Coulture Magazine ‘cuts the fluff’ in latest issue

The UNC student-led Coulture Magazine is hitting the stands Dec. 10 with the new fall/winter 2018 issue. However, those familiar with past editions might be surprised by what they find. 

Coulture magazine is a fashion and lifestyle magazine whose mission is to make fashion inclusive and diverse by not conforming to society’s unrealistic beauty standards. The publication has used this mission to frame each of its six previous issues to create an open-minded and multi-cultural approach to high fashion styles. 

However, Coulture is pushing this mission even further in this upcoming fall/winter 2018 issue with a complete re-branding and new website launch. 

Anna Bradsher, co-graphic design editor of Coulture, said that the new look is more in-keeping with their mission and will give this magazine a more professional, sophisticated edge. 

“We wanted to give Coulture a new look because we felt like the previous identity was not as strong as it could be and did not fit in with our mission statement as well,” Bradsher said. “We think this new look is a lot more inclusive and bold and can fit with a different range of perspectives.”

Along with the new branding, the new issue of Coulture will also feature a meaningful and relevant theme. 

Patrick Rosemond, co-editor-in-chief, said the theme this year is all about borders and redefining or overcoming borders that people experience. 

Rosemond said the theme was inspired by the controversy at the Mexican-American border this past summer and that Coulture wanted to use this heavily publicized issue to tell students’ stories about breaking out of set and restrictive borders. 

“I wanted the theme to be something that would speak to someone that was also feeling trapped,” Cassandra Cassidy, co-editor-in-chief, said. “I wanted us to talk about the things we aren’t supposed to talk about as a fashion magazine.” 

This new issue will still include a 90-page spread of student-organized photo shoots and articles with inclusivity and internationality as the primary inspiration, but Coulture has decided to "cut the fluff" when it came to this edition’s design. 

“Cut the fluff kind of means let's elevate our design to the next level and lets remove what’s not needed to get more focused on the things that we do want to focus on,” Carter Frye, co-graphic design editor, said. “From a design standpoint that’s taking away all the elements that distract the viewer from the most important things.” 

Rosemond and Frye emphasized how collaborative the creative process was for making the print magazine this year, and that anyone interested in writing, designing, modeling, styling or editing for a magazine should reach out to work on next semester’s issue. They said they were proud of the new rebrand. 

“The joke is that every issue is the best one yet, but it’s true, and the rebrand proves that we’re only in the beginning stages of Coulture’s evolution,” Cassidy said. 

arts@dailytarheel.com