While many students were packing up their bags and shuffling back home in the rain on Friday morning, several of us at Hoot — Noel Duan (CC ‘13), Michele Levbarg-Klein (CC ‘12), Jina Lim (CC ‘13), and Sharon Shum (CC ‘13) — were shooting our Spring/Summer 2010 cover feature with Kelly Killoren Bensimon (GS ‘98), one of the stars of ‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ and the founding editor of ELLE Accessories. She, along with her publicist, Jami Kandel of B|W|R, and her personal assistant, Jessie Bandy, graciously allowed us into her beautiful downtown apartment for an intimate photoshoot.

Sharon Shum (CC ‘13)

The photographer was Jeffrey Zhang and the hair and makeup was done by Bradley Irion and Quinn Murphy, respectively.

Noel Duan (CC ‘13)

Kelly’s dogs were incredibly adorable — so adorable, in fact, that we decided to shoot one of the looks with them!

Sharon Shum (CC ‘13)

One of our favorite looks was a simple concept with a knit sweater from the Columbia University bookstore, Kelly’s own leggings, and Kelly’s own boat shoes. We all thought the sweater would be too heavy and bulky to look fashionable, but Kelly made it look good! Maybe Hoot will be rocking Columbia couture soon?

Noel Duan (CC ‘13)

Apparently, one of Kelly’s daughters has the same giant Chanel doll — retrieved from the Chanel store — as Michele, our Style Director! You can be a fashionista at any age, no?

Noel Duan (CC ‘13)

And yet, while it looks like fun and games in retrospect, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the photoshoot successfully without some old fashioned steaming and ironing. Every fashion intern knows how important it is to have wrinkle-free frocks. The camera hides nothing — even though Photoshop can work its wonders!

We finished shooting fairly early, and we had enough time to interview Kelly before lunch. She was terribly excited for the opportunity to appear on our cover — so excited, in fact, that she blogged about us on her blog! Click here to read the post.

Make sure to check the premiere issue, Spring/Summer 2010, when it comes out, to see what Kelly reveals to us in the interview! While we can’t reveal much to you right now, we hope our first issue will inspire you to look past misconceptions and preconceptions in both the Columbia University community and the world beyond.

Noel Duan
Co-Editor in Chief