Jeanne Malle ’19, A La Mode’s creator, writes her final column this week. “I’ve come to think of A La Mode as a gi ,” she says.
Hi, readers, if you exist. What you’re currently reading is my column, A La Mode. More specifically, however, it is its 18th and very last article. My time as Choate’s fashion reporter has come to an end, for I will soon become this wonderful page’s editor. Although a slightly selfish desire, I made the decision to write number 18 about myself and my experience as a columnist.
In the opening of my sophomore fall, I got the idea to walk up to my editor, Camilla Borjesson ’17, and explain all of the reasons why I thought there should absolutely and undoubtedly be a fashion section in The Choate News. For my underformer self, this took a lot. She could easily have rejected my proposal and told me to give room to older students, pushing me and my naïve optimism away. But into that assignment meeting I went, with my head held high and my heart beating slightly too fast. I pitched my idea and she hardly hesitated before expressing her enthusiasm. As soon as I got the approval to begin writing, I wrote down the most important thing that I would want to receive with this experience. I couldn’t help but smile when I reread it earlier today. It read, “Understand how the style on this campus reflects the identity of the student body.” I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this rather heavy objective, yet I wanted it to be spectacular, or at least a little original.
Within a couple of weeks, I was proud to say I had (sort of) found my groove. I came to the realization that to understand the identity of Choate’s community through fashion, I could not write articles about general topics; I needed to investigate from within. I therefore began interviewing students individually to grasp their idea of the importance of self expression and style. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what truly started A La Mode. Getting to know a new student each week is a fantastic thing. Although I’m interested in fashion, it wasn’t the actual pieces of clothing that drew me into loving this column. I was much more interested in discovering every individual’s reasoning behind what they wear and what event in their life led them up to discovering their personal style. Today, I would say that my new motto reads, “Reveal student stories I believe should be told by employing their sense of style.”
Over time, I’ve come to think of A La Mode as a gift. It has given me the opportunity to view Choate through a lense that nobody else owns. Coming into this school freshman year, I was given an overwhelming amount of advice on how to take advantage of Choate as best as possible. The problem was that I had never existed within such a large group of people, nevermind such a large group of teenagers. How was I ever going to meet enough students? The answer: talk to people that I would never have had the opportunity to know.
The answer: A La Mode.
I want to close this small yet important chapter of my life by giving a shout out to anybody who ever told me that they liked or even read my column.
I love you all. It’s been real.
