Auburn apparel merchandising and design students are bringing mod fashion to the forefront of campus culture with the release of their spring issue of SWATCH — the Apparel Merchandising and Design Association's fashion and lifestyle magazine.
The “Transcendent Issue” is set to release on April 13 following the annual Fashion Event on April 11. All content for the magazine is solely curated from start-to-finish by a team of students from AMDA.
Caitlin Finger, a senior in apparel design and editor-in-chief of SWATCH, found inspiration for the latest issue’s theme of transformation by looking back to the 1960s cultural revolution.
“We pulled a lot of inspiration from the '60s mod era," Finger said. “There was just a lot of pushing boundaries, transformations, going outside your comfort zone [and] not being afraid to do so. In the '60s, we saw all those bright colors and everything emerging from previous decades. So, we wanted to pull all of that out again and express that changing of perspective.”
Finger believes SWATCH's research on the self-expression of the 1960s offers a message of creative liberation for today's Auburn students.
“As a college student, it can be kind of daunting at times to have to fit in and do all these things,” Finger said. “Now is our time to sort of play around with self expression and it's a pivotal time of exploring who we are. The mod era was all about being different and expressing yourself — that's what fashion is all about. It's being able to show others who you are and not being afraid to do that.”
Beyond sifting through submissions, directing photo shoots and finalizing mood boards, Finger emphasized the vital role of Auburn businesses in SWATCH's development. To help fund the magazine, the SWATCH team and local businesses work together to design advertisements.
Although SWATCH is driven by fashion, the magazine’s cultural commentary extends to other topics that are relevant to students, including beauty, career, lifestyle, internships and alumni stories.
Students submitted work according to the current issue’s tagline of “Echoing the past, embracing the future and escaping the present.” The submitted pieces are narrowed down and selected in an intensive curation process that Finger has been overseeing since October 2024.
“Getting to read all of the editors' articles and just getting to see that we touch all those different areas […] reading everybody's perspective on what's happening now or what happened in the past is definitely a really cool experience,” Finger said.
Previous issues have featured student-designed clothing collections, creative strategies and opinion articles all centered around different stylistic eras and trends. Finger believes that SWATCH’s open submissions allow for current students to gain real-world experience while bringing AMDA together.
“SWATCH is really just a place for us to express the apparel department,” Finger said. “It began in 2020 during the pandemic as a way to bring everyone together and be able to display student work in a different format. That's kind of our mission.”
As editor-in-chief and an emerging designer in her own right, Finger has found herself leading by example and embracing the newest issue’s theme.
"I'm an apparel design student, and through all of my designs, I just want to show who I am and show others that it's okay to be yourself [...] to help people feel comfortable in their own skin and step outside those boundaries or the norms and not be afraid," Finger said.
Information regarding the latest edition of SWATCH can be found on their website or social media page.
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Camille "Millie" Ligon, junior in journalism, is a culture writer for The Auburn Plainsman.
