A new fashionista in town

Vim, a new fashion and healthmagazine made its way to the Michigan State University campus this week. The magazinewill be published quarterly, with spotlights on seasonal fashion trends and designs.

“We’ve been working since lastFebruary and we started putting up flyers. We called ourselves the VogueProject, since we didn’t have a name then, and within a few days we had hundredsof students applying,” says Kerry Chereskin, editor-in-chief of Vim.

To promote the magazine, a launchparty will be held on Thursday, Oct. 21 from 9 p.m. to close at the Post Bar, 213 Ann St. in East Lansing. Advance copies of the first issue will be available, and guests can also havetheir photos taken in red carpet style.

Chereskin joined the publication with previous experience.

“I’m actually a transfer student at MichiganState. I worked at the University of Miami earlier at Up magazine. I wasthere when it started off and I was involved with the whole process of themagazine. I really wanted to bring that here since there is such a large fashionand design community at MSU and there’s no specific magazine that caters theirneeds.”

What does the Vim name mean?

“It’s actually Vim, like one ofthe words in the MSU fight song,” says Emily Drake, public relations director.

“Actually it was our creative director who came up with it," Chereskin said. "Itmeans enthusiasm and vitality, and we chose the word because we want the readersto have the same attitude and be excited about reading it.”

Although there have been othersimilar on-campus publications in the past like Spartini, Vim is different. Accordingto Chereskin, apart from fashion-related talk and health tips, “we also cover alot of interior design, features and culture — it’s all around it.”

Times are changing, people arechanging and so is fashion. So how will Vim keep up?

“I had an internship this pastsummer with Marie Claire," Chereskin said, "and our beauty director (at Vim) had an internship with Vogue.I mean, we learnt a lot, but we don’t use their ideas. Most of our ideas comefrom our staff and brainstorming.”

“We think about what studentslike, new things in stores here on campus and latest trends,” explains Drake.

Vim, which is a free publication, is trying to connect to community businesses.

“We’re definitely trying towork with Genealogy, this new boutique, (and) a lot of health clubs and fitnesscenters, so there is a variety,” Chereskin says. "There’s a lot of interest fromdifferent companies so there’s no specific company that we’re targeting.”

Readers also have the choice of surfing through the publication’s blog, or finding Vim on both Twitter and Facebook.