Vanity on paper, should we be motivated or intimidated?

Sun, 07/20/2008 10:38 AM  |  Lifestyle

If we talk about makeover plans today and all you can think of is just a haircut and makeup, you really live a yesterdecade life.

Fashion and technology are getting along so well and are inseparable beyond imagination, that no matter if you're an ugly duckling, you still have a chance to present yourself as a princess or prince charming.

Call me superficial, but all the beauties on magazine or TV are mostly artificial, and yet, you and I both still think they're extra special!

I remember what Dolly Parton said in the movie Steel Magnolia: "There's no such thing as natural beauty."

Is it true?

I somehow wanted to reject that statement, but as a vanity worker myself, I have to nod quietly -- remembering how many faces I have smoothened, how many legs I have lengthened, how many wrinkles I have straightened and how much body fat I have put out of sight using Photoshop for various commercial projects I've done the past few years.

Think of all those makeup artists and photo stylists whose jobs became much less important when this "killer software" -- which has successfully become the master of illusion for the amateur eye -- was invented.

Computer technology assists many design aspects for various end purposes. In movie production, the dramatic scene can be created "magically" with 3-D animation program. In interior design, your future dream home -- or mall, club, restaurant, etc. -- can be provided visually by a drafter using AutoCAD or 3D Max.

In fashion design, the garment can be planned and viewed in three dimensions to match your actual proportion, again using computer fashion illustration programs.

In the publishing and advertising world, all images go through a long retouching and editing process until they finally catch your eye in the media or billboard and, phow!, you are amazed and think so many good-looking statuesque human beings were born over the past two decades.

Don't be so naive. The models you see were not always born with porcelain skin, clear glazing eyes, dazzling white teeth, fruity glowing lips, silky shining hair or bodies to die for.

Sure they're above average looking, but Photoshop turned them into more powerful beauties and wonderfully gorgeous creatures on paper.

And don't be fooled by my endlessly changing photos here either. I did a little digital smoothing on my skin and eye bags as well: Vanity rules!

My friends call me a digital plastic surgeon, and they often asked me to wield my digital "knife" to make their pictures prettier. "It's good for self-marketing, especially when your shops are on online," they say, giggling.

Isn't today all about image and packaging, dahling? When dream images and fantasy can brush our vision more imaginatively, why stick with just normal, rather dull, nothing new and less-than eye-popping images of reality? It's a razzle-dazzle world with image makers and marketers selling to the public illusions of what they could become.

This strategy mostly works to motivate some people, but also attracts some contradictions to those who still appreciate the natural aesthetic and authenticity.

"It is rather disappointing when you see the real person and he or she looks nothing like their pictures, it's just fake!" the protesters say.

Similar comments come from those who grew up in the "manual" era, when adding soft lens and filters to the camera and heavy makeup on models to cover imperfections was still in fashion in photos. And the snappiest opposition to this digital beauty would probably came from those who grew up when black and white was still "in fashion" on screen.

As a semi-vintage product myself, I understand we have special connections to the trends from our heyday.

No matter how forward we are with the latest info in technology or new fashion, we often realize that we still miss our mom's homemade klapertaart, or groovin' to mambo-jumbo 80's hits, watching Mary Poppins or Sounds of Music during a lazy weekend at home, or simply laughing at the way we dressed back then with our friends.

New technologies indeed intimidate our classic ego at some point. Especially when you see the nearly 50-year-old Madonna flaunting a body in her video clips that is hotter than yours and you are still in your 30s. Whoops!

Sure these kinds of images will motivate some of us too. Like a friend of mine who's hyper-curious to see what he would look like if his photo was heavily retouched. "Smoother skin! More muscles! Sharper jaw lines! Reshape eyebrows!" he ordered me.

He was happy with the end result, but to me his face rather looked like a baby's bum attached to a gym bunny's body, in other words: it didn't looks like him at all! Just a different preference, I guess, but I strongly believe moderation is important in adding more to you, even digitally.

So, before you aim for your future facelift, nose job, lip implants or liposuction, it is probably better if first you check out how you are going to look on screen.

You can also do it just for fun. It's a good feeling to actually see pictures that usually only happen in your imagination. Isn't technology a great help for fulfilling our dreams?

-- Diaz

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