Bwog took a break this week from photographing eclectic students-about-campus to discuss fashion with the CU fashion experts: the editorial staff of Columbia’s new fashion magazine, Hoot Mag, and its associated blog.

Noel Duan, CC ’13, Low Steps

Where are you from? San Jose, California.

What are some style points? I’m the co-editor-in-chief of Hoot Magazine, the new fashion magazine I started with Jina Lim, CC ‘ 13. We got a grant from the Gatsby Foundation and the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue endorsed us. I hope people check it out.

What are some blogging points? I have a blog called Miss Couturable. I started it the summer before junior year of high school and I guess it got kind of big. It was on teenvogue.com and received about 10,000 hits a day. There’s definitely personal stuff on my blog–anything I felt like I wanted to share with my readers. It’s alarming to know that editors are reading it, though. I’ve encountered a lot of mean comments, but you learn to fight that off. I’ve also had a lot of fun experiences as a blogger. I even got to go to Betsey Johnson’s fashion show. Sometimes around the city, people stop me to tell me that they know my blog. It’s really awkward.

Describe your style. Prim and proper, maybe a little quirky. I like structured shoulders, tights, and bows.

What was a recent excitement? [Two weeks ago] I went to fashion week and sat front row, a few seats away from Chloë Sevigny.

What’s your response to people who say being so passionate about fashion is just materialistic? People confuse fashion with shopping too much. I’m interested in the design, art, and writing side of fashion.

Tell me about your outfit. [The six-inch platform booties] are actually really comfortable because my heels are only raised two inches and the platform is four inches high. I’m 5′ 1″, so with these on I’m 5’7″. I’m wearing sheer leggings layered over other tights, and my friend made the bow. It’s kind of dorky, but I like it.

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Bwog: Sartorialist! You: campus! Bwog found the most stylin’ students outside Hamilton, next to the 1 train, and on College Walk, and we asked them where we can get their clothes. This week on As Seen as College Walk: the coolest glasses we’ve seen in a while, plus lots of freshmen. Mini-Bill Cunninghams Contessa Gayles and Hannah Goldstein report.

Hannah Kahng, BC ’11

Cool glasses. Where did you get them? They’re Slow and Steady Wins the Race; they sell to stores like Opening Ceremony.

What’s your major? Art History and Visual Arts.

What’s your favorite class that you’ve taken at Columbia? Twentieth Century Art with Brandon Joseph.

What’s your favorite thing about February? It’s the coldest month here in New York.

Where are you going? To buy apples.

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The weather in Morningside Heights over the past couple of days may not have been particularly cooperative, but neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night could keep these Columbians from stepping out in their winter best. This week, Bwog began to prowl College Walk and various Columbia/Barnard haunts (i.e., cafeterias) in the hopes of catching a snapshot and interview with some of the school’s classiest characters. Here are some highlights; interviews and more photos after the jump.

Morris Michael, SEAS ’11

What’s your major? Biomedical engineering.

Favorite thing about New York? I guess just the people. You meet people from all over the world.

Where are you from? Sudan.

What’s one thing you always wear? My necklace. (Pulls out necklace with white fang-shaped charm.)

Is that a shark tooth? No, it’s ivory. I guess this necklace is the one thing I always wear.

Hairin Bahren and Yurina Ko, BC ’11

Where are you from? Hairen: Singapore. Yurina: Tokyo.

What’s your favorite thing about Barnard/Columbia? Hairen: New York!

What do you like most about winter, clothing-wise? Yurina: Wearing a scarf. And hat. My scarf and hat. Hairin: And boots. Yurina: Yeah, boots!

Which is your favorite fashion brand or designer? Hairin: Stella McCartney. Yurina: Uniqlo. This hat is from Uniqlo. Hairin: My scarf is from Uniqlo! Yurina: And my coat. . .

Sheng Yanyu, Ye Xinyi, and Zhang Bi Yuan, Foreign Exchange Graduate Students from China

What are you studying? Yanyu: Economics. Xinyi: Journalism. Yuan: Mathematics.

What do you like about Columbia? Bi Yuan: Its history and location.

What’s your favorite thing to wear in winter? Bi Yuan: I like those black clothes – clothes in black that you wear inside.

The life cycle of plaid has grown to be just about as diverse as a material can get in the sartorial sphere.  From its earliest appearance as the uniform of brawny lumberjacks to its mid-life incarnation as the inside of Burberry trench coats to its most recent development as the uniform of underfed hipster hims and hers alike, plaid survives with the fashion conscious and the fashion unconscious.  But Bwog has noticed that Columbia undergrads are embracing plaid in never seen before styles and forms.  From backpacks to mini-skirts – plaid is no longer just for  Anglophile-inclined b-schoolers and grungy Bill-burghers.  For how to best wear your plaid take a look at the casual styles of your fellow Columbians! 

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Gimme a B! Gimme an I! Gimme a CYCLE!

Blazer, jacket, messenger bag, collared shirt, sweater vest: the Eye’s guide to sartorial humanity

(Wait, what just happened here)

Do you know what a cooked chicken breast sounds like?

South Africa has redeeming values despite its lack of a Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Kate Moss gets a “hearty” congratulations for getting clean

Republicans… they’re just like us!

This week Saturday Styles spotlights the biker and bomber jackets. 

This fall, Columbia students have thrown their concerns for animal rights to the wind and have embraced the leather bomber/biker jacket. And really how better to fend off the blustery October winds than with a sharply fitted leather jacket?

Both Bwog and our friends over at the decidedly more sartorially-inclined blog  I am Fashion agree: As the October chill settles, eager bomber babes and studs alike have broken out their leather jackets in all styles and shades.  Take a look at what caught Bwog’s eye this week:

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Welcome to the Columbia Olympics. Through this series, Bwog hopes to prepare you for at least some of the events that you will participate in at Columbia. Unlike the real Olympics, no one’s too young, too old, too juiced, or too angry to participate. Since everything must be judged, though, we have included gold medal outcomes at the end of each post.

Thanks to the constantly long lines on move-in day, and the rather packed schedule at the start of Orientation Week, many first-years (Columbia-speak for freshmen) no doubt are still contemplating just how to make that special 110 ft. single or half of the 215 sq ft. double their own. How does one turn that whitewashed cell into a new home? Use the comments to add your own advice.

• Decide immediately whether you want to loft your bed or put it on risers. Even if you don’t want the extra space (or can’t leap in and out of a lofted bed), you don’t want to have to rearrange everything later.
• Use every corner and every tabletop of space for bins, refrigerators, etc.
  
• Know how to loft a bed – nobody wants to start their college experience with their father in the hospital with a gash from a falling bed frame.
• If you didn’t loot your local Virgin megastore for cool posters (or are ambivalent about defining your identity so early in the year), a New York subway map looks good on any prison wall (and is actually pretty useful when first adjusting to the city).
  
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