no. 30
may 2016 the anniversary issue
table of contents
03 masthead
09 archive timeline we dug through the STITCH archives to catalog some of our most defining moments
04 contributors 05 editor’s note 06 faces & spaces Ali Lefkowitz’s eclectic haven is no average bedroom
14 the golden years a journey back in time to the glitz and glamour of Chicago’s historic Gold Coast
22 heritage brands a glimpse into the controversy surrounding the pursuit of authenticity 24 recreations STITCH recreates Vogue’s most iconic covers
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31 alumni relations regardless of the careers they currently pursue, these alums share one thing in common: the contributions they made to STITCH 38 last word through her experiences in coastal style capitals, one writer searches for a sense of style and self
te favori r u o y ? is what ay memory birthd as your w what phone? ell first c
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lizzey Johnson MANAGING EDITOR Amber Cline
The belly dancing party my parents threw me for my 13th birthday
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Beatrice Hagney SENIOR EDITOR Erica Witte TREASURER Susan Chen DESIGN EDITORS Emily Ash and Florence Fu DESIGN TEAM Manon Blackman, Elizabeth O'Conor, Harry Forbes, Natalie Griffin, Estelle Lee, Cindy Luan, Rachel Wolfe
One time, my family ate my birthday cake without me. Is that the same?
PRINT EDITOR Rachel Lefferts
e with my rprised m su ts n y re a My p th birthda r in my 16 dream ca complete with per rown, (mini coo te and a b cense pla custom li ache) fuzzy must
ONLINE EDITOR Christian Welch ASSISTANT ONLINE EDITOR Rachel Burns STAFF WRITERS Maddy Kaufman, Monty Nelson, Madison Blanchard, Chris Coleman, Haley Glazer, Leslie Zhang, Isabel Seidel DIRECTOR OF PHOTOSHOOTS Christian Maness ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOSHOOTS Madison Blanchard
My senio rp my birth rom fell on the da same da ya and eve y, so I called it a ryone sa birthday s ng happ p me at th arty y birthd e dance ay to
DIRECTOR OF MULTIMEDIA Alix Kramer ONLINE PHOTO EDITOR Mari Uchida PRINT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Sam Schumacher STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Meghan Harshaw, Katherine Sprengel, Allie Hagan, Zack Laurence, Malissa Cagan, Charli Hu, Jesskia Huang, Alix Kramer STYLING TEAM Caroline Bell, Madison Blanchard, Amber Cline, Dani Cohen, Megan Cahillane, Rachel Gradone, Helena Kalman, Dani Lewittes, Maddy Kaufman, Hannah Curcio, Olivia Krevoy, Jessica Onyi, Kathleen Carroll, Evelyn Ma, Tori Latham, Lilly Scheerer MULTIMEDIA TEAM Clare Fisher, Daniela Grava, Zoe Juanitas, Kimberly Hill, Renée Jacoby, Brii Williams DIRECTORS OF MARKETING Casey Doherty and Luke Zhang MARKETING TEAM Casey Doherty, Elisa Finol, Lanie Shalek, Jing Wang, Amelia Cornin, Ariel Matluck, Alexandra Mennell
birthday. y second told m r fo g a pu rother Getting so my b surprise a shot when in a s a w It get p my d to go to pick u re. me I ha driving the re e y a w w e reality w cried the whole I . g o d new
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Carolina Diaz SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM Catherine Kang, Wren Hagge DIRECTOR OF EVENTS Hannah Curcio RECRUITMENT CHAIR Dani Cohen
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contributors
Christian Maness Styling Team Journalism Favorite STITCH moment: I would definitely say shooting in the city because it was my second shoot as director of photoshoots and it was such a huge undertaking that ended up paying off really well. 10 years ago: I was probably reading a book because I still had time to read books for enjoyment.
Kate Sprengel Photo Team Biology and Spanish Favorite STITCH moment: The "Golden Years" shoot downtown. The weather was beyond perfect and we went to some of my favorite places in the city. 10 years ago: I was probably in the back of the classroom trying to marry one of my Tamagotchis to another one to create a virtual pet family dynasty.
Wren Hagge Social Media Team RTVF Favorite STITCH moment: 800 Degrees Launch Party because it doesn’t get better than eating pizza while talking about fashion. 10 years ago: Making funny home-movies and music videos to Hannah Montana songs.
