Happy Birthday, Yasmeen Ghauri

I messed up her birth date last year, so happy 44th to this gorgeous two-time SI model.

Happy Birthday, Yasmeen Ghauri

Finally, a happy birthday to Yasmeen, who turned 24 the day Gigi Hadid was born.

UPDATE: Nope! Yasmeen was born March 23, not April 23. I am screwing things up left and right around here.

Nonetheless, a nice opportunity to pay homage to an underrepresented model 'round these parts. Happy belated, Yasmeen!

Happy Canada Day

Let’s salute our bikini-clad neighbors to the north.

Kim Cloutier (Montreal, Quebec)

Ehrinn Cummings (Montreal, Quebec)

Yasmeen Ghauri (Montreal, Quebec)

Rachel Roberts (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Estella Warren (Peterborough, Ontario)

Missing the Complexities

Complex.com just listed their 100 Hottest Supermodels of All Time. As you might imagine, nearly half of the list is made up of SI girls. There are a lot of obvious names (your Elles, your Christies, your Marisas, your Tyras, what have you), but I thought I’d call out a few deeper cuts, some girls who don’t get as much exposure on this blog as they should.

Yasmeen Ghauri (#92)

Carolyn Murphy (#76)

Daniela Pestova (#72)

Angela Lindvall (#49)

Selita Ebanks (#17)

Niki Taylor (#12)

Each model has a series of icons at the bottom of her page, including “SI Swimsuit Issue Certified” to designate ladies who’ve appeared in the swimsuit issue.

Unfortunately, it’s not used with a great deal of accuracy. For one thing, they left that icon off Cindy Crawford’s listing.

That’s understandable; she had one photo in one issue, and her fame was largely independent of SI.

But more oddly, they apply this icon to six models who have never appeared in SI.

Doutzen Kroes (#80)

Alessandra Ambrosio (#24)

Miranda Kerr (#18)

Linda Evangelista (#9)

Gisele Bundchen (#6)

Claudia Schiffer (#5)

What do you think? Should these ladies have been in SI?

I normally don’t find myself wishing that models I know from elsewhere would appear in the swimsuit issue. But I have to admit, there are a couple of Victoria’s Secret models I just recently discovered who would make lovely additions.

They are Barbara Palvin:

…and Candice Swanepoel: 

Maybe on some future hot girls list, that little icon will be lucky enough to appear under their photos.

Your 2011 Rookies

The Rookie Class of 2011 has been announced. Let’s take a look at where each of them fits in the swimsuit model spectrum.

Kate UptonShe’s the most classic-looking, all-American, SI-type swimsuit model of the bunch. I see her as today’s Tori Praver.• • •Alyssa MillerThose are some major-league eyebrows. I see her as Yasmeen Ghauri’s face with Yamila Diaz’s lips.• • •Shannan ClickLooks to me like a combination of Molly Sims and Carolyn Murphy.• • •Kenza FouratiThis Tunisian model is highly unusual for SI. Most of the photos I found of her online show her in moody black & white fashion shots. It took me a while to think of an equivalent, but I think her look has the Frenchy, art-house ennui of a Laetitia Casta.• • •Izabel GoulartI figured that Daniella Sarahyba would not be in the 2011 issue. So they needed another 26-year-old Brazilian model to step up, and they found Izabel. If Daniella smiled less, they’d look even more similar.• • •The folks at Lowdown Blog place their bets on 2011's cover girl, and they put Julie Henderson at #3, after Anne V and Irina Shayk. (They also refer to the 2011 issue as the 49th. Meanwhile, the guys at Bro Bible seem to think it’s the 38th. Guys—it’s the 47th.)

9/22/11 ETA: Holy cow, it's the 48th. What's my problem? Math is hard.