CONTRAST
VASSAR ARTS AND STYLE MAGAZINE VOL. 7, ISSUE 1
Identical Twins Diane Arbus (1967)
A Letter from the Editors Each issue of Contrast seeks to present an image of the current student body. This semester, we go beyond the realm of our everyday lives to enter the world of our classes and the spaces we inhabit. We went behind closed doors and used our imaginations to recreate the images that continue to occupy our minds after our classes end. The Art 105 monument list is a piece of Vassar history that we interpreted to fit Vassar today. The Chair of the Art Department Molly Nesbit has said of the introductory course, “first and foremost [the class] is not so much about finding a major, it’s more about gaining the kind of knowledge one uses for that reality we call life.” We wanted to play with the fine line between reality and what we learn from books. In this issue of Contrast, as in all issues, we hope to reconcile the two. We hope you enjoy the issue!
Emily Selter Emilia Petrarca
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Editor’s photo by Hannah La Folette Ryan Cover photo by Rachel Garbade Back cover photo by Jacob Gorski
Table of Contents An Interview with Prof. Matthew Schultz............................................................................................ 3 Animal House........................................................................................................................................5 The Last Conde Nast Intern.................................................................................................................11 What’s in Your Bag?...............................................................................................................................15 Behind Closed Doors............................................................................................................................17 An Interview with David Smiley.............................................................................................................25 Lois Long................................................................................................................................................27 When Darkness Falls at Noon..............................................................................................................29 Executive Board & Contributors..........................................................................................................37
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An Interview with
Professor Schultz 3
Photo by Macrae Marran
Professor Matthew Schultz arrived at Vassar in January 2011 to take over as director of the Writing Center. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Saint Louis University. In addition to his work at the Writing Center, Schultz teaches courses at Vassar on composition and writing pedagogy. This semester he is teaching a Freshman Writing Seminar entitled, “Apocalyptic Rhetoric and the Walking Dead.”
Q: What can you tell us about your course on the zombie apocalypse? A: With this class, I want to focus on how the figure of the zombie has been born from it’s own culture. How does the shambling, biological zombie of George Romero in the late 1960’s compare to the vast, living, raging, virus-induced zombie of Danny Boyle in 28 Days Later? What’s happening in culture that is creating these different versions of what we call the zombie?
Q: What do you think of style as representation of individuality on Vassar’s campus? A: I think Vassar is very much a place of individuals, which is what makes it a fascinating place to be. I think it’s a place that both students and faculty members appreciate because we have the opportunity to be ourselves. I’m an administrator here, and I wear red tennis shoes to school and I know that’s okay. Style is a physical manifestation of who we are as individuals. It allows us to define ourselves beyond our genetic appearance. We can hide behind it too; it’s a mask. Oscar Wilde once said, “man is least himself when he talks in his own person, give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.” I think that in many ways, that’s what style does for us. I always kind of wished that I had bad eyes so I could wear glasses and hide behind them. Growing up, I played the upright bass. I think I made that choice because, stylistically, I thought it was something I could hide behind; it could cover me as I played.
Q: How do your tattoos relate to your own personal style? What do they mean or represent to you? A: When I was younger, I was just a teenage punk rocker from Cleveland, Ohio. I thought that being tattooed was just the “punk” thing to do. They didn’t necessarily mean or commemorate anything. I think
that a lot of people my age were interested in artwork and we wanted to carry it with us on our bodies. That being said, I have been a literature nerd since the seventh grade, so all of my tattoos have some sort of connection to works of literature that I found impressive or that have really stuck with me. I’ve got one sleeve that is a montage of Daniel Defoe works and another that calls to mind Virginia Woolf’s The Waves and some other modernist artists that were working around that time. I’ve got a Shakespeare tattoo on my back, a Dante tattoo on my chest, and a James Joyce tattoo on my stomach.
Q: How is personal style important to you? Do you care about your appearance? A: I would say that I do. I think a particular style was engrained in me because I’ve gone to Jesuit schools my entire life. For example, I grew up wearing a tie. I can’t stop that habit for some reason. Even today, you can barely see it, but I’m still wearing it. I think another aspect of my style is juxtaposition. I wear a tie with a sweater and a collared shirt, but I have tattoos. I think shoes say a lot about someone. Maybe that comes from watching Phil Collins wearing Chuck Taylor’s with a suit.
