The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 3B
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 3B
SHEI
From Page 1B
Invariably, once every
semester or so, a series of high-
quality pictures of my more well
dressed acquaintances lands on
the front page of my Facebook
feed. They're at one of those
parties I hear about but never
get invited to, the kind with
a professional photographer
taking pictures at the front door.
The backdrop of these pictures is
always the same - the ubiquitous
white, logo-emblazoned curtain,
present at every award show and
film premiere - but, unlike all
the others, this curtain only has
one name: SHEI Magazine.
These pictures are, as it turns
out, from SHEI's semiannual
launch parties, celebrating
the publication of its print
magazine at the end of each
semester. I am also not the first
person to be impressed by the
professionalism of the events
and the magazine behind them,
as one of SHEI's two fashion
editors, Art& Design senior Tara
Ellis, pointed out.
"The second I tell people that
it's all student-run, they're like
'What?,'"she said.
Their incredulity is
understandable.
SHEI Magazine is, for
all intents and purposes, a
professional fashion magazine -
85 pages of high-quality, glossy
pages featuring seven different
photo shoots and upwards of
15 articles tied around a single
theme unique to each issue. It's
the product of three-and-a-half
months of work, done by a staff
of around 150 writers, designers,
photographers, models and
managers.
Unlike a professional fashion
magazine, however, SHEI's
employees aren't working a nine
to five job. They're putting in
those hoursafter going to classes,
clubs, sports and meetings.
"It's all students," said LSA
junior Anna Fuller, SHEI's
brandingdirector."Theonething
that I usually say about SHEI is
that it's run completely by the
students. The photographers,
the models, the writers, the
directors, everything is students.
Everyone but the printers.'
That's something that we really
pride ourselves on - that it's all
student-run."
The Inner Workings
of SHEI
four teams working under the
creative director.
"The creative director
oversees the photo teams,
the fashion team, the literary
features team and the design
team," Corrigan said. "Each of
those teams then has one or two
editors who organize the work
they do, and the teams range
anywhere from 10 members to, I
think we have around 60 on the
fashion team."
Needless to say, this is
a complex operation. A
complicated organization made
all the more convoluted by the
fact that SHEI doesn't have a
central office.
"We currently have a room
upstairs in the Union, but it's
more of a storage space than
a place that we meet to do
things," Corrigan said "We have
that room and then we have
a standing reservation in the
undergraduate library for our
board meetings."
As SHEI's editors are quick
to point out, the lack of a
central meeting space requires
a great deal of flexibility and
communication to keep things
running smoothly and to builda
sense of community among the
staff.
"We're pretty good at
(working around that problem),"
said LSA senior Tanika
Raychaudhuri, one of SHEI's
literary feature editors. "I guess
one thing is that we have a lot of
small communities within SHEI.
For example, the lit team, we
have our meetings in a certain
location and we've always had
them there and everyone goes.
We do bonding activities as a
team and bonding activities as a
board."
But, unsurprisingly, the
amount of work necessary to
keep the magazine's production
on schedule while putting
together runway shows and
maintaining relationships with
retailers in the community is
daunting.
"We spend 20 to 30 hours a
week working on SHEI-related
activities by the time you
coordinate models, coordinate
our 55 team members and run the
meetings," said Lexie Miedema,
LSA junior and co-fashion editor.
"When we do photo shoots,
that's our entire Saturday - pick
up the models, bring themto hair
and makeup, communicating
with stores, organizing clothing,
going to fittings, organizing
photographers to make sure that
they're on the same page as us,
sHEI
SHEI sponsors an annual student-run fashion show.
As SHEI's editor in chief, LSA talking to the design editors to'
senior Shae Corrigan, explained, make sure they're on the same
the magazine's current success is page as us, communicating with
the cumulative product of years each other to make sure we're
of work by its student staff, and on the same page. It's seven
during that time the magazine different photo shoots each
has undergone significant semester and there's always an
rebranding. event comingup."
"We were founded in 1999 as
an Asian culture magazine - A Global Fashion Magazine
which is where the name comes inAnn Arbor
from - it means 'whom' in one of
the Chinese dialects," Corrigan SHEI is built on its student
said. "So somewhere along the staff, but, like any other fashion
way it kind of evolved, in that magazine, it runs on clothing.
the staff and the interest in it as Ensuring the clothes keep
exclusively Asian culture kind of coming takes up the majority of
fell by the wayside." Brand Director Anna Fuller's
After shifting its focus, SHEI work.
expanded into a general pop Fuller serves as the liaison
culture magazine with a focus between SHEI and the Ann
on fashion. SHEI's website went Arbor fashion community,
live in 2001, and in the years setting up partnerships with
since then the publication has local retailers, designers and
increased its presence both salons. Some of the most
online and on the ground in Ann successful collaborations have
Arbor through its fashion shows, been with the stores closest to
retailer profiles and, of course, campus.
