Daily Inspiration: Meet Chinaza Moses

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chinaza Moses

Hi Chinaza, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Wow where do I begin!? My name is Chinaza Adeola Moses and I am a full-time creative living out my dreams of using my gifts to impact people’s lives for the better! I work in the Fashion and Beauty industry where I am happy to say that what I do doesn’t feel like work at all. If anything it’s an outlet for my self expression. I use social media to create content surrounded around Faith, Fashion and Beauty! In fashion design I have my own brand called C.Adeola and in the beauty space my brand is called C.Adeola Beauty. Fashion and Beauty have always been things that I was always curious about growing up. I remember taking old pillowcases from my mom‘s house and making clothing for my teddy bears. I remember performing science experiments with anything that I can find in my mom‘s room, my room and the kitchen. I remember taking apart toys and appliances trying to figure out how things worked and the mechanics of it all. Let’s just say I probably was a headache to my mom growing up. I also remember going to clothing stores with my mom and never being able to find anything that fit me, it was always such a dramatic experience. My mother would be furious after leaving the stores with nothing, and I would be in tears because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, and why I couldn’t do something as simple as find clothes to wear. (Little did I know at the time but God created me to create garments which is why what I saw in my head I could never find in stores).
Eventually I took a sewing class in my school as an elective where I learned how to sew, a pillow. I remember loving it so much that I would skip lunch just to go into the sewing lab to make things for myself.

Growing up in a Nigerian household I was exposed to the most lavish garments and fabrics in the world. My parents would get dressed for weddings and parties that we would attended and everyone looked like royalty with all the colors, crystals, sequin, stones and lace. I constantly watched my mother do her makeup and get dressed and I just absorbed it all!

As I got older I got my hands on fashion magazines where I was exposed to beauty and fashion in a very real way! I started experimenting on myself and sisters with makeup and new hairstyles. Their friends started taking notice and requested my services so I eventually turned it into a business. I put a price list together and started taking clients. As I got better God kept opening doors for me to go higher. I remember being booked out 2 weeks in advance sometimes while still going to school and trying to have a social life.

Fast forward to college life, I attended university where I graduated cum laude with a double degree in psychology and sociology. At this point, I hung up the creative dreams because my environment didn’t really nurture creativity as a career . In a Nigerian household, you’re either a Doctor, Nurse, Lawyer or Engineer….Creative artist was not one of them. So I buried any thoughts of that becoming my reality. I remember telling one of my guy friends in college about me wanting to design and he would always encourage me to sketch pictures so he could see if I was any good. I kept a sketchbook with me and would doodle in it from time to time So I could show him. I remember on the day of graduation when I got home my mother was looking over all of my accomplishments and awards…. and I told her that I wanted to try to Be a fashion designer she laughed it off and told me that it wasn’t a career, that I needed to do something serious and continue on to medical school to be a Psychiatrist. But there was a fire in my heart that wouldn’t let me settle. I remember not being able to sleep most nights because in my dreams, I would hear a voice , which I know was Gods telling me to find a fashion school. It got so bad that I stood up in my bed one night and screamed. “OK I’ll do it as long as you let me sleep!” That night I slept like a baby. (Lol)
I woke up the next morning, googled Fashion schools, in the Houston area and I found one downtown called Houston Community College and I went to see a counselor the next day.
That school gave me the fundamentals I needed to design. I started having fashion shows and winning competitions in Houston, God opened so many doors for me within those few years. Since it was only a community college I eventually transferred to The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, where I got exposed to fashion in such a BIG WAY! Being in New York City really molded me into the Designer that I am today. The way that school taught me how to design it’s now a part of my senses its second nature, it’s apart of me. My graduating year at FIT , I won one of the top awards, which landed me my first job in the industry, so I worked in New York and lived there for 11 years.

I had My first runway show during NYFW (New York fashion week) with an organization called The Set NYC it was a collective that let multiple designers showcase on different nights. My collection was a couture collection called “Fractal” it was made out of a paper like fabric which I folded into origami and created garments from it and it was all white. I remember wanting to use all black models for the promo editorial and getting connected with a photographer who worked with some of the top fashion magazines at the time tell me that he wouldn’t shoot my collection unless I changed the models because, “ Black models didn’t photograph well!”
It discouraged me for a moment, but I remember thinking to myself that I will always use black models in any space that I occupy.
I went on to have 2 more collections after that, that I showcased in NYC with a production company called Masstige which then opened the door for me to begin taking custom orders and making one-offs and wedding gowns for clients.

I eventually went back to work in the industry due to seasons shifting in my life. I started getting booked to do hair and makeup for magazines and tv spots with modeling agencies, photographers and stylists. I branched over to image consulting and personal wardrobe styling, which brought me to California a few months out of the year. Things in New York started shifting and after 11 years, I packed up and moved to California where I’ve been living now for 1 year.

I’m currently working in fashion design and content creation here in California which has opened the door for me to be a Fashion/Beauty model and create content for some amazing brands!
My life has taken so many turns career wise but the beautiful part about it all is that I’m getting to use my actual gifts daily and make a living from it! I always hold on to a verse in the Bible that says, “Your gifts will make room for you and give you favor before men” because that’s exactly what my gifts have done, make room for me!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Having great ideas with no seed capital is tough because you have to eventually raise money to expand and take your ideas from concept to reality. But along the way I’ve learned to just show up and God will do the rest.

Anyone can have a really amazing product but if people don’t believe in YOU as a person, they will try and also discredit what you produce.

A struggle for me along the way was realizing that as a creative we have to detach ourselves from what we create. So when I’m creating anything I have to remind myself that I can’t get offended because people don’t react the way I expect them too. My job is to just show up and do the best that I can!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m currently working in fashion design production and content creation which has opened the door for me to be a Fashion/Beauty model and create content for some amazing brands!

I’m most proud of my consistency in showing up for myself. I didn’t give up in spite of all the sets backs and restarts. I’ve had in my life.

The thing that sets me apart from others is God, he designed me with my detailed unique destiny, and the steps to get there and no one can alter that or take it away from me, it’s simply my story!

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
The Bible App: I have a morning devotional that I start my day with. I find this helps me fill up my mind and heart with good thoughts that help center me and carry me through my day

I listen to -Joel Osteen’s podcast as well as -Jay Shetty as well as interviews with Emma Grede.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @beautybetweenthelines
• Youtube: Beauty between the lines

Image Credits
Photographer: Nicolett Electra
Photographer: Osha Waiters
Photographer: Bradley Jacob Cox
Model: Karissa Yates
Model Lilly Lightbourn- Herbert
Model: Nyamuoch Girwath