Marcel Winatschek

One Minute of Research, Zero Regrets

One minute of research on Alyssa Arce tells you she was July’s Playmate of the Month, which for most people would be the ceiling of ambition—a life goal checked off and framed on the wall. Arce had other ideas.

Terry Richardson shot her for the French Lui—the series simply called "Alyssa," which is either supreme confidence or the laziest title in magazine history, and honestly both readings hold. She slides a cigarette into her mouth with the kind of casual elegance that makes everything around it look effortful. She sticks her tongue out at the camera with the certainty of someone who knows exactly how this is going. The outtakes have her in one of those "I’m on Terry’s Diary" shirts, which I have always found simultaneously corny and completely covetable. I’d wear it. Not proud of that.

I didn’t know who she was before this. I do now.