Louby McLoughlin’s New Zine Is 90s and 00s Nostalgia Heaven
The UK’s best kept secret has finally arrived. A year after releasing the first issue, OKGrl has dropped its second issue. Instead of releasing it on newsstands, it’s on your screen.
Louby McLoughlin, the creative director and founder of OKGrl, marries fashion, music and technology in one page. As you wait for the next stop on the subway, you can kill time by playing a game featuring Shamir, listen to the sweet tunes hand selected by Liz Y2K, watch a video where models are dressed in head-to-toe by Jeremy Scott or cop Josephine Pearl Lee’s Nicopanda threads!
If you ever feel like busting a tune in the shower, you can sing along to Cultura’s lit af bopper “No Tengo Mas.” Last but not least, you can channel your inner editorial goddess by playing around with a digital sticker book featuring Girli.
Seriously, you wanna get yourself addicted to this. We chat with McLoughlin about the secrets of running OKGrl.
What made you launch OkGrl as an interactive platform?
The younger generations all have a phone in their hand: they are art directors, fashion editors, meme makers, sticker creators, game players — they are digitally savvy and creative and above all, visual. Having come from the fashion print world (starting at POP magazine), I wanted to create something that would be entertaining and exiting to this digital generation, so I came up with an idea of an interactive fashion/music platform.
So far, you’ve featured a video editorial, karaoke, pop-up game and sticker book, which is something we don’t see anywhere. How did you come up with those ideas?
It’s a mixture of the team and [my] contributors: everyone has their own ideas and it builds into what you see now. We like to have a laugh and think what could be the most ridiculous thing to do that hasn’t been done before… the first people to get a preview though are the OKgrl interns. They’re the ones who are actual fans of Okgrl, so I value their opinion on the projects.
Your platform has a strong emphasis on music as you’ve featured Shamir, Cultura, Bip Ling, Girli and Pixie Lott. What made you include them and how did you discover them?
I’m a music fan, and a pop music fan and I love iconic pop moments .. [B]ut, the way of finding can be purely by chance: Cultura for instance I met in LA; Girli was someone I came across online; Bip was a friend making music. I agree [that] there’s a big music theme this time, which will continue as everyone loves music. This issue is basically like a Smash hits of 2017.
Based on the people you’ve featured, I see that you are all about inclusivity regardless of sexual orientation, sizes and race. Given that diversity has constantly been discussed in the fashion industry, why is it a priority to include them?
It’s our responsibility as a platform to represent everyone. That’s real life and we don’t want to exclude anyone. It’s an inclusive place.
From what I could sense, I saw that you gave a lot of room for creative freedom. How did you develop a strong sense of creative freedom?
I think being stubborn has something to do with it, like I’m hard on myself to make something I’m happy with and with a sense of irony with it. In terms of creativity, it’s just something I always have been into. I’m a creative person, I’m keen on innovation and I try to do stuff that hasn’t been seen before, especially on Okgrl.
OkGrl tends to touch on ‘90s and early ‘00s nostalgia. What were your favorite aspects of these decades?
The optimism, outfits, pop stars, [and] subcultures. [Another thing is] [t]hat Britney/Madonna/Christina /Missy Elliot performance at the VMAS.
What’s the one thing you’ve never done before for OkGrl that you wanna include in your next issue?
We want to do a fabulous online party. Hopefully we will [do that] very soon. 🙂
