Designer Marc Jacobs, 58, had a facelift a couple of weeks ago. We know about it because he posted photos of his bandaged face and post-op recovery, tagging his doctor and including the tags #f*ckgravity and #livelovelift. Jacobs has posted more photos since, and I continue to be amazed at how well he’s healed. As I mentioned in the last story, my mom was black and blue for a long time after her facelift. He just looks like he has some minor swelling, which is apparently due to this less invasive type of face lift his doctor invented. In a new interview with Vogue, Marc explained why he was so open about his surgery. He said he wants more transparency around cosmetic procedures. He also called out celebrities who lie about what they’ve had done, saying they set an unrealistic standard.
He doesn’t want to live with shame
I’m 58 years old. I don’t think I look bad for 58 years old. I didn’t feel like I had to do this, but I feel like all of these conversations around aging or around plastic surgery are just like any other conversations to me. The problem comes with the shame around them. And I don’t want to live my life with shame, you know? I find that the way I do that is by being open, transparent, and honest about things. Yes, I’m vain. I find there is no shame in being vain. I find there’s no shame in wanting attention. I find there’s no shame in getting dressed up and showing off a look. You know what I mean? Those are some of the things that give me pleasure. Self-care on every level, whether it’s spiritual self-care or meditation, or whether it’s getting my hair dyed and cut, or spending two hours at JINSoon getting my nails done…those are all part of wellness for me. External and internal wellness are really important. I say the same thing about all of it, which is that the better I feel about myself, the better I’m able to be to others.On why people have shame around plastic surgery
It all comes down to shame and these old paradigms. When you look at current male and female actors, and they’re expected to look a certain way in order for the audience to see them the way they want to see them, they have to uphold this myth that they are what you see on screen, that they’re not real. Who believes that someone will look the same for 30 years on screen? But there is this kind of standard and we’re very much a product of the world we live in. That’s the part that I find really strange. In a world, especially one where a younger generation is all about transparency, disclosure, and honesty, I don’t see why people have this shame around vanity or keeping up with a certain thing. You know, we all have filters on our phones. We all retouch and filter our pictures. That’s the world we live in. It’s like this thing we do because the audience wants it, but the audience wants it because we do it. So it’s this funny little circle. But the thing that I find disappointing or difficult about that circle is that you could just remove the shame, and be honest and straightforward. It seems so crazy when an actor or public figure denies that they’ve done something. And they say like, ‘Oh, it’s olive oil, I bathe in seltzer.’ It’s like, come on. Like all those things might be true, but they’re not why your neck is tight.On his choice to get work done
There’s no disgrace in being old or looking old. It’s just a choice to want to look younger. I don’t think there’s any disgrace in that. There will always be products or treatments, and there will always be some people who prefer to use those products or things as a means to achieve the aesthetics that they prefer. It’s like everything now…to start a dialogue is really what it’s about. It’s just funny how many people responded to my posts in that way of like, ‘Thank you for your transparency, your transparency is everything.’ I think you just need to start a conversation, and then maybe that will have a resounding echo that helps people feel less ashamed. I just don’t think there’s shame in being vain.
You know he’s calling out Jennifer Lopez with the olive oil comment. Maybe she hasn’t done Botox, although I doubt it. I think she’s fudging because she’s surely had other high end dermatological treatments while denying the more popular ones. Kate Beckinsale just claimed she hasn’t had any Botox or work done, which is hard to believe because her face looks completely different. I don’t think celebrities should have to disclose anything if they don’t want to. Just don’t lie about it! Say you’re not comfortable talking about it. It’s understandable that famous people want to shut down speculation but as Jacobs said it’s often obvious. Like Jacobs, Jane Fonda and Susan Sarandon have admitted to the work they’ve had done, which is rare.
It’s also impressive to hear someone say that there’s no shame in vanity or in wanting attention. I’m going to pay more attention to Jacobs now. I bet his face lift will look great once its settled too.