Susan Chen Treasurer and Design Team Economics Favorite STITCH moment: My first launch party at the Block Museum. 10 years ago: I was listening to my iPod Nano?
pleasures: stitch picks
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1. moisturizer, Glossier, $25. candle, Dyptique, $32 3. lipstick, LAQA & Co., $20
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editor’s note
Ten years ago, I had just graduated from the fifth grade and was moving on to the big leagues: all-girls school. My 11-year-old self, frightened by rises in testosterone levels and other things that happen when you become a preteen, relished the chance to run around in a sky blue uniform with 59 other females. For the first time, I would have the opportunity to vocalize the things I loved and pursue them on my campus. Ten years ago, two Northwestern students were a decade older and halfway across the country from me; and yet, they were on the same mission: to channel the thing they loved, fashion, into an important voice on their campus. There was no real cultural publication at the time (surprisingly so, given today’s multifarious collection of campus media). So they merged niche and need and out came STITCH, Northwestern’s first fashion magazine. Ten years later, we like to think that STITCH is far more than the first fashion publication. Data supports this claim: we publish five issues a year, six stories a week, photoshoots nearly every weekend, a weekly newsletter and a podcast. We have over 80 staffers on our roster. Teen Vogue recognized us as one of the country’s best college magazines. But more importantly, we have expanded our mission to be more holistic, more inclusive and more innovative. We may just be a bunch of Wintour wannabes, but we use our love of fashion as a launching pad for more meaningful dialogue. Style may start with STITCH, but it doesn’t end with us. This 10th Anniversary issue is an opportunity to pay homage to our past and to see how our history can inform our future. We interviewed six STITCH alumni to learn about how the magazine impacted their lives after it 31. Our Creative Team recreated historic Vogue covers, which you can see on page 24. And writer Haley Glazer challenges the way heritage brands falsely manipulate just that—their ‘heritage’—to drive sales (page 22). As fashion influencer and TV personality Clinton Kelly (MSJ ‘93) told me in our interview (page 8), “You’ve got 50 years ahead of you. That’s a long time to be doing something, so you might as well be doing something that you love.” I may have grown since my estrogen-pumping prep school, but my love for using fashion to tell stories has remained an integral part of my development. STITCH has been around for 10 years, and while we’ve evolved immensely, the love that built it sustains the work we do today. Here’s to 50 more years of doing the things we love.
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faces + spaces
A
L
I
by Isabel Siedel
Last spring, I sat on a plane enroute to Fort Myers, flipping through glossy page after page of a feature story on Gisele Bündchen. I felt unenthused as the story banally reiterated how the supermodel’s body was a “temple.” It was the most tired and cliché analogy in the books, in my opinion. But I changed my mind when I met with Ali Lefkowitz on an overcast April afternoon at the Tri Delta house to see the bedroom that I had heard so much about. Ali’s 3rd floor room is, quite honestly, a temple of her own. Leaning against the window of her spacious room that looks out on the budding trees in the serene sorority quad, Ali, wearing a casually classic black ensemble with her chunky Warby Parker glasses and two delicate gold necklaces, snacks on a piece of peanut butter toast. She invites
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me to take a seat wherever I feel comfortable, so I choose a spot at the foot of her queen-sized bed— an anomaly for a dorm room—and take in my surroundings. Let me first say, Ali’s room is not an image straight out out Pottery Barn, and this is why it’s so charming. The room is simple, flowered with accents of vintageinspired patterns and pieces. As for the walls, the floor-to-ceiling closet built-ins and Ali’s quilted duvet, they’re all a crisp winter white. The L.A. native’s room is very much a reflection of her style: casually chic. Ali’s room is a bona-fide boho safe-haven from exams, extracurriculars and the Midwest winter weather she could do without. She admits that it’s usually never this clean, but--as an easy-going soul--she likes it that way. Ali sought to compose her room like a piece of home, which
is so fundamentally part of her style. Each focal point within the space acts as an individual pixel, together composing Ali’s beachy, effervescent aesthetic. Immediately, the vintage American flag hanging in the corner of the room grabs my attention. With disted white stripes, the flag was a gift from her sister who stumbled across it at a flea market. Ali has an affinity for flags and hasn’t seen another one quite like it. By the doorway sits a vintage turquoise Crosley record player, a recent Christmas gift, which she rotates
the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac records on, to name a few. She prefers a John Coltrane jazz record while studying. A beachy dreamcatcher made by Ali’s best friend reminds her of the Santa Monica shores near her house, nearly 2,000 miles away, while other souvenirs remind Ali of foreign travels to Barcelona, Nice and Tel Aviv. The abundance of pillows on Ali’s bed are enviously bohemian, but even more comfortable to collapse into. The room, however also has its merely decorative accents, like Ali’s
favorite delicat ornamental mirror above her bed. “And those cork boards,” she says, “they’re from Target!” At first glance, even before Ali shared the story behind her aesthetic, the décor within the four walls of room 303 revealed so much about her on far more levels than meets the eye. Ali is well-traveled, curious and sophisticated yet youthful. I’ve never been one for clichés, but Ali’s room is so uniquely reverent that no Taj Mahal can compare.
