Also-Ren

I guess we should talk about Alexis Ren.

She won Rookie of the Year last year. Where has she gone?

For the eight previous officially designated Rookies of the Year, we assumed that the title was a guarantee we'd see the girl again. Whether you came back just once (Sara Sampaio/Kelly Rohrbach/Bianca Balti) or continue to return to this very day (Kate Bock/Barbara Palvin), a ROTY title was always a return ticket.

Alexis Ren is the first ROTY/one-hit wonder.

I don’t know much about her except that she arrived with a full contingent of fans and Insta fame, which she rode to the title.

I think she’s hot. A little straightforward for my tastes, maybe, but you can’t deny that she looks fantastic in a bikini. And she exudes a fun and happy personality that’s great to see.

(I love this bikini on her. Great colors, fun cut. Her best 2018 photos, for my money.)

I wonder what happened. I’m sure at some point the plan was to bring her back. It looked like a mutually beneficial relationship. Scheduling issues? Feud of some sort?

So, who should have won last year?

Raven Lyn gets my retroactive vote. Assuming she’s not coming back after a skipped year or two, I must add her to my ever-growing list of “shoulda-beens.”

Robin Holzken would also make my shortlist, and as a bonus, she actually came back in 2019.

And my dearly mourned Chase Carter rounds out my threesome. I think she had a lot more swimsuit to give.

This week, I plan to rewrite SI swimsuit history with a ROTY retrospective.

Until then, let us say farewell to Alexis.

Calendar Girls, Revisited: 1996, 1997, 1998

This rounds out all the models I know of who were born during the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Desk Calendar years.

In 1996, Vendela stretched out in a pretty white one-piece and welcomed 2018 rookie Alexis Ren on November 23.

1997 brought us two more 2018 rookies: Robin Holzken (April 19, welcomed by a silver-bikini'd Rebecca Romijn)...

...and Chase Carter (June 10, welcomed by a sand-duned Manon).

And finally, in 1998, Taylor meets Sailor! Sort-of-2018-rookie Sailor Brinkley Cook arrived on July 2, welcomed by Niki Taylor in a pretty green bikini.

And Sailor, who as of this writing is 20 years, 38 weeks, and 5 days old, is the youngest SI swimsuit girl in existence.

That record may be broken in about a month and a half, when we have the full rookie class and all their disturbingly recent birthdays.

Fly Chicks

Apparently, January 5 is National Bird Day.

So here’s a Robin, a Robyn, a Ren, a Renn, and a Raven.

See? There's more to this blog than just boobies.

Models Named in Suit

Seven years ago, SI made (nearly) all of the models wear gold necklaces bearing their names.

In 2016, they got out the label maker again, this time in the form of black one-piece swimsuits and only for the rookies.

They took a break from that in 2017, but this year they’re back: rookies with their names emblazoned proudly across their silver, black, or pink one-piecers.

I think it’s pretty sexy that they have their names on their suits. It’s like they’ve all been categorized and displayed for my inspection.

Happy One-Piece Wednesday.

Get a High-Cut, Hippy!

I feel I’ve droned on a bit about the high-cut swimsuits of the 80s and how they shaped my interest in the female body. But I’m impressed with how well 2018 has been infused with that decade.

It’s not just the cut of the suits. It’s the color schemes, patterns, accessories — maybe even the type of posing. I don’t know enough about modeling or photography to delve into the secret sauce, but I get a deep stirring of déjà vu at how well they invoke the decade I discovered the swimsuit issue.

These shots of Vita and Kate look for all the world like posters I might have hung in my bedroom in 1987.

And Hailey in this dream of neon yellow and grape-candy purple and retro roller skates makes me feel like I’m in seventh grade again.

But yeah, that high-cut thigh. Rookie Chase Carter even touches on it a bit in her Uncovered video. (She also makes a point of name-dropping Elle Macpherson, so that earns her additional points with me.)

I like Chase. She strikes me as a cuter Hannah Davis.

She also gives us this year's top-but-no-bottom entry.

Anyway, it’s high-cut heaven. And some girls seem determined to go above and beyond. There’s a lot of grabbing the hips and pulling skyward, as if to say “You want to see an acute angle? I’ll show you an acute angle!”

This Vogue article from last summer suggests this isn’t just pastiche. We might be in the midst of a legitimate reinvigoration of this cut. (A few familiar SI faces and bodies pop up in that article.)

Count me in.

Laisbreaker

Okay, this has piqued my interest in the 2018 swimsuit issue.

They just released their first photo: my girl Lais Ribeiro.

• • •

Also, Alexis Ren won Rookie of the Year.

I recognize the name, but I wouldn't have been able to pick her out of a crowd. Apparently she's big on social media, which probably played a part in her landslide win.