Skin magazines are nothing new. Titles like Oui and Modern Man were once kept under your parent's beds, and are now on bookshelves belonging to today's artists and high fashion photographers. Skin mags have since evolved into slick and shiny pop porn, with mags like Maxim showing off starlets comparable to Tara Reid with major airbrushing, uncomfortable posing and cheesy lighting.

Psychologists maintain that people tend to go back to basics during a recession, but they still love sex. A lot. Which could explain the increased popularity of Terry Richardson's organically photographed, supposedly untouched images of natural beauties in the Pirelli Calendar this year, and explains why a pulp title like Jacques Magazine, a new luxury erotic magazine hearkening back to the classic men's skin mags, could do so well in this paper pulping economy.

The major difference between Jacques' pin-ups and Playboy's plastic centerfolds is the great lengths Jacques goes to portray the natural beauty of their models (actually, real women from places like Lancaster County, PA), abiding by a strict no airbrush policy. Even their EIC Danielle Luft strips down for her editor's photo.

The women pictured and creative direction blur the line between pornography and art: the pin-up girls are now the same girls you got coffee with last Thursday at Sant Ambroeus and danced with some night at Lit. They have a story, which ultimately makes them more interesting to both men and women. With the airbrushing scandals plaguing celebs like Demi Moore, while Glamour glamorizes healthy 'real' women/models, the push to bring porn back to basics may be just the thing to help American women get closer to-- excuse the preciousness of what I'm about to suppose--loving the skin they're in.

Elize from Jacques Magazine on Vimeo.