After Emily Ratajkowski called Christie Brinkley a “vintage inspiration,” all the 63-year-old model could do was laugh, considering she’s still posing in swimsuits for Sports Illustrated.
“Pinterested this photo over 2 years ago and made a sample of it over a year ago. We all tap into vintage inspirations,” Ratajkowski wrote in a Nov. 23 post for her Inamoratswim swimsuit label. She included a photo of Brinkley posing in a leopard skin-pattered swimsuit in the 1980s.
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“So [Emily Ratajkowski] when you say vintage are you talking about the swimsuit or me? Ha!” the 63-year-old Brinkley wrote on Instagram.
While she hasn’t responded to the comments Brinkley made, the 26-year-old Ratajkowski said the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s provided some of the inspirations behind her new swimsuit line.
“I was looking at an old Sports Illustrated from the ’70s, and there was a painted swimsuit on a model’s body and it was just belted,” she told Vogue in November. “I was obsessed with the idea [of a belt].”
She continued, “There was a picture of Stephanie Seymour in Sports Illustrated where she has three or four [bows], and it was actually in the back. I thought that was so pretty and such a nice way to show the figure. I loved the idea of turning it around.”
The six-piece collection has also been criticized by Lisa Marie Fernandez, who claims two of the outfits look similar to two outfits she released three years ago.
Fernandez sent a cease and desist letter under the European Union Design Registration, reports the Business of Fashion. On Nov. 27, Fasionista reported that Fernandez filed a cease and desist letter in New York federal court.
