Brainstorming List

Quick Story Ideas: 

1. Religiously inspired fashion choices–How does faith influence what we wear? This idea arose from controversy over the burkini ban in France, but could be expanded to include clothing choices made by Jews, Hindus, and Christians alike.
2. Fall football fashion. How does what football fans wear to games make a statement beyond what team they support? What trends are most noticeable? Are name-brand items especially in prominence? What do these observations reveal about football culture?
3. Community Fashion School showcase in December
4. Plus-size fashion show in October (Rachel Barnes). Highly relevant in terms of rhetoric about female body positivity circulating on social and news media. Relate to Amy Schumer, Tess Holliday
5. Lickskillet artist’s market. Use as an example of how independent artists attempt to market themselves and their brands.
6. Tattoo art. What is art? How are society’s thoughts/reactions to tattoos different from how we react to other forms of art? How do we characterize the tattoo scene in Athens? What rivalries/comraderies exist between different tattoo shops in Athens? Is there a “type” of person that gets tattoos?
7. Ekkos Apparel–Ekkos Apparel was founded by Athenian Rachel Ehlinger to raise money for secondary education in Africa. How does Ekkos operate? How much have they been able to donate thus far?
8. Craig Page and Sweet Beijos Treats–local bakery founded by former PLACE executive Craig Page and his Brazilian partner. Perhaps relate to other local bakeries.
9. How has the rise of the film industry in Atlanta affected the fashion industry? (Based on group discussion. As the growing film industry in Atlanta attracts celebrities to the area, will designer brands follow?)
10. Frugal Fashionable Farmer–ties between fashion and sustainability at a local vintage-inspired artist’s farm
11. Southern Bon Vivant–the rise of a Southern online fashion and lifestyle magazine. What makes Southern fashion different?
12. Photographing Athens fashion. I’m less sure about this one, but I do think it would be interesting to photograph and write about styles observed downtown, perhaps during a specific event, but probably just on an average day. Athenians demonstrate such creativity in fashion, but I’m still not sure exactly how I’d flesh out the writing for this piece.
13. Trends, Athens-style. I am learning from my reading that velvet and bomber jackets, for example, are expected to be big trends this fall. How do we see these trends reflected on campus and downtown?
14. Many new boutiques open in the downtown area every year, but many close after a few years. Is Athens actually a good place to own a boutique?
15. My Athens Style (and associated hashtag). How do people connect over fashion in Athens.
16. What makes an Instagram star? Investigate fashion and lifestyle-inspired Insagram accounts and see what they have in common.
17. Interview Athens-native designer Lucy Blue. How did a small-town designer get started?
18. Interview a costume designer involved with UGA’s upcoming production of Jane Eyre?
19. Dead malls–the Athens GA Square Mall is filled with more and more empty storefronts. Explore changes in shopping habits that are contributing to this phenomenon nationwide.
20. This may be veering off-beat here, but I often find myself thinking about all the new student housing developments in the downtown area. How many people are actually living there? How full is any one of these buildings? How have student expectations about college living quarters changed over the years?

Expanded Story Ideas:

Athens Boutique Openings/Closings: I just had this idea the other day, so it is not exactly well-fleshed out. But each year, I see some new boutiques open and others close. And every time I see this happen, I wonder if Athens is a good place to own a boutique (because stores keep opening), or actually a terrible place (because stores keep closing). What are the more long-lived boutiques doing differently? What are challenges that Athens boutique owners face? There are abundant sources for this story–Heery’s, Dynamite and Cillies have been around for as long as I can remember and still seem to be doing fine (at least on the surface). Community is relatively newer on the scene, but has been highly successful (again, at least on the surface). Archived Athens Banner Herald/Flagpole stories on the openings/closings of stores would also be helpful here. Contacts: Sanni Baumgärtner, Dynamite, Heery’s

Costume Design: I am especially enamored with this idea at the moment, perhaps because I just thought of it and also because I particularly love Jane Eyre. But as I was fan-girling about the fact that UGA is doing a production of Jane Eyre this fall, it occurred to me to wonder how costumes and set design come together with a licensed script to create a production. I have grown up attending UGA theatre productions and have always been impressed with the quality of student performances and creativity behind the scenes (prop design, etc). I know from friends involved in the theatre department that students usually design costumes, props, etc., and I think it would be very interesting to learn about that process. How much liberty do costume designers have to make the designs their own? How do they get ideas? Who does the actual construction of the costumes? Contacts: Alexis Havrilla, former student prop designer for UGA Theatre; Dina Canup, dept. of theatre PR;   Joan Buttram, UGA Dance department head (if venturing into costumes for dance department)

Southern Bon Vivant and Southern Fashion: I have been in contact with Molly McWilliams Wilkins, the creative mind behind the Southern fashion and lifestyle magazine Southern Bon Vivant. I have also been investigating Eide Magazine, a southern-based fashion and lifestyle magazine that went national in Spring 2014. I think coverage of these publications could be incorporated into an interesting piece on Southern fashion in general. The South is not associated with high fashion in the way that New York or Paris are, but certainly there are still trends in the South that make our approach to fashion different. What are those trends and how are they being covered? Is this still an untapped niche in the market? Contacts: Molly McWilliams Wilkins

Dead Malls: The Athens-area GA Square Mall is filled with more and more empty storefronts. This is a national phenomenon–Time reported in May of this year that “about one-third of malls in the U.S. will shut their doors in the coming years.” I would be interested to research this phenomenon on a national level and relate it to what we are seeing locally (closings at GA Square Mall and Tanger Outlets, for example).

Tattoo Art: As a person with tattoos, scarcely a week goes by without someone asking me questions such as “did it hurt?” or “why did you get it?” or “what does it mean?” Tattoo culture is certainly prominent in Athens, and there are a few relatively new shops that are less well-known than iconic shops like Pain and Wonder or Walk the Line Tattoo. My ideas here are still broad and under-developed, but I think I could produce an interesting piece on tattoo culture in Athens, rivalries and camaraderies  between shops, etc., perhaps while incorporating some history on tattoo art. I have contacts at American Classic, Pain and Wonder, and Walk the Line alike who would speak well to this subject.

Photographing Athens Fashion:  I have something of an artistic attachment to this idea, but perhaps need to speak with Dr. Suggs about its appropriateness for this class. I would like to do something of a photo essay, perhaps in accompaniment to a write-up on local boutiques and fashion culture, celebrating the variety of styles that can be witnessed in the Athens GA downtown area on any given day. I would accompany each image with a brief blurb about the individual pictured and what fashion means to them. Is this too out there?