The evolution of the boob job: How the cosmetic procedure went from Barbie-esque 'stuck-on' look to more natural style - as plastic surgeon reveals breast implants are no longer 'one size fits all'

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If a celebrity had a boob job in the 2000s, it was historically fairly easy to tell - with ample bosoms suddenly reaching up to their chins and dramatically increasing in size.

However, gone are the days of Barbie-inspired Y2K breast augmentation - as celebrities and influencers appear to be leaning towards mote 'natural' aesthetics.

An increasing amount of A-listers look to be embracing gravity and maintaining the natural shape of the cleavage.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Dr Omar Tillo - plastic Surgeon and Medical Director at CREO Clinic - explain that the procedure has changed with the times.

'Breast augmentation, once associated with a singular ideal of beauty, has evolved to celebrate individuality by embracing natural looks and enhancing one's unique body shape,' he said.

An increasing amount of A-listers look to be embracing gravity and maintaining the natural shape of the cleavage. Pictured: Millie Mackintosh after getting a boob job

'This shift toward natural aesthetics is more than just a trend; it reflects a broader cultural movement.

'With the influence of social media, women can explore diverse beauty standards worldwide, broadening the definition of "beautiful"'.

Dr Tillo said the new ideals are encouraging women to move away from the 'one size fits all approach to breast implants, fostering self-acceptance and empowerment'.

'Modern techniques emphasise personalised procedures that consider each patient's unique anatomy, goals, and lifestyle,' he added.

'From choosing the implant type, incision placement, and implant positioning to selecting between smooth or textured implants, women have more options than ever to customize their breast augmentation to suit their desires.'

One example includes Millie Mackintosh - who has revealed that having a breast enhancement is the 'best thing she's done for herself' since becoming a mother. 

Speaking in an open and honest Instagram Q&A session last year, the former Made In Chelsea star, 35, opened up about her reasons for undergoing surgery. 

Millie, who shares daughters, Sienna, two, and Aurelia, 18 months, with husband Hugo Taylor, 37, explained how, after breastfeeding her children, she 'didn't feel like herself' but the recent procedure has given her a 'confidence boost.' 

Elsewhere, influencer Ambar Driscoll (pictured a year after getting her boob job) - who has a combined following of more than 595,000 on Instagram and TikTok - has been open about her own journey with getting a boob job to increase her size

It also comes amid a move which sees people taking out their implants to lean into a natural look overall. In December, Victoria Beckham got candid about her past cosmetic procedures as she admitted she regrets her boob job. Pictured left in 2007 with her augmented breasts, and right in 2016, when she returned to her natural look

Answering her follower's questions, she began: 'It was something that I had always wanted to do, since being about 18. When I realised that the breasts I had always dreamed of weren't going to show up for me.

'I thought okay, 'I can work with what I've got' and I wore padded bras and I made peace with that.' 

Millie continued: 'When I was in my twenties and I was on the pill, they were a B, but quite perky and then after breastfeeding both of the girls the skin just got so stretched. 

'When I was breastfeeding they were enormous and when I was pregnant as well. 

'Then what I was left with afterwards was a completely different, deflated, empty sack of skin that just did not make me feel like me anymore.'

'Honestly for me, this has been the best thing that I have done for myself. 

'I had my surgery just before Mother's Day and it just felt like a lovely present to myself to make me feel like me again. 

'It's given me a boost of confidence. I've really enjoyed wearing swimwear again this summer and it definitely made me feel much freer. 

'I've found confidence in my body again and it was just something I did for myself as a kind of reward for having babies.'

Millie's look has also seemingly prioritised sticking to natural-look results over a text-book glam boob job we've come to expect from the noughties.

Elsewhere, influencer Ambar Driscoll - who has a combined following of more than 595,000 on Instagram and TikTok - has been open about her own journey with getting a boob job to increase her size.

In a TikTok discussing the procedure last year, the social media star, 26, stressed that she was 'not going big at all'.

'I'm probably going to be like a B cup,' she added. 

Millie's look has also seemingly prioritised sticking to natural-look results over a text-book glam boob job we've come to expect from the noughties. Pictured: Cardi B, who has been open about getting her breasts done, in 2018

Celebrities who have been open about getting boob jobs include Megan Fox - pictured in 2023 in New York 

Ambar also opened up about her decision to get a boob job, explaining that it's something she'd been thinking seriously about since she turned 20.

However, she admitted the opinions of people online were making her hesitant - especially as she felt she was 'letting people down' and had a 'responsibility not to change anything about herself'.

