The pioneering editor credited with turning the iconic – and often infamous – Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue into a cultural institution, has died at the age of 96.
Jule Campbell died on November 19 in New Jersey. She will be remembered as a “feminist pioneer” who made significant contributions to the fashion industry, according to Sports Illustrated.
Campbell joined Sports Illustrated as an assistant and reporter in the magazine’s fashion department in the early 1960s, after working at Glamour.
Her career took off after launching SI’s Swimsuit Issue, first proposed by Editor-in-Chief Andre Laguerre to fill the magazine’s typically slow winter months.
Its first iteration—a six-page cover featuring model Babette March in a white two-piece swimsuit—appeared in January 1964. Campbell’s work on the Swimsuit Issue began the following year, soon establishing her as a powerhouse in the industry.
Campbell (right, with binoculars) shooting for the Swimsuit Issue.
Eschewing much of the “skinny chic” aesthetic touted by the fashion industry at the time, Campbell’s vision was clear. Of her casting process, she told journalist Michael MacCambridge in an interview for his book “The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine” that “I went to California because I thought we should use more natural types of women.”
“I wanted them to look like real people who are beautiful, and I think our audience agreed with that,” Sports Illustrated quoted Campbell as saying in their obituary.
The first model she chose was a newly minted teenager named Sue Peterson, who appeared on Campbell’s first cover in a black one-piece with side cutouts and a red belt. It set the precedent for decades of publishing scantily clad white models — and, while far from what would be considered overtly revealing swimwear today, decades worth of reader ire.
(As Sports Illustrated noted in a review of reader letters commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Swimsuit Issue in 2014, the first critical letter printed came from a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, which read: “I sure don’t want pictures like that coming into my home for my young teenage son to watch, much less me. Think of the thousands of other young people across the country that you are influencing and don’t do it just for financial gain.”)
The 1978 Swimsuit Issue reportedly broke records for the number of letters from readers after it featured a photo of model Cheryl Tiegs (who by that point had appeared on two Swimsuit Issue covers) in a white fishnet swimsuit with her nipples bare. “We thought it was a throwaway photo,” Tiegs said of the controversial image in a 2014 interview with Florida’s Naples Daily News.
In addition to canceled subscriptions, the Swimsuit Issue also sparked protests from groups including the National Organization for Women, which accused the magazine of objectifying women.
Models in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue wear swimwear designed by Pompei Beach, in New York, on April 24, 2008.
Credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Campbell retired in 1996. Her final issue featured Tyra Banks, the first black model to appear on the magazine’s cover (although Banks shared the cover with Argentinian model Valerie Mazza). Other famous models to front the Swimsuit Issue under Campbell’s tenure included Elle Macpherson, Christie Brinkley, Kathy Ireland, Paulina Porizkova and Carol Alt, among others.
Since 1997, the Swimsuit Issue has been published as an independent issue, separate from the regular magazine. It expanded into television specials and documentaries; reality TV series and open casting.
In recent years, a greater commitment to diversity in the magazine’s pages has led to the inclusion of plus-size, transgender and disabled models. Many athletes — including tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka, skier Lindsey Von, wrestler Ronda Rousey and race car driver Danica Patrick — have appeared in the magazine and on its cover; celebrities like Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Megan Thee Stallion also got cover spots.
“Shooting the cover made me feel really empowered and happy,” Megan Thee Stallion told CNN in 2021 about shooting that year’s cover. “It made me feel good to know that women who have bodies like mine can be celebrated. Not just the standard types we’ve seen before.”
