Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Students Redefine Beauty

MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA
MICHELLE XU/THE HOYA Co-Presidents of Hilltop VoGUe Annamarie White, Hayden Jeong and Caroline Albers.

Here on the Hilltop, Hoyas pride themselves on knowing how to dress. This keen fashion sense is woven into campus life, but until now, nobody has ever found a way to document it. Emerging on the scene this year is Hilltop VoGUe, a campus-run fashion blog that expresses the many sides of Georgetown’s famous sense of style.

Hilltop VoGUe is a purely online publication that will post daily stories and blurbs about the latest fashion happenings, with its reach extending far beyond the front gates.

“Our staff writers are actually covering a huge array of topics. It’s fashion on a larger scale. One of our writers is writing about places to get your eyebrows done in D.C. We have people going to D.C. fashion week at the end of the month. In the future we will be covering more global scale fashion as well,” Co-President Annamarie White (MSB ’17) said.

While the organization has not yet received official approval from the Student Activities Commission, it already has major plans for connecting to students on campus. The focus will be on high-quality writing and photography to produce stories that are visually and intellectually stimulating. The blog’s official startup date is Oct. 14, and it will be beginning with a bang.

“Once we launch the site, we’ll have around 15 to 20 articles already on the blog. We want to have the writers continuously writing so that we have an archive,” Executive Editor Alex Ridley (COL ’17) said. “We’ll post weekly and eventually move to posting new content on the site every day, whether it’s a longer article or just a short blurb about something that’s going on in D.C.”

Hilltop VoGUe brings to campus novel ideas about fashion that defy common stereotypes.

“We want to celebrate all forms of beauty. It’s something that our generation sees on magazine covers and blogs and thinks ‘Oh, that’s what’s beautiful.’ Because we can relate to that situation, we’re going to make a huge effort to stray away from that and really just celebrate all forms of beauty,” White said.

The blog will simultaneously embrace tradition and break the mold, showcasing a variety of styles that more accurately depicts the student body.

“There’s this stereotype that we all know — everyone’s preppy here. We wanted to dispel the notion that it’s very homogeneous stylistically and instead celebrate the diversity that is here,” Co-President Hayden Jeong (MSB ’17) said.

This message strikes a chord with the familiar notion of Georgetown’s cura personalis. Any Georgetown student, no matter his or her fashion preference, can have access to the blog and take from it an admiration for unconventional beauty and a love for oneself as a whole.

“Fashion isn’t about beauty, it’s about self- expression. While beauty trends and topics are definitely pertinent to fashion, the end goal is creating an image of yourself that you identify and are happy with,” Co-President Caroline Albers (COL ’17) said.

Not only does Hilltop VoGUe seek to widen people’s common notions of what beauty is, but it also hopes to heighten the role that fashion blogs play as a source of legitimate news.

“For fashion to be serious journalism, it needs to be all-encompassing and open to all genders, sizes, races and styles,” Jeong said.

This authentic journalism will have a definitive impact both on and off campus. On the Hilltop, the club will continually be on the lookout for the hidden Hoya gems of the everyday Georgetown fashion world.

“It’s not like we’re looking for students to sign up to be models for us. What we like about this fashion blog is that it’s candid,” Jeong said. Off campus, Jeong wants to reach out to the community and find stories that engage the reader’s interest.

Students and professors will be featured on the blog, along with articles on local businesses found in popular areas along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Hilltop VoGUe will also supply students interested in fashion with exciting networking opportunities that go beyond a typical sales associate job experience.

“We want to connect students with businesses on M Street and leaders in the fashion industry. We’re in talks with Madewell for a potential launch party,” White said. “Going beyond Madewell, in the future we’re also hoping to partner with other stores that give us a range of styles. Forever 21 is popping up, we have J. Crew, and there’s Buffalo Exchange. We want to bring them to the Georgetown campus and connect students with the greater fashion world as a whole.”

Amid such high ambitions, the club was somewhat worried about establishing a reliable readership base. Jeong at first voiced concerns about how Georgetown students would receive the blog, yet her doubts soon proved to be unfounded.

“Georgetown is a very pre-professional campus, so students care a lot about legitimacy and being part of something that’s established. But the enthusiasm that we got from students who came up to us [at the Student Activities fair] just saying that it looked really cool was really encouraging to us,” she said.

Albers is equally ecstatic to see the club’s hard work pay off.

“I love Georgetown’s focus on tradition in a lot of aspects, but it can be a little bit stifling at times, as I’m sure all Hoyas can agree on,” Albers said. “This is a chance to be part of a new organization that is striking out into territory that hasn’t really been mined before, and it’s very exciting for a lot of Hoyas.”

Although the applications for the editorial, photography and graphic design teams have closed, the marketing team is still considering hiring more students. Applications will be reopened next semester, but until then, the club’s main goal is to attract loyal readers to its blog.

You never know when the next big fashion sensation is going to sweep across campus, so keep an eye out for Hilltop VoGUe, and who knows — maybe that sensation will be you.

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