The New York Times Styles section – which runs in Thursday editions and Sunday ones – often runs provocative articles on fashion and beauty issues. Today, May 28’s cover by Eric Wilson, was truly fascinating: a study of how photoshop has changed the perception of how women in magazines – celebrities and models – are altered by photoshop, and how this has affected photographers, designers, art directors – and other women, particularly young ones, who feel they have to emulate these altered images, in which women are made to look younger, taller, thinner, with fuller lips, etc. Reese Witherspoon on three different covers was shown, looking radically different on each. On a Marie Claire cover, her chin was obviously shorter – and her eye color was clearly a deeper blue on the cover of Vogue than it was on other covers.
“Photoshop abuse,” is what the Times refers to it as – and in Europe, magazines re taking control over it by French Elle devoting an entire issue to “Stars Sans Frads” – Stars Without Makeup. It was shot by the world famous fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, with stars like Monica Belluci and Sophie Marceau going facially naked – we think – before the camera. All in all, the story concludes that we are returning to an era of attempted “truth in beauty,” where the public no longer wants to be duped by manipulated images, or compare themselves to them. We’ll see how long that lasts. Since when do women read fashion mags for a reality check? They read them to fantasize. But for the moment, we can fantasize that it’s truth and reality everyone’s after.
For the moment. – Merle Ginsberg
