Christen Harper’s Throwback SI Swimsuit Pics in Portugal Have Us in Awe

The model traveled to the southern European country for the 2024 magazine.

Christen Harper was photographed by Ben Watts in Portugal. / Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

We love a good throwback pic here at SI Swimsuit, and brand model Christen Harper just delivered with a new Instagram post. The 31-year-old California native shared a selection of snaps from her 2024 brand feature in Portugal, and the photos have us ready for a trip down memory lane.

Harper was first introduced to the brand in 2021, when she was declared co-winner of the brand’s Swim Search open casting call. Following her rookie SI Swimsuit photo shoot in Barbados, she earned co-Rookie of the Year honors in 2022. Since then, Harper has also traveled to Dominica for her work with the brand.

“Far before I was in the magazine, it changed my life,” Harper stated while on set this year of SI Swimsuit. “Confident women, growing up as a young girl and seeing them in the magazine ... Seeing women like Kate Upton in the magazine, it truly changed the way I felt about my own body, about my own self. It made me feel beautiful, seeing someone with curves, and I felt like I was good enough the way I was.”

This year’s photo shoot in Portugal for the 60th anniversary issue was unlike any other Harper had participated in previously for the franchise. Rather than posing on the sand, she took to the cobblestone streets of Porto and the North, Portugal, where the styling was inspired by port-side Riviera fishing and vintage J.Crew catalogs.

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A post shared by Christen Harper Goff (@christengoff)

“Rainy days in Portugal with @si_swimsuit 🌧️📸 @wattsupphoto,” Harper wrote in the caption of her Sept. 24 carousel, where she shouted out photographer Ben Watts.

In her post, Harper shared four selects in which she was clad in various bikinis. In the first, she rocked a black Selina Rae Swimwear two-piece underneath a denim Turnbull & Asser button-up. Next, she posed against a stained glass doorway in a dark blue Zimmermann bikini. Harper was also featured in an orange and white Sara Cristina bikini and, lastly, a blue LATITID two-piece.

Plenty of Harper’s 537,000 IG followers piped into the comments section with praise for the model.

“😍😍😍😍,” fellow brand star Katie Austin wrote.

“You are…just …wow! @christengoff,” 2021 Swim Search finalist Summer Wilson gushed.

“Fantastic let’s go back 😊🥊😊,” Watts added.

Following her feature in the 60th anniversary SI Swimsuit Issue this May, Harper walked the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Runway Show at the W South Beach for Miami Swim Week in June. It was her fourth appearance on the catwalk for the franchise, and Harper referred to the moment as a “dream” on Instagram.