Hoot visits 17

Credit: Anna Cooperberg-Gonzalez (CC'12)

I remember cracking open my first issue of Seventeen when I was 13 years old. I was dazzled by the fun spreads and each month, looked forward to receiving my next issue in the mail. My friends and I would tear out our favorite pages, memorizing the outfits and attempting to recreate them with items from our own closets. Although we may have moved on to other fashion publications, Seventeen will always hold a soft spot in our hearts.

Earlier this semester, members of CU Couture and Hoot were invited to Seventeen's Fashion Department to give feedback on the sections pages at their Reader Round Table. The event was held at Seventeen's office in the Hearst Building, and the girls were joined by Real Girl Models and Reader Contributors from the tri-state area. Candy was served, and there were lots of fun giveaways, including beauty products for the girls to try out.

Betsy Mullinix, stylist and organizer of the event, asked the girls to give their input on the magazine's fashion pages and online content. Girls were asked to weigh in their opinions on both the design of the pages and the clothes themselves. The consensus? Girls want to see more real girl models wearing clothes outdoors or in interactive settings, as opposed to still shots of clothes shot in a studio. While Seventeen is famous for showing girls how to create fun, fashion-forward looks on a budget, the girls agreed that they were willing to splurge, if shown how to wear an item in multiple ways.

Overall, we had a great time at Seventeen, seeing the inner-workings of a fashion publication and meeting a lot of great people. Seeing the covers of previous issues on the wall, we couldn't help feeling a little like our 13-year-old selves, giddy with the excitement of opening each new issue.

Hoot Holds a Swap

Credit: Anna Cooperberg Gonzalez (CC '12)

Who doesn't love a clothing swap? Here at Hoot, we certainly embrace the practice, which is why we decided to partner with Green Umbrella to hold a Green Clothing Swap to help our fabulous peers find new clothing in an eco-friendly manner. The swap, which took place on Saturday, November 14th, marked the launch of this here blog; I must admit that is was what I can only refer to as a great success (Check out our Columbia Spectator coverage here).

Credit: Anna Cooperberg Gonzalez (CC '12)

Students (and a few professors!) brought in their gently used clothing and then had their pick of the garb that others had contributed. In short time, Lerner West Ramp Lounge was transformed into a little nook of what resembled a sample sale, what with students trying on items and checking themselves out in the mirror. However, we'd like to think we were much less stressful than any sample sale in the city- we offered cute snacks like M&M-covered pretzel squares, and fellow Columbia organization Feel Good was on hand to whip up yummy grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Credit: Anna Cooperberg Gonzalez (CC '12)

Of course, I won't fail to mention that we offered a bevy of super raffle prizes, among them La Falaise cruelty-free bath sets, a gift certificate to chickdowntown.com, and the style guide Closet Confidential by talented blogger Winona of DaddyLikey. Our winners and guests, who received La Falaise soaps as well, went home happy and certainly with a few new items of clothing to try out. All the unclaimed clothing we donated to the Broadway Presbyterian Church.

We do hope you can come to our next event; we're not letting any cats out of the bag yet, but we'll keep you posted on everything going on here at Hoot.

Alma's Lucky Day

Credit: Billy Hathorn

One of our first ideas for the blog was a photo shoot with Alma Mater, a bronze statue by Daniel Chester French that sits in front of Low Library. Indeed, Alma is well taken care of at Columbia, as she always remains in shining brilliance, rain or shine.

We, at Hoot, have the utmost respect for our mother goddess (also known as the mother soul of our lovely academic institution) -- and we wanted to treat her to a designer makeover for the image to be used as our blog header. After all, who wouldn't want to be draped in Hermès scarves and Prada bags?

Credit: Anna Cooperberg Gonzalez (CC '12)

So, on an early Saturday morning, we trekked over to our dear Alma with bags of our very best clothing and accessories, from Jimmy Choo bags to Christian Louboutin pumps to Missoni knits. One student thought we were selling the clothes, and tried to buy a pair of Betsey Johnson pumps!

Credit: Noel Duan (CC '13)

As we started carefully climbing Alma and draping her in stylish ornamentation, representatives of the Columbia University Department of Public Safety arrived, questioning our motives and telling us to stop defacing this revered statue.

We collected our items and left Low Steps shortly afterward.

Unfortunately, they didn't buy our argument that giving Alma a Chanel bag was far from statue defacement. What's chicer and more respectable than Chanel, after all?