POLISHED's 10th Anniversary
By Victoria Bozek & Megan Carlson
Spring 2010 marks the tenth anniversary of Lasell College’s student-produced, Boston-based fashion, art, and culture magazine: POLISHED. Who could have predicted that a student-run magazine would make it to where the publication is today? POLISHED, which began as sixteen black-and-white pages and has graduated to thirty-two pages and counting, now glows with high-gloss color and overflows with writing and visual skills. Thanks to the dedication of those who have worked on the magazine, it continues to flourish with every issue.
POLISHED Magazine was founded in 1999 by fashion professor Richard Bath, along with famous fashion photographer Ellie Honein. As the story goes, it began as a “harebrained” idea while Bath was idle in traffic one day on Route 128. He wanted the students to be in control of all aspects of the publication, from the writing to the editing, photography, and graphics, with the key focus to be on the students and their work, not the faculty. Honein, a long-time friend and fashion industry collaborator, was enthused with the idea and helped develop POLISHED Magazine.
“It doesn’t get any better than Ellie Honein,” Bath says of his friend. Honein came up with the magazine’s title. “The name POLISHED suited exactly what Lasell was aiming to do, which included touching upon areas such as fashion, culture, and society,” explains Bath. In the early years of the magazine, Honein provided photography and creative graphics for the magazine.
POLISHED Staff 2006
The production of the magazine was Bath’s next challenge. “Do I have the students in my department to make this bad boy run?” he asked himself, and the answer was a resounding yes. Student enthusiasm for POLISHED was strong from the beginning. Another challenge was funding. The budget was small until an alumna from 1948, Harriet Wedeman, made a gracious donation. A grant from Honey, as she is best known, took POLISHED from a struggle to a success. She was pleased to make a “donation to keep the magazine moving.” She described Richard Bath as “an instrument” and knew that anything with his passion behind it was bound for success. Wedeman donated a respectable amount of money to the publication, which has greatly contributed to the magazine’s longevity. “The students ran everything from the cover, stories, photo shoots, organization of models, fashion shows, graphics, layouts, and everything else,” recalls Professor Bath.
Ten years ago, the college did not have an organization to do the visual production for POLISHED. Professor Stephen Fischer, shortly after he was hired in the fall of 2002, spearheaded the Graphic Design League (GDL) as a way to get more students involved in “real-world” graphic design and build a collaborative community of designers. Today, the GDL is responsible for creating layouts, designing advertisement space, overseeing print and web production, and improving the cohesiveness of the publication. Professor Fischer is now the faculty advisor for POLISHED and the GDL. He works with the editorial board, the writers, and the designers to help students pull together this cohesive, professional publication. The president of the Graphic Design League, senior Neil Bacon, says, “I hope that POLISHED can continue to grow and become known as a great publication completely produced by college students. Recent changes and updates to the magazine and the POLISHED website (www.polishedfashion.com) have made the magazine accessible to more people and, I hope, will get the POLISHED message out to more readers.”
Every student, no matter his or her major at Lasell, has an opportunity to be a part of the POLISHED team. In the early years, POLISHED was primarily focused on fashion; over the past decade, however, categories such as culture and entertainment, arts and politics, and community and hot spots/nightlife have been added. The driving principle behind each of these segments is that the subject must relate to the metro Boston community. Adding sections devoted to topics outside of the Boston fashion industry generates interest from a wide variety of student reporters. Accordingly, POLISHED is more varied than a typical fashion magazine and reaches a larger target readership.
The magazine’s first editor-in-chief was alumna Michelle Stratton. Stratton joined the magazine in 2000 as a sophomore and was editor-in-chief for the next three years. She volunteered for the position, having had no previous experience. Stratton always had a passion for fashion and graduated with a diploma in Fashion and Retail Merchandising. Working at POLISHED over the course of three years, she expanded her interests; English was always her strongest subject, and she enjoyed her role as editor-in-chief. Since graduating from Lasell, Stratton has continued to pursue this passion, successfully working at several publishing companies throughout the Boston area. Without POLISHED, she says, she would never have had the opportunity to learn how much she loved editing and writing. Currently, Stratton tries to stay as involved in the magazine as possible, attending meetings when she can; she reminisces that “I always believed it would be great. I just wish I could’ve been there while it was growing.”
