DE1162 / FAKE / Christopher McParlan

FAKE S/S15

magazine

ISSUE 1 - THE CONCEALED ISSUE

fm aag a kz i nee THE CONCEALED ISSUE 2

• All Wrapped Up

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• Is Plastic Really All that Fantastic?

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• Body Isolation • Credits

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FAKE magazine

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The concealed issue

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IS PLASTIC REALLY ALL THAT FANTASTIC?

Spotting whether a celebrity has had cosmetic surgery has become somewhat of a hobby over the last decade. From Heidi Montag’s full body overhaul in 2009, to Renée Zellweger debuting her new face at the Elle Magazine Women in Hollywood Awards earlier this year; we all love to speculate on who has had “work done.”

The boundary between ‘ideal’ and achievable beauty is becoming increasingly blurred. Statistics from BAAPS (British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) show that over 50,000 cosmetic procedures were performed in 2013 - a 17% rise from 2012. More people than ever before are having their noses straightened, faces lifted and lips plumped, and it is claimed that the primary reason behind why people choose to go under the knife, is a lack of self-confidence.

“What we have seen over the last 10 to 15 years is growing acceptance,” says president of BAAPS Rajiv Grover, on the acceptance of plastic surgery within society.

In past years, cosmetic surgery has been glamourised into some kind of plastic-fantastic notion, in fascinating campaigns shot by photographers including Steven Meisel and Jamie Nelson; for clients such as Vogue and Tom Ford.

However, models featured in these campaigns, such as Margarita Babina and Crystal Renn, have not actually undergone any of the procedures that these photographs illustrate; from lip injections to eyelid surgery. This provokes the question: while we may accept plastic surgery as a prop, will we ever accept it as a reality in the fashion industry?

“Some campaigns I have seen don’t represent the process or emotional aspect of surgery at all,” patient Kathryn Clusky tells Fake Magazine.

In contrast to this, Baarde Lunde shot a series of images for an editorial entitled “Pull Yourself Together”. The images show Jordan Almen’s skin being stretched by wires, her breast being sliced and her mouth being held open with surgical devices. This series manages to depict a totally different side to what the other campaigns were attempting to convey - illustrating the pain, brutality and invasiveness that comes with surgery.

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Last September, New York Fashion Week saw the first ever plastic surgery fashion show. Renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Ramtin Kassir showcased his “Faces of Beauty” - where people he had operated on walked the runway, revealing their new noses, waistlines and wrinkle-free foreheads. All of this was created in an effort to prove that plastic surgery is accessible to anyone - not just the Janice Dickinsons and Amanda Lepores of the world.

“It’s great that these people are confident, but it can make surgery look like a novelty,” Clusky adds.

Speaking to Net-a-Porter’s The Edit, Victoria’s Secret Angel Alessandra Ambrosio revealed that at just 11 years old, she underwent a cosmetic procedure to have her ears pinned back. “They stuck out a bit. I found this doctor in my hometown who had only done it once before. For a year, I had to go back for mini-surgeries.” However, almost no models have admitted to having any sort of surgery. Is this because we only want to see “natural beauty”? Or is it because it is taboo in the modelling industry to have altered yourself, when your career solely depends on your appearance?

It appears that the desire to have cosmetic surgery is a reality in both the celebrity world and everyday society, providing an insight into an obsession with eyebrow height and bra size. Despite this, the subject of surgery has remained relatively untouched other than through glamourising such procedures for photographic purposes, with models who do not represent real patients. This leads us to wonder: are we a culture captivated with natural beauty? And can we begin to glamourise different body types, rather than these procedures?

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FAKE magazine

credits THE CONCEALED ISSUE Writer & Photographer Christopher McParlan Models Abby Old, Carolyn Jalaly, Jane McCready, Sophie Ivanoff Fashion American Apparel, Topshop Makeup MAC Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Yves Saint Laurent

FM AAG A KZ I NEE

cover: abby old shot by christopher mcparlan