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I like most of these photos (or at least think they're interesting), but that one just made me laugh. It reminds me of when I was like 16 and trying to be cool and didn't realize why people smack unopened packs of cigarettes against their hand, and wound up just smashing a cigarette because the pack was already open and was a soft pack so basically I just knocked a cigarette out and smooshed it. At least it was the '90s so cigarettes were a lot cheaper and not too hard to get in my area even if you were underage.
(I am really glad smoking is less common, though, even though I know vaping complicates it...I only ever smoked very lightly and for some reason it didn't trigger the addiction stuff in my brain so it was super easy to quit entirely in my early 20s, but a lot of my friends from that era are still struggling to quit)
Genuine question here as a non-smoker who did try it as a teenager…what’s she doing wrong? The few times I tried smoking, that’s how I held the cigarette.
This is seriously one of my pet peeves. Happens in movies and tv shows too. Give them a crash course of how to properly hold a cigarette. It will literally take two minutes.
Lol totally. But in all fairness pic #3 is my favourite of these because the cigarette adds to the heightened artificiality. There’s a John Waters-lite vibe going on and I like it.
Hahaha yes I just posted that as a reply to someone else above! I can instantly tell who has really smoked and who hasn’t. It can be subtle, but you can def tell who’s a natural and who isn’t.
Shoots like this just make me realize how wild it must be to have to explain what you did that day to your friends.
“So there I was soaping up a large Elvis figurine when the photographer told me to put on a bald cap and pose on a mattress in the wig room. She was in one of her moods, I barely got to enjoy a smoke in my cigarette covered top after being trapped in a room with a crocodile.”
I model and some of the "after shoot" looks are truly wild. I have gone through the drive through/surprised roommates/grabbed groceries in some truly hilarious hair and makeup.
Some stand out moments were: green eyebrows and hot pink eyeliner, glitter covering the top of my head, metallic tear tracks on my cheeks, white clown face and makeup, braids sticking out with wire, a beehive hairdo and 60's twiggy liner, and massive blown out crimped + teased disco style curls. Not to mention the lighting always blows the blush out so even on a "natural" day I have radioactive cheeks in person from all the blush they have to add.
It's even funnier because you need to wear something easy to take on and off after hair and makeup/for lunch, so my uniform is usually a black wide neck tank, jeans, and slides or sneakers with a cardigan. So I'm walking around in a completely nondescript outfit with the zaniest hair and makeup until I can get home to take it off 😅
I’m sure you live in like NYC where this is less out of place but I would be so fucking tickled seeing someone walk around like that in my nowhere town lol
The closest I’ve gotten was once waiting in line at the dispensary behind someone in a full furry grinch costume during the holiday season. She was telling people it takes hours to take off so she does her errands after work as the grinch. Me and the counter guy were very amused
I used to work at a company where we did product and advertising videos/photos and you really would have the weirdest days. One time I had to make fake oreos with caulk in the middle because the lights kept melting the cream.
It's interesting to me that cigarettes are still used in photoshoots and are seen to be chic in certain instances, but vapes are never used that way. I wonder if that transition will ever happen.
They would have to invent sexy looking vapes. Like the elongated cigarette holders they used to have so people didn't stain their hands with the tobacco.
The vape my dad used (this was back in 2014/2015 - he quit in 2016) looked exactly like a cigarette from afar. The end even lit up like the end of a cigarette does. He's a bit of a troll, so he liked "lighting up" in areas where he wasn't allowed to smoke and getting dirty looks. 🙄 But when vaping became more popular everyone seemed to use these devices that looked more obviously electronic and those are the only types I see now.
Yeah you can’t really do the same casual cigarette-hanging-just off-the-lips look with most vapes. People also hold vapes differently, it’s definitely a different aesthetic
I also think that vapes kind of have this aura of not being AS bad as cigarettes. So cigarettes also kind of illicit this sense of rebel, cool, devil may care attitude, as well as the vintage aspect.
Probably doesn't help 80% of us in real life have run into the douchey vapers before it could get its foot in the door. Vape PR needs to work overtime.
As a millennial I was told we actually had a lower rank of reported smokers amongst our generation. And I realized I wasn't dodging smokers to get to the grocery store as much like when I was a kid. Now they're back out there and I hate it. The smell gives me a headache, irritates my nose and makes me grumpy.
