Born in Brazil

Saluting "the sexiest magazine in the world"

I magine one day you discover your girlfriend is being visited by an exotic cousin from a faraway land. When you meet her you can't quite believe your eyes. She shares so many of her most alluring traits with your girlfriend, yet she has many captivating characteristics all her own. You'd be a fool to start comparing the two, yet somehow you can't keep from cataloging her attractions. There she is, lolling by the pool. Unbeckoned, a song floats to mind, arriving subtly, like a warm dream. "Tall and tan and young and lovely...." A softly strumming guitar insinuates itself into your bloodstream. The girl from Ipanema is before you.

Yes, right before you, every month on the pages of Brazilian PLAYBOY, which British Esquire, with typical English understatement, calls "the sexiest magazine in the world." Our sister publication has taken a formula pioneered in the USA and infused it with the exuberance and flair for which Brazil is so famous, and we thought you'd like to see the result. Brazilians, as we know, are almost innocently comfortable with the human body, as evidenced by their cutting-edge work in perfecting the thong. But the hips those thongs accentuate on the beaches of Rio, hips that roll so sensuously during the samba and shake so captivatingly during the merengue, prove that innocence is the last thing on anyone's mind. Witness these Carnaval attractions: Lorraine Lima and Naara Carolyne Cunha (left), Andréia Nautick (above) and Maryeva (right).

When the magazine started in 1975, it had to cope with a politically repressive regime that practiced a strict, if illogical, censorship: One nipple could be shown but never two. Those dictators were ousted in 1978; Playboy kept on. Today, showing photos in which one, two or even a dozen nipples are triumphantly displayed (ah, freedom!), the magazine is almost always the country's bestselling monthly. Actresses, singers, athletes and even the star of the top children's television program have appeared nude in pictorials, all delighted to take their turn personifying Brazilian beauty. "Here," says an editor, "it has never been vulgar to be naked."

Brazilians maintain that, along with peerless soccer players, their country produces the most beautiful women on earth. The last people who would contest this view are Brazilian women themselves, who back their national vanity with a fearless exhibitionism. "For every 10 women you ask to pose in Playboy," a former editor says, "only two will say no. And they will say yes if you ask them again." Here are two who agreed: Nádia Pires (left) and Livia Lemos.

Undoubtedly it sounds better tripping off a native tongue, but there's a saying in Brazil: "The bottom is the national preference." Brazilian Playboy happily feeds this appetite, showing as many photographs highlighting a lady's fundamental feature as showcasing her front. Another local fascination is the tan line. Brazilian swimsuits may be skimpy, but they must be worn. The flesh below then goes unseen, leaving tan lines to highlight the forbidden fruit: Consider Keila Siqueira (left), Silvana Bandeira (above), Graziela Alves (below left) and Milena Mascarenhas (below right).

Some Brazilian beauty preferences go back a long way--the beloved bleached blonde, for example. Other standards have evolved: small-breasted women, once preferred, have yielded to girls as generously endowed on top as they are below. But whether they are large or small, blonde or brunette, or viewed fore or aft, all these girls--such as lovely Antonela Avellaneda, on this page, and Renata Santos, at right--can be summarized in a single phrase: Braziliantly beautiful!

See more Brazilian beauties at cyber.playboy.com.