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the more stylish
CLINTON BY LIZZEY JOHNSON
THE HOURS I ONCE DEVOTED to watching "What Not to
Wear" had a defining effect on my childhood. Whenever I was home sick from school or allowed to forgo my nightly hour of reading for a TV show, I’d watch my favorite dynamic duo—Stacy London and Clinton Kelly—take an unfashionable contestant and turn him or her into a stylish muse. But more importantly, Stacy and Clinton gave their candidates confidence, demonstrated through the way they strutted out in their stilettos at the end of each episode. Says one such contestant, “In the future, I’m going to do my thing. But I’m going to do it with more confidence.” Fast-forward 15-or-so years, and I am re-watching my favorite episodes in preparation for this interview with Kelly. This time around, I laugh over the omnipresence of ‘90s trends I once thought were fashionable: tube tops, pinstripes, light-wash bootleg denim. I also take note of Kelly’s journalistic chops. These come as no surprise, considering he graduated from Medill’s MSJ program in 1993 and went on to work in magazine publishing, at Marie Claire, Mademoiselle and DNR (the WWD of menswear). But most of all, I notice Kelly’s infectious and empowered spirit, one that makes complete strangers immediately comfortable opening up. This spirit transcends from camera to our phone call, as he tells me about “falling into fashion,” being broke in his twenties and loving every minute. Today, Kelly keeps his hands tied between "The Chew," the ABC food show he hosts, and clintonkelly.com, his online emporium of lifestyle, fashion and decorating advice. Even so, he generously offered STITCH a few minutes of his time—and, to quote Kelly’s favorite adjective, we are more “fabulous” because of it. STITCH: How did you get started in fashion? Did NU play into that? Clinton Kelly: I completely fell into fashion. When I was at Medill, I thought I wanted to be a magazine editor for men’s (like GQ), but sort of
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a lifestyle magazine…but then I fell into it. I made a series of choices that worked out well for me in that I only took jobs that I thought would be fun and that I’d learn something from. I couldn’t imagine myself working in a cubicle and not being interested in the subject matter. I bounced around a bit and ended up working at Marie Claire (not totally a fashion editor – features editor) then Mademoiselle and then DNR. I ended up enjoying and writing about fashion – I was open to a lot of different subjects. S: Have you made any bad career choices? CK: I have zero regrets when it comes to the way that I’ve handled my career. There were times when I was working fresh out of grad school and I was making $24,000 a year; I brought home $750 every two weeks—that’s $1500 a month to live off of. My rent was $1000, I had student loan payments, credit card bills and had to pay utilities. I was broke. There was a 2-for-1 hotdog special and I’d get it for lunch and bring the other one home and eat it for dinner. But it didn’t bother me that I was broke. I knew it would eventually pay off and I was doing things that I enjoyed and was energized by. And I realized that if you do something you love for a living, the better you get at it, and the better you get at it, and the more likely people are going to be to pay you more money to do it. I’ve never been asked that question and I feel good about it . S: Given that, what advice do you have for Northwestern students looking to go into journalism or fashion? CK: You have to follow your gut. When you get out of a school, you’re young, and you have to work for many more years than you’ve even been alive. You’ve got 50 years ahead of you—that’s a long time to be doing something, so you might as well be doing something that you love. There are going to be things that you don’t love about any job. Don’t worry so much about the money right now—the money will come. Your twenties are a decade that you can figure out what energies and motivates you and you need to make a bunch of mistakes. That’s what you can do in your twenties—you can jump. And in your thirties, jam on it, work really hard, and then by the time you hit 40, you can make it.
A R C
H I V E
Since its birth 10 years ago, STITCH has transformed right before our eyes. Under the leadership of many different editors and staff members, the magazine has constantly evolved to keep up with the times, always staying relevant and relatable. Let’s look back at how STITCH has progressed since its founding in 2007 until today. by Rachel Burns
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2007
Joyce Lee, the founder and first editor-inchief, welcomed readers to the first edition of STITCH magazine in 2001. Her editor’s note explains how the idea for STITCH came about and devotes the issue to the members of Northwestern’s community, embracing the wide array of styles that exist on campus. Even 10 years later, Lee’s vision and mission for STITCH lives on.
2009 2008
In the 2008 Spring/ Summer Issue, the “trends” section looked at how technology was changing photography. Claiming that “countless signs point toward the complete domination of the digital age,” writer Emma Roberts reflects on Polaroid’s announcement that it would no longer produce instant film. Fast forward to 2016 and the digital age is in full swing.
