Amanda Lepore: The picture of an hourglass beauty
Where high fashion meets high camp you find Amanda Lepore, a world-famous transsexual who’s crafted herself into an hourglass beauty.
In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Jane Mansfield were among Hollywood’s biggest stars. They were beautiful women whose wide hips and busts contrasted starkly with their narrow waists, giving them an hourglass silhouette that was at the time considered the epitome of female beauty.
Young Armand longed to be a buxom beauty like those glamorous ladies on the screen. At the age of 15, he dated a surgeon and received a sex change operation for free. Amanda was now at the beginning of a very distinct transition that would see her fulfil her hourglass dreams.
“I always loved watching old movies and I loved Marilyn Monroe and all those blondes; that hyper feminine 1950s glamour and the exaggeration of it,” Amanda says down the line from NYC. “Then Jessica Rabbit came along and it was an exaggeration of that look and so I wanted to be even more exaggerated than that. I was fascinated that you could change your body but I didn’t want to be a Marilyn impersonator, I wanted to be new and exciting like those actresses were back then. I tried to do that kind of styling — updated of course — but I think if I did really modern stuff like Lady Gaga or something futuristic, it would take away from the way I did my face and body. I really like old school stuff and I think I’ve achieved that.”
Amanda’s surgical process is the stuff of legend. Amongst her procedures, she had her ribs broken in order to achieve an hourglass look. “I had the bottom rib broken and pushed in and it took an inch or two off,” Amanda says matter-of-factly. “It really hurt when I lay down but if I was standing up or sitting it was OK. It wasn’t horrifying.”
So where to now that the look has been achieved?
“Basically the cake is baked and there’s nothing more you can do!” she laughs. “It’s like if you make an art sculpture, if you keep on doing things to it you’re going to mess things up. So I just do botox and filler when I need it.”