'Really simply - my boobs are the only thing I'm really insecure about,' she explained. 

'And on holiday especially it jus takes up so much of my thoughts, no matter how hard I try.'

She continued: 'It's not a decision I've taken lightly... The reason that I'm doing it now is because I'm getting married in 2025 and I thought if I'm going to do this I want to do this so it's the body that I have at my wedding.

'I don't want to do it after my wedding and wish that I'd had it done for my wedding.'

Ambar (left) also opened up about her decision to get a boob job, explaining that it's something she'd been thinking seriously about since she turned 20. Millie (right) has also been candid about her work

Ambar has since shared bikini snaps and holiday photos which show how natural-looking the procedure results have been. 

It also comes amid a move which sees people taking out their implants to lean into a natural look overall.

In December, Victoria Beckham got candid about her past cosmetic procedures as she admitted she regrets her boob job. 

The former Spice Girl, 50, previously denied that she had undergone plastic surgery after she suddenly transformed from her natural 34A to a 34DD overnight but came clean in 2017. 

Speculation that the former Spice Girl had gone under the knife to enhance her cleavage first began in the 1990s, before her biographer Andrew Morton revealed the star visited a London clinic for breast implants following the birth of her first son, Brooklyn, in 1999.

The 2000s and noughties saw an embracement of big transformations when it came to boob jobs. Pictured, Olivia Atwood, who has been open about having had work done, in 2017

Some stars have expressed regret for getting work done. Pictured, Kylie Jenner, who has admitted she wishes she didn't get a breast augmentation 

And in an issue of Allure magazine, the mother-of-four admitted she regrets her implants, but still feels she cannot speak openly about them with her 12-year-old daughter Harper. 

She said: 'If I'm honest, I wish I'd never [gotten implants].

'It was a moment in time, and I think I can share my experiences with her,' before adding, 'But we're not there just yet.' 

In 2014 Victoria discussed her fake boobs with the magazine as she confessed: 'I don't have them any more. I think I may have purchased them.'  

According to her biographer, the initial enhancement surgery nearly 15 years ago set her back £10,000 and in 2001 it was reported she had a second operation to enlarge her bust size to 34DD. 

The designer is said to have had her first boob job in 1999, followed by another in 2006, before finally getting them reduced in 2009 and telling US Vogue, 'Torpedo bazookas, gone!' 

Publicly, Victoria always denied going under the knife and in September 2001, she insisted her inflated look was down to tape and push-up bras.

In an interview with Piers Morgan for the BBC's Tabloid Tales in April 2003, she said: 'I'm completely natural, except for my fingernails and I have a bit of help with my hair and a bit of a St Tropez [fake tan] going on.'

However, in 2005 the fashionista's lawyers admitted that the denials were untrue and that she 'had in fact undergone breast enhancement surgery'.

Victoria herself has also admitted to cringing at photos showing her inflated bust.

Other celebrities who have openly admitted to having boob jobs include Iggy Azalea. Pictured in 2016

She once told an interviewer: 'I've worn so many dresses in the past and when I see the photographs I think, crikey, my boobs are up round my neck again.' 

Similarly in a resurfaced letter that the singer-turned designer penned to her younger self for British Vogue in 2017, she expresses regret at her decision, warning: 'I should probably say, don't mess with your boobs.'

'All those years I denied it — stupid. A sign of insecurity. Just celebrate what you've got,' she added.

According to a blog post British cosmetic surgery provider Transform, there is even advice on how to specifically avoid the 'stuck on' look for those looking to book in a consultation.

In 2021, London-based cosmetics expert Dr. Caroline Payne - who is also member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) - revealed how more and more people come to her with demands for a subtle and understated look.

'Among my patients, requests for major augmentations are very, very rare,' she told CNN. 

Elsewhere, other professionals told the outlet that there are further reasons women were leaving artificial big boobs behind.

Ruth Holliday, a professor of gender and culture at Leeds University, said: 'Post-feminist thinking, which first emerged in the 1980s, was all about showing how empowered you were.

'It was about women reclaiming their sexuality, both from the patriarchy and the feminist movement itself. Within the realm of plastic surgery, that translated into emphasising all the parts of their bodies that were already widely eroticized by society – thighs, curves, breasts – to own and show off their femininity.'

However, she said, over time, they 'became synonymous with artificiality and tackiness' - which 'most women didn't want to be associated with'.

