OUT WITH THE GAUNT AND TIGHT, IN WITH THE PLU.MP AND JUICY. THERE'S A NEW FACE IN TOWN-AND IT'S A BABY'S.

W o0: o 6 ~ w "-c ,.z .... ABOUT- t;; o 0- o 0:-c ::;: ....-c 0: cW z -c ~ FACE -c w By JONATHAN VAN METER g w o -c z W 0: ~ N.... Z -c o0: W ~ HOWWE t; MADE T H IS ~ WOMAN z z o o -c 6

Michelle Pfeiffer's unfurrowed brow.

Madonna's plumped-up cheeks an d wide eyes.

A WOMAN I HAVE KNOWN for many years did something to her face not all that long ago, and for a few weeks afterward, I was not able to put my finger on it. Did she get her eyes done? Restylane injections? Botox? Then I thought, Oh dear God, shegot aface-lift. Angelina Jolies super-straight nose No onewhom I consider a friend and a contemporaryhadyet gone thatfar. Buttherewas an d lush lips. no denying she had done something major, and frankly I was worried. Had she ruined her pretty face? As the curtain of hair slowly parted a little each week, I could see that her lips were bigger. Nowhere near overcooked-hot-dog-turning-inside-out bigger like Meg Ryan's, and not even duck-bill bigger like Courteney Cox's-butbig enough to make Demi Moor e's me feel uncomfortable looking at her mouth when she talked. Don't look at her lips! angular ja wlin e.

