Christianity and the Fashion Industry

I was raised with a really weird view on fashion and the whole works. Being in a Christian home, I was taught not to care about clothes, which is fair enough. I don't believe that it's okay to be obsessing over my appearance, putting my focus off of others and on to myself. However, I was not taught that fashion could be a form of art. Nobody told me that I could express myself with what I wore or how I did my hair and makeup. I always heard in church that God wanted us to use our gifts, no matter what they were, yet fashion never made the list of examples. Why not? Why can't I use fashion to make the world a little bit less cold? Why shouldn't I become a fashion photographer or a cosmetician, and use that as my ministry? Does God not want Christians in that industry? Do models and magazine editors not need Christian coworkers? Do they not need to find God as much as anyone else does?
I'm not saying I'm all for over-glorifying humans, because I'm not. I don't want my life to be just about making people "more beautiful". But the industry doesn't have to be about that. I owned my first lip stick when I was five, and I could apply eye liner when I was seven. Was I over-glorifying myself, or was I my own art project?
Contrary to popular belief, the fashion industry doesn't replace character. Nobody trades compassion for curled hair, or kindness for longer eyelashes. Seeing life as an art doesn't make anyone shallow. If anything, it's shallow to refuse to understand a way of life that's different than your own.
So there's my rant, and there's my reasons why I believe fashion is so misunderstood by the Christian community.

First Photo Shoot

So I got a little bit behind schedule but I finally finished my first group of pictures! My friend Camille Wall modeled for me, and we did the photo shoot in my house (it was still too cold out to do it outdoors!)
I decided to just focus on hair and makeup on this one, getting an idea of how hair and makeup effects the feel of the pictures. I wanted to try something glamourous, so we went with a purple toned smokey eye and red lips. I was worried that a purple smokey eye wouldn't look right, since purple doesn't match very many colours. Also, I wasn't sure purple would go with Camille's green eyes, but I think it worked out. You don't notice the purple that much, it just creates a sort of shadow over her eye.

Here's the makeup that I used on her:
-primer (Almay)
-BB cream (Benefit, light)
-bronzer (Revlon,
-eye shadow (Covergirl sampler palatte:
-mascara (M.A.C.,
-pencil eye liner (NARS, kohl black)
-lip stick (Kate Moss,

I edited the photos a bit, mostly just to add contrast because I found my pictures to be a little faded. My lighting situation wasn't great; there was a window for natural lighting but it wasn't really bright enough. Soo I upped the contrast to try to balance this out.

Looking back, I think I should've gone even more dramatic. Its weird to get used to making the makeup so dark; being used to every day makeup, dramatic styles will take a lot of practice. I kept thinking I was putting on too much, but I probably could've made the smokey eye darker. Fashion pictures usually have really over-the-top makeup and hair, so I need to develop confidence in doing that.

I'm really looking forward to the next shoot, where I can fix all the things I did wrong, and build on what I learned!

I had a difficult time editing this picture because the colours were pretty dull in the original; however, when I increased the contrast, the shadows over her eyes got too dark. I ended up fiddling around with the shadow and highlights levels until I found something that worked. I would've liked some more contrast in this picture, but it was the best I could manage.

Since this is a cropped picture, it turned out pretty blurry, which I couldn't seem to find a way around. However, poor image quality aside, I loved the way this one turned out, so I posted it anyways :)