What is Pure Gazelle???

Greetings! What’s Up?! Hi!

Hey, Girl! Salutations! What’s going on?

Welcome to Pure Gazelle! I am Jodi-Gaye. Yes, that’s right! Jodi, then Gaye, together. That’s my first name.

So why are we here? And what is Pure Gazelle? Well… Pure Gazelle is a compilation of my life experience. All the things that I am mixing together and revealing a powerful truth. My goal is to explore where my Christian faith and fashion intersect.  The bible teaches modesty as an important virtue but how do we apply that in today’s world?  What does Modern Modesty look like? Is there even such a thing? But before we get there its important to start at the beginning…

 I am a Jamaican immigrant who grew up in Cleveland Ohio.  Growing up I felt like my home was a mini Jamaican embassy. Once I stepped inside, I felt like I was in another place.  There my parents taught me to love my Caribbean roots and appreciate all things African. 

While I was learning about my roots, I began my career.  As a student of Cleveland Public Schools, I somehow decided in the fourth grade that I would be a Fashion Designer.  I do not remember being told what a Fashion Designer was, only being nine years old sketching out my designs. Eventually I would wrestle with this desire many times and in many ways until my senior year of Cleveland Heights High School, when I decided I wouldn’t play it safe.

 I applied to only one school and got accepted right in to the Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising at Kent State University. I graduated from one of the top Fashion Design Schools in the country with a plan to take on the Big Apple. But even the very best of plans sometimes bite the dust though.

See, when I began designing at nine years old something else happened around that time.  While attending church (shout out to Grace Tabernacle Baptist) I heard the sweet gospel of Jesus Christ.  I can still remember the Sunday school room.  I can still remember pieces of the sermons which would change my young life forever.  I remember how I felt when I realized that I was a sinner and desperately needed/wanted Jesus to save me.   I knew then that God loved me and wanted to know me.

As my career in fashion progressed from an elementary school wish to a college graduate ready to embark a new journey, my relationship with the Lord grew greater, deeper and closer.  Until I was forced to consider…

Lord do you want me to move to New York? See I thought that yes to fashion meant yes to NYC because in the whole Northeast Ohio region there are few if any Fashion Design jobs.  (I know this because I have thoroughly searched)

I choose to heed the call of the Lord, so I stayed and still reside in the Greater Cleveland area.  I took a job at a tailor shop and learned all I could about how clothes fit real people.  I gained knowledge from tailors and seamstresses who have been sewing and fitting clothes for twice my life span.  But I still wasn’t designing, and my heart longed for that.

As my career opportunities dried up my relationship with the Lord bloomed in ways I had never imagined. In this time of waiting I learned to be still and listen to God. Then the Lord began using me in his ministry showing me that he had more for me than just a career in fashion.

I am a student and a teacher of the word of God.  I teach by walking along side women letting them know that I’ve been in rough places that God has brought me through and he will do the same for them.  I get such joy to see other women blooming where and how God planted them. Overcoming obstacles and getting to know God more. It is with that desire that I embark on this new venture.  The same desire to share the things that I struggled with still motivates me today.

Pure Gazelle is the answer to my struggle between my desire to be fashionable and to please God in every way.  The answer is that almost all fashion trends can be worn modestly.  It does take some modifying, but it is totally possible. Modern Modesty incorporates all a woman’s God given attributes and not just her body.

So, before we began this journey of discovering Modern Modesty, I wanted you to know me and why I even started down this road. I look forward to getting to know you and why you felt the need to explore this area too.

I can’t wait to hear from you! So, tell me…

What do you want to know the most about Modern Modesty? 

What do you want to know about what the bible has to say about how we dress?