Lifestyles

Breast implants, bleached hair and Botox are not the ingredients for a glamorous, sexy you, says Simon Doonan, creative director for Barneys New York and author of "Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You" (Simon & Schuster, $24). With interviews and tips from quirky style icons, Doonan demonstrates how to achieve a mysterious and tasteful image.

• Anyone has the power to reinvent herself; the trick is not to conform to today's "overtly whorish" norm (fake tan, collagen, implants, tattoos).

• Eccentric glamour falls into three categories of dress: the Gypsy (bohemian, crafty); the Existentialist (edgy, Annie Lennox); and the Socialite (manicured, elegant).

• Before buying clothes, "consider the meaning" of the piece. Whatever you buy "has the potential to communicate something horribly fatal or utterly fabulous about you."

• Sometimes it's OK to conceal who you are; Anjelica Huston's character in "The Grifters" wore a white mother-of-the-bride suit to hide the blackness in her heart.

• Accept that you're aging and try to enjoy life. You can't turn back the clock; you can use makeup well, however.

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Celestial sandal proves a girl can dream

Strappy Yves Saint Laurent sparklers in white patent leather ($1,090, through Yves Saint Laurent boutiques) give a glimpse of the footloose style just before it hits the runway and red carpet on a pumiced, pedicured foot.

This stiletto to the stars has attracted a celebrity fan club that includes such notables as actress Drew Barrymore. In a recent issue of Vogue, Drew-in-this-shoe vamps with her ankles circled by the constellations.

Barrymore is photographed in a drapey goddess gown and these sky-high sandals (the heels are precisely 4.134 inches high), but you'd never guess what Barrymore's dainty tootsies conceal: a playful outline of chubby cartoon toes more worthy of South Park's Cartman or Kyle than a big-screen glamour gal.

At one time or another, most of us have dreamed of a life of fame and privilege. We're sipping French champagne on a yacht, stars twinkling in the cloudless sky.

As for this footwear itself: These shoes give a whole new dimension to the idea of Dancing with the Stars.

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British women opt for smaller breasts, unlike Americans

British women have a different attitude to breast size than American women do.

In Great Britain, breast reductions are among the Top 5 most popular procedures by plastic surgeons -- quite unlike their American counterparts.

To be sure, in both countries breast augmentation is the No. 1 surgical procedure for cosmetic doctors, but in the United States a survey of physicians found relatively few breast reductions.

A recent survey of members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons revealed that doctors perform one breast reduction for every two breast enhancements.

In contrast, a recent survey by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that doctors perform less than one breast implant removal for every 12 breast augmentations.

The two surveys were organized differently, so comparisons of results must be considered tentative.

In other comparisons of the two surveys:

• Eyelid surgery is increasing in popularity in Great Britain (up 13 percent last year), making it the No. 2 most popular form of plastic surgery there. In the United States, it's No. 4, with 3 percent growth.

• Liposuction is No. 3 in Great Britain (up 15 percent last year). In the United States, it's No. 2, with no growth last year.

• Face lifts, at No. 4, experienced "an impressive risk of 37 percent" last year, the British surgeons' group said. In the U.S., face lifts are No. 6, up 14 percent.

• Nose jobs are No. 6 in Great Britain, up 13 percent. They are No. 3 in the United States, down 7 percent.

• The British survey does not cover Botox injections, which are the No. 1 cosmetic procedure in the United States.

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