I find his transparency refreshing. I’ve read that getting a face lift in your 50’s is the ideal time-something do with with still having natural fat in your face
Me too.. whoever his doctor was did a great job. I truly have no issue with people having cosmetic surgery.
I think Marc’s idea to have his neck done is brilliant–it looks natural.
My issue with plastic surgery is that work generally looks like, well, work. It doesn’t restore anything, and faces and muscles are delicate and beautiful things and judging from the work I see on those in the public eye, it actually triggers our inbred sense that something is not quite right with someone’s face. We are wired to read faces, and when a face looks slightly distorted, that’s what we see.
@LillyfromLillooet you’re so right. The people I’ve known who have had facelifts or eyelifts may be wrinkle free but it’s always because their faces look a bit stretched and it’s disconcerting. I suspect there is probably only a tiny minority of surgeons who can do subtle work that retains the natural contours and character of the face.
Marc, Jane and Susan are very smart. The best action to take, for famous people who want to shut down speculation, is to just tell the truth.
My mother had her lift when she turned 50. She looked fantastic after about 2 weeks recovery time.
I probably will not do this, for myriad reasons, but I have no judgment for those who do, although I do side-eye those who lie about it. Don’t take us for fools; it’s insulting.
Wow he looks amazing. Sign me up!
Meh. Still not a fan of his.
Agreed. Frances McDormand aside, women who look all Sean Penn craggy tend not to work a lot, and they don’t get to play romantic leads the way Josh Brolin, etc. still do. It’s a different world, but to me, the first step isn’t a man talking about his surgery–it’s getting interviewers to stop asking women if they’ve had any work done. Like the “How do you balance motherhood and work?” question, “Have you had any work done?” seems to be aimed primarily at women.
It’s always: How do you look so young? You’re aging backwards. So what are they supposed to say? Stop asking the question of actresses or female singers. No one asks that question of actors or male musicians/singers who are definitely getting tweaks to stay looking refreshed.
the women with great talent will continue to work: Frances, Streep, Glenn, Olivia Coleman, Isabelle Huppert to name a few are immensely talented so they continue to get roles…those who are whom they are mostly because of their looks struggle with aging. It is unfair though because men even with no great talent (I put Brad Pitt in there) continue to work despite their age as they are leading men with women in the 20s
Yes it is unfair but I like Marc’s honestly here….
@VS Huppert has had work done. It’s subtle, excellent work but surgical. French surgeons usually err on the side of caution – a little rather than too much. It does not detract from your point though which is a very good one.
Ditto Streep. Good, subtle work.
VS you’re completely right about Pitt.
I think it’s great he can be honest, but women are held to different standards and the whole landscape of it is different for men and women. Women are pressured to be effortlessly beautiful – emphasis on effortless. Hence all the claims of just drinking water, running after the baby and using olive oil to look like a svelte goddess. Women don’t lie for fun. I completely agree we should work towards more transparency but that begins by changing the culture, not shaming the people who understandably hide the effort they go to to look a certain way.
Well said.
Hmm, I guess it’s ok to be vain if you can afford to be vain, but this reads like an ad for plastic surgery to me.
Radio frequency and lasers can do wonders. Like wonders wonders. Especially if you can afford the upkeep.
And Xeomin is the Botox that isn’t Botox
Why does it take 2hours to get his nails done? That’s torture, not self care.
Yes, love his frankness about this topic.
Did it say his nails take two hours? I skimmed. But I did notice his nails look great.
I almost spit my coffee out over Kate Beckinsale.
And JLo had number 11’s between her eyebrows and some forehead movements in early aught movies like monster- in-law. They are so gone.
I know good genes are part of it but duh…come on
It’s like Cindy Crawford’s infomercials for her cantaloupe creams, with a slew of worked-on actresses sitting around swearing to the heavens what an ahhhhhhmaaaaazing product it is, and how it’s keeping them so young and dewey looking. PULEEEEEEEAZE pull the other one! EVERY SINGLE ACTRESS in those commercials has had dermatological/surgical intervention.
