The Rage founders talk fashion magazine, highlighting personal styles
Modern clothing styles and fashion trends are not the kinds of stories you’d find in Chapman’s The Rage Magazine. What’s more interesting to the team’s creatives are students’ personal styles and elements of entertainment fashion that pique their interests — like the glamor of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” the 1970s aesthetic of “Daisy Jones & The Six” and the band TemperMental.
“I want people to feel inspired to experiment with their personal style,” said Sophie Wehrlie, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Rage. “I want them to know that there isn’t something cool to wear, and there isn’t something that’s lame to wear. You can literally wear whatever you want. It’s not that deep. It’s just fabric.”
The Panther sat down with some of the magazine’s members to discuss their goals and what they hope to offer the Chapman community.
As a junior screenwriting major, Wehrlie’s desire to create the magazine — one she co-founded with junior theater major Kylie Pickering in 2023 — stemmed from a passion for journalism, fashion and music.
“I knew that I had an interest in journalism, specifically music and fashion, and I looked around campus for something that would kind of help me explore that interest and figure out if it was something I wanted to pursue professionally,” Wehrlie told The Panther. “There wasn’t anything on campus that was exactly for fashion…there are magazines that foster journalistic pursuits, but I felt like there wasn’t anything specific enough for what I wanted to do, so I made it myself.”
According to Wehrlie, The Rage is open to all fashion interests. Rather than focus on trends, the magazine works to highlight self-expression.
“We definitely want people to see us and think that their style, and whatever makes them feel good, is something that we care about. I don’t want people to look at us and be like, ‘Oh, they’re not gonna be interested in what I want to say’ or ‘They’re not gonna like what I wear’ or ‘They’re gonna judge me for this.’ Absolutely not. It’s not about that at all. It’s highlighting people’s styles, how they express themselves and what makes them feel like themselves.”
The Amazon Original miniseries “Daisy Jones & The Six” served as a major inspiration for one of The Rage’s photoshoots. Photo courtesy of Gretchen Albers
Pickering, who serves as the vice president and lead creative director, also feels that the magazine offers a space for all styles to be showcased.
“Fashion is a huge way of expressing yourself, and there are lots of people on campus who have different styles. It’s a space to express why they like dressing the way that they do, or to take leaps and possibly dress a way for a shoot that they wouldn’t normally,” Pickering said.
Junior psychology major Kaylee Scott, who has worked as a photographer for the magazine, spoke on how The Rage’s focus differentiates from other fashion magazines.
“It’s a great magazine that is highlighting fashion but in a different way than a normal fashion magazine,” Scott told The Panther. “I feel like other fashion magazines kind of focus on everyday fashion, and this is really diving into different aspects of fashion.”
After an idea for a piece is pitched, Wehrlie and Pickering will greenlight it and begin pre-production, which usually involves creating Pinterest mood boards and organizing crew members and locations for a shoot. Afterward, articles are sometimes written and paired with a shoot.
With the release of “Priscilla,” Wehrlie and Pickering wanted to create a piece highlighting both that time period’s sense of style and Priscilla’s story. To do so, the two created a storyboard of Presley’s relationship, culminating in a photo shoot with stand-ins portraying Elvis and Priscilla.
“It was really cool because we were playing (Elvis’) music the whole time, and the second you stepped into the wardrobe room, it really felt like you were almost in that room with them,” Wehrlie said. “It was definitely a way that we were able to highlight a woman’s story but also appreciate the fashion.”
Another one of The Rage’s shoots was inspired by the Amazon Original miniseries “Daisy Jones & The Six,” which took place in a woodland environment, with the shoot’s models wearing thrifted clothing. The shoot was designed both to highlight the fashion and characters of the series and to convey the story behind the fashion.
Pickering’s favorite shoot was one based on mixed metal for the winter 2023 issue; one of Wehrlie’s favorites was a shoot with the band TemperMental, after which she got to interview the band.
To Scott, The Rage’s outreach to and incorporation of students of multiple different disciplines is important.
““I really appreciate how Rage is reaching out to a bunch of different groups of people, not from one specific major. I appreciate that they’re trying to really broaden not only their audience but the people that they work with, and I think that’s a really important thing when working in the arts industry, and especially on a magazine like that.” ”
Students interested in finding or joining the magazine can go to the magazine’s linktr.ee and Instagram page. Printed issues of The Rage are planned to be released during the first week of April.