Marc Jacobs and the New Age of Transparency
Ever since plastic surgery wended its way into the cultural mainstream, cosmetic patients have denied—to coworkers, friends, and even family members—that they tweaked their appearances. The reason for this widespread secrecy is clear: most people wrongly believe that opting for surgery is not only a personal failing but an admission of weakness and self-consciousness; if someone consults outside help to look presentable, then maybe they weren’t meant to look good. Put more simply, plastic surgery has always been attached to social taboos, which explains why the vast majority of surgical candidates prefer to keep news of their procedures under the radar.
It came as a surprise, then, when, in July 2021, global fashion extraordinaire Marc Jacobs announced on his personal Instagram account that he had undergone an Extended Deep Plane Facelift, the brainchild of celebrated facial plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Jacono. Posting a photograph of his gauze-wrapped face, Jacobs captioned: “Yesterday. #f*ckgravity #livelovelift”.
Although we live in a time when shame and curated perfection are not only standard but expected, Jacobs’ honesty proved refreshing, garnering the support of millions of dedicated followers, not to mention supportive colleagues of Dr. Jacono and a veritable train of media outlets.
“The response was absolutely overwhelming,” says Dr. Jacono. “It was incredible to see so many people supporting Marc’s decision and his ultimate results. I truly believe that this could be a turning point in the way the general public views self-care and cosmetic surgery on a larger scale; he has proven that you should be proud of the steps you’ve taken to look great!”
The Facelift: What Is It and How Does It Work?
Nowadays, everyone knows about the facelift, that time machine of a surgical procedure. The average patient will spend three to five hours in the operating room, and once they emerge, their wrinkles, jowls, and drooping neck skin will have been eliminated, leaving them looking anywhere from five to fifteen years younger.
As with any complex surgical procedure, there are a number of facelifting approaches, and all of them deliver different results. These include, but are not limited to, the Traditional Facelift and the Extended Deep-Plane Facelift. The Traditional Facelift, on the one hand, literally stretches the skin and a select few muscles to new positions. While this does eliminate wrinkles and smooth out saggy areas, it, unfortunately, causes patients to look “pulled,” “plastic,” and, most troublingly, “unnatural”—think of plastic surgery disasters Jocelyn Wildenstein and Donatella Versace. The effect of the Traditional Facelift, then, is not so much turning back time as pushing it into a direction where facial disharmony is the outcome.
“I routinely see patients who want a revision for old facelifts,” says Dr. Jacono. “The most disheartening part of this is that it isn’t the patient’s fault for looking the way they do, but their doctor either didn’t have the expertise to deliver excellent results or relied too heavily on cookie-cutter maneuvers to fit the patient’s face to a specific model.”
The Extended Deep-Plane Facelift, on the other hand—the technique that Marc Jacobs chose—is an entirely unique procedure that requires of the surgeon an alternate set of skills and advanced expertise, which explains why Jacobs looks like the same person, just two decades younger.
So, how exactly does the Extended Deep-Plane Facelift work?
The Extended Deep-Plane Facelift
Unlike the Traditional Facelift, the Extended Deep-Plane Facelift doesn’t target the skin but manipulates underlying tissues, ligaments, and muscle groups that control facial expression. This method, which was pioneered and perfected by Dr. Andrew Jacono, detaches these deeper structures as a single unit and guides them to a more desirable vertical position, meaning that very little tension, if any at all, is placed on the skin. This effectively eliminates jowls and directs the cheek pads to an area higher up on the face, affording the patient a naturally youthful—rather than a dramatically altered—appearance. In short, this technique is the Franck Muller of facelifts: tough to find, expertly designed, and capable of weathering the years without falling apart.
“One of my favorite aspects of this procedure is that the patients don’t have to tell their loved ones they’ve had work done if they don’t want to,” adds Dr. Jacono. “The results look so natural that their friends and family members think they’ve lost weight or gone on a new diet.”
Those worried about scarring should rest assured that it is an almost nonexistent issue. Because there is no tension on the skin, the edges where incisions have been made heal quickly and easily; even men with shorter haircuts show minimal post-operative scarring.
This all explains, in large part, why the Extended Deep Plane Facelift has become the gold standard in facelifts and will likely remain so for decades to come.
