Warwick Rowers.

Angus Malcolm

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and the Warwick Rowers are here to provide a little more cheer!

The men’s rowing team at University of Warwick in Coventry, England, has grown in popularity over the past few years thanks to its annual naked pin-up calendar, photographed by Angus Malcolm. The club counts Kylie Minogue, Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry among its fans, and draws coverage from the likes of MTV, BuzzFeed and The New York Times.

We caught up with the Warwick Rowers' Tristan Edwards to chat about the team's hope of recording a charity single (with Elton John!), which Disclosure track is the perfect “psych-up song” before a race and how Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” became the team's song. Plus, Edwards and his teammates share some exclusive cheeky holiday-themed photos and a special Spotify playlist (scroll down to the bottom of this story to hear the selections).

Warwick Rowers.Angus Malcolm

 

The Warwick Rowers launched its first naked calendar in 2009 as a creative way to help fund the team's sport. Back then, “Our boats were dilapidated and we had no way of repairing them. We started the calendar as a way of literally keeping the club afloat,” the team says in a statement. The calendar soon became a commercially successful and award-winning endeavor, which “transformed the club.”

As the years went by, the team’s popularity grew — as did its range of products, viral videos and charitable endeavors. In 2013, the team started the Sport Allies charity, which receives 10 percent of all profits from the Warwick Rowers’ products. The charity’s mission is to challenge homophobia and promote diversity both in and through sport.

Speaking of charity, the 20-year-old Edwards — who also doubles as the team’s publicity and social media coordinator — says they would “love to do a Christmas (benefit) single… perhaps something along the lines of ‘Equality Christmas,’” adding that “Elton John is my first choice.”

Warwick Rowers.Angus Malcolm

 

In fact, Edwards — who has been playing drums since he was a child — grew up in a very musical family and has a keen interest in a wide range of music. Many of his personal selections populate the Warwick Rowers’ Billboard Spotify playlist, including cuts from Stevie Wonder (Edwards says he's “a true genius”), Led Zeppelin (“the world’s greatest rock band”), Joni Mitchell, Snarky Puppy and Robert Glasper.

Also on the list are artists and songs suggested by the team as a whole, including Justin Timberlake and The Police. (Sting briefly attended the university.) The Flume remix of Disclosure’s “You & Me” is cited by the club as the “perfect psych-up song before a race.” Meanwhile, Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” amusingly became the team song last year after “a team member somehow managed to gain the nickname ‘Shania,’ and from there it sort of took off,” says Edwards.

Warwick Rowers.Angus Malcolm

 

“I’d love to work in the music industry in the future, be it performance or management,” Edwards says. “In an ideal world I’d love to work for someone like Blue Note Records, being able to merge my love for music and the professional skills I gain from my graduate job.”

Edwards notes that the team has “a lot of members who have dabbled in some form of music performance in the past, as rowing requires a good sense of rhythm, I’m not surprised by this. Zach (Wills, from the 2016 calendar) was signed to a label before he came to University, and I think he’d still love a career in music.”

The Warwick Rowers’ complete line of products — including calendars, books, prints, videos and clothing — can be found at warwickrowers.org. In addition, they recently debuted a range of gift certificates that are delivered instantly to the purchaser. 

Many of her haters (and some of her fans) consumed their entire being in incandescent outrage, but for me, staring at Chrissy Teigen’s exposed nipple opened a lot of introspective doors. One of my first ponderances was whether or not Chrissy Teigen is a body positive and feminist role model, a subject that has been debated and dissected ever since she posted a photo of her stretch marks.

Sure, she’s being more transparent than most of her contemporaries, who would probably prefer that the general public only see their airbrushed unblocked school, manufactured likenesses — some of them even upload those photos and pass them off as candids on their Instagram pages. Then again, Teigen still presents a conventional, slim, socially acceptable version of what’s considered beautiful. In fact, her success (and paycheck) is almost entirely based around her appearance. Can a woman like that really teach us anything about what it means to unabashedly show off and love our bodies, most of which don’t come as close as Teigen’s to fitting the ideal?

Many say no. For people who take a more radical stance on body positivity, the mere fact that Teigen is employed by an industry that is powered by women's insecurities and creates aspirational ideals means that she’s unable to earn the title of “body positive role model.”

(A carefully placed bottle of hairspray kept this photo from being deleted, but it's still hard for some to accept that this gorgeous Thai-Norweigan model can teach us something about loving ourselves.)

