Written by Safa Razvi

This past summer, Annelise McDonald and Vesa Ljumani inherited UW-Madison’s premier fashion and business club, The Vault: Business Behind Fashion. Rooted across all academic disciplines, The Vault offers students from different backgrounds a pathway into the fashion industry without requiring a traditional fashion degree. This year, that mission was supported by a new engine: a Youth Impact Partnership between UW-Madison and The Virgil Abloh Foundation, accompanied by a fully student-led production called Definitive.

For Annelise and Vesa, the partnership helped answer a question they asked themselves all summer: What is the end goal? What are we trying to achieve?

But before leading one of UW-Madison’s most well-known clubs, both women were just trying to find a place where they belonged on campus. Annelise had actively been searching for something that bridged all her interests when an email about the new fashion-business club landed in her inbox. After attending the first introductory meeting, she was hooked.

“As a freshman, it was intimidating, but it was also exciting. It was something I knew I wanted to be part of,” she said.

Vesa, on the other hand, found The Vault at a moment of total reset. She had entered UW-Madison as an engineering student, but realized that wasn’t the right fit for her.

“I was bored. I was lost. And I knew I loved fashion,” she said. “I heard about The Vault my freshman spring and over the summer I was like, I need something that excites me. When I came back, I officially joined.”

Today, their current interests are built on the early obsessions that began long before college. For Annelise, fashion first came alive through her peers and the early 2010s streetwear boom.

“It started with the people around me in middle school,” she said. “Then the Yeezy era and Virgil. I looked up to him so much. I’d watch Chanel and Dior shows at the Grand Palais when I was 13. I was obsessed with the model life — seeing behind the scenes on social media. Even though I didn’t go that route, it gave me a whole new perspective on fashion.”

For Vesa, her fashion education began close to home.

“My sister and I would go into my mom’s closet and try on her heels and bags — that’s where it started,” she said. “Her and my aunt are definitely where fashion started to become more of an interest for me. My mom is obsessed with resellers and now I finally understand it.”

Those early style inspirations now help them lead a 450+ member club with 11 committees, a plethora of group chats and more moving parts than most student organizations have. For these two leaders, it has cost them trial and error, but ultimately led them to appreciate it as a crash course in professional development.

“The main goal of being a leader is to empower everyone else to be a leader in their own right,” Annelise said. “We don’t wanna put people in boxes. We want everyone to pursue what they love.”

This mindset shapes how they manage the rapid growth of The Vault. This year, they made a conscious shift toward quality over quantity.

“When you have rooms full of people who are eager and driven, the flow of the club almost happens behind the scenes,” Vesa said.

Sometimes, it also means The Vault moves even faster than they do.

“There are partnerships that committees carry forward without us touching them,” Vesa said. “We’ll find out about things that are already in motion. That trust is why we can shoot for the stars, as Annelise says.”

The professional stakes have also increased alongside the organization. What has surprised them most isn’t just the scale, but how real the experience feels.

“I’ve been surprised by the community and just the growth of it, and how quickly it’s taken over campus,” Annelise said. “People write about The Vault in their college essays now. Every year I meet so many new people, especially freshmen, who are so qualified and so talented. It’s wild to see who walks through the door each semester.”

At the same time, opportunities keep raising the bar for what feels possible.

Looking back on this experience, she talked about the environment she learned to navigate: “In the fashion industry you deal with people who have personalities just as big as yours, who are just as eager and willing to dive in. It’s amazing to be surrounded by people that are driven, but it can also be overwhelming.”

Despite this struggle, she shares the lesson she took from it and now carries into the Vault:. “At some point, you have to trust yourself and make a call, knowing not everyone will agree,” Vesa said. “You live and you learn, and you don’t let that knock you down.”

Vesa’s experience helped her make decisive calls, steady herself in chaotic moments and trust her own voice, making her a sharp and instinctive leader.

For Annelise, summer took a different shape. Instead of one traditional internship, she juggled three jobs and planned out The Vault’s semester.

“If I’d had a big internship, I wouldn’t have been able to do the work I did for the partnership over the summer,” she said. “At the time it was frustrating — you don’t always see the payoff right away. But now I can see it was exactly how it was supposed to be.”

Her experiences became a lesson in trusting the process, shaping the confident leader she is within The Vault today.

With all the planning and preparation, the heart of The Vault still begins with something simple: fashion. Annelise describes her style as practical, Scandinavian and lagom — a Swedish word for “just the right amount.”

“Living in Denmark changed how I dress,” she said. “It’s minimal but intentional.”

Their inspirations spill into music and media. Annelise has been on a deep dive into international music — Spanish reggaeton, French R&B, Danish rap — and finds herself drawn to the understated authenticity of Danish vloggers.

Vesa, on the other hand, has been on a rock kick lately and leaned into the style she developed while studying abroad.

“Paris and Italy really shaped me — lace, blazers, sharp denim. I like drama, classy and chic bombshell energy.”

That blend of ambition, aesthetics and community defines the atmosphere of this year.

“Refreshing,” Annelise said.

“Electric,” Vesa added.

It’s this culture of vibrant ideas and passion that builds their confidence in this club’s success for years to come.

“We have so much trust in the people coming after us,” Annelise said. “There will be years of leaders who care and are passionate. We didn’t have this space before, and now that it’s here, there’s nowhere for it to go but forward. I just want that dream-big mentality to stick — that feeling that we can make our own rules.”

Whether members use The Vault to test out a hobby or launch a lifelong career in fashion, Annelise and Vesa want the same thing for everyone:

“Consistent opportunities to step into whatever you want,” Vesa said. “If The Vault gives people that — the confidence to be bold, the community to back them up and the space to dream big — that’s the legacy I hope we leave behind.”

The legacy they’re building is rooted in possibility, stitched together by students who once felt unsure and now standing at the center of one of UW-Madison’s most popular student organizations they helped shape.

And that, more than anything, captures the purpose of The Vault: to educate, inspire and challenge the next generation of creatives.