Fake is passé: Why small-breasted women are still bigger on top - WELT (2024)

Veröffentlicht am 16.05.2009 | Lesedauer: 6 Minuten

In the April issue of US Vogue, designer Narciso Rodriguez puzzled at the rising number of complaints he was receiving for the sizes of his designs. All of these criticisms centred on one aspect: The bust measurement. Rodriguez’ patterns are too small for many of his American customers. The reason for this, according to the designer, is that, at the moment, most affluent American women undergo breast enlargement surgery as a matter of course. In reality, more than 300,000 American women visited the operation table in 2008, later standing up with substantially more padding in their décolletages.

The fad is difficult to comprehend, because - and here you can put your hand on your heart, which is hopefully not buried underneath a mound of silicone – the most successful and beautiful women all have small breasts. The breast sizes of all the top models, see Kate Moss and Agyness Deyn, of politicians such as Condoleezza Rice and Rachida Dati and also of the chanteuse and French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy, are hardly worth mentioning.

Bazookas instead of style and talent

The forerunners of the American model – that is, the body with the widest girth at the bust – would have to be Pamela Anderson, Brigitte Nielsen and Victoria Beckham, whose entire now-comatose careers have been made on boobs rather than style, intellect or talent.

Despite the fact that many women consider them to be a stigma, small breasts grant their owner freedom, are unpretentious and versatile and they remain as beautiful in old age as in youth. They are also practical for everyday life, as they mean that a woman can leave for work in the morning without agonizing over whether or not a certain dress or top can be worn to the office without attracting unwanted attention. A day in a singlet without a bra à la Kate Moss is even made possible by small boobs, their owner can dress as she pleases.

Little breasts are classics, big ones are passé

The fashion world has long treasured mini-breasts. In the first episode of the current series of Germany’s Next Top Model, Heidi Klum eliminates one of the hopefuls on the basis of her fake breasts. Klum knows that exaggerated bust size and haute couture are not a good match. Strictly speaking, Heidi Klum herself is actually more a pin up than a runway model. In around 80 percent of her magazine cover shots she was photographed wearing lingerie or a bikini. Hans and Klaus (Klum’s names for her left and right breasts) as far as the eye can see. However fashion’s purpose is more than just the accentuation of womanly curves. The best designers are those who manage to clothe a woman beautifully while making an artistic statement. For that reason, models have small breasts, because a big bust would drown out any subtle message that could be weaved into the fabric and form.

Last summer, a fashion blogger juxtaposed snaps of the busty RnB singer Ashanti and the modest breasted Australian actress Cate Blanchett in the same ultramarine blue dress from Balenciaga. The result: The futuristic lines of the dress were lost on Ashanti’s curves, whereas on Cate Blanchett the dress looked like the shimmering armour of an Amazon.

The already-mentioned relationship between success and small breast size follows an intrinsic logic. People who don't have appeal based on outward appearance alone also tend to work harder to evoke other people’s interest in them. Recent Oscar winner Penélope Cruz worked through many a stage and set with breasts around the size of a handful, eventually right up to Hollywood’s highest accolade for an actress in a supporting role. A generous breast-size is a type of guarantee that you will be noticed, something that Pamela Anderson herself once unwittingly confirmed in an interview: “My breasts have had a brilliant career. I've just tagged along for the ride.“ However, women with smaller breasts do not have this guarantee, and for that reason they must succeed by means of their cleverness, wit and creativity.

Paving this type of career can take years to show results, but women with smaller busts should not be too concerned. The wonderfully sharp French actress Charlotte Rampling showed her apple breasts in many photographs in the late sixities only to bare her chest again in the film “Swimming Pool” revealing the same firm, round pair, and they didn’t appear a day older.

Big breasts are not always a blessing

The fact that small breasts are more desirable than fake ones is proved not least of all by statistics. The Association of German Plastic Surgeons estimates that in the year 2008, around 35,000 breast enlargement surgeries were completed, while something like 40,000 patients had breast reductions. Hollywood would have us believe that the happiest women are the ones with the bigger busts. But in reality, big breasts are not always a blessing. Wearing a bra all constantly can lead to painful constrictions, the weight of the breasts can lead to back, neck and eventually, in the worst cases, postural problems. Such disadvantages are rarely spoken about.

It could well be that some men find women with small breasts less attractive. But the question is: What type of men are these anyway if their affections can be won by a couple more grams of breast on either side? Faded pop stars such as Peter Andre (husband of busty model Katie Price), hammered rock stars such as Tommy Lee (ex-husband of Pamela Anderson) or the shiny German producer Dieter Bohlen (who apparently buys the same set of breasts for each new girlfriend). Who wants their attention anyway? With every scene in Woody Allen’s satirical film “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex, “ in which a young scientist flees from a gigantic silicone breast, communicates the message that men with a finer sense of the good things in life find an overload of femininity, whose ultimate embodiment is an oversized breast, terrifying.

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