September 8, 2009

 Denise Richards has downsized her breasts. So has Victoria Beckham, along with Tara Reid, Sharon Osbourne, and Tamra Barney of “Real Housewives of Orange County.”

They join Patricia Heaton and Queen Latifah, who had their breast size reduced in the early 2000s, plus stars who had the work done in the 1990s. Those include Drew Barrymore, Loni Anderson and Roseanne Barr.

Enough stars have reduced their chest size recently that some celebrity watchers have declared it a trend, even though other stars from Heidi Montag to Pamela Anderson have chosen to expand their breasts.

Singer Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Sharon Osbourne, has said she hates the size of her breasts and will have them reduced within the next year.

Formerly large-breasted Romanian tennis star Simona Halep (above), who won last year’s Junior French Open, announced last spring that she planned to have breast surgery. A group on the Facebook social-networking site sprang up to try to dissuade her, but she reportedly went ahead with the breast-reduction surgery during the summer. (See photo below.)

Not all plastic surgeons have noticed the trend in their patients. But Dr. John Di Saia of San Clemente has. He said the trend is related to economics and the increasing age of plastic surgery patients.

 “Fewer young people have been in the market than in years prior probably due to the credit crunch. Older patients tend to opt for smaller implants,” he said. Di Saia added:

“Overall I find breast implant surgery over the last few years has been more ‘repair-related’ — for example to replace ruptured implants. There were fewer first-time breast augmentations and more implant removals, replacements and lifts. People have been opting for smaller scale (and less expensive) surgery even when the larger operations would have been more productive.”

Plastic surgeon Dr. Nicholas R. Nikolov of Beverly Hills said he has also noticed the shift.

"Over the last few years the trend has been towards more modest-size implants for breast augmentations,” he said. “Larger breasts are no longer perceived as attractive."

The change is connected in part to the economic downturn, Nikolov said:

During challenging economic times people are less likely to turn to flashy cars, wear expensive jewelry, or fly private. Just the same, augmentations resulting in conspicuous large breasts is less popular.

But the trend began before the recession, he said:

Moderate size breasts may make a woman appear more elegant and slimmer. The appearance is more youthful. It also allows greater versatility in what a woman can wear. She can dress up at night and with the help of different bras make them look larger if she wants or go braless in outfits which don’t allow for a bra. Sports and workouts are considerably more comfortable with smaller breasts as well.

-  http://inyourface.freedomblogging.com/2009/09/08/smaller-breasts-are-in-style/9859/