Beauty

So many girls don't see their own beauty and it breaks my heart. It seems to me as though there are 3 perspectives on beauty.

The first is the most common- it's the view that to be beautiful you need to be really thin, have perfect skin, proportional features, long legs, a constant tan, perfect hair... but then it doesn't stop there, even if you're in the 2% of women in the world who fit this description, any photos taken of you will be airbrushed and enhanced, until you're left with an image which just isn't the way a real life human being looks like. 

The second view is that beauty is on the inside- that if you're a really lovely friendly person then that is what makes you beautiful.

The third view on beauty that you can take, is Gods view

So we had our shoot with Kitty Gallanaugh yesterday, who is just so lovely- and I'm not talking about the second view I mentioned above- but Kitty's beauty transcends earthly perspectives. Her good heart and gentle spirit are very striking when you meet her. This made me think quite a bit.

I obviously feel this way about my models as well. We are working with quite a few models at the moment- the WAHP brand has no model restrictions. So we've often picked models that might not be quite tall enough or have the impossible figure or whatever, but whose real & true beauty shines through, which you might have noticed in our photos.

From left to right, the models above are Amelia, Laura, Zoey & Abi.

Amelia is hilarious, I love everything she says- I think she's brilliant. She's always smiling, and her hair is so wild and exciting! She has such an interesting and cute face shape, and although her appearance conforms to a lot of the normal views of beauty- being thin, toned and with perfect skin, she still looks very friendly, rather than intimidating, which I think is such a lovely thing to have, as well as her gentle eyes which you can't help but be drawn in to.

Laura is mad. I spotted her at the Clothes Show, on account of being insanely pretty, and I found out recently that she's been being watched by Storm since she was 13 or so, which must be a lot of pressure. Her excitement is contagious- she turned me in to a screaming little girl when I first met her. She's the boisterous one of the little crew, keeping everyones spirits up with her joy and high energy, and just makes looking good look easy. Truly beautiful.

Zoey is my little sister bean, not by blood but by heart. Although there is 7 or 8 years between our ages, we're BFFs ;) (young lingo that I picked up from Zo) Zoey is like a dream. She's kind and loving, but always honest with you about where she is at, which I really value. As a model she's perfect, he camera loves all her angles, and she follows direction really well and throws herself in. She has a striking and unique face- she looks like an angel basically. Model scouts pretty much fall at Zoeys feet when they see her but then cry about her being less than an inch too short for the minimum restrictions that they impose. However I don't think that agencies are all that- it's a really nasty industry where as a model you just don't matter, and I'd be worried to have someone I love dearly in an agency. The reason that Zoey looks good in everything might be because of her face and build, but personally I believe that physically she could have a completely different look, and always pull it off because of her self belief. This is something she has struggled with, as have many, and she would say she's still on a journey, but one key thing that I think she's grasped is not to care. Not to care what people think- not because it doesn't matter to you or affect your feelings- but because it's just not worth the time and energy, there are more important things. So Yesterday Zoey threw on a glittery skirt, our colourful pastel galaxy tee, a bright yellow cap, aqua jellies and tied our new jumper covered in colourful humming birds round her waist and was just like 'yeah sup' and because she was like that, she rocked it and looked dope.

Abi is so gorgeous. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I scouted her in some public toilets which was a bit weird, but I couldn't resist her. She's really unique. If I could swap hair with anyone, it would be with Abi. She's so glamorous as well, bringing some much needed womanlyness to the shoot. Her profile is really striking with her face and nose shape which is really different- bringing a chic edge to her look, but what strikes me the most is her gentle nature. She doesn't raise her voice to be heard, but her calm demeanour demands attention subtly- she's just irresistible.

The funny thing is, God sees everyone like this, and then a million times more. I don't know if it's because I'm christian, or older or married, but because God thinks I'm beautiful, even when I'm at my ugliest, (which often isn't a physical ugliness but an ugliness is the way I'm being or living) nothing else matters. And I think that God thinks we're beautiful all the time, because he sees the truth, and the truth is that the physical doesn't matter, and any ugliness shown or done, doesn't make us ugly people because we are forgiven. 

So may you know that you can learn to accept inadequacies that you have, and love yourself, because you are valuable because you are God's child, not because of the way you look.

Kitty is beautiful, and can see beauty really well, which is why her pictures are amazing. They're going to be ready to published soon, so keep your eyes out (The super duper picture above is a sneak peak!). We will be using these images for our Topshop swing tags- as we're going all out to make our work POP in store.

In the mean time, here are some documentary pictures of the shoot by Lizzie, and check out Kitty's work at www.kittygallanaugh.co.uk or find her blog called 'searching for tomorrow'.

Talk to you again soon,

Blessings,

Sarah & Lizzie,

WAHP