Victoria's Secret photo editor reveals surprising secrets about how models are Photoshopped

Victoria's Secret via Photoshop Disasters

It's not exactly a secret that Victoria's Secret heavily Photoshops its ads.

The company is often guilty of egregious Photoshop fails that border on comical, from missing body parts to mysteriously-shaped waists (as pictured right).

But beyond the occasional laugh-inducing blunder, just how much does the company alter its models images?

A Victoria's Secret Photoshopper, who went by "Sarah," recently divulged some of her secrets to Refinery 29, revealing that what women see in photos is not often what photographers see in the studio.

That starts with padding women before they even take the photos.

"If you hold up the bathing suit in your own hand, it’s so heavy because they have all this s*** sewed into it." Sarah said to Refinery 29. She also said that the women often wore padded bras underneath bathing suits.

That all might change now, though; the company has been selling bralettes as a natural look takes hold in the fashion world. 

Sarah also told Refinery 29 that the models usually wear hair extensions, too. "I don’t think I ever was on a shoot with a model that had real hair," she said.

Victoria's Secret via Photoshop Disasters

And if the model's proportions look unrealistic, that's because they probably are. Sarah told Refinery29 that the photos are heavily altered — and sometimes body parts are even swapped out for other people's respective body parts.

Interestingly, though, the models are often made to look curvier than they actually are.

"Models are thinner than you actually think they are, and we retouch them to look rounder," she said.

For the full Refinery 29 article, click here.

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