I have been told, countless times, that I look like I belong in a different era. Perhaps it’s the way I dress—which bounces between a 1950s housewife and ‘70s gogo dancer—or my chin-skimming bob, when I set into Elizabeth Taylor-inspired curls weekly.
My partner has developed his own theory. “I think it’s all the buccal fat,” he mused from the dinner table one night. “You have it, and that’s not really the trend right now.”
While I’m shocked that he even knows the term—buccal fat refers to the pockets of fat every person has below their cheekbones—I’m doubly surprised when Manhattan-based board-certified dermatologist Dr. Shereene Idriss seems to agree with that assessment. Inside her millennial pink office overlooking Bryant Park, Dr. Idriss explains that the lack of buccal fat is actually a hallmark of what we would describe as a “modern face.” Over the last few years, the surgical removal of fat to hollow out the cheeks and effect a more angular silhouette has become one of the most-requested surgeries among Millennials. (The look is key to what the writer Jia Tolentino called “Instagram face,” characterized by Kardashian-esque “catlike eyes and long, cartoonish lashes…a small, neat nose and full, lush lips.”)
Fashion critic and Vogue contributor Lynn Yaeger knows what it’s like to look a little out of time; she likens her own signature beauty look, marked by cherry red hair, a pointed cupid’s bow, and baby bangs, to that of a “1920s broken doll.” “Historically, different kinds of faces and different body shapes come in and out of fashion,” she reflects over the phone. “It just depends on how your own look sort of coincides with the general aesthetic.”
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The harmony between my retro-ish features and fondness for vintage could be considered a lucky thing. For some modern actors cast in projects set in the past, having their face to match the era their film or series is set in can take a bit of doing—or un-doing. To play the 18th-century religious leader Ann Lee, for instance, Amanda Seyfried gave up Botox, her anti-aging intervention of choice, for an entire year, in addition to eschewing makeup on set. (Would the ecstatic founder of American Shakerism have had a perfectly smooth forehead or a smudgy lip? Doubtful.)
“For some roles it’s required that someone be totally natural—or at least convincingly so,” casting director Kahleen Crawford says. Some of the projects she has worked on include Apple TV+’s period piece The Buccaneers. “Even eyebrows are a question. Microblading, for example, can feel too much, depending on the skill of the person who has done the treatment.”