Two-Pièce de Résistance: All-Star Cover Girls, 2006

I know I’m on record saying that more than two girls in a single photo is overkill. But …

Photo: Raphael Mazzucco

This one is different. These girls aren’t posing. They’re standing around in an unguarded moment. Some them seem to be laughing at a comment one of them made. They’re not twisting their bodies or finding their light or trying to tilt their “best sides” to the camera. They’re just … kind of … standing there. Being beautiful.

This particular shot is from Mazzucco’s book Exposure. The shoot is full of sultry, posed shots: one girl, two girls, all eight girls, purring at the camera, lounging on the sand, resting their bodies upon other bodies. “Heaven” is a great title for Walter Iooss Jr.’s swimsuit book, but it might even be more appropriate for Mazzucco’s. The fact that they’re all in white lends it an extra sense of eternal paradise.

I mean, good lord.

There’s something I find amazing about multi-girl shoots that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before.

Sara and Gigi, Julie and Jessica, Angie and Rebecca, Ashley and everyone — each girl knows she’s not only offering up her body as a male fantasy, she’s also allowing herself to be half that male fantasy. She’s collaborating with another model, knowing she won’t even be the exclusive focus of the male gaze. It’s that “objectification” thing I keep trying to describe (without sounding like a creep) — but multiplied.

Even now, after decades of looking at the swimsuit issue, I still have this joyful bewilderment that the models are okay with us looking. It’s that “permission” I’ve mentioned before. Every time a model in an interview makes some fun, winking, giggly reference to how small her swimsuit is, or how much skin she’s exposing, it brings a smile to my face. And here we have eight smiling models, all in on it together.

Two-Pièce de Résistance: Rachel Hunter, 1989

This photo is relentlessly hot.

Photo: Marc Hispard

In every sense of the word. Rachel’s magnificent body. The warm oranges and yellows. And you can almost see the Mexican heat glistening off the page.

There’s a palpable relief from the shadow the sombrero casts over her face, which also taps into my mild “thing” about the model’s eyes being obscured.

She braces herself against her shadow and takes on a “cowgirl in repose” position, as if she’s about to hand-roll a cigarillo while waitin’ for the horses to finish drinking at the trough, but that’s just another playful pinup act. Tiny and pretty bottoms in their high 1980s cut, a playful top slung low off her shoulders: The femininity radiates from her absolutely stellar curves.

Rachel was a great one.

Craig’s List

Two more additions to Ashley Richardson’s web of influence were hiding in plain sight on my blog.

The photo I shared here, in my exposé on SI’s Kenya obsession, puts Charissa Craig with Carol Alt in 1982.

Carol posed with Kelly Emberg in 1983.

Kelly posed with Kathy Ireland in 1989.

Kathy posed with Rachel Hunter on the cover in 1994.

And of course Rachel ran on the beach with Ashley in 1990.

This gives Charissa an “Ashley Number” of 5. She’s the only model with that number of steps.

I also already posted this 1990 photo of Sabrina Barnett back in 2015, when Swim Daily posted its first (and only) entry in their “It Takes Two” series.

This photo with Rachel gives Sabrina an Ashley Number of 2.

These two girls, along with Frankie Rayder from 2005, bring the number of Ashley-connected models to 43.

Bonus Topless Tuesday: Carolyn Murphy, Frankie Rayder, 2005

Happened across this photo, and I'm sharing it here because it adds Frankie Rayder to the Ashley Richardson Extended Universe.

Frankie posed with Carolyn on the table of contents page in 2005.

Carolyn posed with Rachel on the cover in 2006.

Rachel posed with Ashley in this neon kaleidoscope from 1990.

I bet there are even more models I'll rediscover eventually.

One-Piece Wednesday: Rachel Hunter, 1991

Topless Tuesday: Chrissy, Lily, Nina, 2014

Chrissy had a bit of an umbrella mishap last night.

So she's this week's Topless Tuesday model, along with a couple friends to make her feel better.

Hope you feel better, Chrissy.

Calendar Girls, Revisited: 1990

The very first week of the very first Swimsuit Desk Calendar. Stephanie Seymour, clinging to a rock while wearing that beautiful yellow one-piece thong. I remember it well, which makes it kind of astonishing that Stephanie presided over the birth of Michelle Vawer, a model whose one year in the swimsuit issue was already seven years ago.

But there’s Michelle’s birthday. Wednesday, January 3.


A few weeks later, Elle Macpherson was displayed on desks everywhere as future Rookie of the Year Kelly Rohrbach entered the world on Sunday the 21st.

Rachel Hunter offers Hannah Davis a pinch to grow an inch on Hannah’s birthday, May 5.

The next day, May 6, Ashley Richardson guided Jasmyn Wilkins into the world. You saw a lot more one-piecers in the issues and calendars of the late 80s/early 90s.

SI swimsuit legend Christie Brinkley welcomes SI swimsuit legend Lais Ribeiro on October 5.

