You're More Like A Victoria's Secret Model Than You Think
Victoria's Secret models have hairy armpits, too.
It can be extremely discouraging to go swimsuit/bra shopping when the models wearing them have tiny waists, big boobs, luscious hair and glowing skin. You think to yourself, isn't it ironic that you don't see these godly, hairless creatures sauntering around in everyday life?
Well, that's because they don't exist.
An anonymous photo retoucher for Victoria's Secret named Sarah recently spilled the beans to Refinery 29 about just how much these model's bodies are altered. Celebrities like Zendaya and Lady Gaga have boldly spoken out on Photoshop before, but coming from someone who's actually been responsible for making stars look "perfect," just exposes the dark side of American beauty standards—and how we as a society feed into this unhealthy body image that simply isn't real.
1. Their boobs aren't real
Open any VS catalogue and you'll see super skinny models who somehow have huge boobs and lots of cleavage—that's because their boobs are retouched before and after the picture is taken.
"They all have [size] A's, " Sarah says, while adding the models wear chicken cutlets and shaping pads to get a firm, round breast shape. "They put a push-up bra under the bathing suit. And we retouch out the bra...a lot of [staffers] would complain because they even did it with strapless stuff. When you're wearing a strapless bikini, in no way, shape, or form [can] you have cleavage. It's physically impossible with the way gravity works."
2. They have body hair (sometimes, lots of it)
Believe it or not, these models have armpit hair and pubes just like the rest of us! It doesn't even matter if the model shaves before the shoot, because there will always be a shadow that gets Photoshopped out—and for that reason, some of the models don't even bother shaving at all.
"They come to these photo shoots and, like, they have their arms up in the classic beach pose, and they have, like, hairy armpits," Sarah says. "They all have stubbly pubes all the normal stuff [non-models have]."
3. They wear hair extensions
Any Victoria's Secret model probably gives you major hairy envy. When I go to the beach, my hair frizzes out to three times it's size and it's definitely not full, luscious or model-status.
Sarah says that as soon as the models arrive on set, they get hair extensions—so a lot of times, that's not their real hair you're looking at.
4. They're made to look curvy
Sarah says a big step of retouching is "adding meat on their bones."
"Models are thinner than you actually think they are, and we retouch them to look rounder," she said. Sarah recalled things like plumping up butts and hiding ribcages sticking out to make their bodies look curvier.
The obvious answer seems to be that curvier models should be hired—but according to Sarah, curvy models don't sell. Sighhhhh.
"One time, during a swim season, they had these two girls come in that had abs and thick thighs and busts. They were really toned and their skin was amazing. They were still obviously models. But they were a different look. But, they didn't sell anything and so they stopped using those girls."
She believes that we've become so accustomed to seeing the same bodies grace every swim catalogue, that something different doesn't sell.
"The reason people retouch bodies is because they're just trying to sell you something," Sarah says. "If someone saw a picture of stubbly pubes, they probably wouldn't buy the thing. They'd be like, 'This is like a really weird picture. Why would I buy this?'"
It's an unfortunate reality the body type that sells according to Sarah isn't even real. These bodies that we're seeing are incredibly altered, so why are we still holding onto the beauty standard that women have to look like this?