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It was March 2023 and Kat Tse (Cheuk Yan) was directing a photoshoot at Shillman Hall on Northeastern’s Boston campus for the first issue of her fashion wellness magazine, Terms and Conditions.
Tse, the magazine’s founder and editor in chief, had prepped the models on the plan before the big day, and the theme of the issue would be redefining love and focus on the complicated feelings that come with one’s first heartbreak.
The Northeastern communication studies major would admit she didn’t have a lot of experience directing such an undertaking, and that she was learning much of it as she went. She ordered the props and helped the models pick out their clothes.
It was all coming together.
But the photoshoot was just one of many tasks the first-time publisher had to juggle to get the first issue to print. As anyone who has worked in magazine publishing knows, coming out with an issue filled with thoughtful and engaging content often takes a village of writers, designers, photographers and more.
How was Tse going to do it all?
Well it looks like Tse, who graduated last May, has pulled it off. Last month, Tse and her editorial team celebrated the magazine’s first anniversary at a party in Hong Kong and will publish its third edition this fall. She credits her team with a lot of her success as well as the guidance she received at Northeastern.
The idea for the magazine started when Tse was studying at Northeastern’s London campus in spring 2022. With a small force of friends behind her, Tse decided to combine her love of writing with her passion for wellness and fashion.
She had already started establishing herself as a lifestyle blogger over the past year, so the roots were already there. An inspiration for the magazine, Tse says, was her “journey to overcome various physical and mental health challenges.”
For the magazine’s introductory issue, Tse, who minored in fashion studies, wanted to expand on those emotions she felt as a teenager going through a breakup, an experience for which she knew many could relate.
“I wanted to use the power of makeup, the power of fashion, and the power of words to capture those raw feelings that I felt,” says Tse, who was recently presented the Empowering Global Change Award from Northeastern University’s 2024 Women Who Empower Innovator Awards.
Tse was born in Toronto, but raised in Hong Kong. As a child, she attended an international school in Hong Kong that followed an American curriculum. And for college, she went to Northeastern, an American university with 13 global campuses.
She recruited a small team to help execute her vision, including Brenda Tham, head of creatives, Erique Brown, head of photography, and Justin Sin, head of writers. She met all of them either online or at local networking events in Hong Kong and London.
The magazine is based in those two locations since she has contributors in both cities. Each individual contributor brings their own insights to build on Tse’s central idea to make it more universal and relatable to a wider audience of fashion lovers.
Tse lays out the magazine herself on Canva, an online website that offers design tools similar to Adobe’s creative suite. While Tse didn’t have a background in design before starting the magazine, she drew inspiration from the magazines she enjoyed growing up such as Vogue and Harper’s Magazine. Pinterest was also a big influence, she says.
For the second issue, which was published in January, Tse and her team focused on the theme of embracing cultures.
Tse says the issue is meant to serve as a love letter to Hong Kong and an exploration of finding one’s identity.
“Finding a sense of identity while studying abroad and becoming more independent was hard at first,” she adds. “It was a tough time for me, and I wanted to document how I could find my sense of belonging more through fashion as an outlet.”
Northeastern has been a great partner in helping Tse prepare for this undertaking. She points to Michelle Carr, a Northeastern professor of communication studies who focuses on TV and film production.
“She taught me how to be a better director, a better communicator,” she says. “So when I direct photoshoots and the magazine, that was very helpful for how the last few issues have come along.”
Another important figure was John Friar, a senior academic specialist in entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
“He helped me so much in understanding the realities of being an entrepreneur, about how you set your own routines and how the business world works,” she says.
The magazine also hosts events, including launch parties for new issues as well as panel discussions, which they try to host every two months. Tse has started experimenting with requiring attendees to pay a cover charge to get in. The magazine reports on these events on its website termsandco.org.
The plan is to publish the third edition in September. Tse says the newest edition could very well be the magazine’s most memorable yet.
The theme of the issue will be about self acceptance. Like the first two issues, the topic was inspired by Tse’s own life experiences and will touch on how she felt while living in London.