NC State’s fashion and culture magazine Platform released its fall issue on Tuesday, Nov. 15, chock full of photography, fashion, design and writing, seeking to tell the authentic stories of young people as they spearhead cultural innovation.
Platform is student-led from start to finish. The magazine has 160 members who work each semester to plan photo shoots and articles, design sets and outfits, write and edit stories and compile it all into one cohesive product.
This semester, editor-in-chief Sarah Quinn, a fourth-year studying design, sought to strengthen the cohesion of the magazine and tell the story of the people who made it by introducing a theme of authenticity that would serve as a connecting thread throughout all content.
“I wanted to do something different,” Quinn said. “I love to see consistency throughout the magazine, and it’s constantly hard because we all have different creative styles and big ideas. I just wanted something that was very fluid, and something that flowed. I love having things that have a storyline or something that just fits together nicely, so I decided to introduce a theme which we haven’t done before in the magazine.”
For Quinn, centering authenticity required designing a fashion magazine that was accessible and relatable to young people and college students.
“I want [people] to feel a closeness to the magazine,” Quinn said. “I feel like a lot of fashion magazines portray that sense of ‘oh, you can never be like this,’ but [I want people to] feel a connection, like ‘oh, this is real. These are my friends. These are people I know. These are things I do. These are clothes I would wear.’”
This issue centers familiar settings from an apartment complex pool to a local house show music venue and various locations downtown, giving creative and innovative fashion a place in the everyday lives of students.
Julie Zhou, a fourth-year studying business marketing and one of Platform’s set design directors, said she hopes this issue will inspire and empower people’s creativity.
“I feel like one thing, at least I would say, that would hold someone back is thinking about the cost behind doing something like this,” Zhou said. “Rather, I would love for [Platform] to inspire that it’s like about connections … and I want people to realize that we can do so much just based off of talent.”
The magazine features writing that addresses authenticity from a diverse range of perspectives. In “The Multiverse of Asian Markets,” Leah Tran recounts a trip to the Asian market near her apartment and the many different people that coalesce there. In “The Y’allternative Aesthetic and the Changing Face of the Modern South,” Klarissa Kronschnabel describes the fashion resulting from “the collision of Appalachia and the changing world around it.”
The issue masterfully maintains stylistic distinction between creative works while weaving the connecting thread of authenticity through each page. This was something Katie Holmstrom, a fourth-year studying fashion and textile management and one of Platform’s styling directors, said was a challenge of incorporating the theme.
“We had to make sure that people still had their own creative realm and that it wasn’t constrictive on how they can express themselves,” Holmstrom said.
Though Platform, which started as Pack Fashion, in many ways evolved out of the Wilson College of Textiles, students from all disciplines now bring their creative energy to the magazine.
“It’s also grown out of just the textile school because that’s where it started as a fashion mag,” Holmstrom said. “Now we have comp-sci people, we have agriculture people, we have environmental science people, so this is also just an escape for them from their school life, to also be creative in what they’re passionate about, like arts and culture and fashion.”
Students’ creative commitment shines through in the quality of the individual work as well as the magazine as a whole.
“[Platform] has been not just a club for me, and not just almost a part-time job at this point, but it’s definitely a passion,” Quinn said.
Physical copies of Platform Volume XII will be available Dec. 3. Keep up with new information, blog posts and podcast episodes on the Platform website.
