Christie’s swimsuits got progressively smaller over the course of her three consecutive covers.
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| Photo: John G. Zimmerman |
And while skimpier does not equal sexier, I think this is her sexiest cover.
This
bikini is minuscule even by today’s standards. Its three or four
different shades of purple and its desert-island tatters give it a
haphazard patchwork look, and you can imagine being shipwrecked with
Christie during this breathtaking sunrise. A flock of birds swells
behind her; she seems to have summoned them with her superheroine sex
appeal. Amidst it all, she meets your gaze with a bold, confident
all-American girl grin.
I feel like this cover introduced the 80s
and the golden age of the swimsuit issue. This was the rookie year of
both Carol Alt and Kelly Emberg. A year later, Kim Alexis sauntered in. A
year after that, we’d meet Paulina Porizkova. Then Kathy Ireland. Then
Elle Macpherson. This issue was the starter pistol for a decade of SI
household names.
But at that moment, we had Christie in all her Brinkleyness.
To me, this is the greatest SI cover, just slightly ahead of Elle in 88. The sun, the clouds, the birds, the tan, the hair, the hip. It's all just so perfect. It's the type of picture that shows that the swimsuit issue was more than just pretty girls in bikinis.
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