Elsewhere, speaking to the Evening Standard in 2022, celebrity plastic surgeon Dr Amir Sadri said he'd noticed a trend in 'smaller, more natural enlargements' as opposed to the textbook Y2K operation which saw a very easy to spot transformation.

'When the implants are put on top of the muscle so they give a 'faker' more rounded shape,' he said.

It comes as Kanye West 's second wife, Bianca Censori has sparked speculation about whether she has undergone surgery for her boobs. Pictured in June

Unsurprisingly, her extremely large breasts — which dominate her slim, 5ft 3in figure — have drawn comment as well as speculation as to whether she has undergone a cosmetic breast procedure

However, he found these are now increasingly being placed under the muscle - which 'adds a little more volume, without looking too cosmetically enhanced or fake'.

However, the trend has also seen influencers being more open with their breast augmentation journeys regardless of what aesthetic they go for, with social media stars like Alix Earle, Kennedy Eurich and Jazmyn Smith all vlogging their experiences.

Speaking to Glossy last year, plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Sterry said of the latest hype: 'It's odd to think of body parts, body types or surgeries to change the body as trends, but this is very much a reality.

'When you start to talk about culture and trends, and what's hot and new, that's just how it goes. When the Kardashians came out, all of a sudden, everybody needed a BBL.' 

Elsewhere, another practician, Dr. David Shafer also told the outlet that people now want to be much more open about their process.

'We just got an inquiry yesterday from a woman who was referred by one of our other patients, and she said, "I want to schedule a breast augmentation, and I want to document the whole thing on TikTok".

'It’s amazing, because in the past, people wouldn’t want anybody to know they’re having surgery. Now, they want to broadcast it to the world.'

It comes as Kanye West's second wife, Bianca Censori has sparked speculation about whether she has undergone surgery for her boobs.

The 29-year-old Australian architect and model was recently snapped in a see-through yellow bikini along with a beige thong bottom while on a weekend getaway in Santa Barbara County, California.

The ensemble added to a growing list that also include transparent sheer 'nude illusion' tops and 'micro bras' which do little to conceal her assets.

Some have applauded her as a positive role model for championing pendulous, natural boobs. Pictured in February 

Unsurprisingly, her extremely large breasts — which dominate her slim, 5ft 3in figure — have drawn comment as well as speculation as to whether she has undergone a cosmetic breast procedure.

Some have applauded her as a positive role model for championing pendulous, natural boobs.

But in a thread on Reddit other fans claimed her breasts looked 'so high up' with 'no sag', with another suggesting she has 'big fake boobs' in images from a trip to Tokyo in June 2023. 

One photo showed Bianca sat next to Kanye, 46, wearing a sheer red bodysuit, which led to speculation that she may have had a boob job. 

A Reddit user wrote: 'Did Censori get the twins done, cause they're BIGGER than usual.' 

Another commented: 'And so high up! No sag and they're humongous? Hmmmmmm.'

But even plastic surgeons are undecided on how Bianca has such large breasts for her small frame, suggesting she may have had a fat transfer or a small implant to give her breasts a lift.

But even plastic surgeons are undecided on how Bianca has such large breasts for her small frame, suggesting she may have had a fat transfer or a small implant to give her breasts a lift. Pictured last year 

'She does have relatively large breasts compared to her small frame,' said Dr Omar Tello London-based breast and body plastic surgeon. 'She may be blessed naturally but she could have had an implant or fat transfer.'

A fat transfer takes fat tissue from other areas of the body, such as the thighs or stomach, and it is transferred to the breasts in lots of small injections to give them volume.

Experts say the procedure may provide a softer, more natural-looking — and less obviously 'done — result, when compared to implants.

This may allow women to have a 'below-the radar' augmentation that is difficult to distinguish from the real thing.  

Dr Tello suggests Bianca may have had small breast implants, but adds that her breasts do have a 'natural droop'. 

He said: 'It is possible that she had breast implants years ago and over the time the weight of them has caused some drooping. So, that natural looking drop could be from an old implant.'

But he admits there is 'no strong evidence'. 

Mr Patrick Mallucci, a world-renowned specialist in cosmetic breast surgery, also agrees Bianca's physique is 'unusual'.

He said: 'Slim, petite women tend to have smaller busts so Bianca's big, pendulous breasts are unusual.

'Typically, she'd be more a candidate for a breast reduction than anything else.

'Women often find such large breasts annoying, but she's obviously celebrating her slightly droopier look which is no bad thing.'