Gabriella Karefa-Johnson Wants Fashion to Look Beyond the Front Row for Style Inspiration

September is the January of fashion, but if you're a regular Marie Claire reader, this isn't news to you. Days into the (metaphorical) new year, magazines debut the year's most important issue, starring a supermodel, an Oscar winner, or all of the above, on the highly coveted cover. This time around, a beloved mall brand broke one of the industry's most illustrious traditions.

Introducing "The Other September Issue," the first act of the "Yes, JCPenney" strategy to "democratize access to great fashion," according to the press release. For the retailer's introduction to the online publishing platform Substack, educators from San Marcos, Texas, received the cover star treatment.

Now, this isn't a back-to-school campaign or a Queer Eye-style makeover series. "We are spotlighting some of the communities we admire most and who also exemplify our customers: teachers," Marisa Thalberg, the EVP and chief customer and marketing officer of Catalyst Brands, said in an official statement. "We happen to think they deserve to be the cover models of magazines that inspire others...not to mention be the style icons of the classrooms they dress for every day.”

The story became a full-fledged fashion production, featuring after-school photography by Andrew Matusik and fresh-from-JCPenney 'fits styled by Wouri Vice, who works with Issa Rae, Andra Day, and more in Hollywood. And yes, each teacher's front-page-worthy wardrobe—with pieces from Adidas, Levi's, Nike, and more—is available at your local store.

It wouldn't be a proper September issue without an editor to bring the words to life. Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, the fashion critic, stylist, and writer behind the Brain Matter newsletter, penned the story, available to read here.

Ahead of the launch, Marie Claire caught up with the multi-hyphenate to discuss all things JCPenney, what September issues mean to her, and how this new initiative could change the face of fashion.

What does JCPenney mean to you?
I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, and probably my first awareness of JCPenney was through the mall. It was the gateway into shopping for us.

I really associate JCPenney with back-to-school. It was kind of a full-circle moment because some of my most exciting fashion moments were getting my back-to-school wardrobe together. It was the right price point for my mother, who was a single mother who had five kids.

What about the project excited you the most?
I've tried to make a habit in my freelance work to pick projects that align with my values and my overall aspirations in fashion. I entered fashion wanting to be the editor that I didn't see—there were no Black women fashion editors at top magazines that I could see from my room in the Southern California suburbs. I was keenly aware, because of that lack of visibility, that there was not a ton of diversity in this landscape.

["The Other September Issue"] is a way to invite the average person in, because we're talking about teachers, and teachers are underappreciated titans of culture. They're shaping the next generation of the people we see on the cover of magazines. I was interested in [putting] that more marginalized fashion group center stage, and it really just aligned with my mission of bringing people into fashion rather than closing the doors to the majority.

How did writing for Brain Matter differ from writing for "The Other September Issue"?
[Substack] allows for freedom of expression that is oftentimes hard to achieve within the legacy media system. So, when I went over Substack, it was the first time [I was} able to excavate my own brain without it being mitigated by the conditions of my workplace; what I could say, what I couldn't say. It really was the first time where my opinions could be my own.

[With JCPenney,] I did have to satisfy some points of service, but at the same time, there was already an authentic interest in the subject matter, so it didn't feel like I was getting paid to make an ad for JCPenney. It felt like I was getting paid to do what I love to do most, which is explore the way that folks that fashion sometimes excludes find a way to engage with it anyway.

What was really cool was that the subjects in the issue aren't doing interviews all the time. It was illuminating to see the way somebody, who is not oftentimes given the chance to speak about themselves and their experience, dives into analyzing what they're wearing. It was interesting to see them open up that way.

What did speaking with the educators teach you about fashion?
I'm a maximalist, and I work in a sector of fashion that holds narrative styling as the holy grail. We're always editorializing the way that we're approaching clothes. The way that the teachers were thinking about fashion was, sure, [driven by] their own personal tastes and how they want to show up in the worlds that they live in, but also practicality, functionality, budget, access, how they could get the most bang for their buck, and how they could still feel fabulous doing so.

At least three or four out of the five teachers put comfort as their number one priority, followed by practicality in terms of the multiple jobs and lives they have to live throughout the course of one day. Sometimes I have the luxury of wearing the thing that doesn't make sense. That's not a reality for most people in the world, and fashion sometimes tries to convince us otherwise.

[It was] interesting to hear that, because [they were] exposed to the styling in "The Other September Issue," that a few of the teachers might reconsider their own wardrobes or how they want to put pieces together. It also seemed to be a transformational moment in terms of how they think about their [current] wardrobes, not necessarily going out and buying other things, which was also very cool.

What makes this project different from other fashion campaigns?
JCPenney is, of course, a massive retailer. But I think what's honest here is, instead of trying to weave a fantasy and create images that make you want that person's life, these are real people who represent 99 percent of the world, who can really go into JCPenney and buy what they're wearing. It's not some far-away dream world. It's not some exclusionary price point. We are making the everyday fantastical in this project.

How do you think the fashion industry would change if more brands highlighted regular people?
Fashion [now has] hyper-luxury, fantasy-driven, rarefied air. And to me, that's never what fashion was in the first place. I think that the industry—as most industries born out of capitalism are—was organized in haves and have-nots, because desire is the main drive of the luxury sector in fashion.

But by my definition of fashion... all of the trends and all of the expressions of fashion—from street style to department stores to youth culture and mall culture to riding the subway and seeing the most amazing thrifted outfit—come from the individual. Personal style has very little to do with what you're acquiring or what you're buying, and much to do with how you show up in the world.