“Opening Their Eyes”—Latest Beauty Freaks

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7201, 26 April 1930, Page 10

“Opening Their Eyes”—Latest Beauty Freaks

Aesthetic Surgery ... Slitting Eyes to Obtain Greater Beauty ..Irises are Now Tattooed ! ... Sewn-up Mouths, Padded Cheeks and New Noses . . .

PARIS beauty surgeon is now furnishing girls with big, soulful eyes by a few light touches of the knife. He simply slits the

outer corner of each, eye rim about an-eighth of an inch and lo! a sleepylooking maiden is suddenly transformed into a ravishing “vamp” with huge, dazzling, irresistible orbs resembling violet moons. If the young thing’s eyes are still not bright enough the surgeon cuts out a narrow strip of the cartilage that holds up the upper eyelid and then puts in a few stitches to hold up the latter, lifting it about an eighth of an inch also. One would think that such a small change would hardly be noticed, but the effect of this double enlargement, vertically and horizontally, is amazing. The maiden is literally all eyes (writes R. S. Fendrick, from Paris).

; If. the surgeon cuts a full oneeighth of an inch both ways there is just enough eyelid left for the young Circe to cover up her eyes when she sleeps, but not a hair’s breadth to spare.

“I did not originate this operation simply to provide young and old coquettes with new wiles,” Dr. Ray mond Passot told me in all seriousness, “nor to make the female sex more deadly. If any woman believes she will be prettier or more effective with big eyes, I will slit them for her, provided that they are perfectly healthy. But the real reason I corn trived this operation was because many actresses, pianists, danseuses and other professional people are cursed with drooping eyelids that give them a drowsy appearance. Sometimes they are born this way; in other cases the heaviness comes with age. This is a considerable handicap for any woman, for it makes it difficult for her to appear gay, alert, animated.

“The elevation of the upper eyelid by removal of a piece of cartilage greatly improves the expression in most cases, but, experimenting further, I discovered that the average woman becomes far more gay, animated and youthful when, in addition, I slit the outer ends of the eye rims. Many women don’t know it, but their eyes are too small for their faces; at least, too small if they wish to appear to their best advantage. The nicking of the angle of the rim adds just what they need. The operation is simple, painless, without danger and lasts for: life. The eyes do not pop out,"-■as one might believe, but the eyeball appears much larger; 'The vision is not affected.

“I recently opened the eyes of several young actresses, girls who had not always been able to find work regularly because they were not exceptionally beautiful. Since then they have had astounding success. People like the baby stare.” Dr. Passot is the surgeon who has just provided Madame Ceeile Sorel, the famous actress of the Comedie Francaise, with a new nose. , She had the curved, aquiline Bourbon type, but wanted a classical Greek one;

A few weeks ago, however, he performed . a much more sensational operation. A wealthy American woman living in Paris thought that she would be more beautiful if her mouth were a trifle smaller. In reality she had a very pretty mouth, not a bit too large. Dr. Passot himself insisted that it was as perfect as it could be, but the American woman had, always passionately longed to have' a tiny mouth, and so she had him put a few stitches in each end. They are entirely invisible, and a stranger would think that she was born that way. The stitched-up mouth is quite attractive and the woman is highly pleased.

Having Their Eyes Tattooed

"I suppose you know that there is. a craze among a few smart women now for slanting Chinese eyes?" the surgeon continued, with a smile. “It is comparatively easy to arrange. We simply pull the skin upward from the cuter corners of the eyes, cut out a quarter moon of scalp under the' hair as in an ordinary face-lifting operation, and then pull the edges together with stitches. These stitches are invisible and the effect is undoubtedly oriental. I don’t think it becomes the average Anglo-Saxon'face; but when my clients insist I do it for them; if I refused they would go somewhere else. The skin sags in a year or two, of course, but by that ’time the women are glad to be rid of their Chinese slant. “There is also a vogue for changing the colour of the eyes. A woman can have any tint she wishes tattooed into the iris. The operation is painless, the colour is fast and the vision does not seem to be affected. But the patients are not always satisfied A woman will choose a colour —often violet—and then, after it is fixed in her eyes for life, she will find that it does not become her, or does not go well with her hair, or with a new frock. She may regret that she did not choose another shade, perhaps sky blue or mauve. “I try to discourage the women who want to have their eyeballs tattooed

and, in fact, refuse to do it. I believe that the operation is safe enough, but just imagine how unhappy a woman would be if the colour turned sickly and she had to endure some bizarre shade of blue or green as long as she lived! On the other hand, I have heard of cases that turned out wonderfully. Women with dull eyes in pretty faces have been made absolutely sparkling.” Although plastic surgery is commonly thought of as a comparatively recent science, brought into being chiefly through the experiences of the World War, it is, in.reality, an extremely ancient art. It has been proved that .it dates back to the Hindus many centuries ago. At that time, certain crimes of this people were punishable by the removal of conspicuous parts of the body, especially parts of the head, such as the nose or an ear. Such multilation made it impossible for the offender to be' mistaken for a law-abiding citizen. As the outcast moved about from place to place, he tried to replace this loss. The exact methods employed are not known, but it appears that some sort of healing glue was used, although nothing of its composition is known. It seems certain from the records available that at least, in some instances, these operations were successful, enabling the culprits to escape the stigma of their crime. Dr. Passot declares that aesthetic surgery has made such progress in the last several years that the most ordinary-looking woman ban be transformed into a howling beauty; ..that a few deft touches of the knife and scissors will take 10 years off her face in 10 minutes, and that afterward her own mother would not know her. . Is she bald?

The surgeons are now grafting new scalps on human billiard balls. It is a nasty operation,, for the head bleeds profusely, but it is being done. Does she have big ears? That is simple to correct. The surgeon simply shoots in some local. anaesthetic, takes his shears and trims aquarter or half-inch strip off the edge. A few temporary stitches, will give any curl desired. 1 . / Are there pouches under the chm and eyes?

They are nothing but useless fat. The operation is simple. Experts cut out such pouches every day without any bad results. Is the face falling and big wrinkles forming? The surgeon simply does the Fanny Ward, lifting the skin every two years. He cuts quarter moons out of the scalp above the temples: and dews the edges together. When the operation is repeated the stitches are taken in the same place. The result is marvellous. Many actresses have it done every six months. Does a dowager want a dimple?

It is incredible how many do want them. Being gallant men, the surgeons do a bit of neat carving under the skin and make a dimple that even a baby would envy. Is the skin becoming rough and unsightly? The new method is to burn it off; with ,an acid solution. The new skin underneath is invariably pinker and fresher. Sunburn is cheaper, but too brutal. However, a woman must go into hiding for ten or twelve days during this process, and there are very few who can lose so much time nowadays.

Some Warnings From the Surgeon Does Madame wish an entirely new nose?

There is nothing that makes an aesthetic surgeon so happy, for his art reaches its apex of achievement in transforming olfactory organs. Take the case of Madame Sorel, in private life Countess Guillaume de Segur. For 30 years she has been a star, le grande coquette, of the Comedie Francaise, the most-feted woman in Paris, and perhaps in all Europe. She is not only an outstanding beauty, but she plays a great political role. Madame Sorel is the confidante of Ministers, presidents, diplomats, great financiers. Tremendous decisions have been reached in her salons.

Madame' Sorel has, or had, a very distinguished nose—a handsome, maj-

estic, artistocratic aquiline organ of the purest Bourbon type, but curved just a bit . too much to please her. The nose has been much discussed, cartooned and made the subject of backbiting by other jealous women. A hundred or two hundred years ago in France such a curve was the absolute hallmark of aristocracy. For some reason or other it has gone out of style. Several years ago an artist contributed a cartoon of Madame Sorel—showing her with a nose that almost dipped into her mouth—to the Salon des , Humoristes.' The next day the angry comedienne went to the salon, and before a large throng of visitors, smashed the glass and the drawing with an umbrella. That’s how she felt about it. .

But Mamade Sorel recently sold her famous collection of old furniture in order to fit out her new apartment in the Champ's Elysses, with what is called modern art furnishings. It just occurred to, her. to change ; her olfactory organ at the same time, and Dr. Passot did the job between two performances of “Sappho” falling a week apart. A host of admirers - were utterly astounded when they went, to the Comedie Francaise and saw. Ceeile with a classical Greek nose, alluringly feminine, that made her look like a young girl.

The famous comedienne is so pleased that she has engaged Prince Paul Troubetzkoy, the Russian sculptor, to immortalise the new organ in a marble bust. ' ': '

“I particularly want ■to warn women against one thing when they go to have ,their faces remodelled,” the surgeon declared earnestly, “and that is, never let anyone pump paraffin under their skin. This is an old method of smoothing out wrinkles and filling out the face, and I believe that a few beauty doctors still use it, but the results are awful. In-the first place the paraffin melts ip warm weather and runs down toward the chin and the neck. What a mess it makes'. That wax goes just where it is not wanted. I never go to the races on a summer day without seeing some poor victim whose paraffin has shifted to her neck, forming big lumps. It seems that they have it massaged up into their cheeks again, and eventually learn that they must never go out on warm days. “Another objection to the stuff is that it generally turns brown after five or ten years, making the person look sickly and sallow. Also, it increases in volume, causing a person’s face to swell. “I know a woman who injected liquid paraffin into her cheeks with a hypodermic needle, ten years ago. Her face has swollen so much that several doctors have declared positively she was leprous and wanted to send her to a leper colony. She had to call me in as a skin expert, otherwise she would have been deported. I hardly need add that the woman is a horrible sight, and never shows herself in public. Her only desire is to die.

“It is absolutely impossible to remove paraffin from the face after .it has been pumped in. The stuff goes into the tissues and remains locked up in little cells. . Even a deep incision will not get it out.” Dr. Passot also wishes to caution women against having their little toes cut off.

At the present time there is a great vogue all over Europe to have this harmless little projection taken off in order to wear narrower shoes and make the feet appear much smaller. Thousands of these operations have been performed. The aesthetic surgeons are deluged with such cases. “I refuse to perform this operation,’’ the surgeon explained, “blit I learn from women coming to me with their toes off that they are nearly always in pain. After the toe has been cut off at the joint it is very difficult to get a good healing. The rest of the joint remains extremely sensitive and causes great suffering. Some of the victims suffer agonies, but there is absolutely nothing to do to relievo them. They must simply resign themselves to suffer as long as they live.”