Street: You're the head of The WALK project. How did you get invovled?
Lea Artis: I'm co-president of DZine 2 Show, the fashion society on campus. We see ourselves as encompassing everything fashion for the student body, and we thought our next best move would be into fashion journalism and so we founded the magazine The WALK. I'm the executive editor for the magazine along with my many other duties for Dzine like director of our fashion show.
Street: Has the first issue been a success?
LA: I'd say it was a success in that we got it out there. We are learning as we go. You know what they say about your first time.
Street: What do they say about your first time?
LA: [laughs] It's a learning experience you could say.
Street: Can you tell us about the launch party?
LA: We like to do things big and fabulous. We're a fashion magazine so it's in our nature - it's in my nature personally. With the party Walk the Walk we went on the motif of "You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" We had a huge cocktail party downtown and tried to make it a big, fabulous red carpet event. We took a lot of pictures that will be featured in out next issue. We had a walk-off contest that featured amateur models as well as our previous models with a huge cover unveiling. It was a lot of fun.
Street: Was there a winner of the walk-off?
LA: There were multiple winners of the walk-off. We had two girl winners and two guy winners.
Street: How were they determined?
LA: Me and my co-director Christina Celuzza judged the walk-off as best as we could, splitting it up into people with experience versus amateurs.
Street: And what do they win?
LA: They are receiving a free photo shoot with our head photographer, Zoe Grossman.
Street: Will the money you earned go towards funding the magazine?
LA: Definitely. We need a lot of money for the magazine. As you can imagine, it is quite an expenditure, but we are funding it through a lot of different initiatives.
Street: How do you find the models?
LA: We do a huge scouting event on campus every year in January. This year will be a little different because we'll be looking for magazine models as well as runway models for our shows. We're going to be doing kind of an invite-only event for auditions.
Street: Will I get an invite?
LA: Uh. if you're lucky.
Street: What are the criteria to get an invite?
LA: You have to be in some way attractive or appealing as a model. You have to have a look, be able to walk, have a certain, I guess, je ne sais quoi about yourself - an "it" quality, I guess you could say.
Street: So how many people are you looking for?
LA: For this year's show we're looking for - in past shows we've done around 30 models - but we're looking to do quite a bit more. We have over 150 pieces of clothing in our show that are student designed and we also feature boutiques. This will be triple the amount of material presented in past shows, so we'll need a lot of models.
Street: What's the biggest fashion faux pas you've ever committed?
LA: Back in junior high I was a victim of the jelly bracelets all up and down the arm. Everything was very "matchy-matchy."
Street: Do's and don'ts of the winter season?
LA: If you read my rants and raves in the magazine you'll get a more in-depth feel for my opinion. For girls, the accessories are in, boots and flats are huge and in addition to that it's more about bold statements this winter and fall season. At the same time black is big - it's more of a morbid season you could say. For guys, personal favorites of mine are really cool sneakers. I love kicks that are just bright and colorful and out there. They show your individuality and creativity cause guys kind of have a harder time expressing their fashion sense. I love crazy hoodie prints and I'm a big fan of when a guy can dress well and put himself together, who knows when to put on a blazer and knows when to wear a polo shirt.
Street: What's the biggest fashion faux pas you've seen on Penn's campus?
LA: Well it's one of many, but I have to say Uggs and leggings, in the sense that the Uggs will be brown, the leggings black, and they'll be wearing a completely different color jacket. and the leggings don't even reach into the Uggs.
Street: Do you plan to pursue a career in fashion?
LA: Definitely. That's where my passion is. Not sure what aspect yet.
Street: What do you see as the future of fashion at Penn?
LA: It is definitely growing. Jay Baker, who is the director of Kohls, has founded a retail initiative on campus through the Wharton school and is starting to implement classes across all concentration areas but focusing specifically on retail. I'm taking Principles of Retail with Professor Cody which has been great, but with design offerings are more limited.
Street: Will the future bring more parties?
LA: There's going to be a lot more parties, like the date auction coming up in February. We have a busy semester ahead of us.
