Fashion

Gisele Bundchen Goes Makeup-Free for Sonia Rykiel

by Erin Mayer

We all love a good makeup-free celebrity photo. I'm not sure they really make people feel better about themselves, since celebrities are pretty naturally stunning and, although normals can be that as well, still have teams of people working to make them hot, makeup aside. But society eats these images up and now advertisers are getting in on the fun (i.e. capitalizing) with a slew of natural-look campaigns. The latest celeb to add her bare and famous face to the fray is Gisele Bündchen, who went makeup-free for Sonia Rykiel.

The campaign, shot by Juergen Teller and styled by Katie Grand, is black and white and features Gisele looking hawt in a loose blouse with a super wide v-neck that ever so casually slips off her (probably very tan) shoulder. Her face — which does appear to be legitimately makeup-free — is gorgeous, her hair is gorgeous. Basically, the whole thing is a win for both Gisele and Sonia Rykiel. But is it a win for the viewer?

I'm going to say yes because any woman going without makeup for a major print ad is a big statement. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is. We shouldn't hate on Gisele's fresh face for being beautiful, the same way we shouldn't hate on a non-Brazilian non-goddess for posting a no-makeup selfie on social media. We're all beautiful, even if we aren't all Gisele. The message of celebs skipping makeup or retouching (to be clear, there's been no indication that this ad isn't Photoshopped) isn't "Don't you wish you were this pretty?" It's "Women don't need products to be this pretty." And that's something I'll happily promote!

Image: Juergen Teller