Kate, Jasmine, and Olivia team up to usher in 2020, at long last.
It’s a solid cover. I like the stark elegance of all the black swimsuits. The girls look good.
I don’t know what “Life, Levity and the Pursuit of Beauty” means… I guess “levity” might be a nod to the idea I mentioned yesterday — that the world is pretty heavy right now, so let’s enjoy some bikinis. “The pursuit of beauty” might be a reference to their mission of expanding beauty ideals, but that too is odd considering that all three models have pretty conventional swimsuit bodies.
Why it’s all wrapped in a Declaration of Independence reference, I have no idea. Maybe they thought this would come out closer to the Fourth?
And did they consider “Life, Liberty and the SWIMsuit of Happiness”?
Anyway, the girls are all just kind of standing there. A single hot girl in a great dynamic pose would have been better. Even two girls can leave room for a fun visual.
But SI is still on a kick of overloading us with covergirls. Each girl apparently gets her own cover, too, but those are similarly straightforward.
I’m sad that my holy trinity of Barbara Palvin, Lais Ribeiro, and Hailey Clauson all departed in one fell swoop. Babs and Lais should have gotten at least one cover between them. And Emily DiDonato’s return would have been nicely enhanced with a cover.
Nothing against this trio. I’ve become quite a fan of Kate, I was an early adapter of Olivia, and Jasmine looks pretty magnificent. And they make a very alluring harem.
(SI seems to have pre-released the three models’ individual shoots in their entirety, which is new.)
Anyway, let’s induct Miss Culpo into Underboob Monday as we digest this newest batch of photos and wait for the rest of the magazine.
Haven't really been a fan of Kate before. But this year, I noticed her right away. Has she filled out? Or maybe it's just the composition of the pictures.
ReplyDeleteKate's kind of a stealthy model for me. I think early on I wrote her off as kind of a generic blue-eyed blonde, but I keep getting hit by some truly lovely shots of her. I've come to enjoy having her appear so consistently.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that she was a rookie the same year as Emily DiDonato. Emily returns after a three-issue absence, and Kate's still here to receive her.
I think the joint cover is the best of the bunch. It's solid, but not spectacular. None of the solo covers really do much for me. White swimsuits with a pale background just don't pop.
ReplyDeleteI miss the days of the solo cover. Given that it's only happened once in the last five years I guess it's safe to say those days are pretty much gone. 6 women got to say there were an SI cover girl in the 80s. 15 women can say that from the last 7 issues.
Ha — that stat is a great observation. They're tossing out covers like candy at a parade.
ReplyDeleteThat makes it even more frustrating that so many of my favorites during that time — Hannah F, Emily, Sara, Babs, Lais, etc — never managed to get one.
It seems to me perhaps that the negotiating leverage between SI and its models has changed. In the old days models yearned to be on the cover, and understood that only Jule Campbell had the power to bestow that tremendous honor. Now I wouldn't be surprised if SI had to more or less guarantee a (shared) cover to a model as a condition of her participating in the Swimsuit Issue at all.
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