September 1 2025

September 1, 2025 Newsletter 

Dearest Prattlers,

I hope your return to campus has been a good one. This being Sarina, Rickie, Jasmine, Ewa, and I’s last year here, I think we are all ready for the next big thing while also feeling a little emo about everything. This summer has felt particularly fascist and uninspiring for me and a lot of my friends. Let me know if you’ve felt the same. Yet, they always say a hot summer makes for a cold winter, which feels a little exciting. I think the heat brings out the worst in everyone, but the cold makes us all a little more real and human.

Our first issue, “The Vogue Edit,” was announced last week, if you missed it. In this issue, we are attempting to tackle a lot of pressure points of contemporary fashion while celebrating our fashion community at Pratt and in the city. One of my favorite people is a fashion major here at Pratt. Love you Ava. She has led me to believe that fashion is at the intersection of self-expression and how everyone wants us to express ourselves. Within this fascist summer a lot has happened in fashion news. Sydney Sweeney and her Jeff Bezos-loving, hole-soap having self starred in that one American Eagle ad. It already feels a bit tired typing it out, but there is such a necessary conversation to be had about how the blonde, blue-eyed symbol of good-ol’ American fascism that is Sydney Sweeney has shifted from an emblem of choice feminism to a MAGA barbie, and how this accentuates our culture’s greater shift from 2020 digital wokeness and the accountability archive to blatant cool-girl white supremacy. Kind of like how everybody is saying the R-word like an adlib. I think that the edgy LES “it girl” who loves Dasha from Red Scare is a more leftist manifestation of the MAGA barbie. And while we’re on this subject, it’s a bit funny how dissected women’s aesthetics have become when men have always just been… men. I guess we have a few alt-right indicators in men, such as: men who put “moderate” or “not political” on their Hinge profiles, men who LOVE theory but hate women, and of course, your average red-pilled, raw-meat eating, god-fearing alpha man. 

All that being said—we here at The Prattler are very interested to see what has stuck with you in recent times, well enough to suggest an article or art piece to represent it. Sarina and I have a lot of cultural phenomena we want to hear about, including business casual in the club, Sydney Sweeney and KATSEYE’s respective denim commercials, Vogue using AI models, etc. 

This issue is meant to be a playful exploration of the societal implication of fashion, fashion influencing, and fashion marketing. And me being me, let me add: how fascism and MAGA play into it all. It feels impossible to exist in any creative space without the looming threat of the alt-right.

We are in the early stages of production for this current issue, and I will report back in later weeks with more exciting updates as they come. What I can say is that our cover, designed by our very own Chassidy Stephenson, is looking beautiful in its early stages. We are looking forward to including everything you have to give to us in this upcoming issue. We are also especially looking for fashion hot takes and any/all advertisements to be put in new areas of the magazine. Please email me (eferrero@pratt.edu) if you have any questions, leads, or hopes and dreams to share. I am always on my email…

Attached HERE is the Pitch Log, where you may submit pitches for pieces, your hot takes, and even songs to add to this edition’s playlist.

Have a good second week, and stay informed!

Yours, etc.

Ella Ferrero

Managing Editor

The Prattler