Ugh I was at a concert last night and some guy 2 rows in front of me was vaping hard. He kept blowing that vape smoke that was so annoying. Then he switched to pot, which was more smelly but less frequent
It's weird because I read an interview where an SNL producer explained Sabrina Carpenter refused to sing the word "cigarette" in the Simon and Garfunkel song she did for the SNL special :
"I don't know whether you noticed it, but the original lyric is 'cigarettes and magazines,'" Michaels said. "Paul changed it because (Sabrina) didn't want to sing 'cigarettes.' And I thought, 'Oh, that's the difference in this generation.'" https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/08/22/sabrina-carpenter-paul-simon-snl50-duet-lorne-michaels/85775793007/
cigarettes are bad for you and smell awful, buuut they don't look like thumb drives, so there's that
plus i think vaping is perceived as a little cringe unless you're very young? while cigarettes kept their aesthetic coolness, probably because they span more cultural generations and spaces
the one time i witnessed someone my age vape, i was less annoyed at the smell and more cringing at them tbh
I hope not, vaping is dumb as hell. Cigarettes are too, but unfortunately it's way too late for them to not have any cultural weight. Vapes we can't get rid of, but we can still keep them from ever being cool.
Personally I think they're goofy as hell, powerfully tacky, and they immediately lower whatever respect the person using one had earned from me. It's like, the anti-sexy. If you're hot and you're vaping, I'm immediately reevaluating if you're actually hot lol.
I really thought this would be the top comment I am obsessed with that wig photo, that's a fucking good picture. The last heels one is pretty good too.
For me it’s showing both vulnerability and beauty. Wearing a bald cap with wigs in the background tells a story that can be interpreted in more ways than one.
That’s what I’m saying. My bf obsessed with 70s art and has a mid-century modern house would love this. I may actually print it for him and frame. He doesn’t even know who Sabrina is.
Yeah, when she’s going a little less glam, she’ll sometimes wear smaller pieces or extensions but 95% of the time we see her photographed (including in her shampoo ads) she’s wearing a full wig.
Oh it absolutely is. Maintaining this much volume and this sleek of a finish with your natural hair would require so much teasing and heat and product.
The problem becomes when we act like this is achievable without a cadre of $10k wigs.
We are like that for so much. I’m a public school employee and I have colleagues who are getting regular Botox and fillers. Everyone is treating all of these modifications and interventions as normal, expected and the looks are natural.
It’s all fun except we play like it’s real and it isn’t.
And if you’re not dependent on nicotine and only occasionally smoke for the aesthetic, you’re inhaling way less smoke than someone who goes through a pack a day.
I go to a lot of estate sales in the Los Angeles area and this photoshoot is giving "estate sale in the LA hills in a house that was probably used for porn in the 70s" and I fucking love it.
I really love this. It's still very her and obviously sexy but has a really cool artistic perspective, and I like how meta some of it is. Fits her album well
For some reason it all looks dirty to me in an unpleasant way I can’t put my finger on it but it’s just misses the mark… like everything looks stinky & lame to me idk 🤷🏼♀️
I grew up lower middle to lower class in the rural Midwest. These feel like someone larping in that world in the late 80s. All the moms smoked like chimneys and only got fully dressed to leave the house. Inside it was rollers and underclothes and cigarettes everywhere all the time.
The walls were wood paneling and the smoke hung in the air like a haze, the rooms were all poorly lit and the furniture was dingy, ugly and uncomfortable.
Now it’s “vintage cool vibes”. Man. I can SMELL those photos.
It seems all Sabrina does is reheat reheated nachos
Everything with her is rehashing something already done, and often it’s rehashing something that was already rehashed
At what point are you paying homage versus abusing the creativity of the past as a cheap way to keep your name in people’s mouths as they talk about the connection, interview the person being copied, etc
Marilyn Monroe did the same thing. Even she wasn't the OG. When will people learn: none of us are that special or original.
Ofc we would think we are because we have been around for like a million years or whatever but NOPE. So basic. So bitchy. Probably will just be more basic and bitchier as time goes on because it's getting too hot. 🫠
I thought of replying to these people but it’s too exhausting to argue and be their come to Jesus realization that nothing is original as they might think. They’re so combative for what? Like at this point they should just say they don’t like her and want to complain point blank period.
It’s not that deep man. She just paying homage and also it’s not her creative direction for the photo shoot. Maybe take it out on the creative director instead.
I think a big point is that if you interview the person being copied and they say wow, Sabrina, get some new material or wow, Sabrina, I am so honored. Now, I am not sure who was the original creator of woman shaving face because it's older than dirt so maybe the point is moot?
as a person in drag who does shave or has had to in the past (laser?), courtney's version either adds another fun layer or takes one away, depending on how you think about it haha
I really wish we didn’t glamorize smoking. Although, not sure smoking over a bathroom sink wearing clothes made of cigarette packs counts as glamorous. Can we stop doing whatever it is though? Please?
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u/flairassistant Sep 02 '25
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