MODA Lookbook Episode 11: It's a Fine, Fine Line

Apr 16

Apr 16 MODA Lookbook Episode 11: It's a Fine, Fine Line

Welcome to Episode 11 of MODA Blog’s Lookbook series! We wanted to offer our wonderful team the opportunity to create and direct more editorial content for your viewing pleasure. Completely student styled, modelled and produced, the MODA Lookbook hopes to inspire, empower and challenge the talent of our community. Keep your eye out for more Lookbooks coming soon~!

I love Makeup.

In a very unexpected turn of events, makeup was what I turned to as a form of solace during the pandemic. There was something about completely changing my appearance that gave me permission to become an entirely new persona, which I suppose in many ways, aligns with my ethos on fashion.

I enjoy being who I am, and I enjoy giving myself the freedom to expand my understanding of myself through my self presentation. Fashion, makeup, all of that good stuff is my preferred form of self discovery I suppose. Furthermore, MODA blog has always been a kind of playground to me, a kind of space where the limitations of normative society are kind of lifted momentarily, where I can exist in a world with novel rules and expectations, in many ways it’s like putting on a persona like in a Video game or a play, and I think after spending so much time in such a high-intensity academic institution, the opportunity for play became all the more exciting.

For the 11th(!) Lookbook, I wanted to take advantage of the blog’s playground-like nature to engage with my new hobby in a more profound way. I set out to explore the kind of contemporary discourse on makeup as it relates to male-identified individuals, more so with the intention of exploring what stopped me from wearing makeup for so many years. In a lot of ways, I think that knowing that nobody would see me for a while liberated me from the expectation of appearing palatable to a wider audience, spurring my love for makeup, and while I enjoy the freedom, I can’t help but wonder why that limit existed in my mind in the first place.

What got in the way of my wearing makeup?

Though I’m generally comfortable in resisting any dated notions of masculinity, I can’t help but think that my fear to adorn my face with lines and colors was a byproduct of being looked down upon. Like many young men, I was told that makeup was solely worn by women, and while I admired the artistry of the makeup-adorned women in my life, when I made the effort, it was suddenly some kind of indicator that I was at best silly and at worst, a “sissy*” (*redacted buy i’m sure. you can guess what was truly said here).

In what seems to be a combination of aesthetic deep dive and visually appealing act of resistance, this Lookbook presents six tableaus of men in makeup, more than anything with the aim to confidently add to a once quiet, and now burgeoning space. At the end of the day, I’ve always said that makeup is designed to be removable, and it doesn’t have to be something that everyone engages with, and yet at the same time, I’m a great advocate for seeing its short lived nature as a sign that its an object of play, and therefore should not be perceived as any kind of indicator of something ulterior.

Makeup is Makeup.

and I Love Makeup.

Note that this shoot was conducted outdoors and all cast and crew were properly tested prior to shoot. The team kept masks on during the entirety of the session. Models masks were only removed for final photographs.