Last Saturday, during Fashion Week in New York City, two Penn State students left the small-town atmosphere of State College to seek spring fashion in the Big Apple.

Bryan Smith (junior-public relations) and Michael Wademan, a Penn State Worthington Scranton student (senior-information and technology sciences), were invited to New York Saturday because of their work with Modeling International, a magazine for independent models, they said.

"It's a community-built magazine where people can contribute by writing their own articles and taking their own pictures," Smith said.

Wademan created the magazine from scratch in August 2007, and Smith is one of his partners.

The magazine deals with photographers, fashion designers and everyone else in the fashion industry, Smith said.

"If it can't be used on a beach, in the bathroom or sitting on your bed, then nobody's going to accept it," Wademan said, describing what he calls the "three Bs" approach to publishing a magazine.

This coming fall, Modeling International will be launching a "massive campaign" across all Penn State campuses for any students interested in modeling, Smith said.

"We're trying to connect to different markets," Wademan said. "Greek life students would be useful because of their connections to large groups of people."

Wademan said the pair went to Fashion Week to see if Modeling International could be accepted in a high-fashion market.

Various advertisers, photographers, makeup artists and hairstylists all expressed interest and showed support for Modeling International magazine this past Saturday, Wademan said.

"I knew with the help of the industry workers and their advice, we could get our magazine into the top tier of the modeling industry," Wademan said.

The duo met numerous top fashion designers and models when they attended a fashion show at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, 301 Park Ave., where they shook hands with designers such as Andres Aquino, Jorge Diep and Linda Ellis.

The idea of the Modeling International campaign is to see if students are interested in modeling and photography, Wademan said.

The campaign will feature a contest, slated to run from late September to early May, which will feature two new models each month who will then be voted on by students online.

The winning student will do a photo shoot with a photographer, who is also a student, and gain exposure in the magazine.

Additionally, a student will be featured in Modeling International's monthly advertisement.

Specifics for the upcoming competition are still in the works, Wademan said.

"If we can get Penn State students involved and interested, maybe the contest can spread to other Big Ten schools," Wademan said.