Q: Are you trying to say something particular with your personal style? A: I think as somebody who grew up in a blue-collar family, in a blue-collar town, playing in a punk rock band, one of the things I’m doing with the ink that I wear and the clothes that I wear is to unsettle people’s perceptions. We know the cliché “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but I think I live that idea. I think it’s really surprising when I’m outside of campus and people see me in a t-shirt or short sleeves and they find out what I do. You can kind of see the dissonance for a minute, like they weren’t expecting that. At the same time, when I am on campus, the same thing happens in reverse. When I show up to class for four weeks in long sleeves and one day I walk in because it’s hot and my sleeves are rolled up, people are like wait a minute, I thought I knew this person but now I need to reevaluate my assumptions based on what I see. I think that style plays into that in really important ways. Interview conducted by Molly Kornfeld
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ANIMAL HOUSE
The Pets of Vassar College
photography: Rachel Garbade & Jacob Heydorn Gorski & Kevin Vehar
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ELOISE THE RABBIT Andrea Sherman’s rabbit, Eloise’s favorite food is broccoli.
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Mimi the Rat
Emily Bernstein’s rat, Mimi, is missing part of her tail! She even had to take her in for rat surgery to repair the end of her tail.
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Luke the dog
Kelly Grab’s dog, Luke, was a rescue and his exact origins are unknown. He is part Dandie Dinmont Terrier, though, which is the only dog breed to be named after a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Guy Mannering.
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Mao the Rat
Emily Bernstein’s rat, Mao, likes to cuddle.
Amber the snake
Natalie Nicelli’s snake, Amber, was bought at the reptile expo held at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.
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condaleeza the Hedgehog Alex Schlesinger, Julia Sharpe-Levine, Emily Wexler, and Elizabeth Scopel’s hedgehog, Condaleeza, has a diet of mostly cat food and meal worms. She does not, however, eat any dairy products, because like other hedgehogs she is lactose intolerant. She also has a popular Instagram account with her glamour shots at @condaleeza_
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The Last Conde Nast Intern I was on the train from Vassar to the city— to my internship at Classique magazine— when Condé Nast announced the end of its internship program. Should I even go in to work? I thought. But it was too late to turn around so I sat back in my seat and looked out the window as we passed Croton Harmon. The city skyline loomed ahead, thunderclouds gathering like volcano ash. The subway was down so I hailed a cab. As the taxi pulled up to 4 Times Square, my credit card was declined. Embarrassed, I stammered that I’d try it again but the driver fixed me with a pair of vacant eyes and murmured, “Forget it. There’s no point anymore.” Uneasy and bewildered, I stuttered “thank you” and jumped out of the cab. I reached the revolving 11
Written by Aidan Kahn Illustration by Jasmine Timan
doors a split second before the skies opened and pummeled the ground with rain. The lobby desk was strangely unguarded so I went straight to the elevator and rode an empty car up to the twelfth floor. The elevator doors opened to reveal a desolate space that had once been vibrant and glamorous. No young women with judgmental glares pushed racks of couture. No editors rushed back and forth. No photographers waved glossy prints of famous faces. A young receptionist gazed, teary-eyed at the floor where the tattered pieces of the September issue were strewn. As I knelt to pick them up, a gust of wind came out of nowhere and further scattered the pages. A group of my fellow interns rushed past me, the click-clack of their high heels echoing
