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.