Two-Pièce de Résistance: Estelle Lefebure, 1993

Score another point for Team Shiny.

Photo: Paul Lange

There are two photos of Estelle I love equally, this gold one and the green one I featured here. I think this one is fun to contemplate from a composition standpoint.

I’ve shared some photos lately where the model is either enhanced by or contrasting with the background. This one is almost monochromatic. The photo is made up entirely of various shades of tan. Estelle stands out by dint of the shiny curves of her swimsuit and the soft smoothness of her skin, otherwise it’s a “polar bear in a snowstorm” joke come to life.

She stands statuesque in what we can imagine is a hostile, windswept environment where a beautiful girl pines in sexy anguish. She looks a bit like a damsel on the cover of a romance novel. You almost expect her to lay the back of her wrist against her forehead in melodramatic woe.

Anyway, that’s my fantasy about this shot. To others, it may simply be a swimsuit girl lounging near a beach just out of view. But it’s always seemed more dramatic to me.

Personal history: When I was in college, I had this page neatly sliced out of the magazine and hanging on a shelving unit in my dorm room. Well, unbeknownst to me, the dorm started replacing the shelving units in all the rooms, so one day I got home from class to find a new shelf above my desk, with this page gently removed and replaced upon it.

I always thought that was very considerate of the contractors.

One Last One-Piece Wednesday

A final array of beauties to support my pro-one-piece argument.

QED.

Swim Trunks

Today’s unforgettable “Animals and Swimsuits” entry: elephants. Mostly real.

• • •

2/15/21: Thought I'd add this Ana Beatriz Barros pic from 2005, for completist's sake.

Weekly Planner Week, Part 5

Say you’re a 17-year-old swimsuit issue enthusiast, and you’ve just begun September on your 1990 desk calendar (or, as it happens, “diary”). You flip over to the week of September 2, and there’s the lovely Rachel Hunter, dressed not in a bikini but in shorts and a cutoff top.

“Well,” you think, “they’ve provided me with eight months of bodies to ogle, they’ve earned a tamer, behind-the-scenes photo.”

Then a week later you flip again, to the week of September 9, and you see another fully dressed girl, this time Estelle Lefebure.

And that’s how the swimsuit desk calendar became a fully clothed desk calendar for half a month.

Weekly Planner Week, Part 2

From 1990 to 1996, each week of the desk calendars featured a little pithy/punny comment on that week’s photo, courtesy of Jule Campbell. While looking through them, I noticed that Jule used the exact same caption in 1994 and 1996, right down to the model:

“Ingrid gets a leg up.” (5/23/94, 1/1/96)

There are only so many little puns you can make on the subject of swimsuit models (believe me, I know), so there’s bound to be some repeated sentiments. In consecutive years, she gets a little rhymeful and refers to Estelle Lefebure as “la belle Estelle.”

6/24/90: “La belle Estelle in jungle camouflage.”

3/17/91: “Pink suits la belle Estelle.”

Here are a few more.

5/2/93: “Angie thinks she’s being shadowed.”

6/17/96: “Rebecca is sure she’s being shadowed.”

8/1/93: “Angie plays all the angles.”

8/26/96: “Judit’s got all the angles.”

12/5/94: “Amber on the rocks.”

9/9/96: “Daniela on the rocks.”

9/8/91: “Judit’s tickled pink and isn’t telling.”

12/30/96: “Rebecca is tickled pink.”

11/18/90: “Elle takes the bow.”

4/21/91: “Kathy takes the bow.”

More all week (since I'm sure you find this as fascinating as I do).

Grin and Parrot

In the spirit of the animal theme, please enjoy some models with parrots.

One-Piece Wednesday: Estelle Lefebure, 1988

Mercredi des «Maillots de Bain 1 Pièce»: Estelle Lefébure et Laetitia Casta

A pair of French filles have their birthday Friday.

Estelle Lefebure turns 46. This photo from 1988 is probably one of my favorites in swimsuit issue history.

It’s so warm and sleek. It had permanent residence on my wall when I was in junior high.

And Laetitia Casta turns 34. In 2000, she took us on a retro tour of swimsuit history, including suits from the 20s:

…the 40s:

…and the 50s:

Laetitia Casta is so French, she was chosen to portray Marianne, the voluptuous emblem of France, in bust form.

Second place? Estelle Hallyday, née Lefebure.

Joyeux anniversaire.

One-Piece Wednesday: Estelle Lefebure, 1993