February’s Best Argument for Print

Every February, Sports Illustrated drops its Swimsuit Edition and I remember why magazines still exist. This year’s has Kate Upton, Emily Ratajkowski, Hannah Ferguson, Sara Sampaio, Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge—a collection of women so thoroughly, specifically beautiful that the whole thing starts to feel slightly unreal, like someone ran an optimization algorithm and this is the output: palms, sand, bodies glowing in late afternoon light, the world reduced to warmth and skin.

Ratajkowski had already been on everyone’s radar after Blurred Lines and a string of high-profile appearances, but seeing her in a spread lit like a fever dream confirms something: she has a quality the camera can’t fully explain and can’t stop trying to. Upton has a presence that makes everything around her look like it’s waiting for her to arrive. The rest of the lineup is not exactly suffering by comparison.

Yes, it’s a bikini catalog with sports branding stapled to the front and an editorial concept of approximately zero. Nobody picks this up for the writing. But it’s February, the world outside is cold and grey and relentless, and for twenty minutes I’m somewhere with palm trees and very little clothing and no problems that require solving. I’m not sorry about any of it.