鉛華洗盡：浮華面紗下的本色回歸

“素顏風潮”席卷時尚娛樂界，各大娛樂時尚雜志紛紛以明星“素顏”出鏡為賣點。繼法國版《Elle》雜志2009年4月號的主題“鉛華洗盡”之后，美國版《Harper’s Bazaar》2009年9月號亦策劃了一期名為“實實在在的美麗”的主題。這場“素顏革命”引發的不僅僅是對“本色回歸”的討論，更是滿足了眾看客的偷窺欲——鉛華褪盡，明星還美麗嗎?會不會如狗仔隊偷拍的那些“妝后”照片那樣，讓人既驚又喜?——驚于化妝技術之高超，喜于明星也并非美得無懈可擊。其實，無論是天然雕飾下，出水芙蓉般的素顏，抑或是濃墨重彩下，堪與桃花相映紅的俏顏，真正讓時尚娛樂界為之傾倒的，是名叫“美麗”的東西。

——Mac

1)Elle’s no makeup issue， an all-black issue of 2)Vogue， a shift toward healthier runway models and a demand for older models 3)evince the fundamental changes underway in the beauty industry.

April’s issue of French Elle featured eight well-known European stars without makeup or retouching. The Stars Without Makeup issue embraces the beauty of the women without their makeup， rather than pointing out their flaws， as is common practice in U.S. 4)tabloids.

But the claims of “no 5)airbrushing，” “no makeup，” or “no photoshopping” are not without controversy. Claiming to feature models without makeup or 6)touch-ups can 7)put advertisers in the hot seat if doubts arise. As for the stars without makeup issue of French Elle， the political blogger Matthew Yglesias expressed his point: “In some ways， I think this might actually be a step back.”

“A lot of people have done a lot of work over the years to get people to understand that images you see on magazine covers are not images of actual human beings. They’re complicated collaborations between photographers， hairstylists， makeup people， and digital image-retouchers that use real people as an important element of source material. The results have an extremely vivid8)hyperreal quality to them that we intuitively respond to as if we’re just looking at pictures of people， but we can come to understand what’s really happening and that nobody ought to 9)beat themselves up over not looking like a computer-retouched image.” He writes in his blog.

The fact remains that we are living in an incredibly visual culture， and the majority of visuals we’re bombarded with continue to be of “perfect，” 10)unblemished women who have11)lucked out in the genetic lottery department and have been worked on by a team of experts: A trainer， a 12)dermatologist， a makeup artist， a hair stylist， a photographer with assistants in lighting， a photo editor to choose the best shot and an art team to digitally 13)manipulate that picture into the “image” that ends up being printed. So how is showing “stars without makeup”—and not in a cruel， tabloidy way—a step back? Isn’t any opportunity to question the 14)artifice we’re subject to a step forward?

Of course， then there’s the question of what the viewers， really want out of a magazine. While the ladies on French Elle are indeed beautiful without makeup， would you still be interested in the magazine if they were not pleasing to the eye? Don’t we require our “stars” to indeed be “heavenly”—more beautiful than we are， with fewer flaws and that certain something that sets them apart? Otherwise， why are they stars? Why 15)elevate them?

Yglesias writes， “At a time when public awareness of the fakeness of magazine covers is growing， we get a new artifice presented as 16)unadorned reality.” But certainly we’re aware that French Elle’s “reality”—stars without makeup—is not a feat of 17)photojournalism or a documentary. It’s still a fashion magazine. But in the context of other， more manipulative publications， it does 18)shake things up. And think about this: If all magazines suddenly did away with artifice， would you miss it? Do you open a 19)glossy magazine hoping to see glamour， stunning makeup and 20)sumptuous clothes? How much more “real” are you actually willing to get?

Tabloids in the States love pointing out 21)cellulite on 22)candid photos of celebrities at the beach， and most magazine covers feature heavily made-up， heavily airbrushed photos of models or celebrities. But the attitude of U.S. consumers may be on the move toward a more realistic model and star.

23)Baby Boomers in the United States have changed the type of models in demand， looking for faces and bodies in advertising that more accurately reflect their own self-image. Models such as 24)Naomi Campbell (39)， 25)Christy Turlington (40) and26)Claudia Schiffer (38) are preferred to 20-somethings for campaigns aimed at more mature women.

With retouching once a very expensive last resort option， it is now commonplace in the fashion world. But more and more stars have chosen to pose without the security blanket of makeup or retouching. In 2009 People Magazine did an entire photo feature of celebrities looking great without makeup; some stars were invited to do the photoshoot without makeup: 27)Eva Mendes， 28)Cindy Crawford， 29)Claire Danes and 30)Amanda Bynes.

As one of the stars invited to the photoshoot， Crawford， the supermodel says “I think 10 years ago it would have been harder for me to do this picture. But as I’ve gotten older and my life has changed， I wear less makeup. I’m just more comfortable with myself now. My husband gives me confidence， too， because I don’t feel like I have to put makeup on to look beautiful to him. And my kids don’t like makeup at all because when I put it on， they think I’m going to work. To me， a bad face day means a bad night’s sleep. Even makeup does not make you feel better.”

《Elle》雜志有一期專題為“鉛華洗盡”，《Vogue》雜志出了一期只用黑人做模特的“全黑”號，外形更健康的T臺模特日益受寵，大齡模特也有市場，所有這一切都表明，時尚產業出現根本轉變。

法國版《Elle》雜志四月號專題是拍攝八位著名歐洲女星的素顏，并且沒有對她們的照片做任何潤飾，這期“鉛華洗盡”展現的是女性的素顏美，而不是像美國小報的一貫做法——直指她們的瑕疵。

但是“不加潤色修飾”、“素顏”或者“不用電腦PS”這些主張，并不是沒有爭議的。如果對模特“素顏”或“零潤色”上鏡的主張的質疑聲音響起，那么廣告商就會如坐針氈。對于法國版《Elle》該期“鉛華洗盡”的主題，政評博客主馬修·依格雷西亞斯評論道:“從某些方面看，我覺得這實際上很可能是一種倒退。”

“這些年來，很多人做了大量努力讓大眾明白雜志封面上的人物形象并非真實的人像。……