Clockwise from top: Jane Forth with Andy Warhol, Whoopi Goldberg and the Mona Lisa.

By WILLIAM VAN METER


At a party at the Manhattan club China Chalet, two attendees stood out. Among those gathered to see the group Salem perform were two individuals who, at first glance, had no eyebrows.

David Toro, a 29-year-old photographer and art gallery worker, had bleached his brows to invisibility.

“I get a lot of stares,” said Mr. Toro, who wasn’t immediately recognized by his friends that evening, his face had changed so much. “But it’s cool because they are perplexed looks instead of something hateful.”

Mr. Toro said he was inspired in part by the actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg.

His friend Lauren Boyle, a 26-yearold fashion consultant who painstakingly plucks her eyebrows each day, thinks of her look as “a very optimistic and idealistic statement.”

“It’s unifying,” she said. “There is an asexual element to no eyebrows. We are much more accepting of the ‘other’ nowadays. Removing eyebrows removes a degree of expression, which makes one look less human and more cerebral, maybe even mechanical. It’s an exercise in modernity.”

Forget shaping and plucking. The newest trend in eyebrows is to get rid of them altogether, either by bleaching them into oblivion or by shaving them off. It was a conspicuous trend on the fall and haute couture runways, on models like Lara Stone and Iris Strubegger, and is now reflected in magazine and advertising images.

Having no eyebrows is by no means new. Jane Forth, an actress for Andy Warhol and a receptionist at his Factory, was the chic no-browed poster girl for a crumbling 1970s New York. And look at the Mona Lisa. It’s not just the smirk that makes her enigmatic.

Could no eyebrows be a reflection of economic downturn? Having no eyebrows is certainly a way to express oneself without buying a product.

“The economic troubles we are facing now open people up to be more daring and willing to don cuttingedge looks,” said the makeup expert Pat McGrath, who put the look on fall runways, notably at the Prada and Balenciaga shows.

Sarah Brown, the beauty director of Vogue, took a similar stance: “People are saying, ‘How can I shake things up? I might not be buying a new bag every three months, but what can I do to feel fresh and current and in style?’” The August issue of Vogue features an otherworldly Steven Klein shot of a model epilated above the eyes.

So are eyebrows a useless evolutionary remnant, like the appendix? Will we enjoy salty sweat dripping over our eyeballs? Sacrifices must be made for style.

Not everyone is open-minded about progress.

“I don’t know how great it would look at work or at your parents’ house for dinner,” Ms. Brown said. “Maybe just lighten your brows, bleach them a little bit.”

Mindy Hall, a movie makeup artist, was undeterred: “It is a fantastic look. On the right face, it’s gorgeous. On the wrong face shape, it’s not so …” She thought a moment. “You wouldn’t use the word ‘gorgeous’ for it.”