KIN Collective is a newly-founded inclusive style collective at Northwestern. Seeking to provide a safe space where any student, regardless of background, can talk about fashion and reflect on style in a deeper and more meaningful way, KIN aims to serve as a platform where students can think more critically about their identity and how it relates to fashion.

With a variety of visual editorial pieces and merchandise available on their website and Instagram page, KIN has amassed about 1600 pageviews and over 400 Instagram followers since their soft launch this past weekend.

After recognizing a lack of representation and platform for people of color to voice their ideas of style, KIN Co-Founder and Weinberg junior Rachel Price said she wants the site to focus on elevating marginalized voices. She said she hopes to provide opportunities for them to discuss their style and cultural identities.

“We are open and want to showcase the diversity of campus, which includes people from marginalized backgrounds in addition to people from non marginalized backgrounds,” Price said. “We want to be diverse in a non-exclusive way.”

KIN co-founder and Weinberg junior Patricia Tang said one of the driving factors that inspired the creation of an inclusive style collective was that they felt the trends that fashion takes are too often dictated by a few of people at the very top. Tang said having just a small group deciding what fashion is completely neglects the individual experiences of those who are trying to find their own personal identity through style.

All editorial and visual content produced each quarter must be related, in some way, to the quarterly theme — which for the the inaugural quarter, is family.

“Kin, obviously, is a synonym for family. We are all KIN is underlying our inclusivity.” Tang said. “All of us on the KIN founding page are all people of color, and we noticed that as people of color, fashion for us is highly influenced by family.”

The creative vision behind the aesthetic of the website is inspired by the design of a museum. Museums tend to have minimalistic designs and are painted solid colors, so that the focus can be on the art exhibited. Price explained how the design for the website entailed a minimalistic backdrop so that the focus is on the content.

Part of their creative intention for KIN’s instagram page, @kincollectivenu, is to have the account be a place where people can submit their own authentic photos to the account, as they are, to showcase individual personal style instead of conducting photoshoots.

“We haven’t done photoshoots yet, we had people submit their own photos,” Price said. “We didn’t dress them up or curate their style, because we didn’t want to influence their personal sense of fashion,” she explained.

Head of editorial content Medill sophomore Sofia Sanchez said she would like to see more creative content, like paintings, get submitted. She said KIN is open to contributions and submissions of editorial and visual content that deviates from traditional article and essay formats.

“The first thing you see when you click ‘Be A Contributor’ on our page is ‘WE WILL LISTEN’ in big, bold letters,” Sanchez said. “We listen, and we want to hear everyone’s voice, however you want to articulate and envision yourself. We are open, and just want to include your voice.”

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Twitter: @zinyasalfiti