LSA Student Builds Independent Fashion Magazine from the Ground Up

For Ezra Mazza, fashion has never been just about what people wear. Growing up with 10 other family members, he rarely had access to name-brand clothing. But if Mazza wanted to express himself through fashion, the best way to do so would be a visit to a thrift store. “Fashion is a personal thing,” he says. “I focus on the personal things that we experience and how everyone can relate to them.”

Today, Mazza is editor-in-chief of Ouéton (pronounced wee-THOHN), a fashion magazine he founded in the winter of 2025 while studying at LSA. It’s a glossy-paged print periodical, ranging from 30 to nearly 60 pages, filled with editorial photographs and thoughtful essays about fashion, art, technology, identity, and culture. 

According to Mazza, who is now an LSA senior studying communication and media, the tangibility of the publication is vital. When each issue of Ouéton is launched into the world, Mazza urges readers to spend time with the magazine. “Go sit down with this somewhere. Read through it front to back. Take it home and pick it up the next day. There’s something about having the physical copy in your hands.”

Now three issues in, he is contemplating what’s next—both in his experience as a student and the greater world of fashion.

From Engineer to Editor

As a high school senior at Washtenaw Technical Middle College, Mazza developed a keen interest in photography, which he continued once he got to U-M as an engineering student. He focused on portraiture, mostly photographing friends and people he would come across on campus. He didn’t have the same passion for engineering, though he had hoped to land a high-paying job after college. “I wasn’t in it for the love of the game,” he reflects.

Mazza transferred to LSA, still thinking about how he could incorporate photography into his campus life and future career. “I wanted to do something physical with my photos,” he says. His roommate urged him to speak with Jan Van den Bulck, the chair of the Department of Communication and Media. Van den Bulck then put him in touch with department lecturer Geertrui Moerkerke, whose career has spanned international journalism, communications, and design.

Initially, Mazza thought he wanted to create a simple published portfolio of his photographs without accompanying stories. “Trui influenced me to do something more,” Mazza recalls. The magazine would grow to be something “more cultural and social, and talking about different problems that would relate to the college students reading it.” His first issue highlighted the challenges women face within the fashion industry, along with personal style, photography, and advice from women across different generations. 

Though he began the magazine at LSA, Mazza doesn’t envision his audience as limited to U-M’s campus or even just college students. “It is intended for people who are interested in fashion, art, culture, and creative work more broadly,” he says. 

Mazza builds each issue from concept through circulation, working across editorial and creative direction, photography, styling, writing, editing, design, fundraising, production, partnerships, marketing, and distribution. “I like to give myself a challenge,” he says, smiling. “I like putting myself in situations where I have to figure things out on my own. Every issue forces me to learn something I didn’t know how to do before.”

In the early stages, he isolates himself for eight to 12 hours to think about the overarching message of the issue. He then begins the process of seeking local inspiration, as well as looking for models. “I want to understand who they are before I decide how to photograph or write about them,” he says. “I really believe in spending time with my models and seeing who they are and what they do. It helps me portray them in the correct light.”

Ouéton has received financial support from the Department of Communication and Media as well as the Barger Leadership Institute, which has funded the printing of the magazine. Once the print run has been completed, Mazza then circulates the issues himself: getting copies into local coffee shops as well as sending them directly to creatives and industry professionals in New York City. 

Since that first issue, Mazza has brought on more campus collaborators and advisors as he continues developing the magazine. In the past year, he has worked closely with communication and media professors Jimmy Draper and Germaine Halegoua. “I’m absorbing as much information that I can get from them to grow more as an editor-in-chief and founder of a magazine,” he says. “They make me feel like I have a concrete spot right here in the department.”

Beyond the Clothes

Mazza is powerfully aware of how inaccessible the fashion industry has been for nonelite audiences, both in the past and the present. As editor-in-chief, he often thinks about how his issues’ themes must hew to the human experiences within “topics that can otherwise feel exclusive or industry-specific.” The summer issue of Ouéton concentrated on technology in the fashion world, for example: in one essay, Mazza reflected on how the industry was increasingly relying on artificial intelligence. 

“It affects designers and artists and people on all levels within the fashion world,” he points out. Mazza wants Ouéton to approach fashion with ambition without losing the personal experiences that make it relevant beyond the industry itself.

Though he has thought about using Ouéton as a senior thesis or topic for an independent study, the magazine has proven to be something bigger than his degree. “Building Ouéton has given me hands-on experience that extends far beyond what I could have gained from a single course or project assignment,” he says.

Support from his academic mentors has allowed him to “build an entire brand and creative world around an idea and continue developing it over time.” LSA was Ouéton’s first home, but Mazza is growing it beyond campus. “U-M is where the idea began, but not where it ends,” he says. 

What’s next for Mazza and Ouéton? He wants to pay homage to the world that he grew up in by collaborating with small brands from the Metro Detroit area. Further afield, he’s been in talks with LSA’s network of alums to build relationships in New York City, a place he holds dear. Being there, “I feel so small,” Mazza says. “I feel like I need to create as much as possible to fill that space. New York and the people I’ve met there have influenced me and changed my worldview and artistic and creative direction.”

At the end of the day, no matter where Ouéton takes him, Mazza wants to stay true to his readership. “I want everyone to take a look at my magazine and feel like they have a voice.”

Photos courtesy of Ezra Mazza