magazine launch parties. "One of the things we have
"InthepastfouryearsthatI've done in the last three years is
been with SHEI and particularly we've partnered with the State
in the last year we've picked up Street Organization and done
more emphasis on developing a State Street fashion show
SHEI as a resource for students towards the beginning of the
who are interested in fashion year in the fall," Fuller said. "So
and for people in the Ann Arbor that involves all of the stores
community," Corrigan said. in the State Street Association,
"We've put more emphasis on from M Den to Renaissance to
community involvement, setting Van Boven, Pitaya, basically all
up shows and fostering that of the stores on that strip."
kind of relationship between the These arrangements are
stores here and the students on mutually beneficial and have
campus." helped to cement SHEI as a
The 150 students that make leading voice in the Ann Arbor
up SHEI's staff are led by an fashion scene.
executive board made up of "We've been lucky enough
the editor in chief, branding over the years to establish
director, business director and contacts with (retailers in Ann
creative director. The board is Arbor)," said Art and Design
responsible for the magazine's senior, Fashion Editor Tara Ellis,
administrative functions - "so they've come to know SHEI
lining up funding, managing as a presence on campus and a
SHEI's relationships with the lot of the stores are really great
University, local businesses, and really eager and willing to
charities and corporate work with us, which has been
sponsors, and making the final wonderful. They send us their
decisions on each issue's theme. clothes, whether for a photo
But the majority of the staff shoot or a fashion show, and then
and the work of assembling the we return them and, yeah, it's a
magazine's content fall into the nice little deal. They get some
advertisement and we get to
display their clothing."
SHEI's charity fashion shows
have also helped to expand its
presence in Ann Arbor. The
magazine has worked with
several charities, and last year
the staff partnered with Merit
on South University, which
donates 20 percent of its profits
to fund scholarships for Detroit
students.
"We did a success issue as
our theme a couple of years ago,
and David Meiritt was one of
the people that we profiled,"
Corrigan said. "He told us about
his line, it was in its nascent form
them. We went in and talked to
them, he was a University alum,
he has a history with SHEI,
so it just seemed like a perfect
fit. He has a charity that goes
along with it, so it was just the
clothes, the organization, just
doing something fashionable and
passing the money along."
Though the Ann Arbor
community is essential to
SHEI's work on the ground and
its runway shows, its executive
board doesn't view it as an Ann
Arbor fashion magazine.
"Even in brainstorming what
we wanted our tagline to be, we
kind of debated whether to tailor
it directly to the University of
Michigan or keep it separate,"
Fuller said. "I look at us as a
global fashion magazine. We're
very proud of Ann Arbor and the
University of Michigan, but it's
not our defining factor, I would
say."
"The slogan we came up
with this past fall is 'Flipping
pages, turning heads,"' Corrigan
said. "It starts with the actual
product, the magazine. And
then with 'turning heads,' we
want to get people's attention
for new fashion trends, articles
and concepts - our content, we
really want to draw people's
attention to that."
Pride in the Product
For an individual member of
a large organization, it's easy to
feel like just another spoke in
the wheel - you get caught up
in your day-to-day routine, focus
on the task at hand and lose sight
of where it's all headed.
At SHEI, however, that feeling
of malaise is countered by the
magazine's ability to provide
an inclusive community for its
members.
"We really want to be a
resource for students on campus
who are interested in fashion
and the publication world,"
Corrigan said. "It's for people
who are interested in fashion
and culture and self-expression
as an industry and as a creative
outlet, and just helping them
develop the skills and interests
that brought them to us in the
first place."
"I really like to say and let
people know that there's a place
for everyone at SHEI, and no
matter what your interest is you
can contribute to the magazine
in some way," Fuller added.
But, ultimately, SHEI's staff
is driven by their pride in the
product and the organization as
a whole embodied in the physical
magazine.
"I think it's really wonderful
to have everybody working so
hard, almost individually, but
then to have the team meetings
and really see that everyone's on
the same page," Ellis said. "But
just everyone's combined efforts
over a semester-long period ...
it doesn't seem like it's going
to ever actually happen, that
we're going to actually have a
SHE[
SHEI runs on clothing donations from Ann Arbor's fashion community.
magazine, but then it just comes
together and it's really beautiful S HUSSFTHEATRE
to see all of the teams' efforts UNIVFRSITYFMICHIGAN
and energy come together into
this final product."
The magazine is a trophy to " and
show potential employers - a
former editor in chief reportedly
brought it to an interview for
GQ and was offered a position
on the spot.
The magazine is a testament
both to the months of work
needed to produce it and to the
personal growth of each person
on the staff.
"I've still got the first
magazine that I had an article" .,
in. I can look through it and see
my writing, the layout and look
all of the shoots that we had, and
then I can look at our current
issue and see a real progression
in terms of the magazine itself
and certainly my own growth,"
Corrigan said.
But, above all, the magazine
is a monument: the physical
embodiment of a moment in
time and a rallying point for the
community that built it.
"What I love about SHEI
is working with a really good An edyp yb
team of people and making a Dept. Theatre
lot of lifelong friendships," said Directed Linda
Raychaudhuri. "Just knowing
that everybody is putting their r 1 1 2
full energy into a product G A $
because they really love to do it
and not for any other reason." Le uTke ff
No wonder they throw so F R MATURE A 1
many parties.