The new Instagirls: InstaCool or just PhotoShopped?

September. Once again, this time of the year can be considered as a period of beginning. The beginning everyone knows about is the beginning of this colourful season during which the weather cools down, autumn. This time period of changes is also illustrated in fashion. As on a few other levels, in fashion, September is synonym of beginning of a new year. The new year in fashion coincides with the most important issue of what some call the Bible for fashion magazines, the September issue of the American Vogue.

In 2007, Anna Wintour, the famous editor-in-chief of the American Vogue, opened the doors of the fancy institution to the crew of 'The September Issue', a documentary relating the work behind the issue of Vogue everyone waits for. How the pictures of each shoots are chosen, how the photographers work, how the cover of the issue is chosen, how they easily retouch pictures, etc...

Observer.com

The documentary is also, in a way, an emphasis of the work of the extremely talented - unknown by most - Grace Coddington, Vogue's creative director and former model. Anna Wintour herself says in the documentary that: "I don't believe for one minute that I have a sense of what's going to happen or a sense of real change the way Grace does. I mean, Grace is a genius and there is no one that can visualize a picture or understand the direction of fashion or produce a great shoot. I mean she's just remarkable. She and I don't always agree, but I think that over the years we've learned how to deal with each other's different points of view."

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Vogue

This year's September issue cover, which picture was leaked off during summer, has brought forward 'The Instagirls' - and models - Joan Smalls, Cara Delevingne and Karlie Kloss. These "Instagirls" - for Instagram and girls - surrounding the famous Cara (6.7M followers), are far from being as known as their British colleague on internet. To be completely in the theme, Vogue should have probably chosen other models - such as Barbara Palvin (2,1M) or Kendall Jenner (13,2M) - who are as famous as "Instagirls" or models.

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Instagram is this smartphone and tablet app that allows people to share photos and videos with the rest of the world. And lately, stories about famous InstaUsers retouching their pictures have popped up on internet. 

From Beyonce to Miranda Kerr, from famous fashion bloggers to Kim Kardashian, a lot of people use - more or less - PhotoShopped to retouch their pictures. To have a better skin, a cheap and not-painful surgery, to lose weight when eating burgers or without heading to the gym 24/7, the chase for perfection has never been so important as it is nowadays.

Compared to Cara Delevingne, who tells to whoever wants to hear it that the "first thing [she does] when [she gets] to America... [she gets] a McDonalds", Kim Kardashian is often only shown in her reality show eating salad to try and become as fit as possible. However, Kim, who did the cover of Vogue in the beginning of the year, is also known online for (1) her bottom (2)  the rumors of surgery on it (3) retouching the pictures she posts online. The most famous retouched pictures are the following ones. 

Buzzfeed

One of the best friends of Kim Kardashian's husband, Beyonce, is not the last one to chase a virtual body perfection through the pictures she shares. Indeed, "Queen B" is as into social media as her frenemy Kim and does not hesitate to photoshop herself - especially her tights! - to look even more perfect than what people already perceive. 

http://www.womansday.com.au/

Image of feminine perfection, as all her model colleagues from Victoria Secret, Miranda Kerr seems to believe she is not perfect enough. She indeed retouches a lot of her photos to look skinnier with an even more perfect skin.

 

And this technique has become so famous that even famous fashion blogger start using photoshopped pictures on their Instagram and/or blog. (Here is an article (from Mademoisielle.com) using the example of Danielle Bernstein from WeWoreWhat)

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Is it the reason why Anna Wintour decided to use these so-called instagirls for the cover of the September issue? If so, I don't get why she did not use one of the  girl from the Kardashian-Jenner family, aka the family that spend most of their life on social media and often 

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On the physique of the documentary cameraman who ends up in the shot:
"It need a little bit of retouching. You need to go to the gym!"

(Grace refused for this picture to be retouched, claiming this picture
shows the "real people" next to slim models. Thank God! Grace was there...)

Vogue

"She looks pregnant. We need to fix her," said Anna Wintour on Jennifer Garner in 'The September Issue'.

Addicted to this image of perfection - natural or retouched, would it be possible that Vogue retouched the cover of their "Instagirls" issue? And if the question had to become: "Does being an Instagirl mean you have to be PhotoShopped to be InstaCool?", would it mean that the answer from Vogue be "Yes"? 

However, what would "real people" think about it? Would "normal photos", non-retouched photos, be too mainstream to be acceptable in the virtual world in which we live? Would the virtual bistouri become mandatory to be someone on internet? Would it replace surgery in real life?

Only the future will tell...