I think they were pulling your leg. There was a style in fashion photography, begun in London in the '60s and used off and on for decades, in which the models were made up and lighted for dead-flat facial appearance -- almost like cardboard cutouts. It went along with Twiggy-style bodies and skinny legs jutting out at odd angles. When used in b&w, they'd light up the background so much that you sometimes couldn't see where the face ended and the background began. Then some dark eye and lip makeup made the eyes and lips look like they were suspended in space.
Here's Emma Watson (today's Twiggy) with the flattened lighting but without the background effect, with a couple of eye sparkles and a pair of kickers on the hair to modernize the look: