What Era is Your Face?

I have been told countless times that I look like I belong to a different era. Maybe it’s the way I dress—a cross between a 1950s housewife and a 1970s gogo dancer—or the Elizabeth Taylor-style curls I wear every week.

My partner developed his own theory. “I think it’s all from the buccal fat pad,” he mused one night at the dinner table. “You already have that, but that’s not really the trend right now.”

While I was surprised that he even knew the term—buccal fat pads refer to the pockets of fat below everyone’s cheekbones—I was doubly surprised that Dr. Shereene Idriss, a board-certified dermatologist in Manhattan, seemed to agree with this assessment. In her millennial-pink office overlooking Bryant Park, Dr. Idris explains that a lack of cheek fat is actually a sign of what we call the “modern face.” Over the past few years, surgical removal of fat to hollow out the cheeks and create a more angular contour has become one of the most requested procedures among millennials. (The key to what writer Jia Tolentino calls an “instagram face,” which is characterized by Kardashian-esque “cat-like eyes and cartoonishly long eyelashes…a small, trim nose and full, plump lips.”)

fashion critic and Fashion Contributor Lynn Yaeger knows what it’s like to look a little out of place; she likens her signature beauty look (cherry red hair, spiky cupid bow, and baby bangs) to “a 1920s busty doll.” “Historically, different types of faces and different body types have been in and out of fashion,” she reflects over the phone. “It just depends on how well your own appearance aligns with the general aesthetic.”

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The harmony between my retro vibe and my love for vintage is a blessing. For some modern actors in projects set in the past, getting their faces to match the era in which their film or series is set can take some effort — or United Nations-Doing it. For example, to play 18th-century religious leader Ann Lee, Amanda Seyfried gave up her anti-aging intervention of choice, Botox, for an entire year and didn’t wear makeup on set. (Would the ecstatic founder of American Shakers have a perfectly smooth forehead or grubby lips? One wonders.)

“For certain roles, the actor is asked to be completely natural—or at least convincingly so,” says casting director Karin Crawford. Some of the projects she has worked on include period pieces for Apple TV+ Buccaneers. “Even eyebrows can be an issue. Microblading, for example, can feel like too much, depending on the skill of the person receiving the treatment.”