The LSU Fashion Magazine Club seeks to make an impact on how students view fashion as both a means of expression and an opportunity for sustainability.
The Fashion Magazine Club is a student organization dedicated to providing students with a creative space to express themselves through fashion. But more than that, the club serves as a forum to elevate all forms of art having to do with fashion and self-expression.
“We do make magazines capturing art and fashion,” said Sarah Rice, editor-in-chief of the magazine and a sophomore in bioengineering. “But even bigger than that, it’s really about creating a space for art to be celebrated.”
As suggested by its title, the Fashion Magazine Club is best known for its magazine, Maison du Tigre, which translates to “House of the Tiger.” These publications include style guides, photoshoots, poetry, fashion articles, tributes to artists, student spotlights and much more. What goes into the magazine all depends on what the team hopes to accomplish with the publication.
The club’s most recent publication was its annual edition of Recits Noirs in honor of Black History Month this past spring. In addition to modeling shoots featuring Black student fashionistas, this edition also paid homage to Black artists and celebrities, highlighted Black-owned hair care brands and platformed written commentary on how the Black community has long used fashion to both express themselves and make a statement.
“It really is broken down kind of like that,” said Isabella Schiner, a sophomore marketing major and the club’s media director. “You’ll have your article or spotlights and then some photo pages, so you have a good mix.”
Curating the magazine can be a long, tedious process that requires a lot of teamwork from officers and regular members alike. To start, the team has to schedule photoshoots, assign models, create Pinterest boards as references for the models’ outfits and get approval for the shoot. Then, the students edit the photos, sift through the writing submissions, design the layouts of the pages and, finally, get everything approved by Rice.
The Fashion Magazine Club typically publishes two to three magazines a year, including mini and full editions, which can be found digitally through the club’s Linktree. The process can be overwhelming, but getting to see the end product after all the hard work is incredibly rewarding, said Rice.
“So the first shoot that we did was our management shoot,” Rice said, “And we got some of those pictures back and some of the initial edits, and that was such a moment for all of us.”
But the organization is more than just its magazine. They also host thrift shops in Free Speech Alley every other week, plan weekly meetings and interview students on campus about their outfits.
The team is also very active on social media. As media director, Schiner is primarily involved in keeping up the club’s online presence, curating fun posts like fashion style guides for Monday Mood, trend predictions for Friday Forecast and tips on how to keep one’s fashion sustainable for Wednesday Wisdom.
Sustainable fashion is one of the group’s main areas of focus. The fashion industry is responsible for 4-10% of CO2 emissions every year, so Schiner said finding sustainable alternatives to fast fashion is a must, especially when it comes to college students who may not always think of sustainability while shopping for clothes.
“They’re maybe not the most sustainable people,” Schiner said. “You know, you buy one thing for one event, and you never wear it again. And so we really just try to promote that, you know. Give tips on how to be more sustainable in your life, how to be more sustainable in fashion.”
For Rice, the club is about more than just fashion — it is about encouraging students to embrace their creative interests by highlighting all forms of art and self-expression.
“The overarching mission is to elevate,” Rice said. “Not just the fashion world or LSU sense of fashion, but to elevate people, to elevate artists, elevating creativity.”