I have a couple thoughts:
First about that olive oil shade: Jennifer Lopez comes from a culture where cleansing the skin and moisturizing the skin is considered basic hygiene. Her skin in middle age would inevitably be in better condition compared to a person whose culture doesn’t emphasize cleansing and moisturizing and only started a skincare routine when they were an adult (https://dlisted.com/2019/05/12/the-great-do-you-wash-your-legs-in-the-shower-debate-is-raging-on-twitter/). So, yes Jennifer Lopez can plausibly say that she doesn’t do injectibles because she has been taking care of her skin since was a child. And YES it makes a difference.
Second: Actresses can lose opportunities and thwart their careers if they are too open and transparent about plastic surgery and procedures (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/fashion/25natural.html). In the article, a director rejects an actress because he and the casting director merely suspect she has breast implants. Their reasoning: ‘Where is that person coming from as an actor?’
Third: If Instagram and TikTok dermatologists can make silly videos educating people about sunscreen all day (when do they actually see patients?), can’t they help demystify non-invasive and invasive medical procedures to us with the same vigor? Why is the responsibility on the patients?
I agree with the rest of your points except that taking care of your skin as a child and into adulthood is only going to go so far when you’re a celebrity. Of course JLo has had dermatological procedures. Pretty much every celebrity woman does.
When people try to explain and deny that a certain female celebrity has had any type of work done I feel it only furthers the unnecessary stigma.
I’m not saying JLo hasn’t had any dermatological procedures. Just that she can plausibly say she hasn’t had any injectibles because she has taken care of her skin.
I get it but injectables are dermatological procedures. Maybe she hasn’t had those but certainly something comparable. Cleansing and moisturizing don’t fight off collagen loss or facial folds although they can make the latter less noticeable.
No shade to Jennifer Lopez, but…she has definitely had work done. She looks great, the work is very good, very subtle, but definitely work. It takes a lot more than olive oil and La Mer to keep her looking so good. I know someone who uses the same doctor she does. If you want visual proof, just look at recent pictures of her next to her younger sister Lynda Lopez. Lynda looks good also, but you can see that Jennifer puts a lot of effort into maintaining her looks. This is definitely more than good genes at play.
@Queen Megan, This is not meant to be a snarky question. Is Latina culture more focused on skin care than other cultures? If so, do you know what the theoretical origins of that are? Wondering if it’s something similar to Japanese culture prizing whiter/unblemished skin and the emphasis on sun protection from an early age.
I don’t know actually. I’m writing as someone who is Caribbean and grew up within and around Latin Caribbean and Afro Caribbean neighborhoods and cultures.
Not in my experience. I am Cuban-American and knew many Puerto Ricans growing up, including numerous cousins on both sides whose family immigrated there in the early ‘60s. Our cultures are very similar. Whatever I and my Latin-American friends learned about cleansing and moisturizing was gleaned from Seventeen Magazine. What little I can recall living on the island was red lipstick and Coty powder (what was left over from before the revolution). But mostly it was just cold cream and soap and water. My own mother was meticulous about fashion and hair, but wore little makeup. She had good skin and never used moisturizer at all, just soap and water. And she loved tanning, unfortunately she is fair and burned more than tanned. I’ve heard Japanese women do have entire rituals around cleansing.
Kate can barely move her face. Her forehead is completely frozen. Who is she kidding?? They all get so much done, some just do it more judiciously than others. Lasers, resurfacing, pulling their jawlines and necklines tight, fixing their eyelids. It goes on and on. I appreciate the honesty!!! I think it’s marvellous.
I think it’s great that MJ is advocating for more transparency, but how about being transparent in another aspect? Which is: money and costs.
It’s ok to say that you’re not ashamed of being vain; one scroll down Instagram and everyone can see the unabashed vanity of others. But being transparent about having had surgery should come with being transparent about how much it could cost/how out of reach it is for the average person. A culture of vanity is not without its repercussions: many people are prioritizing this type of “self-care” without the means to do it, going into severe debt instead of being responsible — the documentary “Generation Wealth” provides great insight into this and how instead of trying to keep up w the Jones’ now, everyone IS trying to keep up w the Kardashians et al without a fraction of their net worth.
