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.

Rookie Reveal #5: Solveig

Today's reveal is Solveig.

Is it dismissive to refer to South Africa Swimsuit as SI's minor league system? A lot of rookies have been called up for their cups of coffee. Here Solveig provides a supplemental One-Piece Wednesday from the 2014 South African swimsuit extravaganza.

Solveig (Mørk Hansen) also joins the ranks of SI girls who've abandoned all or part of their last names.

Vendela (Kirsebom)

Manon (von Gerkan)

Anne V(yalitsyna)

Irina Shayk(hlislamova)

Too much confusion over pronunciation? Maybe. But they look as sweet.

A sharp-eyed commenter pointed out that I completely forgot Adaora (Akubilo).

One-Piece Wednesday: Manon, 1996

I Understand It's National Pink Day

Upton Fatigue

Interesting observation: When I happened across the Kate Upton Easter Bunny video last weekend, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Again?”

Maybe Kate is a teensy bit overexposed.

These two stories were side-by-side on my Yahoo news feed the other morning:One story is a video about Kate’s appearance as a sexy nun in the Three Stooges movie.The other addresses whether she wore a dress better or worse than Mila Kunis.True, she’s referred to as “model” in both headlines. And true, the fashion critic gives Mila the edge in the red-dress-off. But it’s telling that, according to the list of “labels” on the right of this screen, Kate has been featured in more posts (25) than any other model on this blog. (With this post, she leapfrogs Irina Shayk’s 24.) This is a girl who came on the SI radar barely a year ago. Perhaps we’re a little oversaturated with her?

In honor of her sexy habit, maybe I’ll declare a Kate Lent. Do you think I can go six weeks without posting about her?

Goodbye for now, Kate! See you after May 26!
Meanwhile, let’s yield the floor to some models I’ve neglected.

Manon

Oluchi Onweagba

Melissa Baker

Aline Nakashima

Melissa Keller

Lorraine Pascale

Lujan Fernandez

Following Suit

The stereotype dictates that two women showing up in the same outfit will be mortified and jealous. But the 1995 swimsuit issue seems to have inspired a sense of sharing between the models.

It started when Manon shared her bikini with Vendela.Paying it forward, Vendela loaned hers to Daniela Pestova.Daniela completed the circle by passing hers along to Manon.It could have gone in a Ronde forever, but Manon decided to branch out; she loaned her blue one-piece to Angie Everhart.Angie didn’t share with anyone after that.

Do not trust redheads.