And finally, two different girls — Ashley Smith and Chanel Iman — arrived (ironically) during a week with an unattached twin. They were born November 26 and December 1, respectively. According to the caption, that week's model was Yvonne Sylvander, but if it was actually Yvette who would know?

Get Thee to a Bunnery

So I recently covered Bianca Balti’s nipples when I noticed that nothing else was.

She actually did Playboy a couple of years ago, in July/August of 2014.

She went and bared it all. And she looked great doing it.

It sent me down a rabbit hole. A lot of my favorite 80s/90s models have disrobed for Playboy. I have a handful of these issues, buried in a closet somewhere.

Shall we explore their history?

To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to show nipples on this blog or not, but if it helps I hereby declare all these images Artistically Important. You wouldn’t make me censor Botticelli’s Venus, would you?

The original Angie Everhart.

One fun game to play: Read all the little headlines on the each cover. It’s a fun cross-section of what was on the National Mind each of these years.

Going all the way back to November of 1984, we have Christie Brinkley. Who could have guessed at the time she’d still be flaunting what she’s got 33 years later?

As it happens, she does NOT reveal much skin in this magazine. She’s modeling men’s clothing, in fact, so she’s considerably less naked than she gets in Sports Illustrated.

But she must be counted.

• • •

Next up is Cindy Crawford. She did two shoots, ten years apart. First in July, 1988:

Herb Ritts, one of our finest photographers of beautiful women (you’ll hear his name again and again in this post), captures some breathtaking and moody black-and-white photos of Cindy at her peak.

In October, 1998, Both Cindy and Ritts returned.

This time the photos are just as moody, but there are a few more splashes of color.

• • •

Stephanie Seymour also had two appearances, two years apart, with two parallel cover headlines:
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT MODEL
STEPHANIE SEYMOUR
TAKES OFF HER SWIMSUIT
and
VICTORIA’S SECRET SUPERMODEL
STEPHANIE SEYMOUR
TAKES HER UNDIES OFF

Her 1991 shoot is brought to us by, once again, Herb Ritts.

And it’s gorgeous.

Her 1993 shoot:

…went a little further in what it revealed.

I thought I’d take a cue from SI’s logo placement…

• • •

Hey, guess who photographed Elle Macpherson for the May 1994 issue?

Yes, Herb Ritts. Some guys have all the luck.

I got my hands on a copy of this a few years after it was published. I remember being disappointed. Look at how angular her poses are! Look at how severe and slicked-back her hair is! Where are the feminine curves and voluptuous brown locks I love so much?

I’ve since come to admire the photos. They’re not supposed to be your standard (swimsuit) issue cheesecake. I now think they’re quite beautiful on their own terms.

• • •

Naomi Campbell in December of 1999…

…is the trippiest and most bizarre of the selections. Which makes sense when you realize the photographer is David LaChapelle, whose style is super colorful and arresting.

At first, you think, “Is the theme ‘food’? There’s a lot of food in these photos…”

But then you turn around and she’s being mounted by a leopard.

And then this pic, which MAYBE has a hint of bondage going on?

Nah, that’s just my filthy mind. Naomi would never deliberately suggest—

Well. Different magazine.

• • •

In February, 2000, Angie Everhart broke a promise to her grandmother when she posed nude.

I actually remember reading about that promise and being surprised when I heard she was going for it after all.

She was photographed by Macro Glaviano, who’s no slouch when it comes to capturing women. I have his book Sirens, which is full of joy.

If you thought I was joking with my Botticelli reference above, check out how impossibly long her hair is in these.

By the way, here’s a little article/video about Angie’s shoot. She mentions that she deliberately hid her pubic hair, even though, in her words, “they wanted to see if the drapes matched the curtains.” That’s not QUITE the expression she’s looking for, but we all know what she means.

“I think men are always gonna want to see women in bathing suits. And I think they should!”
— Angie

“I agree 100%.”
— Swimsuitologist

And you DO glimpse a tiny tuft of her carpet in one or two of the photos.

• • •

Rachel Hunter: April, 2004.

If Naomi above implied a bit of bondage, Rachel just went all out. My eyes almost fell out of my head when I first saw these.

There are a couple shots that DON’T go there, but for some reason I have a hard time concentrating on them.

• • •

Later in 2004, in August to be exact, we received Eva Herzigova

Out of all the photos in this lineup, hers seem to be the most straightforward. Beautiful woman. Standing before you. Naked and lovely.

There’s a certain pose that seems to come up time and time again. I call it the “supine coffee table.” Here we see it demonstrated by Eva, Angie, and Cindy.

So there you have it. I’m on the record as preferring swimsuit-clad girls to naked girls, but I’m certainly not going to scold them for removing their swimsuits.

I have a few more bikini-less bikini models up my sleeve. They’re more recent. I think I’ll post them pretty soon.

(By the way, here's where those cover-bunnies are hidden, in order of appearance: lace backdrop beyond right breast, medal, shadow on neck, sarong near upper-right inner thigh, shadow behind hair, tassels on left thigh, hair swirls on left shoulder, inner lining of cape, hair strands above left collarbone, fringe on left breast, pendant.)