There are real economic repercussions to real families and people, so maybe say, hey no shame in being vain, but trying to recapture youth comes with great costs. Walking people through your face-lift is great, but a breakdown of the price of your annual “self-care” upkeep would truly be refreshing. That way people can decide for themselves and possibly conclude: wow it requires that much money to look like THAT? Maybe it’s not worth it for me, a person who is not in the public eye and whose bread and butter is not predicated on looks.
Great point!
Thanks, Queen Meghan’s Hand (cool handle)!
But I did want to add that I get what MJ is saying: someone like JLo is touting olive oil and peddling her products to sell the illusion of looking like her without a visit to the doctor’s clinic. And yes, that is even more dishonest, but selling hope has always been big business…today, we just call it being “aspirational.”
if youre interested in a channel that analyzes celebrity plastic surgery especially from celebs who have denied it, and then estimates the price of each procedure they think that celebrity has had (with some convincing visual evidence) look up Lorri Hill on youtube i highly recommend it to anyone with any kind of interest in plastic surgery; seeking, morbid, curious, or otherwise.
This does make me like Marc more. The dishonesty from celebs in both plastic surgery and in fertility (‘we have twins in our family!’) is infuriating. It just makes the rest of us feel bad and less than. It’s normal for people to get older. It’s normal for people to look older. But there is nothing wrong with wanting to change that! Yes, Salma Hayek. I’m talking to you. You don’t have to be honest but just stop lying about it.
It makes me like him more, also. Sometimes I think the main purpose of elevating certain people like celebrities is to make the rest of us feel bad. I watch a lot of British shows on Netflix and Prime, and I always look up the ages of the ‘older’ actresses I see. Much to my amazement, they are usually in their late 40’s or early 50’s. Our American actresses look much younger than their actual age, and it’s always due to plastic surgery. I have no real point here, other than as a 57 year old woman, I just enjoy hearing celebs being honest on aging and admitting when they tinker with nature instead of making the rest of us feel bad about ourselves. I guess I’m still insecure at my age. Lol
I don’t know about the fertility one – I understand that does need to be more sensitive due to the child. It’s the child’s private medical information, too.
I’m with @Lyd’s! This is the era of auto-tune on your faces. Fine. Of accessibility to stardom through social media. Great. But it is also the era where women and gay men, and to some extent – progressively more so – straight men are separated between those who can afford incredibly expensive anti-age treatments or surgery and those who can’t. Let them eat olive oil said Marc Jacantoinette.
What is also happening is that people are becoming neither old nor young looking but plastic looking – like a third option if you will. Young men and women want to look puffy with sunken eyes and spider lashes.
This. These people don’t look young, they look freakish.
Well at least he’s honest. But a big no to how “impressive” it is to hear someone say that there’s no shame in vanity or in wanting attention. I mean seriously, just stop with the shallowness and superficiality.
Thank you! Seriously. There may be no shame in it, but neither is there any glory – a rich man working in fashion invests tons of money into looking good, let’s celebrate him for it? Really? If we must celebrate someone for looks, I’d rather celebrate some person who doesn’t have his time or money to look good, yet somehow manages.
So you’re saying he should be ashamed?
Celebrities do set an unrealistic standard. But, maintaining a youthful appearance is part of what is required to stay relevant in entertainment in the same way as wearing expensive clothing (which is often on loan from designers). At this point the plastic surgery is just another part of the job for most actors.
One thing I have noticed is that people based in LA seem to have more extreme work done than people in NY. Each coast has a different aesthetic that is the “norm”. LA people also seem to start much younger than NY people. One time at the gym I noticed a woman who was very pretty, but had obvious work done, to the point that it almost looked like a mask. I chatted with her after the class and it turned out, she was indeed a transplant from LA. I guess, if I get to the point where I need to have anything done I will opt for the more subtle appearance.
