'Does my bum look big in this?' Back in the 1990s, the 'Insecure Woman' comedy character made famous in the Fast Show hoped the answer would be 'no'. Today, a trend for cartoonish curves has driven a growing number of women to seek to enlarge their derrieres instead, and so-called 'Brazilian Butt Lifts' have hit the headlines. So what are they - and where did they come from? The Insecure Woman #TheFastShow pic.
twitter.com/M8I2lKgmrt — TheFastShow (@TheFastShow1) August 6, 2024 Who invented the BBL? Celebrity Brazilian plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy, who died aged 90 in 2016, is widely credited with inventing the Brazilian butt lift (BBL). It was first described in 1964 in a paper he published in the medical journal, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, as a surgical technique to correct sagging buttocks.
In the 1970s and 1980s he published further research on aesthetic surgery for the gluteal region, popularising the fat-grafting technique used in modern BBLs. Other surgeons, including the Argentinian José Robles, also experimented with placing silicone implants into muscle tissue to create a more rounded rear. Ivo Pitanguy - credited as the inventor of the BBL - was an icon of plastic surgery in Brazil (Image: Getty) Why did they become popular? Until the 2000s, BBLs remained relatively uncommon in cosmetic surgery.
After 2010, there was a surge in demand. According to the International Society of Aesthetic and Cosmetic Surgery, the number of BBLs - or "buttock augmentation.