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The article “The Crumbling Bastions of Fashion Media” in the 2009 Spring/Summer Issue warns readers of a looming crisis—the end of print magazines. Writer Lauren Bonenberger laments the unpromising future of fashion media as she describes the declining sales of fashion magazines. Despite preparing herself to bid farewell to InStyle and Harper’s Bazaar, fashion magazines have shown no signs of disappearing anytime soon.
2011 The 2011 May Issue profiles a man who was well known not only throughout the STITCH community, but also throughout the entire Northwestern community: Justin Barbin. The photographer contributed so much to STITCH, taking street style photos and shooting several spreads. After working on STITCH, he started taking photographs for every Northwestern event you could imagine, making him a household name on campus. The issue celebrates his contributions to STITCH and the Northwestern community. In this same year, STITCH magazine got rid of the in-your-face, colorful advertisements to which readers were accustomed. The 2011 issues advertised one thing only: the redesign of www.stitchfashion.com. Clearly, 2011 was a year of changes, with the focus shifted solely toward STITCH and its content.
2010 The 2010 Issue features a whimsical, mixed-media cover that blends photography and illustrations. In his editor’s note, editor-in-chief Matthew Alfonso addresses the gorgeous cover in addition to the “subtle but much needed redesign.” As STITCH entered its fourth year, Alfonso and the staff decided to push the boundaries and use the magazine to inspire and encourage people to test the status quo. Alfonso points out the “contrarian streak” found in the 2010 issue, filled with articles on people who uniquely go against the industry’s norm. This issue introduced readers to STITCH’s encouragement and acceptance of all types of peoples, styles, dreams and practices.
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2012
Kain Colter, the star quarterback of the Northwestern football team, graced the cover of the 2012 April Issue. Considering that athletes decked out in football gear do not commonly appear on the covers of fashion magazines, this issue proves that STITCH is about more than just fashion—it is about embracing the whole Northwestern community. Colter not only stars on the cover of the magazine, but he also gets a 10-page spread in which he discusses his neverending swag in an interview with Jacqueline Andriakos.
2013 The 2013 November Issue hit on a lot of important and widely-contested topics. The cover sparks the conversation by comparing the transformation of a model before and after Photoshop--the left half shows her makeup-free and the right half shows her all done up and photoshopped. Writers cover a wide range of topics, including the hours that go into photoshopping the images we see in the media, the dangers of whitewashing models and the fine line of cultural appropriation. Even though these articles were written three years ago, the topics are just as relevant and problematic today. This was the start of STITCH’s venture into controversial topics, making the publication widely-discussed on campus. STITCH became more than just a fashion magazine, it published articles on meaningful, disputed issues that stretched far past the boundaries of the fashion industry.
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2014 In the 2014 Intimacy Issue, STITCH started a wide discussion about sex. Writer Luke Zhang candidly talks about the college hookup culture in the "Last Word." His discussion about the intimacy of staying the night and why people are so hesitant to so it is one that all college students, whether in 2007 or in 2016, can appreciate and relate to.
2016
The 2016 Tech Issue celebrated the digital age and also questioned it, looking at the controversial effects of technology on the fashion industry. This issue focuses on all things tech and how they affect the fashion industry and life in general. Technology has advanced more than we could have ever imagined in 2007, thanks to the multitude of digital innovations that have taken over the world. With all of these digital improvements, STITCH now looks better than ever.
2015 The 2015 Bitch Issue is all about female empowerment, a topic that every STITCH reader can get behind. With articles about the lack of women in the fashion industry, female leaders on Northwestern’s campus, the word “bitch” and more, the issue is revolutionary and powerful. This edition of STITCH was the ultimate celebration of women’s power, intellect and courage. This issue was another prime example of STITCH pushing the boundaries—delving into matters that stirred up controversy. Issues such as this one made the magazine a wellknown, and widely talked about, name on Northwestern’s campus.
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the
Golden Years Chicago’s historic Gold Coast is home to the shops, streets and sights that make the city iconic. STITCH took a trip down memory lane, in the season’s formal trends to match.