down the hallway. I ran to ask them what was going on and was cut off by an exasperated cry. “Oh you know damn well,” one of them said, bursting into tears as the group rounded the corner. Confused and frightened, I hastened to my boss’s office. I arrived at the door of Alexei Kauffman: a tall, elegant man of thirty-three with piercing blue eyes, always impeccably dressed and subtly masculine, yet graceful and effete. I knocked and the door swung open to reveal Alexei, seated facing the window. He turned around and I saw that his eyes were tired and sunken, his hair was less-than coiffed and his once manicured fingernails were all chewed-up. “Sophia, dahling.” “Hello Alexei,” I said. “What happened here? It’s like an alternate universe! Are the interns all fired already? Am I fired?” Alexei raised a shaky hand to silence me. With a sickly smile he responded, “Dahling, yes they’re fired, but you’re not. You’re the lone survivor of a once-great internship program. I don’t know why it’s over, why they can’t just pay the interns, but it’s too late now...” “What are you talking about, Alexei?” He gave me a creepy, knowing look before swiveling in his chair to face the window again. “Sophia, go into the main closet, I need you to collect some things for Victoria.” “Victoria Summers?! What do you need me to get?” “You’ll see once you’re there. Go now,” said Alexi. “Oh, and Sophia, dahling… No Prada… Victoria hasn’t worn Prada since… you know.” In the hallway I passed a room where an editor pressed her face against the glass of the copy machine, scanning it again and again as a coffee pot behind her overflowed. Someone shouted “I NEED A LATTE please GOD somebody get me a FUCKING LATTE.” I kept walking. Turning the corner, I arrived at the heart of the Classique offices. Whimpering magazine workers cowered beneath their desks. Major news networks blared from televisions that hung in the center of the room. I dodged the debris of overturned tables and discarded platform pumps, past a once-stylish IT guy huddled half-naked on the floor, muttering to himself. Anderson Cooper’s shrill voice pierced
the air. “CNN can confirm that Condé Nast has ended their coveted internship program after being sued by over-worked interns they never paid. A tragic story the ramifications of which—“ The whole building suddenly shuddered. I stumbled back down the hallway and into an office where a disheveled executive sat on the floor drinking scotch from the bottle. He looked up at me with the eyes of a rabid dog. “It’s happening,” he croaked. “There’s no going back. Dear God what have we done?” I retreated slowly towards the door. “We’ve known for weeks. Now the world knows too. The interns, the damned interns.” I stopped. “The interns?” I asked. “Yes, the interns!” he shouted. “Don’t you see? Have you never played Jenga?! Don’t you understand the principle at work here?” He slurred, “Without interns, Classique crumbles!” He cackled insanely. I ditched my heels and sprinted towards the main closet. As I raced past the widows, I saw men and women in few and tattered clothes smashing computers in the high-rise across the street. I slammed the closet door and bolted it with a Dries Van Noten scarf. Turning to face the gleaming racks of Saint Laurent and Alexander Wang, I was knocked to the ground by what felt like a Steelers linebacker and smelled like a Venetian garden. The most famous face in fashion swam into view inches from mine. A razor-sharp bob of hair cut into my cheeks. Victoria Summers pinned me to the ground with shocking physical strength. “You’re here,” she said. “It’s time to set things right.” Stunned, I could hardly squeak: “I don’t understand.” “Of course not,” said Victoria. “You’re an intern. But not just any intern— you’re the chosen one… To appease the publishing gods there must be a sacrifice… an intern sacrifice.” Blood raced to my head and my extremities grew numb. “What an opportunity for you, my dear!” said Victoria as she bound my hands with a luxurious velvet ribbon. I gathered my strength enough to ask, “Will I get academic credit for this?”
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What’s in Your Bag?
Bonnie and Clyde Illustration by Sofia Macht
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In response to variations of the popular “what’s in your bag� theme utilized within mainstream fashion magazines, Contrast enlisted the talents of Vassar artists to reimagine and illustrate the personal belongings of six fictional female characters.
