The first edition of Indiana University’s fashion magazine, “SEASON,” was published in October 2018. Since then, the student-led organization has amassed a participation of over 100 members and offers opportunities to gain experience in merchandise design, garment styling, photography, marketing, editorial writing and creative design in the creation of their biannual publication. SEASON magazine has also spread its reach to Spotify with their podcast “What’s in SEASON?” and to followers of @sznmagazine on Instagram and TikTok.
The IDS spoke with SEASON magazine Editor-in-Chief, Alisha Ahmed, and the Director of Merch and Styling, Ava Mikola, about their plans for the future of the magazine.
IDS: What is SEASON magazine to you? What does it hope to achieve by its presence on campus?
Ahmed: I think that SEASON magazine is an outlet for people who want to come together and be creative. I really love clothes and fashion and trend-keeping but they didn’t have a place in my schoolwork. I think that SEASON is a great way not only to do that for yourself, but then to connect with people who also want to do that. Every time I leave, I’m just inspired by the people around me, the clothes they are wearing, or the ideas they bring. It’s something that’s refreshing.
Mikola: I wanted to get involved outside of the classroom. I feel like I do get to be creative in my major (Apparel Merchandising), but not to the extent that I can be in SEASON. I love it because there are no rules. We start the semester, and everyone can bring any idea they have to the table. It’s awesome to turn those ideas into a magazine.
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IDS: Being at IU, and in Indiana in general, which is not known for high fashion, how do you make these elaborate sets for photo shoots or come up with these different concepts? Is it difficult? What is the creative process like?
Ahmed: I would say you’d be surprised at what lives within the little cracks and crevices of Indiana. We’re dead in the middle of this landlocked state, but there are little hints of things here and there. You’ll find a cute vintage stop or stop on a corner of a street, and you’ll be like, “I didn’t know this existed,” and then it just brings about new ideas. Sometimes even, like for models, we see someone walking down the street in an outfit, and we’re like, “Oh, you should model for SEASON!” I really think it’s hidden throughout the campus more than you would think. But I also think that people have so many creative ideas that you wouldn’t expect and maybe they just don’t have a place to voice it. So, we try to make SEASON that place.
Mikola: I feel like we get really creative with the photo shoots. We don’t have a large budget or anything like professional magazines do. So, we find ways to create these really cool sets and get these really cool pieces that you might not think of at first. We work with some shops in Bloomington, and we source from our own closets.
We’ve shot at a lot of locations on campus or just whenever we find somewhere that looks cool in Bloomington. We just shot at the skate park in Bloomington. That was really cool. We even shot inside the bathroom of Wells Library. Nothing’s off limits.
Ahmed: It’s kind of like that social media challenge that used to be like “make an ugly location look good for your Instagram feed,” type of idea. It’s just a regular location, you just try to season it up. In Indiana we have to get creative.
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IDS: In terms of editorial, what are the kind of stories that SEASON is telling?
Ahmed: We try to do topics that are current events, fashion trends at the time, or even something everyone that’s a college– age student relates to. We try to be a voice for that. We talked a lot after the pandemic and how that changed our clothing, what we wear and being expressive when you couldn’t go out for some time. We let writers have creative freedom. They bring their ideas to the table, and we match them with the photoshoots we are doing. I think that our writers are really special. They put so much time and effort into something that’s not for class, but I think they enjoy that too. They get to write about what they choose and what they want.
IDS: Do you have a favorite project that SEASON has worked on or published?
Mikola: I think my favorite is the Marie Antoinette inspired photo shoot from last year. I feel like that was just the most amazing styling we’ve ever done. The most “out there” that we’ve gone.
Ahmed: We did a surrealist ball type of shoot, which was really inspired by the Rothschild’s dinners that blew up on Tik Tok. We did it in the Tudor Room at the IMU. We had these people in the craziest dresses and most extravagant outfits, laying over the Tudor Room dining tables, and it was just so much fun. I remember whenever the pictures came out, I was like, “You can’t even tell where this is.”
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IDS: What do you hope to see SEASON Magazine become in the future?
Ahmed: The one thing I hope is that SEASON Magazine can become something more and more people know about. I don’t want anyone to have to ask, “What’s that?” I want more people to know about it and read it. We have a lot of focus on marketing this semester with videography and getting out on campus asking about students’ clothes and personal style.
Mikola: They’re really expanding their presence on social media and campus, and more people are learning about it. I feel like when we were freshmen, a lot of people didn’t know what it was. Just in the past two years, it has grown so much. I would just love for people to be reading it around campus. They are made to order, so it would be awesome for more people to know about it and order beforehand.
Ahmed: I hope that people continue to push the boundary of what they think they can do in SEASON and beyond us. We are always like, “Can we do this? Can we make this happen?” And then we always get to surprise ourselves. I hope people continue to take risks and surprise themselves.
The fall/winter 2023 edition of SEASON magazine launches on Nov. 29.