Cue Makeover Montage: A New Look For WORN

By: Haley Mlotek

Today is a big day for WORN—a brand new website and the launch of our Indiegogo campaign. Our new website is a storefront with one primary purpose: to give our readers better access to current and back issues of WORN. We wanted to make the process simpler, easier, and better for our online customers, and with the help of the wildly talented team at Lateral Strategists, we think we’ve done just that.

Our blog can be found at www.wornjournal.com/blog and will continue to feature the same amazing content our readers know and love, but with a few extra perks—the opportunity to share the posts you like on Facebook and Twitter, suggestions for related blog posts, and a clean, streamlined appearance for easier reading.

The Indiegogo campaign launched this morning and will fund another beautification process: we want to redesign our print edition, and we’re asking our beloved readers for help. WORN is currently a publication that is, quite literally, held together by staples. We want the appearance of WORN to reflect the content. As our mandate states, our content must always be timeless, relevant, and useful to our readers—now, we want the outside of WORN to be as durable as the information found inside.

WORN began as a hobby, an experiment, a project amongst friends. When Serah-Marie started WORN, she knew that she was creating something that was missing from the magazine industry, but we could never have predicted just how much people wanted something like WORN. We are consistently humbled by the support we get from readers and contributors all over the world. Now we feel like it’s time to put our well-heeled feet down and say that we know we’ve made a product our readers will keep on their shelves forever.

The Indiegogo campaign allows donors to contribute whatever amount they want (no amount is too small!), but essentially, you’ll be able to pre-order Issue 15 of WORN. This injection of funds will allow us to cover the costs of printing and shipping the issues upfront. There are lots of other great perks on top of Issue 15—handmade friendship bracelets, monthly Wornette pen pals, and even a puppet made to look like you by Sara Guindon, just to name a few. You can read all about the campaign on our Indiegogo page here.

There are a lot of changes happening at WORN, but in a way, we don’t feel like we’re changing much at all—if anything, we’re just getting closer to what our dream version of WORN looks like. We can’t wait to hear what you think! Please direct any and all of your questions, comments, or suggestions to dearworn@wornjournal.com

Book Review: Dictionary of Fashion History

By: Haley Mlotek

The most exciting part of all WORN staff meetings is when it’s time to assign the book reviews. Everyone sits up a little straighter, eyes the most coveted titles, sizes up their competition; it’s an office full of fashion nerds and the promise of a thick, educational book on an obscure area of fashion is tempting to all of us. Yet every so often it happens that a book will be held up and no one will jump to claim it. “Anyone?” our editor-in-pants will prod. Sometimes she’ll flip through it. “It looks really good, you guys,” she’ll say, and everyone will look around the room to see if anyone dares accept the challenge. I never turn down a challenge and so at the last meeting, I took the plunge. “Okay,” I said, “I’ll give it a try.”

As soon as I put The Dictionary of Fashion History in my bag I was positive I had made a mistake: I mean, a dictionary? My assignment was to write six hundred words on a literal dictionary. Just a collection of pages with words in alphabetical order and dry descriptions of each. There are barely any pictures, the five year old in me whined. I flipped through it once, twice, hoping to be hit with some sort of inspiration but nothing came except a particularly stubborn bout of procrastination.
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Be A Fashion POPette

By: Haley Mlotek

Attention emerging designers! Fashion POP is once again searching for up-and-coming Montreal talent to participate in their sixth annual competition. Each designer will present a 6-look collection to a panel of industry judges for the chance to win a $1000 cash prize courtesy of Le Chateau, a spread in WORN Fashion Journal, and a pop-up showcase at Espace POP. Previous winners include Dane Richards, Norwegian Wood and Isabelle Campeau. For more information, visit their website.

E-mail a short bio, a description of your collection, and a minimum of 3 photos of your work to: fashion@popmontreal.com before August 19th at midnight.

The BUST Magazine Craftacular Wants You!

By: Haley Mlotek

Are you a crafty genius looking to show off your crafts-pertise? Bring your wares to the BUST Magazine Craftacular at World Maker Faire New York. Applications are due August 15, 2012 (but you might be able to sneak in a late application if you send it before the weekend—not that you heard it from me).

This is BUST Magazine‘s third year as part of the World Maker Faire, a huge two-day event celebrating science, art, craft, engineering, and music in a unique outdoor forum. Over 40,000 people will explore the world’s largest DIY festival; you might even bump into a few Wornettes.

Apply here!