Lisbeth Salander
Daenerys Targaryen
Top: Jasmine Timan Bottom: Jasmine Timan
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literary Daisy Buchanan female
Dolores “Lolita� Haze
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Top: Jasmine Timan Bottom: Emma Goodwin
Bella Swan
Drawing by Olga Voyazides
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BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Secret Spots on the Vassar Campus
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Photo by Rachel Garbade
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ALUMNAE HOUSE Photo by Emily Selter
GEOLOGY MUSEUM Photos by Rachel Garbade
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ESTﾃ右 LAUDER PARLOR Photos by Rachel Garbade
MUSIC LIBRARY Photo by Rachel Garbade
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JADE ROOM Photo by Rachel Garbade
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An Interview with
DAVID SMILEY
Author of Pedestrian Modern: Shopping and American Architecture, 1925-1956
David Smiley (Vassar Class of 1980) currently teaches in the Architecture and Urban Studies departments at Barnard College and Columbia University. As an architect and architectural historian, Smiley’s work explores topics pertaining to American single-family households, shopping centers, and the growth of suburbia. Q: In brief, what is your new book Pedestrian Modern about? A: Pedestrian Modern is trying to loosen the bounds of what we think of as modern architecture. The problem in understanding modernist architecture is that up until recently, it was defined by a very narrow set of boundaries that often excluded works by architects who were attempting to do modernist things. The architects who were designing stores and shopping centers thought of themselves as modern architects, but many of these projects were perceived only as works of urban design. Q: With the emergence of modernity, society had changed dramatically. How did this shift in society change consumerism and move stores away from ‘Main Street’ and towards the first shopping centers? A: In the 1920’s and the 1930’s, ‘Main Street’ began to be seen as a problem. It was considered too congested because there were too many cars and it was inefficient because the stores were too small. In short, many saw ‘Main Street’ as no longer being sufficient for the mod25
ern consumer. Additionally, changes in business and trade models demanded larger companies and larger stores. The small ‘mom and pop’ businesses became obsolete as large chain stores began buying up large frontages on main streets, which in turn created the ‘strip’. The first shopping centers, though small, began to pull away from the street. They started providing more parking and even some pedestrian rest areas, but the change in form was less a product of changes in consumerism and more about changes in the city. Eventually, these small shopping centers began to grow and expand. In the 1930’s you began to see shopping centers with twenty and thirty stores. These structures tended to be strip-like in form and started including design features like sidewalks. There were hints that they could do more with the design, but it was essentially still a commercial enterprise.
“The architects who were designing stores and shopping centers thought of themselves as modern architects, but many of these projects were perceived only as works of urban design.”
Q: At what point then did the shopping center become the shopping mall that we know today? A: The term ‘shopping mall’ did not come into being until the 1960’s. The first shopping centers that we would recognize as malls were built in the 1950’s. These first malls were outdoors and had a double-facing array of commercial stores in a collective space. Dimensions varied because there were no standards yet.One of the first examples of the shopping mall was the Northgate Mall, outside of Seattle (1950). The architect of this mall based his designs on Rockefeller Center in New York. There was also Shopper’s World outside of Boston (1951) that was designed in a completely different form, with a grassy center that was very well landscaped.
“Because of this need for change, big department stores essentially became ‘boxes’ that could be easily changed based on different tastes and styles.”
Q: Were there changes in the fashion industry that were directly related to the new way in which shopping malls were able to distribute clothes to consumers?
Q: Where do you see the mall heading in the coming decades? Do you see malls going out of business or being integrated into new “town centers” in the suburbs?
A: In the 1950s, it became clear that consumption was becoming very important to the American economy. The lifestyle of living in the suburbs and going to the mall created a kind of consumer paradise. In terms of fashion, retailers will often tell you that “nothing lasts.” In many ways this need for constant change is very anti-architectural, as architecture tends to be based to a certain extent on permanence. Because of this need for change, big department stores essentially became ‘boxes’ that could be easily changed based on different tastes and styles.
A: Shopping malls are in trouble. Due to changes in economic cycles, consumerism no longer requires such a permanent structure to buy and sell goods. Fashions and trends are changing faster than ever. In the last decade, changes in society have led people to want to spend less and less time in malls. Now you are seeing big stores pull out from malls and allow people to come and do what they need to do in stores, and then leave. People are also buying more of their goods online. Malls are really beginning to rely on entertainment to keep people coming inside. Some malls are bringing in community organizations, libraries, and clinics in order to become more of a community center. Other malls are being retrofitted into something that looks similar to the ‘Main Streets’ of the pre-modern era.
Q: In what ways has the mall changed since its conception in the 1950s? A: The success of malls in the 20th century is not necessarily based on only commercial success. The real success of the mall was how it became a social and cultural center for most Americans. In many suburbs, the mall is one of the only places in which you can meet friends and socialize. For better or for worse, the success of the mall is based on its ability to become the preeminent social space for many Americans.
