'Playboy' Recreates Iconic Covers with Playmates Now in Their 40s, 50s and 60s

Playboy brought back seven models from the 70s, 80s and 90s to recreate their iconic cover images

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Photo: Playboy / Ben Miller

The models are back!

Playboy invited seven models who previously graced the magazine’s cover to recreate their iconic photos from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Lisa Matthews, 47, who starred on the June 1991 cover, says that people would come up to her to say they saw her on a magazine, but were too embarrassed to say which one.

“Once it came out, I remember I’d be traveling and people would come up to me. The thing they’d always say is, ‘You’re name is Lisa, right?’ And then they’d say, ‘I think I’ve seen you in a national magazine.’ I’d sit there and say, ‘Oh, which one?’ Like you have to say it!” Matthews tells Playboy. “If you have enough guts to come up and say something, then you’ve got to be able to say Playboy. The funniest place that happened was outside the Vatican in Rome.”

Cooper Hefner, Playboy‘s chief creative officer, had the unique experience of asking his mom, Kimberley Conrad Hefner, to recreate her cover — and Cooper decided to ask her on Mother’s Day.

“Pretty unconventional of a Mother’s Day present,” Cooper joked in a video posted on Twitter.

Kimberley, 54, who lived in the Playboy Mansion during her marriage to ex-husband Hugh Hefner, says she didn’t mind the Playmates going in and out of the house.

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Playboy / Ben Miller
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Playboy / Ben Miller

“It was always an open door and open gate,” she says, laughing. “It was just a different time, you know?”

In June 1990 Reneé Tenison, 48, became the first African-American Playmate of the Year, which she says caused controversy.

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Playboy / Ben Miller

“Some women were saying I was being objectified. But I said, ‘Well, if you’re pro-choice, shouldn’t I have the right to choose what I want to do?’ If I want to pose nude, I should be able to pose nude!” Tenison says.

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“When the issue came out, the response was 90 percent positive and maybe 10 percent didn’t like it. If you look back, all the big models from Christy Turlington to Naomi Campbell posed nude. I see it as art. Not everybody sees it that way, but that’s how I see it.”

Candace Collins, 60, who was on the February 1979 cover, says she’s proud to be a Playmate.

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Playboy / Ryan Lowry

“I now know just how special those shoots were and feel very, very lucky to be in such a unique sorority.”

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