Photo by Ryan Little, Print Photo Editor of SHEI
SHEI Magazine is a student-run fashion, arts, and culture publication at the University of Michigan. Their magazine offers audiences visually compelling artwork along with thoughtful commentary in each of their projects. With a business team and an editorial team, SHEI has over 150 members that contribute to their monthly digital issues and semesterly print issues.
MUSIC Matters had the opportunity to chat with Editor in Chief, Natalie Guisinger, and Digital Features Editor, Melina Schaefer, about their personal experiences in the organization, where they find inspiration for their shoots and features, specific artists that influence their projects, and more.
SHEI as a Music Genre
Through our conversation with key SHEI members, we were able to learn about the clear correlation between SHEI’s style and members’ personal tastes in music. As a virtual bonding activity earlier this year, Guisinger requested that every SHEI editor send her their favorite song--without telling them what the song would be used for. The editor in chief compiled a playlist from the responses and revealed to us the common themes represented in the music.
“We’ll sometimes listen to it in car rides when we’re all together for print shoots,” Guisinger said, “A lot of it does happen to be pop and indie...If the artists were on our campus, SHEI would definitely cover them. They would match and align with SHEI’s values.”
Schaefer agreed that the indie-pop genre was a good representation of the publication, “It’s very introspective and artistic.” She added that a common theme between the artists SHEI listens to and their own work is the focus on current issues, “A lot of the print shoots we do are based on a theme that’s very timely.”
In contrast, the playlist of favorites also features songs released years before members were born. The Cure and Fleetwood Mac are bands Guisinger lists as being a couple of many classic artists on the playlist. “Sometimes people refer back to different generations that we didn’t even exist in. I think that’s kind of fascinating because a lot of times for inspiration we do look back on the past,” Guisinger explained.
Inspiration from Artists
As a fashion and arts publication, SHEI often draws inspiration from music artists and their styles. The two cited Joji’s laid back fashion, Phoebe Bridgers’ whimsical cottage-core vibe, and Ezra Koenig’s 90s aesthetic as having influenced not only their work in SHEI but also their personal style choices.
In addition to artists’ clothing, SHEI often produces content inspired by specific albums and songs. In their most recent digital edition, writer Hannah Triester wrote a creative piece about the feelings invoked by the song “Ribs” by Lorde.
In another recent issue, Lucy Carpenter wrote a piece about local artist and fellow University of Michigan student, Evan Starr. “We do a lot of things to uplift artists that maybe you might not have heard of,” Schaefer said about their features.
We also discussed artists’ ability to translate their sound into album covers as being a source of inspiration for SHEI, specifically in digital art and photography. Schaefer talked about Dua Lipa’s album, Future Nostalgia, mentioning that “the vibe is so cohesive across the music and the album art.” Guisinger agreed that the way albums combine sound with art has been influential for SHEI “I think that album art can be very telling about an artist’s identity.”
Looking Forward
SHEI plans to continue intertwining pop culture into both the publication and their personal lives, and a key inspiration in doing so are artists in the music industry they hope to emulate.
After seeing Harry Styles’ recent Vogue cover depicting the male star in a dress (and the backlash he received from it), Schaefer explained that she too would love to branch out from assigned gender norms in SHEI.“Exploring what it is about the music world that empowers some men to explore gender-bending concepts is definitely something that I would love to see explored through writing in SHEI,” the digital features editor said. She listed men wearing makeup and experimenting more with patterns and colors as ways for the magazine to incorporate this nontraditional concept.
Guisinger mentioned a few personal goals she hopes to explore. Unsure of her plans after graduating, she drew inspiration from the Grateful Dead for a business idea of screenprinting her designs on second-hand clothing. Guisinger credited the popular 60s band with the rise of ‘bootleg merch,’ “with their tie-dye t-shirts and bears...you can be very scrappy and DIY with it. I think that’s very relevant now because there’s this huge interest in having sustainable clothing.”
The editor in chief also mentioned Blu DeTiger, a bassist from New York City, as someone whose style she hopes to incorporate into her own. “It’s kind of spunky, creative, and experimenting with different ways of representing yourself. Even just with hair and makeup...it’s kind of fun that during [the pandemic] you have the opportunity to experiment with self-expression.”
Click here to watch our video collaboration with SHEI and hear more members discuss the intersection of music and fashion!