Dove's "Real Beauty" ad campaign raised many an eyebrow for using scantily clad non-models. Real gals in all their glory! What moxie! The ads intended to emphasize how distorted the world's vision of beauty is, especially with the army of hairstylists, makeup artists, and photo retouchers behind all the images we see in ads every day. However, it turns out the campaign ain't so real after all. Gasp! Expert photo retoucher Pascal Dangin, who works for Box Studios in New York, told The New Yorker he worked his magic on the ad photos.

“Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

Unilever didn't comment on the statement, but a spokeswoman for the agency who created the ads did:

[S]he said the agency is still attempting to collect details of his work, if any, on the ads.

"We are unsure right now what he did," the Ogilvy spokeswoman said. "He works with Annie Leibovitz, the photographer. And we don't have any record of him actually working on any of the Dove campaign.

"There was no retouching of the women," she said. "If there was a hair that was up in the air, that might have been the kind of retouching that was done. But until I know what he actually worked on, I can't comment on it."

Oh, step off your high horse, lady. This isn't really surprising. We all know nothing is natural these days. And after, like, seeing Nicole Kidman at the Oscars and learning what's really in Pinkberry yogurt and, you know, being alive, we've been trained to understand that just because people say things are natural doesn't mean we should believe them.

Dove's 'Real Beauty' Pics Could Be Big Phonies [Ad Age]
Pixel Perfect [NYer]

One of our favorite spring photo spreads comes in the new issue of British GQ Style. It accompanies an article encouraging men to embrace their secret love of flowers. From buying them as gifts for other men to wearing them on their lapels to simply decorating their house with them, there is no better time for men to get flowered than springtime. With male cosmetics, the proliferation of mirdles, and tight pants taking over men's runways, indulging in "feminine" stuff is quite the rage as of late. Besides, flowers are good for the male soul. A survey by the Society of American Florists reveals 60 percent of men would like to receive a bouquet on Valentine's Day. Furthermore, a Rutgers University study revealed men receiving flowers "demonstrated an increase in well-being and social interaction." Who would have thought!

From the Victorian makeup to the divine embellishments, the pics in the GQ spread make us smile. So smile with us, won't you? Prance through the jump for more dandyman flowery whimsy.

Kate Moss stars in the new Agent Provacteur campaign for its bridal line and it's a doozy. First we've got six — yes, six — internet movies, each of which correspond to print ads shot by Nick Knight. Each movie and ad are meant to depict "the demise of a bride's 'big day' and serialize the unraveling of the religious organization behind it." The jokes write themselves here, don't they? You can see the print ads here. The themes represented include "The Happiest Day of Her Life," "The Garden of Eden," "Bad News," "Frenzy," "Revenge," and "Let Them Eat Kate."

Now, if you're still following along, the first movie to go with the ads is up at SHOWstudio.com, and is called, yup, "White Wedding." Here's how SHOWstudio describes it:

From [Agent Provacateur founder] Joe Corré's screenplay directions that the heroine bride — Kate Moss — should appear "romantic, pink and full of hope" on the eve of her 'White Wedding', Nick Knight's first campaign image of six addresses all the classic elements of a kitsch boudoir scene: the powder-puff palette; the love heart vignette; the handheld mirror; a sweet butterfly hovering over virgin flesh. Meanwhile the accompanying film employs the help of a naked harpist to push the footage in more poetic direction.

We'd describe it as grainy slow motion shots of Kate Moss posing in a white lacey babydoll within a weird, rocking heart frame, but to each her own. Each day through Wednesday, May 7 we get a new one of these suckers. Oy, this really is the most complicated ad campaign ever.

WHITE WEDDING: Scene One, The Happiest Day of Her Life [SHOWstudio]

If you think you have a shoe problem — or purse or blazer problem — you clearly haven't seen Daphne Guinness's closet. Yesterday the socialite auctioned off a chunk of her wardrobe. See, she moved to a new home in London and wanted to purge her closet before relocating. But when you collect couture you can't exactly drag your castoffs down to the Salvation Army in old H&M bags. Nor should you, as Guinness's collection is expected to fetch about £50,000 for Womankind, a charity that aids impoverished women. Guinness's collection is staggering. You can view each of the 259 lots online here. Everything's been sold, but it's worth taking a peek and attempting to fathom the woman's shoe rack. Or, as Style PS notes, if these are her giveaways, what on earth is she keeping?

Daphne Guinness sells off a dream wardrobe [Style PS/Times UK]
Daphne Guinness strips down [IHT]

Over at the Moment blog, Elizabeth Spiridakis's weekly "free association" column "Very" lays into the new Sex and the City promotional photos. She detects an underlying tension in the ads and suspects all those tabloid rumors about the ladies feuding and fighting over clothes are true. We agree: The photo looks off. Like, why does Carrie look so damn happy while Charlotte stares at the floor as if to say, "Hey Carrie! Don't kick me!" (Spiridakis calls the expression, "Oohh, who dropped that butterfinger on the floor and can I have it?” Maybe we're naïve but we really don't think Charlotte would eat a Butterfinger off the floor.) Meanwhile Miranda and Samantha share the same mixed expression of pissed off and freaked out.

But perhaps the whole mess of tensions in this photo comes down to outfit envy? Maybe Carrie looks the happiest because she looks the cutest in that flouncy dress, with her long curly hair blowing in the faux breeze. Charlotte looks plain and kind of frumpy in her dress, which Spiridakis accurately dubs very "J.Crew bridal collection." Miranda is probably thinking "Why am I the only fool wearing a print?" and Samantha is grinning through gritted teeth in that red satin suit. It's very Laura Bush on Christmas. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we don't think Laura Bush has, er, the same tricks up her sleeve as Samantha.

Very | Sex and the City [Moment/NYT]

Heidi Klum wore this darling purple dress to an Us Weekly party last week. Guess who designed it. Rami Kashou! Yes, that guy that came in second on Project Runway, the show that keeps on giving. Heidi looks absolutely charming, and we're kind of psyched she wore Kashou, instead of Christian Siriano, because it proves we were right about Kashou's commercial appeal (we're talking about an Us Weekly party, after all). But we couldn't help but notice the shape of her dress is awfully similar to a look from the Yves Saint Laurent spring 2008 collection. Note the similar billowing from the waist and architectural necklines. So maybe Kashou's taking a cue from YSL head designer Stefano Pilati or Balenciaga head designer Nicolas Ghesquière, who also became famous for structuring his dresses at the hips. We're okay with it, because fashion critics worship both men like they're a new sect of Scientology that doesn't annoy everyone, so if you're going to copy a designer, they're the ones to look toward. When it looks like Kashou's getting inspiration from Kimora Lee Simmons, then we'll break out the mean jokes.

Good afternoon, Upper East Siders! On the left you see two images of Gossip Girl's Blake Lively. The top photo appeared as a full-page image in the front of Teen Vogue's March issue. The bottom image is the cover of Nylon's May issue. She's rocking a suspiciously similar yellow jacket, black miniskirt, white shirt-and-tie combo in those shots, eh? (We peered over our spectacles as we typed that.) Huh. Now, Lively is the star of Gossip Girl, which is all about prep schoolers, so we could see both magazines' stylists naturally going the whole hip-schoolgirl route. But still, the similarity of the images strikes us as a bit uncanny, especially given the timing of the two issues. The March Teen Vogue hit stands in early February — which, following the logic of monthly magazine-production schedules, may very well have been before Nylon shot its May cover. Perhaps someone at Nylon saw the look in Teen Vogue and the image stuck in her head without her realizing it? Perhaps it really is just a huge coincidence? Or perhaps Blake loved her outfit so much the first time that she demanded to wear it again? Seriously, the yellow jacket is cute.

A while ago, we wrote about an anonymous Brit afraid to reveal his secret cross-dressing habit to his girlfriend before they moved in together. Open-minded though we are, we had a hard time imagining even the most accepting women in this world being truly okay with such a revelation. That is, until we saw film director Floria Sgismondi in i-D magazine's "Gender Agenda" April issue. There she was, photographed with her husband, Lillian Berlin, lead singer of the band Living Things, who just so happened to be clad in a Louis Vuitton skirt. Well, hello there! Very secure in his masculinity, Berlin posed in women's clothes for the entire editorial — and, if we may say so, the man rocked the womenswear as well or better than any woman might. Honestly, the man is a gem. We've scanned the images for your enjoyment after the jump.

Robin Antin's Pussycat Dolls lingerie collection closed L.A. Fashion Week yesterday in a flesh-filled spectacle concert–cum–fashion show. Wonder if they're taking cues from Rock & Republic? (Or Ashley Dupré?) The Dolls are hoping to fill the void left by Victoria's Secret, now that the lacy-underthings giant is aiming to de-sexify a bit.

Antin put the Pussycat Dolls together, and considering she succeeded in launching them from cabaret-burlesque act to pop stardom, we don't doubt her ability to rack up an audience the way Victoria's Secret has. She's already got front-row star power: P. Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Nelly attended yesterday.

And sure, we could all use some new skivvies. But the Dolls' latest target audience is the nation's tweens, as evidenced by the CW's latest girl-band-making reality show, Girlicious. Anyone else a little, er, uncomfortable at the idea of young girls rocking some of these thongs? Because we kinda are! Fingers crossed these are marketed to the 18-to-34 group.

Check out photos from the show to see for yourself.

Spotted all over Paris (and on blogs galore): Mary-Kate Olsen in a gold-studded jacket that unquestionably weighed more than she did. Who ever was responsible for this most glorious piece of armor?, we wondered. And where the hell can we get it? After some digging and a few furious phone calls by the folks at Jeffrey, we hit pay dirt: It's Givenchy! Hallelujah! Ricardo Tisci, you are a genius! Get us to Barneys! And then the disappointment hit: The jacket's from fall 2007. You mean M-K's wearing something that's — gasp! — TWO SEASONS OLD? But that's not even vintage! Sure, she shelled out $9G for it — but when you walk around looking like an Olsen, you don't dare dance with expiration dates. It's time for a new jacket.

Those Studs Weigh More Than Her [DListed]