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Photographer: Sam Schumacher Models: Samantha Friedberg, Christopher Reutten Make Up: Madison Blanchard, Hannah Curcio, Evelyn Ma Hair: Madison Blanchard Set Assistant: Amber Cline, Hannah Curcio
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HERITAGE BRANDS + THE HYPOCRISY OF AUTHENTICITY by haley glazer
I
n fashion, in journalism, and in life, narrative is everything. A dress becomes so much more than a dress because of the woman wearing it and the story behind it. A piece of clothing takes on the role of icon, of heirloom, of artifact -- complete with its own backstory and personality. In fashion, as in comic books, the origin story is everything. Talk to anyone in the marketing world, and they will summarize this singular power of the past in one word: authenticity. This branding buzzword is everywhere in today’s fashion market, attaching itself to the plethora of heritage brands that have come hurtling into the mainstream. To stand out in a market filled with “Made in China” labels and faux everything, a brand needs more than just great clothes - it needs a great story to go with them.
brand. Madewell, which sells stylish women’s basics with an emphasis on denim, is hardly the immigrant-founded workwear company it once was. Whereas the company, founded in 1937, once outfitted New Bedford factory workers in dungarees and overalls, it now sells $150 jeans to millennials eager to own their own slice of “history”. The brand’s name and logo were acquired by J. Crew roughly a decade ago, after the original Madewell company shut down in the ‘80s. Despite what marketing might lead one to believe, that same name and logo is really all that is shared between the Madewell of today and the denim once worn by New England dockworkers. This disconnect between past and present has been widely publicized, most notably by the founder’s greatgrandson in a Buzzfeed article titled How Madewell Bought and Sold My Family’s History. This is not to say that true heritage brands do not exist in today’s marketplace; See: L.L. Bean, Levi’s, and the like. These brands, however, are drowning in a sea of corporate backstories and logos touting the year a company was founded, rather than the year it was relaunched.
These true heritage brands, however, are few and far between. Many have lost the battle to more commercially successful retail monoliths and purveyors of fast fashion. Instead, many heritage brands today are created in a lab - carefully reconstructed and relaunched to flaunt an American dream backstory despite bearing only a vague resemblance, if that, to their humble roots.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to mom-and-pops turned mall shops. LVMH, one of the world’s leading luxury goods conglomerates, has acquired several heritage brands in past years. One notable acquisition is Berluti, an originally French men’s shoe and leather goods company founded in 1895 by an Italian cobbler. In addition to shoes, collections now include items unfamiliar to the original Berluti brand, such as suits, knitwear, and accessories - all distributed on an international scale by an international corporation. Despite this obvious shift, the brand still markets itself as a legacy shoemaker; the words “Bottier Depuis 1895” are prominently featured on the company’s website.
One of the most common examples of this ‘faux-thenticity’ phenomenon is Madewell, J. Crew’s “younger sister”
Even with the liberties taken in branding many of these heritage brand relaunches, the number of heritage
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brands in existence is finite and limited. Instead, some entrepreneurs are capitalizing on this authenticity trend with brands that appear to have existed for decades even if they are less than a decade old. Herschel Supply Co. backpacks are ubiquitous, found not only in schools, but on city streets, in retailers from Barneys to Zumiez, and on the backs of every hipster in the nation. They are so ubiquitous, in fact, that most people assume their success has built up over time, a small heritage brand that has grown into the giant it is
Some entrepreneurs are capitalizing on this authenticity trend with brands that appear to have existed for decades -- even if they are less than a decade old. today. That could not be farther from the truth. The truth is, despite the company’s apple pie branding and misplaced nostalgia, Herschel Supply Co. was founded in 2009. In Canada. The brand, which specializes in well-made backpacks evocative both of elementary school days and of 19th
century miners, depending on the style, was founded in 2009 by brothers Jamie and Lyndon Cormack. Although the company was founded by Canadians and named after the miniscule Canadian town their great-grandparents emigrated to from Scotland at the turn of the century, Herschel is careful not to identify itself as a Canadian brand. Instead, it projects the sort of old-school Americana that has caused Levi’s and Tommy Hilfiger to fly off the shelves for years. All of this is intentional--a carefully constructed veil of heritage and nostalgia obscuring the “Made in China” labels and millennial origins. “The goal was that you would see it, and it would be like you had seen it before,” Jamie Cormack told Bloomberg of Herschel’s retro-esque logo last year. This obsession with authenticity and heritage brands isn’t just dishonest--it’s prohibitive. While in past years, luxury groups invested in young designers and new labels--a cheaper option to begin with--now they almost exclusively seek out brands with history, inventing it if they have to. Imagine what the fashion world would be like without designers such as Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, or Stella McCartney, all of whom were given the chance to start their own labels as young designers. If fashion is all about fresh blood and new ideas, this inability to move beyond the past spells disaster for the future. In the world of fashion, the relaunch of a heritage brand is less a relaunch of the brand itself as it is an appeal to a person’s nostalgia. Of elementary school enthusiasm, factory worker simplicity, or a cobbler’s personal touch. What’s lost in these revivals of the past, however, is the lure of the future: both the future of fashion and of one’s own personal future. There are bright, shining, wonderful things ahead. It’s time to stop looking behind ourselves, we’re not going that way. .
