Don’t have time to read? Here’s the short story: Fundraising to sustain and grow Ethosinternational.co, A reflective magazine for the morally bound fashion lovingdeep thinker. We are raising funds to compensate our staff (writers, editors and marketer) and pay website related fees throughout 2016 & 2017, produce a print anthology, December 2016, followed by a biannual magazine (Spring 2016, Fall 2016). Fundraiser Link: http://igg.me/at/support-ethos Want more details? Read below!
Who am I?
As an introvert the task of introducing myself has always been a daunting one. I remember being a kid in elementary school and my teacher asking us what we wanted to be when we grew up my response then was “fashionist” I’m not sure what I meant but I knew fashion would somehow be a valued focal point in my life.
I drew some fashion illustrations as a kid but the idea of being a fashion designer wasn’t strong enough and I didn’t know of any other fashion related field. By the age of 12/13 my interests turned to philosophy which would later manifest itself in to psychology. I still kept my interest in fashion as a quiet hobby, staying in tune with some of my favorite magazines but as I grew in my faith and learned more about my religion, I began to turn away from fashion magazines not merely because they were fashion but because of what that often entailed -immodesty and accompanying pages about premarital sex and celebrity gossip.
Sometime after turning away from my favorite magazines I began to wonder -does it really have to be this way? Does immodesty have to be a part of fashion? Do fashion magazines have to be filled with “ghufla” (nonsense)? I decided the answer was no, the rules could and should be broken. So my mother and I created Ethos, our tagline is “A magazine for the morally bound fashion loving deep thinker”.
Learn a bit more about Ethos, Three of our favorite essays:
Food Waste: http://www.ethosinternational.co/food-waste/
Why Slow Fashion Is The Wise Choice: http://www.ethosinternational.co/why-slow-fashion-is-wise-choice-you-should-make/
Procure With Consciousness: http://www.ethosinternational.co/procure-with-consciousness/
How Ethos began:
We started out by curating modest fashion from popular designers and filling our magazine with short articles about everything from food to modesty.
Over the years we’ve refined our purpose. We not only want to showcase modest clothing but also clothing from fashion designers who make an effort not to pollute the earth, to pay their workers fairly and to use quality material. Our style aesthetic has also been refined, we no longer view modesty as simply “covered”, the shape and color are equally important -our style aesthetic is now equally minimalism and modesty.
Our short articles have become essays, we are no longer interested in filler content. Our essays are meant to move the soul to do better. Our stories provide a small escapism and our interviews introduce some of the wonderful talented people of our world while inspiring us to also make our own impact.
Our aim has become being a tool of reflection in which fashion in the starting point and the means to do better.
Why a start with fashion? “Fashion is the #2 polluting industry after big oil” Which makes it a great place to begin changing our habits towards a more conscious, reflective and sustainable culture”
Our dreams:
Our immediate dream is to keep Ethos alive by having the funding necessary to pay our writers, editors and website related fees. But our big dream is to contribute to a more reflective world, beginning with the clothes we wear. To question the current norms in the fashion industry and therefore question our selves, to help us become people who care about what we wear, what we eat, how we treat others, and the environment. Fashion can be superficial but for us it is an excellent starting point to question the way we do things, why we do things, our habits, and other aspects of our lives and ask ourselves how we can improve for the better
Do fashion magazines have to be filled with “ghufla” (nonsense)? I decided the answer was no, the rules could and should be broken. So my mother and I created Ethos, our tagline is “A magazine for the morally bound fashion loving deep thinker”.
The business side of things:
We believe in the purpose and message of our magazine and we know our readers do too but in order to reach more readers and have more of an impact we need a finical jolt. Our plan for the next three months is to fundraise, market, solicit advertisers (who agree with our Ethos) then we will be financially able to compensate our writers and editors in the long term. Fundraising is not sustainable and therefore not our business model but in order to attract the quality advertisers that will not only help fund Ethos -in our years to come, but add value to Ethos we need to increase readership, despite our excellent content we can only reach a limited readership without the financial means to reach them.
Why we need your help:
For the last three years I’ve largely funded Ethos with my personal funds -writers, editors, website maintenance, domain, theme, social media ads, etc. We’ve tried our best to approach Ethos with a high level of excellence despite our financial limitations. Our level of excellence with Ethos has consistently improved during our three years online and we need your help to continue to improve and grow.
Our future:
In our near future we want to expand to print -an Ethos Fall magazine, Ethos Spring magazine and a yearly anthology (yearly collection of the best essays from the website). With financial limitations going to print has been a struggle. Because we want nothing less then quality we plan to work with the talented designer Haruka Sakaguchi (See her lovely work here: www.thedenizenco.com), everything from the photography to the touch of the paper has to fit our model of excellence, this will take time but we are well aware not only that it can be done but that it can be done with the level of excellence required. If God wills, we make our intention to begin with an anthology, Ethos Volume 1, by the end of next year.
“Our level of excellence with Ethos has consistently improved during throughout our years online and we need your help to continue to improve and grow.”
Parting words:
It’s not my desire to convince anyone that Ethos is great or worthwhile, I know it is, and I know that once I explain it concisely to others who share our ethos they will understand as well. Money is a tool to help Ethos reach it’s readers, to fund our staff and to help us in our printing endeavors but it is not the goal nor can it make Ethos great. Ethos is what it stands for, increasing our consciousness, making us more reflective people and improving our selves in every aspect of our lives starting with what we wear, that’s what makes Ethos worthwhile and that is why I hope and pray you will support us.
Donate here: igg.me/at/support-ethos
And through God alone is our success.
Nuriddeen Knight is a graduate of Columbia University in Psychology. She teaches and consults through Nooralshadhili.com. She is the Cofounder and Editor of Ethosinternational.co, a magazine for the “morally bound fashion loving deep thinker”.