Magazine Wars 1: It Can Look Good And Be Grimy

by Lily Nobel

I picked up Charm, the first issue by Grimy, Oberlin’s premiere fashion, arts, and culture magazine, the day it came out. I left it at the table I was sitting at in Mudd for like three seconds and when I came back, it was gone. I can’t blame whoever took it; the cover was the greatest thing I’d ever seen on an Oberlin publication. Now, Grimy’s co-founders/co-presidents Grace Connell, Rafaella Thakur Greene, and Zala Mendelson are back at work (with triple staff) on issue two, “Sly”. We sat down to talk about gloss and grime.

Lily Nobel: You’ve said before that Grimy tries to visually capture a very specific Oberlin vibe in fashion and arts. How would you describe the scene you’re trying to capture? 

Grace Connell: When we first started talking about this as a concept and we were first trying to pin down what Oberlin’s style was, we were like, grimy. If we were to encapsulate in one word. Like a little bit… 

Rafaella Thakur Greene: I came up with Grimy because I feel like Oberlin students have a reputation for being dirty. If I’m being honest, in my freshman year I overheard someone saying I was disgusting. They called me disgusting. And I was like, let me reclaim that on behalf of all Oberlin students. We have this reputation for being dirty and leaning into this disheveled look, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. So we made it the title. 

LN: I feel like there’s some tension between the idea of something grimy or dirty and a fashion magazine. Like I always think of the guy on Insta who does the pictures of people in NYC with absurdly amazing outfits — like, it’s got a bit of quirk and soul to it, but it also looks, you know, great, clean, shiny, and well-designed. So how do you get the grime in a fashion mag context?

GC: There’s a stereotype of [fashion publications] being very clean cut and I think that was part of the point of making this publication. A lot of colleges already have publications like that, Oberlin just didn’t have one yet, and we wanted to tailor it to be its own thing, fit in all of these boxes. It encapsulates the grime moment, but it also looks good.

RTG: If you read the first page [of “Charm”] we talk about what it means to be Grimy. It’s really up to interpretation — it’s about feeling beautiful in your surroundings, even if that’s something other people would find disgusting. So putting that in something people would find beautifully lain out in fifty pages… We tried to keep some sense of cohesion, some sense of our theme, but it’s not exactly the same, because everyone here is so different. Not everyone dresses the same, everyone values things so differently. 

LN: There’s a thing people talk about on campus with like, ‘this is too New York’, ‘that’s so New York.’ When I think about a quirky fashion magazine, I worry, is that too New York? Is your publication New York? Maybe in a positive way?

RTG: We poked fun at that last year with the New York versus L.A. [spread in “Charm”]. We’re trying to push away from that, because there’s so many people — I can’t think of anyone other  than myself who was from New York on our staff last year. And this year, we don’t know where most people on our staff are from. Because being from a big city is not a qualification you need to join our magazine and have a perspective. We were aware of that last year, thinking about how it’s funny. 

ZM: With each theme, we’re hoping to evolve what type of content we’re doing. We don’t just want it to look at Oberlin students in their clothes, we want to continue to change our perspective and aesthetic. 

GC: I think our first edition really encapsulated Oberlin, and if New York was the vibe that was definitely not the intention. I don’t think you can pin down what [New York] means, it’s very subjective. 

Sounds legit. What are the ideas for the next issue??

RTG: Zala and I just chose our theme. We decided since last time we did something so kitschy and colorful, so bold, that this time we wanted more of an editorial, laid-back-ness vibe. So our theme is…. sly. We’re keeping the ‘do-what-you-will’ with different vibes and interpretations of that word. But black and white, pops of color, focusing a little bit more on technique. Maybe a devious air… 

ZM: Since this is our first fall/winter issue, we wanted to bring in that very sad or dramatic side of winter, of dressing up for the very cold Januarys in Ohio. I think “Sly” is going to be a good way to bring in some dramatic looks and highlight with a more black and white effect some interesting textures and really fun camera movement. That’s the angle we were hoping to do with “Sly”, which is really going to juxtapose nicely with “Charm”.

Okay one more question. If you guys could have a Grimy photoshoot at any one location on the Oberlin campus, regardless of how safe or feasible it is, where would you do it?

RTG: I would do the greenhouse in the Science Center. 

ZM: I would do in-between the layers of Mudd, or the outside area on the Mudd fourth floor. I’d want someone laying on that bubble thing. 

GC: Maybe, like, in the kitchen of Stevie. Or the planetarium. 

RTG: I like the kitchen of Stevie. Maybe we could ask. That’s kind of “Sly”.

You can follow Grimy on Instagram @grimymag. Watch for announcements about their Wednesday meetings and DM them if you want to join the staff.