Spotlight on À La Mode with Natalie Callahan & Lydia Newlin

This fall, student organizations are back in (nearly) full swing—holding in-person meetings, off-campus outings, and exciting campus events. In our first student organization spotlight of the semester (🤩), we chat with Natalie Callahan and Lydia Newlin, President and Communications Officer of À La Mode (@chatham.alamode). À La Mode is an organization devoted to “self-expression through fashion,” that also places a heavy emphasis on sustainable fashion and consumerism. Interestingly enough, and perhaps a testament to the endless enthusiasm of our students, À La Mode was created in 2020 when much of the university’s interactions were still being held online. If you’re curious about all that this club has to offer, read on—

Tell us a little bit about À La Mode and what your goals are on campus.

Natalie Callahan: Sydney Schoenewald, the Vice President, and I originally decided that we wanted to start a new club on campus. We felt that the arts community here was pretty underrepresented. When I came to Chatham, that's what I was looking for because that's the sort of stuff I like to do in my free time. We wanted to fill that gap and we're still working towards doing that. Luckily, The Minor Bird has been really great and wants to promote the arts on campus as well. We're able to work with them to [help] make that happen.

Lydia Newlin: One of the goals of the club is to promote healthy and sustainable fashion. What that means for us is looking into places in our community where we can shop, teaching about safe fashion, and promoting brands that align with our values. We're promoting those ideas that you need to think about when you're buying [fashion items], if you're able to.

Did you collaborate on last year’s Sustainable Fashion Fair?

NC: Yeah, we played a pretty big role in that last spring. It was us, Chatham Student Power, and the Chatham Green Team. We had a good turnout and I think we were all pretty satisfied with how it went, especially with the pandemic. It was challenging to make an event like that work but it got us more excited for this year when we can host more in-person events.

What do your meetings typically look like?

NC: Up until this point, we have had a lot of Zoom meetings because we couldn't meet in person in a safe, responsible way. But this year, we have all of our events planned for the fall semester already. This semester we're doing a lot of outings. We [went] to the Frick Museum to see an exhibit called Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls, which is an exhibit on women's athletic fashion from the 1800s to the 1960s.

LN: We’re throwing The Heaven on Earth Ball in collaboration with The Minor Bird on September 25 from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm in Welker Room.

Tell me a little bit about your individual responsibilities.

LN: My role is Communications Officer. I deal with our Instagram account. My favorite thing to do is to post ‘outfits of the day.’ We take submissions from anybody; they don't have to be a Chatham student. It’s a way to [increase] interaction with our community. It's been a lot of fun and I've heard a lot of positive responses about how people really like seeing our Instagram account.

NC: I do a lot of general upkeep things. I did the initial planning for a lot of the activities that we wanted to do this year. I had a lot of help working out all the details. I don't really have any responsibilities that aren't shared. I never could have made this happen without the other officers.

À La Mode Communications Officer, Lydia Newlin

What skills have you honed while participating in this club?

NC: Time management is a big one. I'm still very bad at time management, but having to have the entire schedule ready before the school year started helped me structure my semester. You really have to conceptualize how you want things to play out.

LN: I've learned how to rely on other people because there are a lot of different moving parts, especially when it comes to event planning. It's not just something that you can take complete control of. I've learned a lot about fashion and about better ways to shop in our communities.

What are the benefits of joining À La Mode?

LN: It's the coolest club on campus.

NC: We have a really good time with it, especially with the in-person events. It's such a good way to meet people and that's one of my favorite things. That's something that I’ve really missed during the pandemic.

If a student is on the fence about joining, how would you recommend that they learn more about the club?

NC: Talk to any of us; we're all so friendly. Whatever concerns you have, I want to talk about it. It's a very low key club.

LN: If they do have questions, they can always DM us on Instagram or email any of us.

NC: One of the reasons we chose a fashion club instead of an art club is because fashion [can be] very inclusive. Everybody has something to bring to the table. With an art club people might feel like, I'm not a good enough artist. I don't believe in that but I understand how it's a bit more intimidating. Our club is about self-expression and talking to other people who are passionate, supportive, and doing what they want to do with how they present themselves.

What are you most looking forward to about this year?

LN: I'm excited to meet new people and to really get this club off the ground, because we are still so new. I'm excited to see the turnout at events. I see this club as being really full and having a lot of people.

Special thanks to Natalie and Lydia for participating in our first Student Organization Spotlight of the term! To learn more about À La Mode, follow their Instagram: @chatham.alamode.