Every September, fashion tells us what matters.
The coats. The bags. The shoes we are apparently supposed to risk an ankle for. The trends we absolutely, positively need to know about before fall officially clocks in.
But for decades, the September Issue has also quietly told us something else: who gets to be seen as fashionable in the first place.
And, whew, there is a conversation to be had there.
Enter JCPenney’s The Other September Issue, a fashion project that takes one of the industry’s most iconic editorial traditions and points the camera somewhere decidedly less expected: at five educators from San Marcos, Texas.
Not as makeover projects. Not as the “before” in some dramatic transformation story.
As the stars.
As fashion people.
As influential people.
As people worthy of the glossy treatment, period.
And glossy it is. The result is a full-on fashion editorial, with looks styled by celebrity stylist Wouri Vice and JCPenney, photographed by Andrew Matusik, and the stories brought to life by celebrated fashion editor, stylist, and plus size fashion powerhouse Gabriella Karefa-Johnson.
In other words, these teachers weren’t simply invited into fashion’s world. Fashion showed up for them.
JCPenney describes The Other September Issue as an effort to swap fashion “to admire from afar” for fashion everyday people can actually say yes to, placing teachers at the center of the story as “model citizens and fashion icons.”
But when we learned Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was helping tell that story?
Oh, now we had questions.
Because Gabriella has worked inside the very machinery that traditionally decides who lands on those glossy pages. She has worked at Vogue, styled major covers, and built a career in some of fashion’s most rarefied spaces.
So, what happens when someone who knows those rooms turns the lens toward the people those rooms have historically overlooked?
According to Gabriella, it felt a little like kismet.
“It seemed like a really exciting opportunity to look at what real influence is and who perhaps is overlooked or even excluded from the fashion narrative the most, which is, like, the everyday person.”
And that right there?
That is the story.
So, Who Has Fashion Been Talking To All This Time?
Gabriella did not mince words when we asked what the traditional September Issue, and fashion editorial more broadly, may have missed.
Fashion editors, she pointed out, are not only creatives. They are also merchants.
They are selling us something.
The problem is that an industry supposedly trying to sell fashion to millions of people has spent an awful lot of time presenting a very tiny group of people as the ones worthy of embodying it.
“We’re speaking to as many people as possible. We’re speaking to a very rarefied, very narrow view of who should participate in fashion, and we’re positioning it as something to aspire to.”
Baby. There it is.
Because how many times have we watched fashion pull inspiration from Black culture, street style, working-class communities, bigger bodies, subcultures, and everyday people, only to polish it up and hand the finished image back to us on someone who looks nothing like the people who inspired it?
Gabriella sees that contradiction too.
She noted that much of the fashion filling editorial pages is influenced by what ordinary people are already wearing.
“The very fashion we’re populating those images with is fashion that is created based on what the average person is wearing, based on Black culture, based on streetwear.”
Yet somewhere along the way, she says, fashion has removed “the human part of the audience.”
And if you have spent any amount of time navigating fashion in a plus size body, you already know exactly what she means.
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson Said the Plus Size Part Out Loud
This is where our conversation took a turn that felt especially familiar to us here at TCF.
Because we can talk about fantasy and aspiration all day long, but there is a pretty giant difference between wanting the fashion and being physically able to purchase the fashion.
Gabriella knows that firsthand.
While talking about the creative possibilities found in the JCPenney shoot, she made a point that every plus size shopper has probably thought at least once while browsing luxury fashion.
“Especially as a plus size woman, even if I wanted to walk into Prada and drop ten thousand dollars… they don’t make my size.”
Exactly.
You can have the money.
You can have the taste.
You can have the fashion credentials.
You can have the invitation.
And the clothes can still say, “Not you, babe.”
So, what do you do?
As Gabriella put it:
“I have to walk into a store and really freak it, right?”
And honestly? THAT is style.
Not simply having access to the most expensive thing in the room but knowing what to do with the things that are available to you.
That distinction becomes particularly important in The Other September Issue, where the clothes are intentionally accessible. The campaign features brands including Liz Claiborne, a.n.a., Stafford, Levi’s, Adidas, and Nike, and JCPenney says all eight featured looks can collectively be purchased for under $3,000.
But accessible does not have to mean boring.
And Gabriella thinks fashion sometimes forgets that.
Why Does Affordable Fashion Always Have to Be So… Sensible?
You know the advice.
Buy the basic blazer.
Choose the neutral coat.
Make sure every single thing works with everything else in your closet.
Get your cost per wear down to approximately seventeen cents.
Meanwhile, luxury fashion gets to be weird.
Luxury gets sequins at breakfast.
Luxury gets sculptural sleeves, clashing prints, impractical shoes, and the freedom to say, “But it’s fashion.”
Why shouldn’t everybody else get to play too?
Gabriella called out the subtle condescension that can creep into conversations about shoppers on a budget.
“There tends to be a certain condescension towards a shopper on a budget. Like, okay, you need to get the biggest bang for your buck so this jacket needs to be a basic because you need to be able to wear it every season for ten years.”
