When Sarah Cassell (25Ox) arrived at Oxford College in August 2023, she saw something missing on campus.
She was suddenly surrounded by students who were preoccupied with STEM and pre-professional tracks like pre-medicine and pre-business. Remembering her high school experience working at the New York City-based fashion magazine Primadonna Zine, Cassell felt like a similar creative space needed to be brought to Oxford to highlight student artists.
So, Cassell took matters into her own hands. One semester later, she led the production and release of the first issue of Eternal Magazine — Oxford’s first student-run fashion magazine and Cassell’s brainchild.
“I loved working with all these different kinds of creative people, and that's why I wanted to bring it to Oxford,” said Cassell, who serves as Eternal’s editor-in-chief. “I wanted to start it literally from the second that I came here.”
Last month, Cassell and other undergraduates gathered in the Oxford Student Center to celebrate the release of the magazine’s second issue. That day, the building was adorned with soft blue and purple lighting and a huge red carpet-esque sheet of paper was spread across the floor for students to draw on. Other arts-focused organizations and students lined the walls, with some selling jewelry and others composing poetry on typewriters.
Eventgoers, including Stephanie Kola-Ogunbule (25Ox) found the event “inspiring” and “eye-opening.”
“Even though I am one of the least artistic people I know, I have to respect it,” Kola-Ogunbule said. “It's beautiful to see how they’ve come up and I'm excited to see what they are doing next semester.”
As a fashion magazine, Eternal intentionally incorporates several other artistic mediums into its issues, including, but not limited to, photography, filmmaking and writing. The second issue, titled “Introspection,” was a collaboration between over 100 creatives on campus.
“What I like about Eternal the most is that fashion is only one part of it,” Cassell said. “It also provides opportunities for discussion about things happening in the real world or things that you're passionate about.”
This collaboration, which defines much of the magazine’s work, also shapes the theme of each semester’s issue. The first issue, “BREAKOUT!,” reflected upon the experience of coming to a new environment and pursuing self-discovery. The second edition builds on the first, encouraging readers to reflect and see themselves as just one part of a larger picture.
Eternal members such as Executive Beauty Assistant Amelia Mevers (26Ox) felt drawn to the theme “Introspection” as a creative inspiration and a principle to incorporate into her everyday life. Mevers believes that introspection is a “lifelong task.”
“When people are asked to think about looking in, they feel like that means that they are flawed,” Mevers said.“I would say, ‘Yeah, we are all flawed,’ but that doesn't mean that you need to fundamentally change who you are. This issue really highlights that because it encourages you to engage with yourself in some really unique ways that are really exciting.”
Going forward, Cassell hopes to introduce Eternal to the Atlanta campus. Nonetheless, she wants the magazine to keep the spirit of Oxford.
“I don't want Oxford to get left out of the loop, because that's something that happens a lot,” Cassell said. “It’s always Oxford kids going to Atlanta and never Atlanta kids coming to Oxford, which is unfair and creates a really big gap between the two campuses.”
To safeguard the position of Oxford students as the stakeholders of Eternal, Cassell hopes to establish clear guidelines as she graduates and moves to the Atlanta campus. Though she believes that bringing the magazine to Atlanta might help bridge the gap between the two campuses, she wants the leaders of Eternal to be from Oxford.
“I'm going to put in a rule that notes that the editor-in-chief can only be an Oxford continuee that has been involved in the magazine,” Cassell said.
As she looks to the future, Cassell is optimistic about the growth of Eternal and remains steadfast in her commitment to the arts.
“Arts really matter and that's why I wanted to start this above all else,” Cassell said. “The bravest people are always the ones that are the artists.”
Continued image credits: Sarah Cassell, Griffin Byrd, Phia Gregoire, Alissa Durakovic, Nadira Hassan, Lucy Cheng, Ovea Kaushik, Sophia Gregoire, Irene Yoon, Kyla Rosin, Irene Yoon, Grace Liu, Ethan Miller
