14 DAY TRIAL // Until just recently, Brazil was the number 1 country with the most plastic surgery cases, even inspiring a boom in medical tourism. South Korea has now overtaken Brazil, as a video report from Vice will confirm.
You will find it embedded below, at the end of this article. The part about the surgery starts at around the 18:00 minute mark, but *please be advised that discretion is recommended because the video contains graphic images.
On the occasion of the Seoul Fashion Week, Vice sent host Charlet Duboc to have a look at South Korean fashion and even to go beyond that, into the study of the hottest trends in beauty at the moment.
As she puts it oh so bluntly, plastic surgery has become a must-have here, and not just with older women.
Girls as young as 18 get surgery and / or Botox, with many of them apparently aspiring to a Western type of face or, at the very least, at what they believe is an ideal Western type of face.
Double eyelid surgery is meant to help them get that. It consists of artificially creating a fold in the eyelid where there was none naturally, thus making the eyes bigger and rounder.
It’s usually “accessorized” with a new nose and some Botox to make the jawline more pronounced.
“Because of their distinctive looks, our ideal appearance would be that of westerners. Big round eyes, straight nose, round face,” the girls from D-Unit, a popular K-Pop band, explain for the cameras.
Dr. Seo from the Seo Jae Don Plastic Clinic which Duboc visits in her bid to better understand the ideal of beauty women in South Korea aspire to, says double eyelid surgery boosts confidence.
He also explains that getting surgery is perceived by most women as the surest way to change their fortune or destiny.
At the same time, he is aware that most of the girls who come asking for such a drastic (not to mention invasive) intervention mostly do it for the wrong reasons, such as a breakup or peer pressure – but he does it either way.
Right now, Duboc explains, 1 in 5 women has had some form of plastic surgery in South Korea, having become something so “common” that girls receive it as a graduation gift from their parents.
In fashion, at least, models see plastic surgery as ordinary as thinking of what outfit to wear and the kind of makeup that would go with it.
