10 Women Redefining the Fashion Industry's Beauty Standards
Beauty’s favorite creative couple-makeup artist Violette and photographer Steven Pan-paint and shoot the season’s freshest faces.
Somalia-born model Abdi, who wears a hijab in keeping with her Muslim faith, cannot be seen by a male without her head covered. So on set, she gets her hair and scarf perfected by a female stylist behind a privacy screen. “It can be difficult for some to understand my modesty,” she says. But her confident grace has prompted those in the industry to open their minds to under- represented cultures. “If I inspire even one person to feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skin, that would make my job worth it,” she says. “She is a mix of strength and sensitivity,” Violette says of Abdi. So the makeup artist chose a statement-making look that still feels soft. She traced the inner corners of the eyes with aqua liner (try Lancôme Le Stylo Waterproof Long Lasting Eyeliner in Azure), because “blue is the color of spirituality,” she explains.
Raised by two blind parents in São Luís, Brazil, Pinheiro doesn’t believe beauty is strictly seen with your eyes- it’s something you find within. “Having my eyesight, I can see [beauty], but I feel it first,” she says. When Pinheiro was growing up, many of the people she spent her time with were blind, so fashion and makeup were never at the forefront. “For me to explain my job to my parents...what they have in their minds is totally different,” she says. To create contrast with Pinheiro’s skin tone, Violette chose a vibrant blue foil for her lips. To try the look without the fragile foil, mix M.A.C Cosmetics Pigment in Marine Ultra with Mixing Medium Gel and apply with a lip brush.
Elam has always loved her smattering of freckles. “My grandma would say, ‘They’re angel kisses,’ ” says the model, who’s Irish, black, and Native American. But it’s her brows (or lack thereof ) that she considers her most unique feature. As a freshman in high school, she spent mornings drawing arches on before leaving the house. By senior year, she embraced her browless face. “They actually started to grow in [recently],” Elam says. “It’s weird. I wish I did not have the hair-it’s the opposite now.” Violette didn’t want to hide a single bit of Elam’s skin. “Her face, to me, is like a Botticelli painting,” she says. Instead, she traced a delicate heart around her eye with white face paint (try Maybelline New York Lasting Drama Light Liner Pencil in White Luster).
Jonsson can picture the moment she first pinned her hair back with a butterfly clip to reveal a shocking streak of white hair. “I was at a Thai restaurant in San Anselmo, [California],” she says. Her insecurities peaked around age five or six, but since then she’s grown to embrace her vitiligo-a condition in which the hair and skin lose pigment in patches. “I wear my hair in buns a lot to really accentuate the stripe,” she says. Violette applied a sprinkling of starry glitter across Jonsson’s lips in honor of a fairy tale the makeup artist’s family tells about a cousin with a streak of white hair. “We call this an angel’s feather,” Violette says. She applied a layer of Ben Nye Glitter Glue and pressed sparkles into the lips for a heavenly effect.
Thanks to her hippie mother, Yeung developed a passion for nature at a young age. The Navajo Chinese model makes her own clay face masks and hair treatments with ingredients like baobab oil and apple cider vinegar. She counts her heritage and her mom’s example as motivators to start her own small sustainable fashion line. “I’ve gotten to travel to the Navajo reservation [near Chaco Canyon in New Mexico] and meet my indigenous family, and learn more about my tribe,” she says. “I’m committed to working on the environmental injustices, like fracking, that are happening there.” Violette created this cat-eye with liquid liner (try Chanel Signature de Chanel Intense Longwear Eyeliner Pen in Noir) after noticing Yeung’s fierce, feline vibe. “Sometimes what you see or feel from a picture of somebody is what she has inside,” she says.
Johnson always dreamed of modeling, but was considered too short (her silver hair nearly blankets the top half of her 5'41⁄2" frame). Fast-forward a few decades: A video about Johnson’s hair goes viral, and she walks her first runway at 65. The Harlem native, now 68, started going gray in her thirties and turned to bleach. “[My hair] was in such bad condition,” she says, laughing. “I met my husband, and he said, ‘You gotta do something with that head-it’s just not happening.’ ” She loved the look of her natural gray and hasn’t colored her hair since. Inspired by Johnson’s silver mane, Violette added metallic stripes under her eyes with nail art tape. Re-create the detail with L’Oréal Paris Infallible Pro-Last Waterproof Eyeliner in Silver, starting at the inner corners.
In Soane’s hometown in Surrey, near London, makeup wasn’t a big deal. “It’s kind of sporty [there], because there’s a lot of green,” she says. This was perfect for the athlete, who wore almost no makeup as a teen except to fill in her brows. Now, at 19, Soane splits her time between running half- marathons and sitting in the makeup chair for campaigns with brands like Nike. Violette noticed Soane’s low-key vibe and wanted to up the drama. She applied a coral shade from her Estée Lauder by Violette Oh Naturelle! 15 Pan Eyeshadow Palette on her lids and copper glitter close to the lower lash line, leaving room for imperfection. “I like to have some accidents,” she explains. “Like if it falls down a little, it’s going to give this magical touch. It’s going to shine.”
Forrest always knew she was different. Growing up in the Bronx, where everyone around her had brown skin, made her “feel almost not as beautiful,” she says. And as for finding a role model who looked like her-forget about it. “There was no representation for me,” she remembers. Forrest was one of the first models with albinism to break into fashion when she signed with a modeling agency in 2009, at age 18. “I think there was a love for my unique beauty,” she says. Violette was inspired by Forrest’s light “color mood” and used the Estée Lauder by Violette Oh Naturelle! Pure Color Envy Paint- On Liquid Lip Color in Nude Tease. “I only used nude tones and colors that matched her skin,” Violette says.
“I grew up to be the antithesis of everything I was taught to be,” says Tsunaina, who attended a Nepalese all-girls Catholic boarding school, where women were expected to look simple and unassuming. “I remember walking home from school when some stranger shouted, ‘Who spat watermelon seeds on your face?’ ” She had been saving her money to have her moles removed, but after she moved to London at 18 and received an Instagram message from makeup artist Pat McGrath asking her to model, her confidence took a 180. In keeping with the beauty theme, Violette drew a celestial scene on Tsunaina’s chest and arms with paint and rhinestones that mirrors the constellation Cassiopeia, named for the mythological queen famed for her vanity. For a similar effect, try Dior Diorshow On Stage Liner in Matte White.
“I like my jawline,” TJ says. “It gives that masculine kind of look.” Growing up in Stockton, California, the nonbinary model never encountered LGBTQ resources. “The duality in being masculine and feminine...it was a struggle to balance that,” TJ says. But as the beauty and fashion industries have changed, TJ has been able to find a place in modeling: “I [didn’t] really think I would be comfortable in front of the camera.” TJ’s a natural, though. Inspired by TJ’s tattoos, Violette gave the model’s lips an inked effect, starting with a black base and layering on red and orange lipsticks for dimension. Try Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in Night Bird, Red Velvet, and Chili Pepper.
Hair by Hiro and Mari at Bryan Bantry; Makeup by Violette for Estée Lauder; Manicure by Amy Vega at See Management; Casting by Richard Blandino; Models: Ugbad Abdi at Next Models, Tehya Elam at JAG Models, Diandra Forrest at Skorpion Management, Joani Johnson at 1114 Agency, Tia Jonsson at Anti Agency, Amira Pinheiro at Women Management, Juliet Soane at Muse Management, TJ at JAG Models, Tsunaina at Go-See, and Lily Yeung; Set design by Taylor Horne at MHS Artists; Produced by Anastasia Blades at 360PM.
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