That conversation is an important one, and can even be discussed in the realm of plus size modeling: Tess Holliday is fat, but otherwise, her conventionally beautiful, feminine appearance and heavily doctored images are still designed to be aspirational.

(She may be plus sized, but there's not much else about an image like this that is representative of anything except for conventional beauty norms.)

However, the less complicated response I hear about Teigen, Holliday, and other models and celebrities is, “Must be so easy for her to say [we should love ourselves], she’s a gorgeous model!”
And as I stared at the glorious pink promised land of Teigen’s areola and wondered how she got her boob to stay still during the shoot, I thought to myself, “Yes, it is easy for her to say. It’s easier for her to love herself, because she lives in a world where she has permission to do so.”

But just because it’s easy for her to say doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be saying it.

Teigen, and every other model, influencer, or celebrity who wants to preach or participate in the idea of self-love should be encouraged to do so. And we should be able to hear it, and appreciate it, but also understand that their words and actions come from a place of privilege. We should be able to compartmentalize the words of people like Teigen and keep them separate from the words we tell ourselves, or the words of those who believe they’re allowed to love themselves without the added benefit of having society agree.

(They may be stretch marks, but they're stretch marks on the legs of a thin, conventionally beautiful, able-bodied woman unblocked games online. You're still allowed to appreciate the candor of this photo anyways.)

So, do I think that Chrissy Teigen, her exposed breast, her stretch marks, or her commitment to defying the arbitrary, sexist rules of Instagram are ultimately an act of feminism and body positivity?
Yes, I do. In fact, I think that the fact that Teigen is using her platform to express these things can only be interpreted positively. I especially enjoy the fact that she also posts things that hint at her own self-awareness, a surprisingly rare quality for people in the spotlight:

At the same time, I don't kid myself about how much of an impact Teigen's words really have on the masses. It's on us as the consumer of these types of statements to be able to see the differences between what it means when someone like Teigen eats Cheez-Whiz from a can and says "eff it, I love myself," versus someone like Holliday who effs beauty standards while simultaneously succumbing to them, versus a marginalized person who is trying to find value in their appearance while everyone tells them there's none to be had.

It's not that Teigen's words matter more than those who operate on the fringe, but they matter in a different way. Her status means that her acts aren’t an inspiration, or an aspiration. They’re simply part of the conversation, and it’s one I am more than happy to have.

Sports Illustrated covergirl Chrissy Teigen—who has become a Twitter phenomenon for her raunchy, funny, oversharing posts—is a far cry from the remote supermodels of old. And we like her that way.

With her candid personality, social media over-shares, and bubbly, ‘could easily be your new best friend’ vibes, it’s no surprise that Chrissy Teigen has been referred to as the “Jennifer Lawrence of the modeling world.”


“Some people, I think, think that because I don’t take it as seriously as a lot of the girls do, that I frown upon modeling or think it’s stupid,” the 28-year-old tells The Daily Beast when asked about the comparison between herself and the actress. “I don’t at all. This is my life. I would be nothing without this. But I really don’t take it seriously.”

It was the same sentiment that Teigen had expressed a few days earlier while appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers: “I am paid a good amount of money to not blink for 12 hours,” she explained. “Listen, you get to travel, meet a lot of people, it’s fun, but I don’t take it very seriously, no.” She was—as she normally is—being blunt and unfiltered. And yet after the interview, Teigen was criticized for the cool, down-to-earth demeanor that has made her nearly half-a-million Twitter followers fall in love.

“I got a lot of comments saying, ‘Well, at least Jennifer Lawrence respects her craft.’ I was like, ‘I have so much respect for my craft, but I am also not like the girls that—I’m not an editorial girl.’ It takes talent to be that type of girl, and for me, I go in and have a good time. But I definitely respect the craft of modeling. Do I take myself seriously in it? Not at all.”

Regardless of how ‘seriously’ Teigen may or may not take herself, she’s certainly succeeded in what is typically known as an extremely cut-throat industry. She burst onto the scene in the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue where she was named “Rookie of the Year”; this past year, for the magazine’s 50th anniversary, she earned a spot on the cover alongside Nina Agdal and Lily Aldridge. She’s starred in campaigns for the likes of Olay, Nike, and Gillette Venus (“I had a razor campaign and I think I maybe had a little too much to drink one night and I was like ‘I HATE RAZORS,’” she told Meyers. “And that’s not exactly good for endorsing any kind of brand”), and has been shot for the likes of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and GQ magazine.