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recreations Take a trip through Vogue’s most memorable covers from the last century and the beauty looks that still inspire us today.
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PHOTOGRAPHER: Mari Uchida MODELS: Jessie Pinnick MAKEUP: Madison Blanchard, Kathleen Carroll HAIR: Kathleen Carroll SET ASSISTANT: Olivia Krevoy, Tori Latham, Hannah Curcio
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Sweater: stylist’s own MAY 2016 •
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Sweater: Madewell MAY 2016 •
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YO U A R E W H AT YOU WEAR
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by christian welch
used to have this graphic tee in middle school that claimed “Muffins are just ugly cupcakes” below a picture of a very sad looking muffin and a beaming cupcake. That turquoise monstrosity can actually teach us all a lesson about how we dress (other than my middle school self had no clue how to dress properly). Muffins and cupcakes are essentially the same thing, but are considered vastly different because of how they are presented. Similarly, people can convey a lot about who they are and what they think by how they choose to present themselves. With this idea in mind, a new field of psychology is emerging that’s devoted to fashion and what someone’s clothes say about their self-perception and mental processes.
wardrobe issues simultaneously. In “You Are What You Wear,” Baumgartner recounts how she addresses a variety of wardrobe problems by digging deeper and discovering the root of the issue. There is further evidence for how changing the outside can help further the changes made inside. In “The Sociology of Dress,” Kim K.P. Johnson and Sharon Lennon say that what people wear affects how they behave. For those trying to nail a job interview, wearing a power suit will give them the confidence to wow the interviewer. A new wardrobe has the potential to help someone become the person they want to be. Understanding how clothes can change a person’s perception of themselves can be explained by both sociology and psychology. Baumgartner writes that the brain takes mental shortcuts to explain what it sees, often leading us to assume that outside appearance reflects what is on the inside. In the article “The Sociology of Dress,” Kim Johnson and Sharon Lennon explain how meaning is tied to different types of clothing. Clothing can affect how people interpret the intelligence, power, character, mood and sociability of others. But the effects of clothing are more than just sociological. A study by social psychologists Bettina Hannover and Ulrich Kühnen concluded that people’s descriptions of themselves changed with the clothes they were wearing.
If you are stuck in a style rut or looking for personal change, let your wardrobe help you achieve your goals.
Consider a typically welldressed young man who throws on the same pair of sweatpants for the fourth day in a row, barely taming his bed head as he trudges to class. He claims he’s comfortable and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, but the real concern is what he thinks of himself. He could have deeper problems with his self-image that are causing him to lose interest in keeping up his appearance. The clothes a person wears reflect how they see themselves and their life. In her book “You Are What You Wear,” Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner explains how the clothes we pick reflect our deeper feelings about ourselves.
“Being a slave to trends can hide deeper insecurities, such as fear of not fitting in,fear of aging,fear of losing excitement about life and so forth,” Baumgartner said. Someone hiding in their sweatpants may feel their shortcomings make them undeserving of the clothes they would rather be wearing. Baumgartner uses what she calls an InsideOut technique to address clients’ psychological and
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If you are stuck in a style rut or looking for personal change, let your wardrobe help you achieve your goals. Instead of completely changing styles, simply alter your wardrobe to reflect the best version of yourself. Or, find someone you admire and mimic their fashion choices. It is important to create a wardrobe that works for you and reflects your everchanging personality. Remember, the only difference between a muffin and a cupcake is a little frosting.
ALUMNI RELATIONS What better way to celebrate STITCH’s 10th anniversary than by catching up with some of its integral past members? No matter which positions they held on staff or which careers they pursued after graduation, these STITCH alumni all made significant contributions to the evolution of the magazine and share fond memories of their experiences. Pursuing fashion journalism or not, they each cite STITCH as an important component of their career and personal development. Considering the success they have achieved post-STITCH, it is safe to say these alumni have made the magazine (and its readers) proud. by Rachel Lefferts
ALYSSA CLOUGH '14 Former editor-in-chief Alyssa Clough may currently serve as the Assistant Digital and Social Media Editor at Domino magazine, but printing the largest issue of STITCH remains one of her proudest accomplishments. From her time on staff, Clough learned what it takes to conceptualize, create and run both a website and print publication—skills she has applied to her role at Domino and previously as the Assistant Editor at MIMI, a beauty startup within Time Inc.! Admitting that the “STITCH staff continues to blow [her] away,” Clough claims that the complete trust and faith she invested in the team has inspired her to seek out equally amazing, hardworking and creative people beyond the collegiate level. As for her advice for Northwestern students hoping to pursue careers in fashion? Clough said it’s all about believing in the path you are on. “If you continually put out your resume, network, and really put yourself and your work out there, you’re going to connect with someone who gets you and your writing, styling or designs,” Clough said. “Once you land that perfect, or even not so ideal opportunity, take advantage of it and make sure you’re learning all you can.”