26 NE W YORK I AU G UST 11 , 2008 Photo-illustration by Nucleus Imaging Then one day, about a month later, I ran for beingbeautiful. The pointis thatthere is up to the same proportions firs t noted intoherata partyandshelooked stunning. a noticeable aesthetic shifthappeningin the by the Greeks to be aesthetically pleas­ The puffiness had settled, the fire under face, and that it's dovetailing with quantum ing. More recently, a scientist named Mi­ theskin had gone out. Even herlips looked leaps in plastic surgery and dermatology. chael Cunningham took it upon himself like they belonged on her face. They were Through some unholy marriage of ex­ t o study the faces of 50 women, half of shaped just like her old lips, but ... juicier. treme fitness and calorie restriction (and whom were finalists in an international Her whole face looked as if it had been maybe a little lipo), women have figured beauty pageant. In "Measuring the Phys­ pushed out and plumped up-not unlike outhowto tame their agingbodies for lon­ ical in Physical Attractiveness"(it alics a slightly tired but still very stylish down­ ger than ever. You see them everywhere iri mine), he wrote that the width ofan eye, filled sofa thatlooks almostnewifyou keep New York City: forty- and fiftysomethings ifitis to be partofa beautiful face, should those cushions fluffed. I cannot say that who look better than a 25-year-old in a be precisely three-tenths the width ofthe she looked exactly like her old self-but so fitted little dress or a tight pair ofj eans. face, and the chin ought to be just one­ close! A fantastic approximation! An un­ But this level offitness has created a new fifth the height ofthe face, while the total canny resemblance! She looks like avery problemto which the NewNewFace is the area ofthe nose had better be less than 5 impressive artist's rendering of her. solution-gauntness. Past a certain age, to percent ofthe total area ofthe face or ... But there was also a faint likeness to paraphrase Cath erine Deneuve, it's either you is ugly! someone else. She looked a little like ... your fanny or your face. In other words, if Intheend,thescience of beauty seems to Madonna? Strange, I know, since Madon­ your bodyis fierce (from yoga, Pilates, and pointto a few general parameters: We tend na and my friend have little in common, at thetreadmill), yourface will have no fat on to like large eyes, high cheekbones, a small least physically. Butwhen I sawthe Big Cic­ it eitherand it will be ... unfierce. It was only nose, a large smile; and a small chin. What cone on the cover ofVanity Fair a couple of a matter of time before a certain segment the scientific literature doesn't mention is months later, I couldn't help but notice the ofthe fem ale population would figure out that we like it all to be as young as poss ible. similarities: the Mount Rushmore cheek­ how to have it both ways, even if it mean s This was n't always the case. The Gibson bones, the angular jawline, the smoothed working outtwo hours a day an d then pay­ Girl ideal ofthe early twentieth century, forehead, the plumped skin, the heartlike ing someone to volumize their faces, as writes Daniel Delis Hill in Advertising to shape ofthe face. Their faces didn't seem they say in the dermatology business. As a the American Woman, had the features pulled tight in that typical face -lift way; friend of mine recently pointed out, there ofa mature, fully formed woman: ''heavy they seemed pushed out. Looking at Ma­ is now a whole new class of women walk­ lidded eyes 'accented with thick lashes; donna, I keptthinkingofthe British expres ­ ing around with wiry little bodies and ''big fine, high eyebrows, pronounced cheek­ sion for reconditioning a saddle: having it 01' baby faces." And they look, well, ifnot bones and firm jawlines." In the forties "restuffed." Perhaps that's where she got exactly young, then attractive in a different and fifties, the most successful models of the ideato have somework done.Afterthe way. A yoga body plus the New New Face the day- Dovima, Lisa Fonssagrives, Suzy hunt, Madge dismounted her trusty steed may not be a fountain ofyouth, but it's a Parker-were elegant, haughty, aristocrat­ and thought, My saddle needs restuffing. fountain ofindeterminate age. ic, especiallywhen photographed by Irving And, by George, so doesmuface! Penn or Richard Avedon. The sixties and Women h ave been availing themselves seventies broughta seachange that created ofnew faces since the dawn of plastic sur­ a younger beauty ideal, but the aesthetic gery, but suddenly it seemedthat there was was more casual than adolescent. a better newface to be had. There is a New But in the last ten years, perhaps with New Face, very different from the old one, the comingofBritneySpears, the age ofthe andboth my friend andMadonnanowhave ideal has dropped precipitously. Nowboth it. Once I starting thinking of it in these fashion and celebrity magazines are filled terms-theface as the new handbag,say-I with images of teenagers-whetherthey're started seeing NewNew Faces everywhere: Eastern European models or tanned Cali­ Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Liz Hurley, fornia reality stars. Their faces are plump Naomi Campbell,Stephanie Seymour.They an d dewy and flushed with youth. As thin all have it! Even the Olsen twins seem to as their bodies are, theystill haven't entire­ have a starter version of the NewNew Face, ly shed the baby fat in their faces . This, it with theirbig crazy doll eyes and plushlips. SYCHOLOGISTS . seems, is what women in their forties and Justto be clear, I don't presumeto knowex­ and anthropologists have long tried to fifties are now after: babyfat. actly what any ofthese women have done nail down what makes us perceive one It's impossible to pinpoint exactly when to their faces, if anything at all. It's possible face as beautiful and another not. There or howa newaestheticis born, but it seems (th ough in somecases before-and-afterpic­ are theories about the math of it, the clear that once we became obsessed with tureswouldseemto suggestotherwise)that "Golden Ratio"-how, ifyou take careful the baby face ofthe teenage girl, the world this face is occurring entirely naturally­ m easurements ofthe lines and triangles of dermatology came up with more and after all, these are women who are famous formed by a beautiful face , they will add better ways for us to achieve the plump­ ness ofyouth. We've moved way beyond simply injecting bovine collagen into our PAST A CERTAIN AGE, TO PARAPHRASE lips. Today there's a dizzying nanotechno­ logical world of hyaluronic acid and colla­ CATHERINE DENEUVE, IT'S EITHER YOUR FANNY gen fillers-Zyplast, Cosmoderm, Perlane, OR YO UR FACE - UNLESS YO U Juvederm, Evolence, Sculptra-each with SPEND TWO HOURS A DAY IN THE GYM AND PAY a different ''bead'' size targeted to fill every wrinkle on the face (microscopic for the SOMEONE TO "VOLUMIZE" YOUR FACE. lines around the eyes, heavier gauge for a

