(
)
Three times a week, Sylvia Bui spends an hour at Pilates on Fifth in Midtown, lifting her legs and squeezing her rear so she can get a bottom just like Pippa Middleton’s.
“It’s about having a muscular butt,” says the 33-year-old Carroll Gardens resident.
“Pippa’s got an athletic body. That’s what I’m looking for.”
After years of obsessing over fuller breasts and leaner arms, New York women are now focused on their rear view. Fitness experts credit two celebrities for the latest craze: Cartoon-proportioned reality star Kim Kardashian and Pippa Middleton, whose backside made headlines — and even spawned its own Facebook fan page — after she appeared in a butt-hugging bridesmaid’s dress at the royal wedding of her sister, Kate, in April.
The ass-thetics of these stars could not be more different: Middleton boasts a lean, barely-there booty that enables her to wear anything — even white jeans — without looking cheap. Kardashian, on the other hand, possesses a triumphant, in-your-face posterior that defies gravity and, some would say, the laws of female anatomy.
Yet both are appealing to New York women, who are divided over whose bottom’s better.
“I’m looking for Kim Kardashian’s,” says 37-year-old Bronx resident Danessa Torres. “[I love] her buffed look.”
Meanwhile, the Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society, as it’s called on Facebook, has more than 230,000 fans and hundreds of local followers, including Bui. “[Pippa’s butt] is healthier-looking,” she says. “[Kim’s] is too big. It’s too sexual-looking.”
Either way, women are rushing to surgeons to boost their buns. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, cosmetic butt lifts are up 143 percent nationwide since 2000. The procedure rose 4 percent from 2009 to 2010 in the Northeast alone.
Gyms across the city are also offering a slew of classes that promise to tone tushes into specific shapes. Leandro Carvalho, creator of Equinox’s calorie-blasting Brazilian Butt Lift, says the bum rush is a departure from previous fitness fads.
“I’ve been here for 16 years — when I first moved here, it was all about the breasts,” Carvalho says. “Now I don’t think that’s the appeal. The booty is really gaining attention.”
Gloria Jung, a three-year devotee of Carvalho’s class, says the routine helped her drop two sizes, look 10 years younger — and hone a keister like Kardashian’s.
“I never thought about my butt being droopy, but since I saw it lift, it’s become a goal that I want to keep,” says the 61-year-old Chinatown resident. “I like a nice, curvy butt — I used to think my butt looked big, but as long as my butt looks rounded and lifted, it can’t be too big.”
At the New York Sports Club in Rockefeller Center, trainer Sebastian Morel-Ferreira draws inspiration for his Brazilian Carnival Butt Blast class from his decade of dancing at Carnival in Brazil. The workout starts with stationary exercises that are followed by lunges, squats and leg raises — all to sexy samba music.
His devotees say the class gives you a Kardashian-style can while still being fun.
“The moves and routines feel effective without being overdone,” says 53-year-old Westchester resident Ellen Politi. “I think [a lot of it] is the aspirational factor of Brazil — ‘Oh, I want to look like those beautiful Brazilian women.’ ”
There’s no secret about how Kardashian and Middleton developed their derrieres. Kardashian’s trainer, Gunnar Peterson, says he incorporates sumo squats, split squats and Bulgarian split squats into the star’s workout regimen. “With Kim, I do every variation of a squat and every variation of the lunge,” he says.
Middleton credits weekly pilates sessions. “As someone who is always on the go, pilates has been a wonderful escape from my busy lifestyle in London,” says Middleton in her online testimonial for UK studio Pilates on the Go.
Exhale Spa co-founder Fred DeVito says technnique is paramount when trying to attain a Middleton-style caboose. “We use a lot of principles of pilates,” he says. “When you’re trying to shape a body part like [the butt], there’s a lot of precise positioning involved so you can target that specific part of the body.”
Don’t be fooled, though — while Middleton reportedly attends class just once a week, a perky posterior requires at least three weekly sessions. “There are obviously good genes in that family,” DeVito says.
Tail Of The Tape
Kim Kardashian Vs. Pippa Middleton
Kim Kardashian
Age: 30
Nick Name: The Tush
Butt Shape: Like a fifth appendage, and plump enough that it could be used to serve a meal
Rise To Fame: A raunchy sex tape with washed-up R&B singer and fellow reality star Ray J
Style: Flaunts her assets in curve-hugging Herve Leger dresses, sky-high Louboutins and outlandishly fake long eyelashes
Twitter: Tweets naughty bikini pictures to her nearly 8 million followers and congratulates Egyptians on their freedom
Love Life: Celebrated receiving a 20.5-carat engagement ring from Nets forward Kris Humphries with sparkle-covered live ponies
Tabloid Scandal: This week, In Touch magazine reported that Kardashian cheated on Humphries with New England Patriot Bret Lockett
Pippa Middleton
Age: 27
Nick Name: P-Middy
Butt Shape: Small, round and athletic — a perfect shape for tight white jeans.
Rise To Fame: Wowing the world as her sister’s maid of honor at April’s royal wedding
Style: Favors high-street Zara blazers, L.K. Bennett bags, denim jackets and shiny natural brunette locks
Twitter: Has inspired a Twitter account, “pippasass,” just about her bum; her ass-appreciation page on Facebook has 230,000 fans
Love Life: Attended royal wedding with cricket player-turned-businessman Alex Loudon, but has been seen with British scion George Percy
Tabloid Scandal: Photos of Middleton partying in a purple bra emerged shortly after the royal wedding — Kirsten Fleming