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Emily Siebach Professor Hull English 2010 4 December 2013

Advertising Dr. Kassir

Fashion Week Its Fashion Week in New York! From Calvin Klein to Victoria Beckham, Oscar de la Renta to Burberrys Christopher Bailey; the absolute latest styles of fashion promenade their way through New York. Models hair must be done to each designers specifications, make-up should also enhance the look of the clothing, manicures and pedicures add that final touch of perfection. But what of the models bodies? Should we alter them too? A little ways off from the main event, a different kind of fashion show is being introduced for the first time. It still had a runway but instead of a designer, there was a plastic surgeon. Models still walked up and down in front of a crowd but instead of showing off carefully crafted garments of clothing, these models were showing off their carefully crafted, altered bodies. Time Magazines columnist Eliana Dockterman reported on Dr. Kassir putting on his first fashion show that he called Faces of Beauty. (Dockterman 2) The models were all patients who had had both invasive and non-invasive cosmetic procedures done by Dr. Kassir.
Fig 1. Dr. Ramtin Kassir and his model patients. As the models walked down the runway, pictures

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of them before their procedures flashed on a screen behind them for the crowd to see. (Dockterman 4) This was Dr. Kassirs first fashion show of this kind, but he is determined it will not be the last. An Artist Surgeon Dr. Ramtin Kassir, of New Jersey, is a plastic and cosmetic surgeon who, according to his website, has offices in not only in Ridgewood and Wayne, New Jersey but also has an office in Park Avenue, New York. (About 1) His website talks about the doctor staying abreast of new medical techniques; Dr. Kassirs cutting edge minimal cutting techniques have been profiled
on the Real Housewives of New Jersey, Fox News, and other media outlets. Most recently, he was featured on ABCs The Doctors where he restored a natural look to a woman who had a deformed, cat-like, appearance from 29 previous plastic surgeries. (About 2) The Doctors ability to make cosmetic surgery look as natural as possible has made him extremely popular with celebrity status clients all over the United States and abroad. Dr. Kassir is also a clay sculptor, its this artistic talent that blends with his medical expertise and helps him achieve the most natural look possible when completing cosmetic operations.

During Fashion Week in New York, Kassir said, Today plastic surgeons are Renaissance artists, patients are our easel, and we are the artists. (About, 4) Not everyone has the capacity to be an artist and
Fig 2. Dr Kassir and his clay sculptures.

certainly not everyone can be a surgeon, Dr. Kassir

feels that because he is an artist it has helped him be a better surgeon. One of the Doctors

Siebach patients supported him in is fusion of art and surgery, saying, Hes the designer, and were his works of art. (Silverman 8) This patient was pleased with how her nose job from Dr. Kassir had turned out, and wanted to show her gratitude to him by participating in his fashion show. Can surgery be an art form? Dr. Kassir appears to have fused art and medicine seamlessly. Dr. Kassir is in-demand when it comes to media because of his naturalistic procedures. He recently appeared on the TV show The Doctors in an episode that showed the perils of having too much cosmetic surgery done. The women, named Susan, had started with a procedure to reduce under-eye bags. After the first procedure, the surgeries became an addiction and she became unrecognizable to family and friends. Altered brows and hairline, along with overly plumped lips and augmented cheekbones combine to give Susan an almost cat-like appearance. Dr. Kassir works to make his surgeries come out as natural looking as possible, so he was called in to meet with Susan in hopes that he could reclaim some of her natural beauty. After the consultation, Dr. Kassir sounded confident when he said, I see this as a very challenging surgery. The eventual goal is to have Susan be able to walk down the street and have people not see something unexpected. After what was hopefully her last cosmetic procedure, Susan looked more like herself than she has in years. When she and Dr. Kassir appeared on The Doctors, Susan hugged the doctor and through tears told the audience, My mother says I look like Susan again. I blend in now. She went on enthusiastically, I feel like I have gotten my confidence back. I just feel unbelievable. Susan was lucky that some of her procedures could be fixed. Dr. Kassir counsels with patients to plan procedures carefully so that they will not regret surgeries he performs. The doctor works to enhance the natural beauty in his clients, improving them physically but never taking away their individuality.

