About Haute
003
With a brand new team led by James Issberner (Editor-in-Chief), Rina Anshina (Creative Director), Joe Seal (Art Director), Mistral Zerbi (Head Writer), Sharanya Gupta (Head of Fashion), and Sydney Leifer (Head of Events), HAUTE UK, the student-led fashion magazine presents a fresh and unique direction, focused on individual creativity, sustainability, and supporting young artists.
What does it mean to create? What has compelled us to continue this ancient desire to make physical matter from nothing but a spark of an idea? With the arrival of 003, HAUTE pivots its theme to ENERGY as we explore the physical and metaphorical notion as the rawest form of power. Energy is all around us, whether that is within the fervent hands of designers sewing a couture piece, or within the click of a camera, forever trapping that certain moment in a box. Following with the previous year’s theme which tapped into the spiritual and holistic approaches to fashion and art history, we gather moments within our collective lives that are charged with acute feelings of energy, fragments which when put together create something more, something beyond us. Through our writings and photography, we explore the synergy between natural, industrial, artistic, and psychological spirits around us, capturing their ardent movements within our editorials.The theme reflects our passion for breaking creative boundaries, supercharging the magazine with our artistry, focusing on sustainable fashion, thought-provoking writing, and high-quality art photography.
With the new theme, the magazine will release articles in three sections: Energy in Fashion, Energy in Pop Culture, and Energy in Creation, highlighting the creative vitality which pulsates all around us. Energy as both simple and complex property leads us to strip back and more critically analyse our visual culture, and its implication on wider world.
OUR MISSION
HAUTE is a fashion and arts magazine, run entirely by students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. HAUTE was founded on four central values: (1) Pushing creative boundaries; (2) Challenging cultural notions and stereotypes of fashion and art; (3) Being for students, by students, and in the interest of students, specifically providing students at a traditional academic university with a collaborative network to pursue their creative ambitions; (4) A firm belief that no position is behind the scenes and no work is more or less important than others, as every role is essential to HAUTE’s success.
HAUTE’s mission began as an aim to reinvent the way fashion and art are understood in our society and to provide students who are interested in any and all aspects of fashion, art, and publication with the resources, connections and platform to execute and showcase their work. HAUTE focuses on the artistic, creative, and intellectual side of fashion, and uses it as a starting point from which to explore a variety of other areas, from politics to poetry. For us, fashion is not a status symbol or a superficial hobby, but a source of creativity, inspiration and expression. We want to break down the entanglement of fashion and femininity and redefine our socio-cultural understanding of those two things. We want to rearrange associations, combining fashion with intelligence and art with the perceivably mundane.
At HAUTE, we value all roles in the making of our magazine, whether you’re a graphic designer, a stylist, or on marketing, no one's work is behind the scenes. That is also why none of our work is outsourced to professionals; every aspect of our content is completely produced by students. We want to bring the reality and importance of every position and person that contributes to making HAUTE succeed to center stage.
OUR STORY
2016-2019
It all began in Spring of 2016, in the cozy kitchen of a flat number 4 over a cup of tea. Co-Founders Caroline Caterini and Ellie Hagart sat in comfortable silence, sipping what was most likely English Breakfast Tea, and simultaneously realized that they were doing absolutely nothing with their lives. They turned to each other, set down the aforementioned cups of tea, and decided they were going to do something about that. In that moment, the then-nameless HAUTE was founded, merely an idea of a society that stemmed from their recognition that while many universities had opportunities in writing and fashion, neither Caroline nor Ellie had ever heard of a proper student-run fashion magazine. Their intention was to provide students at a traditional academic institution with a platform to cultivate and showcase their creative talents alongside their intellectual ones. Whether someone wanted to be the next big photographer shooting the cover of Vogue, a premier stylist bringing stunning artwork to life on models' bodies, a designer themselves creating art of their own, or a fashion-minded intellectual seeking to explore the deeper, more substantive facets of art and design, HAUTE Magazine was founded on the aim of providing students with the opportunity to pursue their passions while promoting change.
Ellie and Caroline spent the summer between their first and second years planning together, each across an ocean from the other. They had a clear vision of what they wanted the magazine to be, and with that in mind (and after months of planning and overcoming quite a few hiccups), somehow, things came together and they eventually found themselves here: fully staffed, a website launched, content up, and HAUTE Magazine in full swing.
September 2019
The two Co-Founders graduated in June 2019, handing over HAUTE Magazine to Georgia McConnell (Editor-in-Chief) and Sarugi Magandran (Publisher). Sarugi, and Georgia have been on the team since 2017, previously Art Director and Head Writer, together they share responsibilities in managing and sourcing content. Their mission is to build a solid foundation for HAUTE Magazine that will continue to grow after they graduate.
January 2020
A new year, and a new website built on Squarespace, with the help of our Creative Director, Madelyn Mclaughlin. Thanks to our team of savvy and creative social media experts, HAUTE Magazine’s online presence continues to grow.
2020-2022
We developed our online presence during COVID-19 and focused on writing.
April 2023
001, the first print issue of HAUTE, was released.
September 2023
Led by Claire Ferguson (Editor-in-Chief), Greer Valaquenta (Creative Director), Keyona Fazli (Head Writer), and Hannah Palma (Head of Fashion), HAUTE expands on its desire to capture femininity through the female gaze with the birth of 002. With a focus on themes of temptation, mystique, and fragmentation, 002 seeks to explore the visceral - an unabashed raw portrayal of femininity and androgyny - and question the boundaries of fashion, art, and the visual.