Adorn (v): to make something or someone more attractive by adding decorative elements, ornaments, or beauty.
Or, beauty for beauty’s sake.
On The Cover: A look from our editorial shoot, “Sitting Pretty,” featuring pieces from Combine in Uptown, Minneapolis. Photography by Kate Brown
The act of creating something beautiful (without an explicit purpose) is often discouraged in an era where productivity is king. As the world races forward at a speed we can hardly comprehend, the quiet pull to slow down anchors us in something more abstract and meaningful. When a computer smooths away every bit of friction, what’s left?
In the creative process, the friction is the fun, even if it feels like frustration at first. The way one piece of art, one line of poetry, or one plate of food can speak so deeply from one mind to another is the ultimate algorithm short-circuit.
While building Issue 04, I had a conversation with Meghan Maloney-Vinz, who I worked with while completing my MFA at Hamline. As the Executive Editor of Hamline’s Water~Stone Review and Runestone Journal, she shares my enthusiasm for print media. As I was in the throes of writing (read: the friction), she painted magazines in a new light: Isn’t it beautiful how hard we work to create a physical testament to the lives we’ve lived, the stories we tell, and the things that move us?
Minnesotans have long made beauty for beauty’s sake, and Issue 04 is proof of all the ways creativity flourishes in the Twin Cities beyond our little digital worlds.
Flip to page 63 for a perfectly worn jacket, discovered on a vintage crawl through Uptown, as it slips around the shoulders of one person, then another. A set list from thirty years ago is memorialized on the walls of First Avenue on page 21. On page 24, the painstakingly perfect threads of French couture weave their way through Minneapolis, while on page 29, Brunel slows things down with handcrafted furnishings. Throughout the issue, guest writers Maren Ellingboe King, Meaghan Mein, Sydney Ellerbe, and Jessica Poole illustrate how community comes to life through food, theater, fashion, and football.
I’m consistently moved by how many people step up to contribute, share, and build this magazine simply because they love to adorn the world around them. Issue 04 is for you, dear reader, who bears witness, page after page, to the stories we tell.
xo, Emma
Editor-in-Chief of Collective Magazine
Brand & Editorial Manager of LAB MPLS
