This 56-Year-Old Model First Donned A Bikini In Sports Illustrated — Now, She’s In A Lingerie Shoot

In February, 56-year-old model Nicola Griffin made a splash as the oldest woman to ever appear in Sports Illustrated’s famed Swimsuit Issue (albeit in an ad for Swimsuitsforall, not in the issue’s editorial pages). We were hoping we’d see more of Griffin and her self-proclaimed “quite sexy, rounded tummy” — and we didn’t have to wait too long. Griffin is starring in a lingerie shoot for SLiNK, a British curve magazine.

Yes, we saw mature models in major ad campaigns in 2015, like Joan Didion for Céline, Joni Mitchell for Saint Laurent, and Cher for Marc Jacobs. And some labels, like Rachel Comey in New York and Undercover in Paris, have included older models in recent show castings. But an older model not just appearing in fashion content (whether IRL or in the pages of glossies), but doing so in a bathing suit or lingerie, is far from what we’re accustomed to seeing.

“It’s crazy to think that fashion models, aside from generally all being one size, are all in one age bracket, too,” Rivkie Baum, editor-in-chief of SliNK, told Refinery29. “There seems to be a consensus, especially in media, that women start to become invisible not just above a size 10, but above age 50, too,” Baum says. “Nicky is defying all those odds, and her passion to represent made her a perfect choice for this issue.”

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Ambrosio: Motherhood has changed my attitude to lingerie

Alessandra Ambrosio says motherhood has made her less comfortable posing in lingerie.

The 34-year-old Brazilian model is one the most famous Victoria’s Secret Angels and has been working with the underwear giant since 2004.

Alessandra was always “100 per cent comfortable” stripping off and slipping into any lingerie garment, no matter how revealing, but since she had her daughter Anja, now seven, she started to worry about how she would explain why she wore so few clothes for her job.

Recalling a Maxim magazine cover shoot she did last year in which her modesty was only protected by a newspaper, she said: “I used to be 100 per cent comfortable on lingerie shoots – then I had a child, and it was more of a mental shift than anything else. Somehow it felt a bit weirder to be in lingerie once I was a mother.

Although I did that cover for Maxim last year, you don’t see anything. When my daughter saw it, she asked, ‘Mummy, why do you have no clothes on?’ And I said, ‘Mummy actually has a G-string on – it’s just so small you can’t see it.’ “

It’s not the effects that pregnancy has had on her body that has made more self-conscious about unveiling her figure.

Alessandra – who also has three-year-old son Noah with her husband Jamie Muzur – believes her body looks better now than before she had kids because she has worked hard in the gym to get in shape.

Speaking to Net-A-Porter’s weekly digital magazine THE EDIT, she said: “Your body will never go back to exactly what it was before pregnancy, whatever people tell you. It can’t.

But I think I have a better body now than before I had kids. It’s partly because I work out, whereas before I didn’t, but also to do with the shape – it just looks more formed now and I feel better about it than I did.

Not that it was easy getting back into shape post-pregnancy: after having Anja I only had three months to lose all the weight (before doing the 2008 Victoria’s Secret Show) and I was on this 1200-calorie-a-day meal-delivery service that I hated. I couldn’t do that again.”

To see the full interview with Alessandra Ambrosio read The EDIT at Net-a-porter.com/magazine or download The EDIT’s free app for iPhone, iPad and Android.

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