New student fashion magazine gives a ‘Hoot’ about NYC style

While most freshmen arrive doe-eyed at their first home-away-from-home and are slow to transition to independence, Noel Duan, CC ’13 and a style beat chief for Spectator, hit the ground running.
With credentials like Seventeen’s “Best Dressed Girl of 2008,” an internship in Seventeen’s fashion department, and a blog, MissCouturable.com, under her belt, Duan, with cofounder Jina Lim, CC ’13, felt prepared and excited to start Columbia University’s first fashion magazine, Hoot Magazine.

Hoot is currently updated online with posts about style, people in the fashion industry, and upcoming events.

Duan cofounded Hoot with Lim one fall day in Morningside Heights. “I was taking a walk with Jina along Broadway and suddenly realized that Columbia, in spite of its stylish students and the fact that it’s in New York City, didn’t have a fashion magazine,” Duan said. “A lot of schools, like UC Berkeley and Penn, have campus fashion magazines, so we decided that it was time for Columbia to have one too.” At that moment the fashion, lifestyle, culture, and arts publication was born.

Every magazine needs a name. The inspiration behind Hoot comes from none other than the Alma Mater. As countless tour guides have recounted, the first Columbian male to find the owl is said to become valedictorian of his class and the first Columbian female to find the owl is supposed to wed him. The hidden owl now has a new claim to fame: It lends its voice to the title of Columbia’s first fashion print magazine. Another linguistic charm of the magazine’s name is the resemblance of “hoot” to “haute” as in “haute couture.”

While the Hoot blog has a variety of entries covering themes such as DIY, home décor, events, and behind-the-scenes at Hoot, so far only one entry exists under the topic “budget.” Hoot Magazine doesn’t make haute couture its focus, but many of its entries focus on profiling high-end items from websites like ChickDownTown and SaksFifthAvenue. These are pricey items that are well beyond the average college student’s budget.

Perhaps the first in-print issue, which is currently in the works, will be more student-accessible. The editors and writers aim to have the all-color issue out in April. Duan and Lim hope to get Manhattan socialite Tinsley Mortimer, CC ’98, to appear as cover girl with an exclusive photo shoot and interview. “It would be interesting to see how one of our most fashion-conscious former students reflects upon her experiences at the university,” Duan said.

Other ideas in the works include coverage of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a feature on North Korean brand Noko Jeans with an interview from the Swedish entrepreneurs behind the brand, a day in the life of a big-name designer, and a feature about the garment district. The editors won’t give it all away, though. Duan and Lin are keeping their “fantastic fashion spreads” under wraps.

Duan and Lim encourage members of the Columbia population, no matter what their interests are, to delve more deeply into fashion and its influence on the world. The team behind Hoot Magazine hopes to channel the collective energy of its style-inclined students and become one of the most loved student-run publications on campus—big aspirations for an organization that has yet to churn out its first issue.