28 FAYE DUNAWAY MEG RYAN CHER MELANIE GRIFFITH Age: 67 Age: 4 6 Age: 62 Age: 50

{Figs. 2-S}

THE OLD NEW FACE

DEMI MOORE MICHELLE PFEIFFER ELIZABETH HURLEY NAOMI CAMPBELL Age: 45 Age: 50 Age: 43 Age: 38

{Figs.6-9}

THE NEW NEW FACE

cheek or nasolabial fold). With these tools, She's a very attractive woman, 54 years old. lier, Rosenberg met with 50 people in this a woman can dramatically alter her face ''What she's developing is descent; 'he says. room,showing them pictures ofthemselves without going anywhere near a surgeon's "The jowls have made the jawline more as they are and as they could be. He is the office.All that's required are twice-a-year square. A little bit of hooding on the upper beneficiary of a whisper campaign among injection appointments with a cosmetic lids:' Descent. Falling. Your face is falling. a certain New York-Euro society-fashion dermatologist. And then, when a friend The sk-y might as well be falling. "We all crowd for his subtle face-lifts and coveted comments on her appearance, she'll re­ have our pretty days, and some people are nosejobs. (He did three times as many nose spond, withoutguile,"Plasticsurgery? Me? more beautiful than others; says Rosen­ jobs this year thanlast.) The fashion maga­ Heavens, no!" berg. "But we all age the same way. Our zines have been writing about him. In fact, necks get loose, and our eyesget tired:' justa few daysafter I methim, I haddinner TIME IS NOT KIND to a face. In Dr. David Rosenberg is a fit, compact, and stylish with a good friend who is the publisher of Rosenberg'sconsultation room, ahigh-tech 41-year-old with a sweet, almost feminine one of those magazines. When I told her I mini-theater dominated by a big recliner nature. He has three children with his was working on a piece about plastic sur­ that looks like a seat in first class, we are wife, Jessica Lattman, who is also a plastic gery, she leaned in and whispered, ''You scrolling through women's faces on a flat­ surgeon. And hilariously enough, he has a must talk to David Rosenberg:' Then my screen 1V."Here's another one;' he says, as crooked beak-he needs a nosejob! friend, who will tum 60 next spring, con­ he manipulates the screen from his laptop. Today alone, starting twelve hours ear- fessed that she had just plunked down a in the jawline. To this day, the SMAS op­ eration remains theworkhorseface-lift. In the mid-eighties, a Swedish doctor began to go under the SMAS,the beginning of a w process thatled to the deep-plane face-lift I

of the early nineties. ,SU Z But even as surgeons worked with deep­ W w "'wg~ er layers ofthe face,the aesthetic was still a ~ z - 0 superficial tautness. ''When I was in early Nv> ft:; 'training;' says Rosenberg, "I kept hearing ~ >­ :::;'" the phrase,'This doctor makes the neck re­ \.?v> w Z ally tight:Andthatwas a good thing.That " 0 <: f: was the operative word. Tightest neck out "'",- <: ~ >- ~ v> there! "The surgeries were obvious and, in <:~ some cases,seen as status symbols."It'slike ~ ~ >z wearing a big shiny Rolex, "saysRosenberg. ;< 0 "'I have enough money that Dr. X did it:" U f: "'u<:w >- ~ But tight is no longer the operative word. "' ~ <:0 "Eighteen-year-olds, they are never tight. w U I ~ What they have is definition:' (Her again: t: ~ ~o {Fig.n} {Fig.lO} that round-and-soft-and-also-somehow­ ;:'w"'''' wI THE DIAMOND NOSE THE ROSENBERG NOSE perfectly-defined teenage girl!) ",>­ > .. What has transpired in the pa st ten ~ ~ 0'" ~ '" years, says Rosenberg, is "further dissec­ ~o "U tion ofthe deeper layers"for a face-lift that wVi ~ a; $4,000 deposit and Will be going under the surface ofthe skin. , is almost entirely muscular. Rosenberg and ~'" ::;:0 Rosenberg's knife for.a face-lift later this A cursory history ofthe face-lift is prob­ surgeons like him go under the cheek-fat ZzU 0<: year. All told, it will cost her $30,000, in- . ably necessary at this point. In about1905, pad and disconnect the platysma, which is f:::;: u>­ w >­ eluding recoveryin a fancy hotel and a pri­ surgeons figured out thatthey could make a sheet of musele that supports the lower ~w vate nurse attending to her every need. an incision in front of the ear, cut away a face, then they resuspend it higher with o~ U~ For many women, the New New Facebe­ bit of skin, and sew it back up to make the stitches under the skin. "That's how you ", '" w'"\.? o gins in theirthirties and forties with a little face look less old. Then, in the twenties, fix the surface-from below," he says. "I z U <: "V; "'>­ Botoxhere, a littlefillerthere.Toextend the the "skin flap" was invented, a procedure am working on the undersurface, and ev­ \.?Z WW erything gently comes with it. So there's I ::;: handbag metaphor a bit further, it is the that involves peeling the skin back like a >- w dermatological version of the mini-Birkin. bedsheet, allowing for much more skin to a feminine quality, it's soft and smooth. ....:0 ~ >- When it heals, you don't see tension on ~ w A starter bag. But real, serious, grown-up be cut away for a tighter result. In 1976, ::;:~ o~ New New Face business cannot-at least a surgeon discovered the SMAS (or su­ the outer surface:' ",0 ~w at my friend 's age-be achieved with fill­ perficial musculoaponeurotic system), a Rosenberg is also subtly shifting the v;19 :::I:Lij shape ofthe New Nose."Unlike a face-lift, a.> ers and Botox alone, something she's been cellophane-thin lining just under the skin <: ­ ", I doing for years, with disappointing results. that is part of the musculature of the face. where you are restoring what someone \.?U 0'" >- <: For women in their fifties and sixties,New Ifyou lifted the skin and tightened the once had, with a nose you are absolutely 0>­ New Face construction begins far below SMAS, you got a much bigger correction changing it, making it completely differ- 0.<:I '"

