LOS ANGELES — Playgirl magazine, a legacy brand from the 1970s known for racy centerfolds of male celebrities and insightful feminist articles, is expected to return to publication this Monday.
Interview magazine published yesterday a Q&A with Playgirl’s new publisher, Jack Lindley-Kuhns, where the street date for the first issue of the relaunch was announced as October 26.
Previously, Lindley-Kuhns had announced the return of the magazine for various dates in 2019 and 2020.
“The title, which dates back to 1973, has a scantily clad history of putting the male form on full display,” wrote Interview’s Mitchell Nugent.
But, as Nugent noted, “from 1973 to 2016, when the magazine folded, the definition and shape of masculinity have evolved tremendously.”
Male Centerfolds and Maya Angelou
According to the article, Lindley-Kuhns “will unveil a modern mold for the traditionally nudie magazine this month — a mold that looks beyond a simple state of undress. Sure, the infamous centerfold will make its comeback, but in a far more decadent way. Nudity will, of course, be a focal point, but the relaunch will also make way for thought leaders of our era, much like Playgirl once attracted contributors like Eve Babitz and Maya Angelou.”
“I think one of the best things about Playgirl is it can be interpreted in so many different ways,” Lindley-Kuhns told Interview, “whether starting from entertainment for women; to moving into the ’80s; and the ’90s that were so celebrity-focused; and then it turns into porn. I knew when I saw the early years how relevant it could be today.”
Artist Silvia Prada will serve as Playgirl’s “Image Director.”
“Playgirl, especially during the genesis in the '70s and in the '80s, was part of the way I grew up as a teenager, and how I understood pop culture,” said Prada. “My fascination with the male image and the historical construction of the male image and its memory is my subject of work.”
For the new publisher, Playgirl “represents an open message that eroticism has no gender right now, and no sexual tendency, and Playgirl is pure eroticism on paper to take home. It’s a fantasy. The magazine was focused on the idea of desire, but desire in every topic they touch—in the environment, health, politics. It’s a magazine about desire.”
For more from Playgirl magazine, visit their Instagram page after Monday, October 26.