While sitting down with Marissa Marcinelli, Fordham College Rose Hill (FCRH) ’17, and Nick Delieto, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ‘17, the owners of MXN magazine, Marcinelli commented on how “New York of a moment” we were sharing in the Flame Diner. Though we didn’t order anything, busy schedules called for us to meet in the Flame to conduct our discussion of MXN magazine. Before getting kicked out by a grumpy waiter, we were able to identify the key components of this student-run magazine, in order to flesh it out from competition.

MXN, whose name was inspired by both Marcinelli and Delieto’s first initials and their ability to multiply each others’ potential, “is our collaboration and a medium where Marissa and I can put our ideas and styles together to make something that is tangible and feasible,” the two explained, bouncing off one another’s word, as BFFs do. Delieto operates as the photographer, while Marcinelli writes the blog posts and takes notes during events and interviews with artists. They both operate social media as one, which dovetails their two styles perfectly. Their collaboration operates as a medium to document NY style, as they look to cover fashion events in which they attend, and artists they find inspirational, whether these artists are musicians, rappers, painters, models, fashionistas, skaters or any other creative forms of persons.

It all started back during winter break, when Marcinelli was doomed with an excruciatingly long road trip and figured “I want to make a collaborative and so I bought a domain right there on my phone. Delieto was totally on board and once the domain was bought, we knew we just had to do it, so Delieto proceeded to set up our website! It took a little while to think of a concrete mission,” they admitted, but once they did, “our Instagram was created and here we are now,” the young creatives marvelled. Their Instagram (@mxnmagazine) consists of beautiful pictures of past fashion shows, NYC landscapes and profiled artists with carefully selected captions that engage their audience, which currently consists of about 500 followers.

Spring fashion week was their first coverage this year, as they attempted to photograph and blog their experience in order to keep up with the etiquette of fashion week blogging. When asked how the most recent fashion week went, Delieto remarked, “It was a lot, to say the least. Imagine trying to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels or running without knowing how to walk. That was our fashion week.” While it was overwhelming at first, there was “a lot of forward momentum, we had five shows a day to go to, and when one opportunity was over, another one was waiting,” the two best friends reminisced. Their fashion week experience, which teetered between quick chats with supermodels like Cara Delevingne before runway shows and backstage selfies with supermodel Tilda Lindstam, tested their friendship like never before. “We learned a lot about working together, we did cool things together, but when a photography opportunity would come up for me, Marissa would have to respect that and vice-versa,” Delieto recollected. Their ability to work as a team was tested and improved this fashion week, as they were able to learn that supporting one another was key to their collaboration succeeding. “We learned a lot about work and play and each other,” the two agreed.

Though fashion week initially brought traffic to their blog, they still have big plans in store between seasons. “We are open to a lot of possibilities and would love to do profiles on different artists and on the youth culture in general,” Delieto stated right before the waiter came to scold us for sitting at a table without ordering. “We want to showcase talents with different perspectives, photographing and reporting on them, as a team,” Marcinelli chimed in before our meeting was terminated.

They are only operating in an online medium, but would love to someday publish a physical copy of content. Delieto and Marcinelli’s collaboration of MXN has allowed them not only a creative outlet to report on fashion events and profile artists, but has also allowed them to learn how to work with one another, not only as best friends, but as business partners.