Did he get his hairline done too? Or has it always been like that?
It would be nice if these cosmetic procedures were covered by insurance, right? Everyone agrees that feeling good about how you look contributes to mental health. But vanity doesn’t carry much medical cred. I have to go regularly to the dermatologist to have suspicious, sun-damage-related moles removed. Insurance covers that. But the non-suspicious moles I want removed, just because they are ugly, I have to pay for myself—and they aren’t cheap. I can only imagine how much a neck lift would be!
Meg, a lot of derms will remove those and get insurance to cover it. Maybe not a lot ,but I have two, one’s not even a derm, my regular doctor. He tells the insurance company it needs to be checked. Maybe you can find a new derm?
I love the shade. We are not stupid. We know who has had work done. Well, most of us.
Eva Mendes fairly recently posted pictures on her Instagram having a thread lift. I like it when celebrities are honest about what they do to keep on getting those ageless compliments. There is a lure for stars to propagate the falsehood that they’re very special people who have managed to combat the aging process purely because of their innate razzle-dazzle, but the truth is really rather more prosaic: surgery and procedures.
Oh did she!? I am considering the PBO thread lift, I have been looking into it and it seems to give great results. I have to go check that out.
I appreciate his transparency, but he’s not really changing the game, is he? The game is still to look as unlined and as puffy in the face as possible. Unless you have the money for all these interventions and the willingness to take the risks, it’s a losing game. If we’re *lucky* we all get older. Visible aging is a fact. The double standards for acceptable appearances for women vs men is still very much a thing.
I just don’t think that trying to look ageless is a laudable or sensible goal.
Yep!
I was just talking yesterday to a friend of the procedures we’re going to be having and to make LA trips in the next coming years to maintain our looks (thread face-lift, keeping thr jaw tight) I’m vain and I want to preserve my looks for as long as I am able to. The people that I’ve seen really judge and criticize cosmetic procedures are the ones that don’t have anything to preserve lol so they don’t understand it.
Definitely super obsessed about sunscreen and skincare but that only goes so far, sometimes you need more invasive procedures when things sag.
This is kind of where I am. I have no wrinkles yet but want to be prepared. Been wearing sunscreen daily since I was 12, so that helps.
‘The people that I’ve seen really judge and criticize cosmetic procedures are the ones that don’t have anything to preserve lol so they don’t understand it’.
That is really a judgement. There are other reasons for criticising cosmetic surgery than being ugly.
I’ve seen it where people will judge others for having plastic surgery until they can afford it themselves.
It’s really a rich person’s game. And when people who can’t afford it try, sometimes the results are disastrous. You know, like death.
The insecurity is just oozing out of this comment. People who criticize plastic surgery are all ugly? Give me a break. Some people have more important things to care about in life.
He looks great. I want his surgeon’s number!
If you want to do it, do it. MJ is right about how silly all of this pretending is…If you think someone had work done they probably have.
everyone’s relationship with beauty is different 🙂
Priorities, priorities. If I were in his line of work, I’d do the whole shebang. I’m not, and like someone upthread said so nicely, my looks aren’t worth preserving anyway. So I spend time creating beauty instead of being beautiful.
YAY for your priorities!!
And I am SURE that the beauty you’re creating is worth SO much more than his self-centered nonsense.
Thank you, June. 🥰
“We all retouch and filter our pictures.”
No, no we don’t all retouch and filter our pictures. I suppose he would be appalled to know I shared an unfiltered, untouched, close-up photo of my face not wearing a single touch of makeup just the other day on insta.
I used to think I would do it. Especially after I married a younger man almost 20 years ago. But as I aged I decreased caring. Partly I was becoming more concerned with staying/ being healthy, more tired and I’m not sure something changed for me? Also I’m a POC and with age I liked the way I’m treated now, more invisible feels more relaxed, safer.
Though I noticed many anti Asian attacks occurred on the elderly which heightened my worry.
Nothing wrong with it. Please check out the surgeon carefully.