In a ‘golden age’ of surgery, we’re all in danger of becoming freaks
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I was talking to a fifty-something designer backstage in Paris this week when I became increasingly distracted by two chipmunk-like swellings in his cheeks. Was he storing nuts in there to see him through the winter? Or had he succumbed to the trend for dermal filler, a shot of hyaluronic acid that is injected to enhance one’s cheekbone and, apparently, improve the symmetry of one’s face.
Cheek fillers are among a suite of popular enhancements that have become commonplace among celebrities, influencers, people on the red carpet and normal folk. They are generally pretty subtle although they tend to show up under certain lights. The tell-tale signs are usually two bright shiny balls of flesh that hover at the base of the cheekbone — although if you are an advanced user, or Simon Cowell, that ball can inflate to right beneath the eye.
In my professional opinion, the use of filler is a mystery: not only does it make the recipient look like a chipmunk, it also makes them appear to squint. Nevertheless, it remains beloved among certain film stars, and has become the gateway to more extensive surgical work.
According to the current conversation, we are living in a golden age of surgery. Facial surgeons are now virtuosi. This is the era of the forever 35-year-old face. Even if you cannot stretch to the six figures spent by Kris Jenner, the Kardashian matriarch who employed the skills of New York’s Dr Steven Levine to transform her 69-year-old visage, even quite average surgeons, I am told by those who know the market, can achieve spectacular results.
I’ve been thinking muchly about this in the past few weeks while sitting on the benches watching various fashion weeks. Models continue to be uniformly thin, depressed and prepubescent looking (which perhaps explains the sheer elation that met the finale of the Chanel show — at last a model sporting a wide, delicious grin). The front row is a microcosm of current fads and trends.
Last year was all about the somewhat furtive use of semaglutides that has seen so many people shrink. That early shame has now given way to widespread usage, where everyone is microdosing to shed those extra pounds. Lots of my peers are now far smaller than they were previously: there is “no excuse” for carrying extra weight.
https://archive.md/2025.10.11-112924/https://www.ft.com/content/2d159a9b-a583-4420-ab4f-09f9c56b2278#selection-2253.0-2273.710