A Tale of Many Playmates

As some of you may recall, Playboy Magazine is transitioning to models who are not nude — after an unbroken string of “Playboy Playmates of the Month” for over 60 years.

We know, right?

[Warning: somewhat NSFW imagery follows.]

Counterintuitive it might seem, there have been many who hailed the move by the iconic men's magazine as a stroke of marketing genius. After all, in a world filled with lots of ‘Tubes and ‘Hubs providing everything from R rated imagery to porn, why continue to focus on what was once unavailable anywhere else? Others have derided it as the hail mary move of a dying business model.

Others still — lots of others — just lament the change in general. After all, it's been a part of American culture for 6 decades.

The magazine itself describes the change thusly:

Completely Redesigned Playboy Magazine Features Fresh Franchises, New Contributors, a Renewed Commitment to Art, Literature and Long Form Journalism and, of course, a Brand-new Take on Photographing the World’s Most Beautiful Women

Interestingly, they've changed the dimensions of the magazine too. It has increased to a size of 9 in. x 11 in. and the paper has been altered, upgraded (as they describe it) to give the magazine a “…collectible feel.”

Sounds familiar somehow…

Says Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders,

“I know I speak for all inovlved when I say that creating this new Playboy magazine has been a labor of love for those fortunate enough to work on it. We are exceptionally proud of the end result and are confident that everyone will enjoy reading it as much as we did creating it.”

The last Playboy nude centerfold, Kristy Garett, is a Georgia-born (the country, not the state) and speaks 6 languages; she appeared last month in the February 2016 issue. The first non nude playmate (which by no means indicates she'll be entirely clothed) is Miss March: Dree Hemingway, great grand-daughter of writer Ernest Hemingway and a Film Independent Spirit Awards Robert Altman Award winner.

Models from past issues of Playboy have gone on to be famous in any number of ways, from acting careers on television and the big screen to achieving success as custom knife-makers.

Some, like Leanna Decker  (seen here from her shoot with RECOIL, and more recently with a rifle from Radical Firearms, @leannadecker_) have graced the pages of RECOIL Magazine.

Read more about Dree Hemingway online here. You can follow Kristy Garett on Instagram @kristygarett; Ms. Hemingway is on Instagram @dreelouisehemingway. Playboy, of course, is @Playboy.

Things have certainly changed since the first Playmate of the Month, Margie Harrison — Miss January, 1954.