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JESSICA KANE '13 Current lifestyle editor Jessica Kane, the The Huffington Post’s expert on” all things Taste, Style, Home, Travel, Healthy Living, Weddings and Divorce,” made her editorial debut as the Design Editor of STITCH. Though one of her favorite STITCH moments—modeling in a shoot with her friend and eventual editorin-chief Nadina Gerlach—occurred prior to her time on staff, Kane honed her passion for graphics and multimedia as Design Editor, even crediting her skills in these areas as one of the reasons she landed her current job. In her work on the distributed content side of The Huffington Post, Kane strives to maximize the number of eyes that sees its content through social platforms, newsletters and partners’ sites. When she’s not contributing to The Huffington Post, this New York City foodie is “on a hunt to eat anything and everything delicious” she sees on Instagram, which comes as no surprise upon following her mouthwatering food Instagram account, @jessicankane. She encourages those interested in pursuing careers in fashion to “meet as many people in the industry as possible and ask them what they wish they could tell themselves if they were to start over.”
SIERRA TISHGART '12 Before landing her current role as senior editor at New York Magazine, Sierra Tishgart served as senior editor of STITCH. While on staff, she edited content and wrote several stories, from a political piece about women across the world fighting for the right to wear pants to a more light-hearted “Last Word” on drawing style inspiration from fictional television characters. Tishgart thanks STITCH for providing her with “on-the-ground experience writing, editing, and producing a magazine,” and even used her STITCH writing samples in her application to TeenVogue.com, where she worked as the features editor. Though she acknowledges the value of her experience on STITCH, she encourages aspiring fashion journalists to “intern, intern, intern” and to take advantage of the STITCH alumni community. During her time at Northwestern, Tishgart did not hesitate to step out into the real world, covering Chicago fashion news for Refinery29 and interning at Vogue, Elle, Teen Vogue and Rolling Stone during her college summers. In addition to editing New York Magazine’s food-related content as the publication’s senior editor, Tishgart also writes for magazines like Elle and Cherry Bombe, hosts a podcast and interviews chefs for CBS.
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CHRISTOPHER ADAMSON '10 Chris Adamson, co-founder of STITCH, worked side-by-side with Joyce Lee to lay the aesthetic groundwork for the magazine. As Creative Director, he did everything from design the print magazine and edit copy to brainstorm concepts for and direct photoshoots. Post-STITCH, Adamson pursued his MFA in creative writing from Vanderbilt University and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he teaches college literature and writes essays and poems. Although he has left the realm of fashion journalism for more literary forms of writing—he has a forthcoming piece creative nonfiction in the Southwest Review and is working on a book of essays—Adamson retains an appreciation for the “energy and strange beauty” that fashion magazines like STITCH can unleash. From the “exhilaration of the first photoshoot,” and staying up late “bickering and laughing over layout designs or shoot concepts” to watching the “perfectly surprised looks on [people’s] faces when they started flipping through” the latest issue, Adamson reminisces on STITCH with palpable pride, his feeling of “brilliant accomplishment” as strong know as it was 10 years ago. Although he now channels the creativity he applied to STITCH photoshoots into words, he sees a connection between forms of artistic expression and believes that the lessons he learned while on STITCH are useful for any life or career. “I try to embody that STITCH spirit all the time in my work,” Adamson said.
NATHAN ATKINSON '10 When Nathan Adkisson co-founded STITCH 10 years ago, he noticed that many Northwestern students were interested in fashion and photography but did not have a platform on which to pursue these interests. “When we started STITCH, not only did we not know what we were doing, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Adkisson said. “What kept us going was we loved working together, we enjoyed the ride and we saw all the mistakes as a learning experience.” For Adkisson, everything from the 3 a.m. editorial meetings in the basement of Willard to the walks to Norris to deposit checks from advertisers served to confirm the value of the ideas the STITCH staff was capable of generating. As the current director of strategy at Local Projects, a design firm in New York that creates exhibitions and installations for museums, Adkisson has applied the same passion and willingness to experiment that allowed him and his co-founders to launch STITCH. Though impressed by the interesting and unexpected career pursuits of his Northwestern peers, Adkisson acknowledges the inevitable drifting-- both geographic and existential-- that early twenty-somethings will inevitably experience. “Embrace that, work hard and follow your heart,” Adkisson said. “It will all work out, but just don’t expect it to be perfect immediately.”
