Body by Roxanne
"Body by Roxanne," says page 98 of the January 1986 Vogue, in white serif type laid straight across Paulina Porizkova's collarbone. It's a cheeky credit to hand out. By then she'd fronted the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue two years running, only the second model to manage it, and she was still just twenty. The page never names her, but fans on The Fashion Spot file a Roxanne page from the January 1985 Vogue under her name too, so this looks like her second season with the label. A decade later ESCADA would lean on that same face far harder.
Of course the body helps, but what Roxanne is actually selling is fit. The swimwear label cut its suits in proportioned B, C and D bra sizes, a system it says it has offered since 1955, and the copy leans on that: "Soft, but controlled," then a suit that "fits like a blouson should but seldom does." Hence the top, a loose black bandeau bloused over the waist like a jacket, with a magenta sash knotted at the hip to hide the join. It's an enormous amount of fabric for a swimsuit, and all of it is there to smooth and cover rather than to swim in. The control comes from DuPont's Antron nylon and Lycra, whose mark sits in the bottom corner, the same fibre that turns up a few years later on a Mary Jane Marcasiano page, trademark symbol and all. A chiffon scarf in the same pink wraps her head and trails down one arm to a silver cuff, the only part of the outfit with nothing to hold in.
For all the styling, she stands like a fit model. Arms hang straight, fingers loosely curled against her thighs, hips square to the camera, chin level with the lens. It's the posture of a woman at a fitting waiting for someone to check the seams, which suits an advert whose whole argument is that the thing fits.
Sources:
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Paulina Porizkova — Wikipedia
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Paulina Porizkova — SI Swimsuit
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Paulina Porizkova, page 29 — The Fashion Spot
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Roxanne — Swimwear Anywhere
Filed under Roxanne · Paulina Porizkova
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