{Figs. 12- 25} 3,378 YEARS OF THE "IT" FACE

NEFERTIT I VENUS DE M ILO BO TTI CELLI'S VENUS M ADAME x CLARA BOW GRACE KEL LY AUDREY HEP BURN A high, regalforehead, Aface like a balanced A pronounced Ajutting chin and An early example Theorigin al nose that . A triangularf ace with small.features, equation, with no part oval with a longer, tip -tilted nose skew ofwaifdom:plump launched a thousand compressed.features; andfinejawline. dominating the others. less sharply defined her otherunse classic cheeks and afull, ski-jump rhinoplasties. her large, wide-set eyes nose. proportions. pou ting lower lip. are almost halfway down herfac e. ent," he says. The nose on the New New Face is strong and architectural and straight. Neither flared nor pointed. More Greek than Roman. It's also the kind of nose job that you'd never notice without before and after pictures (note Ange­ lina Jolie's very slightly slimmed master­ piece).Whatit is most certainly not is the cute little ski-jump nose that was ubiq­ uitous in the sixties and seventies-and even popped up again recently on Ashlee Simpson's face. The "Diamond Nose," as it was known 30 years ago, was named after a Dr. Howard Diamond of Manhat­ tan , who supposedly did more rhinoplas­ ties than any surgeon before him. When I tell Rosenberg that a promi­ nentfashion editor told me thatpeople in her crowd are talking about the "Rosen­ 1991 200 8 berg Nose," he is visibly moved. ''Awwww. That is crazy:' He looks away for second, {Figs. 26 and 2 7} apparently misting up. "Nose surgery THE JOLIE NOSE is so ... hard. So technically difficult to master. Youhave to plan for adjustments with healing. Things settle, it's almost like making a ... a ... wine."He smiles broadly. Old New Face and New New Face. DECIDED TO E - MAIL Liz Rosen­ "This is the first time I'm hearingthis. You "Meg may thinkshe looks beautiful ," berg, Madonna's publicist since don't know how exciting this is:' he says carefully. "But what we are fuh-evah (and no relation to the Rosenberg didn't do Angelina's nose, picking up on is a sense that maybe doctor), to see if she would have although he wouldn't admit it even ifhe there is an overinflation of the lips, lunch with me and talk about ce­ had . Plastic surgeons are very careful not there's an overabundance of fillers lebrities and plastic surgery.''Ab­ to talk about their famous clientele, be­ in her face." He pauses. ''What I see sofuckinlutely,' she wrote back. cause it is the last secret that celebrities with Demi is more of an operation. "Though why you think anyone try to keep. The stars still require after­ Let me say it this way: I see preser­ I represent has done anything to hours appointments with an empty wait­ vation of definition, a preservation their faces is beyond me. Ha-ha. ing room and a special back entrance at of facial architectur e. Angularity. Very Getting any artist besides Joan Riversand Manhattan Eye and Ear,where he does all pretty." He mentions Madonna admir­ Kathy Griffin to go on record about the ofhis surgery.But it'sdifficultto talk about ingly as well. "You see the architecture of subject is not easy. Of course one of the the changing aesthetics of plastic surgery the jawline, you see the architecture of the great quotes came from my gal Cher, who without, well, examples,so reluctantly he cheekbones." said in an interview, 'If! want to put my agrees to apply his highly trained eye to "She didn't lose her face," I say. tits on my back it's my business.' Whatev­ the faces of Meg Ryan and Demi Moore, "Shegained it," saysRosenberg. er Madonna has (Continued on page 86)

BRIGITTE BARDOT TWIGGY CHERYL TIEGS CHRISTY KATE MOSS LIYA KEBEDE ANGELINA JOLIE A squarish chin A n ooalfa ce, with The trapezoidalface: TURLINGTON A squa re-trianglecombo Another long High cheekbones offsets her plush lips wide-set eyes, high cheekbones over A long oval divided with unncrvingly oval, but with a andcushionylips, and butt on nose. a long nose,andthat a squarej aw, with almost perfectly in wide-set ey~ ; prominent, high a long, sharply child ishlyplump narro w eyes and thirdstforehead to the slightly squashed forehead andbow angledj awline, and lower lip. a broad mouth. wide-set eyes andhigh nose and plush.mouth mouth . deep-set eyes. cheekbones tofull. counter thepointychin. wide lips.

AUGUST 11 , 200 8 I N EW YORK 31