of a button. This is very convenient, almost too convenient. You can easily run up your credit card debt right in the middle of your favorite TV show! Now compare this to when people did not use online shopping. People had to actually get out of the house, drive to an actual brick-andmortar store, stand in line, and then finally drive back home with a purchase. Second, online shopping has another advantage in that overhead costs are potentially lower because they don’t have to operate brickand-mortar stores. For example, Amazon can locate its massive warehouses in lowrent geographic areas, and take advantage of economies-of-scale by building large facilities.

red hot

DIRECTORS Andy Regos Alana Valko PHOTOGRAPHERS Brian Beckwith Becca Rudman PHOTO EDITOR Becca Rudman MAKE-UP ARTIST Danielle Colbert MODEL Andy Regos

HAIL DIRECTORS Courtney Evans STYLISTS Alana Valko, Harsha Kishore MODELS Emily Thompson, Julia Veeser PHOTOGRAPHERS Courtney Evans, Becca Rudman PHOTO EDITOR Brian Beckwith

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