Behind the Scenes: A look at Golden Runway with Lauren Armani and Ava Ekman

Photo: Instagram

Two weeks ago, our dutiful leaders here at Golden Magazine, Editors-in-Chief Lauren Armani and Ava Ekman successfully produced a fashion show for Minnesota Fashion Week. The two college juniors who started this very platform last semester have fully engulfed the magazine and themselves in not only the creative community on the University of Minnesota campus, but throughout Minneapolis. I was very curious as to how exactly Lauren and Ava were able to orchestrate such a seamless show without any prior experience, so with a quick text and Zoom link sent, I sat down (virtually) with them to dive into the behind the scenes of making Golden runway... golden. 

To give readers some context, what inspired you to start the magazine? 

Ava: After we got sent home from school [due to COVID], I had recently changed my major to now strategic communications from nutrition, so I was a bit scared doing that because I felt like I didn’t have any experience and was late to the game with anything regarding public relations, advertising or even fashion too because I wanted to do something with fashion later in my life. So [my cousin and I] got to talking and asked ourselves “why don’t we have a magazine at the U,” and basically like fuck it, we’re going to make one. Ever since that day throughout the fall semester last year, we met every week and kind of talked things out to what we wanted the magazine to be. 

How did you team up to start the magazine? 
Ava: Basically how Lauren and I know each other is that she was in my freshman leadership class and I’ve just always known of her but we didn't really see each other a lot. I literally snap texted her to see if she wanted to be involved in the magazine. 

Lauren: Yes, so my first impression was just that this girl, from my freshman class, who I didn’t know too well texted me really late on a summer night and asked if I wanted to start a magazine. At the time I kinda felt the same way in that I didn’t have any experience yet, and didn’t have any interests and was picking a major just to pick a major. I was looking to join a club, looking to start something, but nothing really struck my fancy but then Ava brought this idea to me and I genuinely didn’t even know what she meant. I didn’t really know of any other student magazines and didn’t really know what she meant by that, but I was really excited at the idea of doing something like that, so I just said yes. And the first time we met was last October, almost a year ago from now. 

Photo: Instagram

How was Golden Runway born? How did it come to be? 

Lauren: We got invited to cover some shows [last spring] and we were literally enamored. We were like, we are the hot shit on campus. We just got invited to Fashion Week Minnesota. This is the coolest ever. We didn't really realize that you could literally just buy tickets. Anyone can go see any show – it was more exclusive than that to us at the time. But anyway, we went and were  planning our outfits for four weeks. We were so excited to go to these shows that were just like, they were cool, but it was just – it's just funny looking at them now. So we went and we covered them, and that was kind of that. Then one day I remember we were just sitting in a meeting, me and Ava talking about this semester and we got a DM from Sarah Edwards, who's the founder of Fashion Week. And she was like, “Hey, not sure if you have any interest, but applications for producers for fall Fashion Week closed on Tuesday.” And we were like, what? Like, what is she talking about? Produce a fashion show?.  I literally vividly remember we were like, can you imagine that? Like can you imagine we produce a fashion show and at the end we stand on the stage and we had just produced a fashion show and we literally spoke that out loud and we're like, that would be so cool.

Ava: I remember when she DM’d that, we were like we’ll apply, but the chances of us actually getting in are slim because what experience can we say that we have. So we decided just to apply and say fuck it, there’s nothing lose. 

Lauren: And then I remember she reached out on like a Saturday night and the application was due on Tuesday. And so we were like, what? So we scrambled to just get something together. And by the grace of God, we got accepted. I remember we found out we were so excited.

Photo: Instagram

Was there ever a time in the planning process where it just didn’t seem feasible to pull off a successful show? 

Lauren: I don't know if it's a positive thing or a negative thing, but I was talking to my friend from high school that this morning she was asking about the show because she  doesn't live here. And she was like, “I just can't even believe that you did that. Like, how did you do all that?” And it's weird because I remember like, when we applied thinking how the hell do you produce a fashion show? But everything happens so quickly,  every week there were some big tasks we had to figure out. The first week was the venue, then was the models, then it was the makeup artist. There were all these huge steps that we needed to figure out every week. There was so much that you had to do that I didn't even have time to stop for a second and think like, “how am I going to do this?” There was never like a, “oh my God, I'm not cut out for this, it's too much.” But it was more that we didn’t have an option. It wasn't like there was an alternative to not doing it. So we just did it. 

I felt the same way about making a magazine. It was obviously something that we had never done, but it's just that you make a commitment and you have to follow through on it. And somehow, like we always say about Golden, but by the grace of God, even when shit looks like it's about to hit the fan - it always, always, always works out. This is going on a tangent, but the day of the show, one of our models lungs collapsed. No one really knows that, but we had to find a new model at 9:00 AM. The show was literally in eight hours and we had to find a new model and we did. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but I thought it was pretty fucking seamless. We have such an amazing staff of people and it’s just so cool how we can do anything with all these amazing students.

Ava: Anything Golden, everything goes to shit right before it happens, but somehow works out in the end…golden miracles do exist. 

What aspects of planning a show surprised you the most? 

Lauren: It's surprising how many minute details go into it. The big things we were responsible for were the venue models, hair and makeup, DJ catering, gift bags, and decor.  Which seems like a small checklist, but then on top of that  you had to do all these fittings and find time to coordinate the schedule of 20 models and 4 designers and all of our staff to do three fittings and a rehearsal. I was literally sitting there calculating to the second, doing the math, trying to figure out the models and the timing of their walks so the show would be exactly 30 minutes. It's just little things you don't even think about like, ”oh, how can we make it so that this model takes 35 seconds to get around around the runway?” 

Ava: I agree, there's so many little things that you just don't think about. We also went into it not having a plan. We were kind of just like bullshitting our way through and it kind of amazes me now looking back on it, like when we first started planning this, I would've never thought that the show would be like how it was.

Lauren:  Right. I think it was a lot more successful and even bigger than we could've ever imagined it was going to be. 

Photo: Instagram

What do you think is the biggest takeaway or lesson you learned from the show? 

Lauren: I feel like I'm amazed by how much you can do with no experience. And I've been very proud of myself, thinking about a year ago and having kind of like no niche interest and not really pursuing anything that was making me happy to how quickly that all changed and how much I've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. And just how much is literally possible if you put in the effort and do it. But besides just myself, it's been so cool to see how many people are willing to help you out and  how much of the community we've really made. It just never fails to amaze me how willing people are to help and how much people want to see each other succeed and how much you can accomplish just by working together.

Ava: What I learned was just how many connections you can make if you just go for it. We had this kind of networking event the Saturday night before Fashion Week and all the designers and the producers were there and It was crazy how I was in the same room as some really cool people, that I would have never put myself with. I guess I just learned a lot about how important networking is, and also just building relationships in the community. If  you can just be there and be honest and ask for things when you need them, everything will work out.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.