The Story Behind Emily Ratajkowski’s SI Swimsuit Photo Shoot in Bodypaint

The model recreated an iconic image from the 2007 magazine featuring Bar Refaeli.

Emily Ratajkowski was photographed by Walter Iooss Jr. in St. Lucia. / Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Model, author and mother Emily Ratajkowski first posed for the SI Swimsuit Issue in 2014, when her feature in St. Lucia involved painted-on swimwear in addition to actual suits. The 33-year-old worked with photographer Walter Iooss Jr. and makeup artist Joanne Gair, the latter of whom adorned Ratajkowski with guitar chips made of paint.

The work of art, incredibly unique in its own right, was actually an homage to another incredibly famous SI Swimsuit model, Bar Refaeli, and her brand feature in Jamaica in 2007. While on set with Raphael Mazzucco, the 39-year-old donned a guitar chip-adorned two-piece by Susan Holmes Swimwear.

Several years later, addition to the black and white bodypaint guitar picks themselves, Gair added “dimension and sparkle” to the look by placing actual rhinestones on top of the painted portion of the chains on Ratajkowski’s bikini.

“It was so exciting because I was [so young] when the first image came out,” Ratajkowski explained on set of the original image featuring Refaeli. “I didn’t even really understand how sexy it was, you know?”

The High Low With EmRata podcast host’s rookie feature was so impressive that she was invited back to the fold the following year. In 2015, she traveled to Hawai’i, where she posed for photographer Yu Tsai.

Below, we’re throwing it back to Ratajkowski’s music-themed body paint feature, along with a few of her best poses in the painted-on piece from the 2014 SI Swimsuit Issue. Plus, check out the pic of Refaeli’s that inspired it all here.

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated

Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated