Amina T. Salahou ’25 on Les Adore One Year In

Almost a year after its first magazine issue on Nov. 11, 2023, the creative production network Les Adore has already released three magazine issues, helped with production on films, and had a pop-up event at New York Fashion Week. They have also started The Argent Club — a platform for longer-form writing on fashion and culture, launched a newsletter called Slice of Life, and hosted several parties and events.

The founder and creative director of this undertaking is Amina T. Salahou ’25, a resident of Leverett House who is concentrating in History of Science with a secondary in Computer Science. For Salahou, the seed of this creativity and passion goes back to her childhood, where playing around with fashion and shopping was a hobby that she shared with her two sisters. In college, she realized that it was time to take her hobby more seriously, although it took a hard semester to realize she needed to take action.

During her sophomore fall, Salahou went through a transitional period after losing one of her good friends, Luke T. Balstad ’25.

“He was such a great person, and he always motivated me to always feel my best, look my best. He definitely was someone who put a lot of confidence in me, which is something that I definitely needed in trying to take this thing off the ground,” Salahou said.

Going back home for winter break, Salahou was inspired to take action to make a change in how she was feeling. With winter New York Fashion Week coming up, Salahou sent out cold emails and was able to connect with people who she now considers mentors.

“It sucks that it stems from a lot of hurt, but I think that's also kind of the beauty of life, and art, and creativity,” Salahou said. “It always will be tied to emotions.”

Last fall, Salahou launched Les Adore with the hope of bringing the inspiration and confidence she felt when engaging with the fashion scene in New York City to campus.

“I wanted to be able to cultivate that same sort of emotion and feeling being on campus, and I didn’t really see any spaces, environments, or events where I felt the same way,” Salahou said.

Salahou launched the first magazine issue, “Embracing Girlhood: More Than a Pretty Face,” which she produced alone, on Nov. 11 of last year, interviewing and shooting photos of different friends from Harvard. Salahou is grateful for the support from her friends, especially at the start of the project.

“It just means so much to me how many people have been wanting to be involved, like my first friends that I featured in Issue One,” Salahou said.

In Issue 2, “2024: Year of the Dragon,” Salahou had a much larger group of collaborators, including Editor In Chief, Emma Lawrence, who attends Vassar College with Salahou’s twin sister. This issue, which was released while Salahou was on her semester abroad in Paris, is the one she is the most proud of. Issue 3, “The Race To Beauty,” was Les Adore’s first time doing a professional shoot from a modeling agency. The issue, which was shot by Jo Rennee, features tennis skirts, elevated accessories, and bold heels, inspired by the Paris Olympics and “their promise of liberté.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and realize all of these things that have happened,” Salahou said. “I’m definitely extremely proud that everything that we create comes from a genuine place, and it all has a meaning.”

For Salahou, Les Adore has been an opportunity to expand what creativity means to her, learning how to creatively arrange everything from photoshoots, magazine design, and event logistics. More than that, it has become a way to give other people the platform to create art, and a way to create a meaningful community.

“One of the biggest elements that it’s been is a community, whether that’s bridging the gap between different types of arts, and also just making art accessible, whether it’s on campus or just in general. Sometimes art can honestly be an inaccessible thing,” Salahou said.

Salahou has been careful to make Les Adore not just “a Harvard thing,” being intentional about developing supporters from beyond the university who really care about the idea. Les Adore’s team has other members from Harvard, but also from schools such as Vassar, Yale, Cornell, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Les Adore’s team, models, and messages are predominantly female, which Salahou sees as incredibly empowering.

“Unapologetically having that space is really important because even though things are different nowadays, and standards are more equal, a lot of those things still exist,” Salahou said.

Salahou is also the founder of the Harvard Chapter of Girl-Up, a United Nations program that expands girls’ skills, rights, and opportunities to lead. Salahou has been involved in Girl Up since before Harvard, and her passion for women’s issues and rights has influenced her dedication to social activism.

Even though Salahou will be graduating next spring, she feels confident that Les Adore will continue to exist in some capacity, and the magazine will most likely continue to have a team at Harvard. While she realizes that priorities may shift after graduation, Salahou believes that her vision and the network of Les Adore — which reaches New York City, Paris, and beyond — will persist. She is grateful for her entire team and looks forward to the future.

“It’s been cool to see how much we’ve grown, and I’m excited to see what that can lead to,” Salahou said.

—Staff Writer Hannah M. Wilkoff can be reached at hannah.wilkoff@thecrimson.com.