JOYCE LEE '10 Though she did not pursue a career fashion, co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of STITCH Joyce Lee continues to value the importance of surrounding herself with inspiring people, a lesson she learned while on staff. A decade later, Lee lives in London, England, where she does investigations at FTI Consulting. Hoping to “break down the cardboard walls that encase campus fashion,” Lee set forth a vision in her editor’s letter of STITCH’s first issue that persists to this day: to “inspire all of you not to conform nor to compete, but to create.” Reflecting this passion for creativity, Lee expressed an affinity for STITCH’s photo shoots,“from the papier mâché flowers we put on the models at Lincoln Park Conservatory to the projection screen we set up in a forbidden, unnamed part of Northwestern's campus.”
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10 years later, we've nailed it. In honor of our tenth birthday, we decided to throw ourselves a little party—and 'polished' it off with the season's hottest nail art.
Photographer: Alix Kramer Set Assistants: Maddy Kaufman, Amber Cline, Rachel Gradone, Tori Latham, Olivia Krevoy 34
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OR D LA ST W
REGENERATION BY LESLIE ZHANG
I
spent much of my life lost in transition. My childhood, many years of which were spent oscillating between suburban California and metropolitan China, was a whirlwind of culture, customs lines and Chinglish. With each city I occupied presenting its own unique style, I latched onto local fashion as an attempt to shape a sense of self. My prepubescent years in Guangzhou were marked by an infatuation with the outlandish frills, big hair and false eyelashes of the Japanese street fashion that had infiltrated Chinese youth culture. After returning to Oakland, California, in the 7th grade, I embraced the Bay Area’s affinity for polkadotted collars and thrifted sweaters— twee that mutated into a bizarre marriage between ratty pullover hoodies and pleated skirts when I adopted tougher interests in high school like West Coast hip hop. When I was accepted to Northwestern as a transfer student last spring, I planned a trip to Chicago. I told my parents I wanted to scope out the campus—to see if it was a right fit for me—but truthfully, I was already pretty committed to the idea of coming here and really just wanted to explore the city and the local style. Unlike other cities such as New York or Los Angeles, where mere mentions conjure up images of what stereotypical inhabitants would look like, Chicago has no preconceived look. Strolling through the streets downtown, I couldn’t put together a cohesive idea of how the typical Chicagoan dressed. Perhaps it’s the brutal winters and fickle weather that have prevented the city from solidifying any given aesthetic besides long johns and ankle-length puffer coats.
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After several months of spending every conceivable spare hour in the concrete embrace of the city, I’ve come to discover that that the weathered utilitarianism is all but surface level. Chicago is a mosaic of motley neighborhoods with their own characters, from the Loop’s work-weary, blazer-wearing commuters to Wicker Park’s bearded, tattooed bikers in cut-off black Levi’s. And within these neighborhoods I’ve unearthed flowering pockets of the fashion industry: the team at Saint Alfred making waves in streetwear with global collaborations; the unassuming store Blake on E. Chicago Avenue as the first stockist of Dries Van Noten in the United States; and newcomer Meyvn introducing a new definition of menswear to Logan Square. I have always claimed that clothing is the most visible form of self-expression. My time so far in the Midwest has made me realize that living in coastal style capitals has never allowed me to generate an authentic sartorial representation of myself, though often characterized as frumpy and plain. Instead, I merely plucked different styles from each city, serving as a mirror of my surroundings. All the neighborhoods of Chicago, when spliced together, form a blank canvas. I had no template to push myself into and thus had the quiet opportunity to reset, rethink and build a wardrobe that is truly reflective of myself. The Midwest made me realize that I’m too crude for button-down denim skirts, too cold-blooded for beachy boho. Instead, I’m comfortable in my Rick Owens tank and trousers, stepping into the gaping jaws of the L to be whisked away into Chicago.
THANK YOU to our donors
Deborah Slater and Brad Witte Debi Blanchard Amy Meldrum Goehring Dani Cohen Sophie Friedman Rad and Cristi Diaz Frances Poger Alyssa Clough David and Anne Hagney Futao Zhang
Kimberly Cline Marci and Jeremy Cohen Kay and Arthur Loomstein David Curcio Cindy Lefferts Susan Mazonson Robin Burns Margaret Spellings Karen and Ron Johnson Shook Uchida
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“
Fashions fade. Style is eternal. - Yves Saint Laurent
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WWW.STITCHFASHION.COM 40
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