Instead she sees styling in The Other September Issue as an invitation to rethink what we already have access to.
One teacher Janelle appears in track pants an oversized blazer a hoodie and heels Gabriella described how styling made her rethink pieces in her own wardrobe and consider combinations she had not imagined before.
That Gabriella says is where aspiration becomes interesting.
Not “I need that wildly expensive bag so everyone knows I made it.”
But:
Wait I never thought to wear it like that!
“It’s opening up creative potential of fashion and styling that is not so often modeled in more affordable arenas.”
Now THAT is an accessible fashion conversation we can get behind.
Teachers Are Influencers We Just Don’t Give Them Blue Checks!
There is another clever little subversion happening here.
The Other September Issue is also poking at fashions modern obsession with word influencer!
JCPenney highlights middle-school English teacher Monica Lum whose students remember her clothes and accessories years after leaving her classroom.
The company calls that “real-world influence without follower count.”
And really when you think about it?
Teachers have always been influencers!
Before social media feeds there was teacher whose earrings you remember 20 years later.
The art teacher whose wardrobe made you think adulthood might actually be fun.
The professor with dramatic glasses.
The elementary school teacher whose perfume shoes cardigans or jewelry somehow got permanently filed into your childhood memory bank.
Gabriella called teachers perfect representation of everyday person because their wardrobes have accommodate so many different versions of themselves.
Teacher.
Coach.
Parent.
Partner.
Daughter.
Grandmother.
Human being trying make through day still look cute.
“They have outfit their lives they want look good doing it.”
And honestly is not most of us?
But Who Usually Gets Fashion’s “Yes”?
JCPenney’s larger campaign built around idea “Everyone Deserves Better Deal” The Other September Issue part its evolving “Yes JCPenney” platform.
So naturally we had ask Gabriella:
Who does fashion usually give yes?
Her answer direct.
“Fashion as aesthetic industry… always subscribed most conventional beauty standards.”
She pointed ways patriarchy capitalism white supremacy fatphobia shape who most easily welcomed into fashions fantasy.
“It typically thin white rich Eurocentric person! And so easy for fashion give yes person allow them explore experiment take risks splurge because who designed for!”
And everyone else?
The issue not simply whether we technically “allowed” enjoy fashion.
It whether fashion made feel invited.
“When we’re not invited because don’t see ourselves there can feel particularly scary intimidating inaccessible be carefree about fashion.”
Whew!
Because being carefree with fashion privilege do not talk enough.
The freedom make “bad” outfit.
The freedom experiment.
The freedom wear something impractical just because delights you.
The freedom be dramatic.
The freedom get wrong without entire body identity age worth becoming part critique.
That part access too.
Gabriella Has Had Navigate Those Systems Herself!
What made our conversation particularly compelling Gabriella not analyzing entirely from outside!
She succeeded inside luxury fashion but also had reckon what succeeding inside those spaces does does not guarantee!
She got candid about feeling though goalposts constantly moving!
“I’ve achieved all things luxury sector but still being taken… like have do twice hard half much kind thing!”
And tension seems central why The Other September Issue appealed her!
Gabriella described project opportunity tell stories felt “more line my own value system” more expansive about who gets participate in fashion!
Luxury not need disappear!
She likes luxury!
As she very hilariously reminded us:
“I buying those Chanel bags baby!”
Same Gabriella SAME!
The argument not fantasy bad!
It that fashion fantasy should not belong only one kind person!
And Then Gabriella Told Us About Her Grandmother!
We ended our conversation asking Gabriella who taught her style before even had language for fashion!
She first remembered kindergarten teacher Mrs Barr played Cranberries had distinctly grungy 1990s coolness Gabriella still remembers!
But person shaped her most deeply was grandmother!
A reverend! An ecumenical leader! A diplomat’s wife! A Black woman often only person looked like her rooms entered!
Gabriella remembers horn-rimmed glasses cocktail rings costume jewelry elegant skirt suits style both distinguished deeply cool!
But grandmother also taught her something bigger than clothes!
“She definitely mentor me also just amazing example power Black womanhood!”
And then Gabriella gave us perhaps fitting thought which end this whole conversation!
Her grandmother showed her power:
“Harnessing your otherness expand boundaries whatever field you’re in leave door open behind help people up same ladder much harder climb!”
And maybe that what makes The Other September Issue worth paying attention!
It not simply about putting teachers beautiful clothes!
It asking fashion expand frame!
To rethink influence!
To stop confusing exclusivity excellence!
To understand accessibility does not cancel out aspiration!
And perhaps most importantly recognize everyday people were never standing outside waiting become interesting enough enter!
Fashion just needed turn camera around!
Ready Read The Other September Issue?
If this conversation has curious about teachers fashion stories behind campaign head over JCPenney’s pop-up Substack read The Other September Issue full!
And yes if look catches eye can also explore featured campaign JCPenney!
Go for fashion! Stay for conversation about who gets seen fashionable first place!
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