49 and Sunny

Modelinia.com has decided to count down to the 50th anniversary swimsuit issue, revisiting one cover per week until February 2013.

This week: the delightfully named Sunny Bippus on the cover of the 1966 issue.

Sunny was one of just two models in the issue that year, and a one-hit wonder at that.

There is one problem with Modelinia's countdown. The 50th anniversary issue will be in 2014, not 2013.

I fell victim to this faulty reasoning too. 2013 will bring the 50th swimsuit issue, making it the 49th anniversary. If 1989 was the 25th anniversary, the 50th will be in 2014.

I'm sure it will be cleared up eventually, right?

Speaking of the 25th Anniversary issue, it had a nice little profile of Sunny.

"Even in her modeling days, Margaret Caroline Bippus, known as Sunny, was more than just a pretty face. The photographers and art directors with whom she worked in the 1960s quickly learned that she was also a good sport. Hence, they threw her from airplanes, submerged her in swamps and perched her on precipices wearing everything from swimsuits to ball gowns."

Sounds like a predecessor for Stacey Williams, who mentions in this clip, (2:35) "I always joke, if there's a shot, you know, that involves danger or torture, it's usually mine."

One-Piece Wednesday: Genevieve Morton, 2012

Nippled and Dimed

Vanity Fair published this video slideshow when Walter Iooss’s book “Heaven” came out. It has narration by Iooss about some of the photos, including this statement about the famous Cheryl Tiegs shot: “To have nipples showing was very provocative in ’77. And by the way, we can’t show nipples in 2010 in the magazine, so things have sort of backtracked.”

That’s kind of fascinating. I think the swimsuit issue has gotten more blatantly sexual as the years have gone by. It’s made a transition from a frolicsome diversion to a straight-up girlie magazine. (I’ll go into that some other time, probably. I have mixed feelings about it.) And yet, the nipples have disappeared, sometimes blatantly so. I remember being confused by this 1986 picture of windsurfer Jenna de Rosnay:

How could those be allowed in a mainstream magazine, one that didn’t even have to be hidden behind the counter at the 7-11? I imagined that the letter of the law stated that the nipples had to be covered, leaving a loophole regarding what they were covered with. If it was translucent, so be it. So nipples were pretty common, pre-2000.

Elle Macpherson, 1989

Stacey Williams, 1996

Heidi Klum, 1998

But they came to a hard stop around the dawn of the 21st century. Then they started to be airbrushed out. Some of the more egregious examples:

Frankie Rayder, 2004

Irina Shayk, 2008

Brooklyn Decker, 2010

Jessica Perez, 2012

Some guy at a site called Celebutopia even took the liberty of scanning some uncensored 2011 photos from SI’s “Fantasy Islands” book, in which the nipples are free to be viewed behind their damp wrappings.

Alyssa Miller

Hilary Rhoda

Izabel Goulart Why dress the models in translucent suits, only to remove the nipples? Personally, I’m not salivating to see the nipples—there are plenty of places to go for that. But the Barbie breasts are pretty distracting and unnerving.

Playing with a Full Decker

Brooklyn may have disappeared from the pages of SI this year, but GQ has swooped in to pick up the slack.

Meanwhile, her pal Chrissy was recently featured in Esquire.

First Peek at 2013, Part 2

A tweet from yesterday:

Lisalla Montenegro, hanging around with two 2012 rookies? Perhaps Jimmy at Extra Mustard has made more progress.

Again: I approve.

Also: Thanks for the recon, girls.

One-Piece Wednesday: Ariel Meredith, 2009

Heidi in a Swimsuit and Less

She has a new photoshoot in the May Allure.

Happy Birthday, Stacey Williams

Cheers.

Upton Fatigue

Interesting observation: When I happened across the Kate Upton Easter Bunny video last weekend, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Again?”

Maybe Kate is a teensy bit overexposed.

These two stories were side-by-side on my Yahoo news feed the other morning:One story is a video about Kate’s appearance as a sexy nun in the Three Stooges movie.The other addresses whether she wore a dress better or worse than Mila Kunis.True, she’s referred to as “model” in both headlines. And true, the fashion critic gives Mila the edge in the red-dress-off. But it’s telling that, according to the list of “labels” on the right of this screen, Kate has been featured in more posts (25) than any other model on this blog. (With this post, she leapfrogs Irina Shayk’s 24.) This is a girl who came on the SI radar barely a year ago. Perhaps we’re a little oversaturated with her?

In honor of her sexy habit, maybe I’ll declare a Kate Lent. Do you think I can go six weeks without posting about her?

Goodbye for now, Kate! See you after May 26!
Meanwhile, let’s yield the floor to some models I’ve neglected.

Manon

Oluchi Onweagba

Melissa Baker

Aline Nakashima

Melissa Keller

Lorraine Pascale

Lujan Fernandez

Brooklyn Decker Is Getting All the Press

Happy 27th, Jeisa Chiminazzo.

One-Piece Wednesday: Jessica Van Der Steen, 2005

Happy Birthday, Paulina Porizkova

My first cover girl is 47. And she brought her own bow.

To Dye For

I don't know what The Love Magazine is. But if you want to see Kate Upton as a lingerie-clad Easter Bunny, well, here you are.
[UPDATE: Video is no longer the front page at The Love Magazine. You Tube'd here.]

One-Piece Wednesday: Jarah Mariano, 2009

Interested in some non-SI, non-one-piece photos of Jarah? Brosome.com comes through.

You Can't Spell "Maroon Five" without "V"

So I guess it's Maroon Fie now.

Anne V and what's-his-face broke up.This is downright devastating on the heels of Heidi and Seal splitting.There hasn't been this kind of crushing swimsuit-model-rocker-breakup malaise in the air since Billy Joel split with his uptown girl Christie Brinkley.Except: a bit of trivia. "Uptown Girl" was not inspired by Christie Brinkley......but by Elle Macpherson.Billy Joel got to hobnob with both swimsuit issue cover three-peaters. I can't tell if I want to high-five him or sock him in the jaw.

In any case, pressure's on, Chrissy.