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Define Fashion What counts as fashion? Does fashion have to be products that are bought and sold and worn on the body, or can it be the body itself? By putting the newest cosmetic procedures next to the newest style of clothing Dr. Kassir believed he was helping introduce a new kind of natural cosmetic surgery, but not everyone agreed Fashion Week is the place to do it. New York Daily News reported; Fern Mallis is one of the founders of Fashion week. She commented that, There is no place in Fashion Week for a runway show of plastic surgery. Mallis went on to say, Fashion week is about fashion what editors and buyers will be covering and putting in the stores. Its not for people to decide on what face-lift to get. (Silverman 12) Fashion Week attracts critics and cliental alike; Fern Mallis feels that the focus of Fashion Week should be on the designers and the clothing they have worked hard on. Aside from Dr. Kassir and his patients, the general feeling about mixing fashion and cosmetic surgery was negative. Time Magazine stated, The concept, we suppose, was to treat cosmetic surgery like fashionsomething to indulge in, something to make you feel more confident, something to help you feel better, something to envy, something to easily slip on. But of course, it doesnt easily slip on. Its surgery. (Dockterman 2) As Dockterman stated in her article, this is surgery and should not be treated as though it can be returned to the mall if you end up not liking how it looks at home. This was the wrong way for Dr. Kassir to get his services into the public eye. When he put up a runway and paraded models up and down, Dr. Kassir gives the impression that the decision to get surgery is as simple as the decisions made while shopping for this seasons fall selection. Any form of surgery or cosmetic procedure should not be treated lightly or casually, and it should not be included in the publics definition of fashion.

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Change the Venue If Dr. Kassir had held his runway show in a different venue the outcome of public review might have been different. Dr. Kassir was showing off surgery done on peoples bodies and other designers were showing off clothes you put on peoples bodies. This lead to a comparison; if bodies are like clothes, are clothes like bodies? Clothes are not alive; they do not have feelings or emotions. Humans are alive and aware of themselves and the world around them, they can have emotions or options and both of those can be negatively affected by the way they see the world around them. Comparing humans and the clothes they wear is degrading to the human. New York Daily News writer Justin Silverman quoted Jennie Engelhardt, publicist for Thom Browne, when she said I dont think its a very good example for young women to associate fashion with plastic surgery, fashion should be about expressing yourself and not needing to fit into a certain image or a certain size. (Silverman 13) Engelhardt believes fashion and cosmetic procedures are extremely different, and associating fashions, which are fluid in their rate of change, with surgery, where what happens can never be undone, could be damaging to the people who watch Fashion Week. Dr. Kassir should not portray plastic surgery as a quick fix to all physical imperfections; it is a serious undertaking hopefully used for serious ailments and should not be considered lightly. While Dr. Kassir thought he was portraying a new, more natural side of cosmetic surgery, the way he went about it was wrong and degrading.

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Works Cited "About Dr. Kassir." Dr. Kassir, Plastic & Cosmetic Surgeon. Mona Lisa Cosmetic Surgery Center. Web. 6 Nov 2013. <http://drkassir.com/>. Dockterman, Eliana. Fashion Weeks Plastic Surgery Show. New York: Time, 2013. Web. 4 October 2013. NJ and NYC Plastic Surgeon Dr. Ramtin Kassir Appears on "The Doctors," Illustrates the Dangers of Going Too Far With. Reuters. Market Wire, 2011. Web. 3 December 2013. Silverman, Justin. "Plastic surgeon Ramtin Kassir shows off a really new look with runway show during Fashion Week New York Daily News, 2013.Web. 6 November 2013. Images Cited Fig 1. Dockterman, Eliana. Fashion Weeks Plastic Surgery Show. New York: Time, 2013. Web. 4 October 2013. Fig 2. "About Dr. Kassir." Dr. Kassir, Plastic & Cosmetic Surgeon. Mona Lisa Cosmetic Surgery Center. Web. 6 Nov 2013. <http://drkassir.com/>.