Fashion

Wait til You See The Unedited Version...

by Mackenzie Brewster

The war on Photoshop is officially... not over. Even the leader of Little Monsters everywhere and pop culture queen herself Lady Gaga is subject to being airbrushed into perfection: leaked, unretouched photos from Gaga's ad campaign for Versace for Spring 2014 have surfaced online. And there's a big difference between the ad campaign — which was praised when first released a few months ago — and the images that have cropped up.

As Jezebel points out, there are several differences between the final images and the unretouched originals, including color correction and increased contrast. But that's the least of Versace's problems. What's more shocking is Gaga's slimmer arms, lighter hair, and more perfectly glossed skin (we'll forgive the removal of the bruises on her knees, even though leaving them really would have upped the Versace edge factor). The brand also appears to have digitally added makeup, and a few Jezebel commenters suggest that Gaga's raw, natural appearance pre-Photoshop made it easier for this to happen.

This is not the first time Gaga has been in the middle of photo-retouching controversy. Back in 2012, there was speculation over her Vogue cover after the release of a sneak-peek video from the September photo shoot. She has also previously spoken out against Photoshop in one of the most bold ways possible: in her acceptance speech at the Glamour Woman of the Year awards, she used the opportunity to blast the glossy for over-airbrushing her cover. She said, "I felt my skin looked too perfect. I felt my hair looked too soft ... I do not look like this when I wake up in the morning." Later, she added "When the covers change, that's when the culture changes."

Although the Versace ads may not be cover photos, they are certainly further examples of the modern misrepresentation of women's bodies. From Old Navy and Target's thigh gap disasters to movie poster mishaps, the controversy surrounding digitally altering images is becoming all too ubiquitous.

Image: Versace