Malls have had a profound impact on American society over the past seventy years, and they will continue to have an impact regardless of what form they take in the coming years. Interview conducted by Simon Hardt
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Lipstick
Revisiting a Vassar Style Icon Article by Dion Kauffman
Image desgined by Katherine Eliot
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Contrast Fall 2013
Vassar claims a variety of famous and celebrated alumnae to date, but the real cat’s meow is certainly Lois Long—a student of both English and French, who graduted in 1922. Long was once known only as LIPSTICK, a nom de plume for her column on the wild and opulent world of the exclusive fashion circles and nightlife in 1920’s New York City. Upon graduating, Long served as a copy editor at Vogue, then as a staff writer for Vanity Fair. But it was at the New Yorker where Long launched her literary career. Equipped with an unnerving independence, Long created a daring literary style that modern audiences yearned for. Furthermore, she practiced what she preached: she was an empowered woman who openly disregarded the sexual and social norms of her day. Many biographies of Long note that she had a tendency to stumble into the office drunk and ‘dressed to the nines’ from the previous night’s excursions. She would then proceed to climb over her cubicle, (because of course, the last thing any socialite would remember to bring to a party is her office key). But once firmly planted in her desk chair, not even a hangover could keep Long from writing. Lois Long is known primarily for her two reoccurring articles: “Tables for Two,” a tell-all feature of ‘20s juice joints or speakeasies, and “On and Off the Avenue,” a fashion column that included both a New Yorker and a Parisian as correspondents. For the New Yorker, Long tapped into the contemporary changes in consumerism marked by mass production and a proliferation of department stores. She wrote on topics such as ready-to-wear fashion and the burgeoning middle class. Addressing everything from the iconographic cloche hat to fluctuating hemlines, Long not only located trends, but also indexed the places where one could acquire them.
“Once firmly planted in her desk chair, not even a hangover could keep Long from writing”
In her article “On and Off the Avenue,” published on October 25th 1930, Long wrote, “I am the girl who gazes with a canny and disillusioned eye upon beauty products that claim miracles.” For Long to consider an item “spiffy,” it had to transcend merely possessing the mark of a brand name. She required clothing to be genuinely spectacular while simultaneously exuding accessibility and affordability. In sum, Long was a woman of both fine taste and humility. The fashion world today can certainly learn a thing or two from Miss Lois Long. She was a real woman, perpetually throwing a heel over a cubicle wall with gin-stenched breath, smeared lipstick and a frenzied, ready-to-write attitude. I conclude with the sign-off that Lois Long often used at the end of her column: Kindly, old, bearded, gentleman who signs himself – LIPSTICK 28
When Darkness Falls at Noon The Art 105 Monuments List Brought to Life If you close your eyes when the lights go down in Taylor Auditorium, this is what you’ll see....
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Photo by Emily Selter
The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci (1495-98) 30
The Death of Marat Jacques-Louis David (1793) 31
Photo by Rachel Garbade
The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait Jan van Eyck (1434) Photo by Emily Selter
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Judith and Holofernes Donatello (1460) 33
Photo by Emily Selter
Four Jackies Andy Warhol (1964) Photos by Olga Voyazides 34
35 Photo by Rachel Garbade
Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe Edouard Manet (1862-63) 36
Special thanks to the Vassar Art Department
Photo by Rachel Garbade 37
Executive Board Editors-in-chief: Emilia Petrarca Emily Selter
Blog: Michael Gambardella Lauren Garcia
Photography: Rachel Garbade Jacob Gorski
Women’s Style: Margot Mayer Olga Voyazidez
Men’s Style: Christopher Farrell
Layout: Lauren Garcia Treasurer: Jasmine Timan
Editorial: Hadiya Shire
Contributors
Women’s Style: Katherine Cuan Eloisa Clegg Lydia Ciaputa Janou Hookyass Robin Piatt Stegman Olivia Michalak Editorial: Dion Kauffman Molly Kornfield Aidan Kahn Simon Hardt
Models: Stephanie Muir Allie Frankland Austin Welch Dion Kauffman Stephanie Zhu Kristen Cnossen Brittani Skyers-White Nana Baffour-Awuah Aidan Kahn Christian Camacho-Light Ginny Duncan Gianna Constantine Elizabeth Rowland Emma Goodwin Sylvia Haigh Lydia Ciaputa Jean-Sebastian Spratt Michael Iselin Laura Webber Vassar Men’s Soccer Team
Photography: Serena Hovnanian Macrae Marran Caleb Stein Hannah La Folette Ryan Kevin Vehar Layout: Katherine Eliot Yuhan Shui Blog: Lucy Mutz
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Blog: contrast.vassar.blogspot.com
Instagram: vassarcontrast