Meanwhile, I’ve spent the week contemplating beautiful women
in swimsuits, so I’ve been in a pretty good mood.
Here’s where I landed for my top ten.
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| 10: Julie Henderson |
She's a divisive one. It surprises me how violently some
people dislike her. The party line at Bellazon, for example, seems to be that
she has a fantastic body but a bad face. They are continuously confused and
dismayed that she keeps appearing in SI. Thankfully, they aren't in charge, and
I continue to receive an influx of new Julie photos every February.
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| 9: Elsa Benitez |
Warm. That's the first adjective that springs to mind about Elsa. Warm eyes, smile, skin. A slow, easy seductiveness that's impossible not to love.
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| 8: Cheryl Tiegs |
Shots like this one are timeless. A lot has changed with
regards to standards of feminine beauty, styles of swimwear, photography and
retouching technology, etc. But you look at this photo and understand why
Cheryl was the original SI supermodel.
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| 7: Christie Brinkley |
She took the baton from Cheryl and ran with it. Hypnotic
beauty, which persists to this day. Cheryl introduced wholesome, all-American
blonde imagery to SI, Christie perfected it.
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| 6: Petra Nemcova |
Hauntingly ravishing. A warm, sunny, friendly gorgeousness
with a dark river flowing beneath it.
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| 5: Rebecca Romijn |
There is a direct line from Cheryl to Christie to Rebecca,
then on to Kate after her. Brilliantly gorgeous American blonde + bikini = the
backbone of the swimsuit issue.
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| 4: Paulina Porizkova |
My first cover. As a counterweight to the all-American
blonde faction, Paulina is the darker Eastern European/Russian strain of SI
model. Paulina lives on in the likes of Petra and Irina.
 |
| 3: Stacey Williams |
I agonized over this. Stacey and Heidi leapfrogged each
other in my mind all week. Stacey’s hypnotizing eyes and cascading tendrils of
brown hair have entranced me for over two decades.
 |
| 2: Heidi Klum |
But in the end, Heidi had a cover and more omnipresent
career, and I figured that gave her an edge. Heidi is so deeply, inarguably
beautiful it almost hurts.
 |
| 1: Elle Macpherson |
This one, I never had any dilemma about. The greatest model ever to wriggle into a swimsuit. As of now, I’m not sure who tops SI’s official list, but in my mind there is no doubt.
3 comments:
You're right about Julie. I'm a huge fan. My brother doesn't like her much at all, because of her face, as you said. And I do agree, Julie isn't the prettiest woman. But I take the wabi-sabi view and find beauty in her imperfections.
I really like the line you draw from Cheryl to Christie to Rebecca to Kate. Rebecca is another of my favorites that I wish I could see more of.
I will say I would not have been so generous with Elsa.
I love that thought on Julie. She doesn’t have the eerily symmetrical face and pale blue eyes of, say, Emily DiDonato. But I think her realness is such a big part of her charm for me.
I’m surprised to hear your thoughts on Elsa! I find her pretty amazing. But I do enjoy hearing the disagreements, whether it’s between me and SI, or me and Bellazon, or you and your brother. It proves that our tastes aren’t completely homogeneous.
It makes me upset that Izable Goulart and Nina Agdal did not make it, both of them caught my eye when I first saw them, Cintia Dicker too, grant it I can't argue with most of your picks as I have only been getting the issue from 2010 till now,
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