The magazine has allowed students to make real-world connections with professional photographers, designers, artists, editors, art directors, musicians, writers, marketers, business managers, and more. Lasell College students have had the opportunity to meet and profile distinguished professionals, including the late historian Howard Zinn and David Wolfe, an international trend forecaster. The magazine has also featured the College’s own, including Ashley Chesney, who won the New Look Lord & Taylor Model Competition, and other accomplished students and faculty, past and present.
POLISHED has also had the opportunity to sponsor a variety of events, which has allowed the magazine to gain exposure. The magazine has cosponsored events with the Fashion Department during Boston Fashion Week 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. It has also cosponsored the second 617 TV Live Annual Hip Hop Music Awards in 2007. One of the magazine’s biggest sponsored events takes place right at home at Lasell College’s Annual Fashion Show, held every spring.
In 2007, Bath proposed to creative director Christian DiPietro and managing editor Mercedes Garcia-Bancroft, “We’re going to enter POLISHED into the Columbia Scholastic Press Competition. I want you to do all the legwork.” It was months before they had a response, but it was worth the wait because they received a package saying they had earned 940 points out of a possible 1000. “Which was good enough to get a gold medal and get in the top 4 percent of college magazines in the world!” Bath states. “The gold medal was the frosting on the cake!” Stating he knew that in its early days, the team was not ready to be entered, “I wanted to create a fixed horse race,” says Bath. “I wanted to wait until we were ready to enter.”
With a new editor-in-chief, the magazine has experienced change, but in a good way! Professor Mary Ruppert-Stroescu has held the post of editor-in-chief for four issues since becoming Chair of the Fashion Department at Lasell. Ruppert-Stroescu’s approach to the magazine is to guide students and provide structure and direction. She is proud of a new marketing team that has made great strides, and she looks forward to more growth. She describes being “overwhelmed by the dedication people have to the magazine. I love the collaboration between the graphic design team and the writers.” Professor Ruppert-Stroescu sees the magazine evolving every year, “exploring what makes Boston a fashion, art, and cultural hub while meshing the really beautiful physical POLISHED with social media, reviving the website, and creating a blog.”
POLISHED Staff 2010
Currently, Erica Valente and Christian DiPietro are the managing and creative editors for POLISHED Magazine and work alongside the head of the GDL, Neil Bacon, to make the final decisions about everything that goes into every issue. All three seniors have been engaged with POLISHED since freshman year, and their involvement has given them insight into the challenges and rewards of publishing. When asked where the magazine is going from here, Erica says, “We have branched into the web aspect of publishing, and I feel we will continue to do so by launching a blog in the near future. The blog will allow us to have a constant outlet of updating articles, videos, and photos. I also feel the magazine has become more fashion forward and Boston oriented in the past couple of years.”
In this technology-focused society, it seems a natural move to make POLISHED available online, for access 24/7 with news and ongoing updates. “I had NO doubts in my mind that POLISHED would make a decade; with Professor Bath's incredible dedication, love, and support of this publication’s students, it is no wonder it has lasted this long. Professors Fischer and Ruppert-Stroescu have continued that support. Because of that, I see this lasting another ten years – more, even!” adds Christian DiPietro.
Success with POLISHED, combined with relevant industry trends and student interest, prompted Lasell to launch an extremely popular new major, Fashion Communication and Promotion. The curriculum grew from collaboration between the Fashion and Communication Departments and provides a solid foundation in both areas, enabling students to focus on the industry segment of their choice and, of course, work closely with POLISHED Magazine!
Only time will tell what will come of this uniquely Boston-focused fashion, art, and culture publication, but with the continuing dedication of students and faculty and the prestigious name that POLISHED has made for itself, there is no doubt that it will only continue to prosper. Congratulations to everyone involved in POLISHED, past and present: Know that all of your hard work is continuing to pay off every time a new issue reaches a new reader. Happy Tenth Anniversary, POLISHED!
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