It’s no surprise that guys—and girls—are obsessed with Teigen. Aside from her looks, it’s obvious that she’s fun. She boasts on social media sites, and her blog So Delushious, about her love for food; the site’s tagline says it all: “Personal random ramblings from a girl who loves bacon and can’t be fat.” She’s turned Twitter and Instagram into outlets for fans to feel like a part of her life—be it her marriage with singer John Legend, her obsession with her three bulldogs—two English, one French—Puddy, Pippa, and Penny (whom she refers to as her “dog family”), or her increasingly successful career. Sure, an incredible husband is on any girl’s childhood wish list (as is a dog or two), but was modeling a lifelong ambition?

“I always wanted to be a teacher or wanted to do something with food,” she explains. “But modeling, I just never thought I could do it myself really ever. I still have trouble calling myself a model. I just never thought I was tall enough or skinny enough. [When I was starting] it was the time of the very thin, waify runway models. So, I knew I couldn’t do that.”

Teigen found her way similar to how Kate Upton did, utilizing her curves and sex appeal as an advantage rather than, as many aspiring models see them, a disadvantage. Although older than most would expect for a model just starting out (she was 18 when she was discovered while working at a “little surf shop,” as she calls it, in Huntington Beach, CA), she quickly learned that other types of models existed beyond the catwalk.

“I got an agency and did regular catalogue stuff, nothing too glamorous,” she says of her career’s early days. “I remember talking to my boss at the surf shop—I had gotten booked for some stupid brochure, I’m sure something lame, and I was like, ‘This is my moment, I need the day off.’ And he was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ So I said, ‘Well I quit then!’ And I was crying. [Laughs] To me at the time, that was the biggest job ever… In the beginning of my career I went down to Miami—for four years, six months out of the year, I would call Miami home. I would live in a model apartment with four or five other girls sometimes and would just do basic catalogue-type stuff. That’s where I got hope that you could make money just kind of being not a runway girl [Laughs].”

Sure, her types of jobs may be more Maxim than Vogue, but it’s not just her curviness that makes her different than a typical runway girl. She shows a side that’s rarely seen in supermodels: personality. She loves to talk. And she loves to eat.

It's no surprise that guys—and girls—are obsessed with Teigen. Aside from her looks, it's obvious that she's fun.

Teigen has become a bit of a phenomenon on social media with her unfiltered, racy comments and photos; highlights include, “That was the longest two minutes of my life since a boy named mark,” “Fun fact: I’m allergic to champagne but I still drink it because 1 I don’t play by the rules and 2 barfing isn’t an inconvenience,” and “haaaaa i just realized i got my period dates mixed up and I’m not pms’ing i just love pizza and ranch and being a bitch.” We laugh with her, we laugh at her, and most of all, we appreciate her transparency. She does it not for the attention, but because she’s actually passionate about it. “I really do love social media, I’ve always been crazy about—even like, remember AOL chat rooms?” she laughs. “I always loved message boards and I was always interacting on the computer.” But with her shares of drunken tirades (and eating), photos of John Legend hanging in bed, and her trials and tribulations of experimenting in the kitchen, it’s hard to think there’s anything we don’t know about her life.

“It’s funny, a question I get all the time in interviews is, ‘What’s something that people don’t know about you?’” she says. “And I’m always like, ‘Well, that’s a tough question and probably not good that I can’t answer that,’ because that means I’ve totally over-shared completely.”

So, can there be a balance between connecting with your audience and maintaining a personal life? “I find the balance by trying to maintain my own persona so people don’t feel like they can judge me or criticize me,” she explains. “You can’t scold people for judging for not knowing you when you give them so much information. You’re like, ‘Well, you don’t even know me,’ but in their mind, they do know you, because you have gone out of your way for so many years to be so relatable to them.”

The shining facet of Teigen’s relatability comes not with her gorgeous looks or hilarious personality, but with her love for food. “When I wake up I’m like—I gotta go to Whole Foods. I’m constantly reading cookbooks, I bring hardcover cookbooks with me on the plane and tag pages. I just have this crazy food obsession.” But a fascination with cuisine and cooking isn’t something she necessarily appreciated when she was younger.

“It’s so funny because my mom is Thai and my dad is this big American guy—and our food tastes were so similar growing up,” she says. “He was meat and potatoes, I was meat and potatoes. We’d do corn beef and cabbage and we were big on breakfast—huge omelets—and just hearty, hearty American food. And my mom would always be doing, to me, what was this crazy Thai thing in the back of the kitchen, where she would bust out the ‘masher,’ as I called it—the mortar and pestle—and make something that, at the time, I found funky. My dad and I would be like, ‘What’s that?!’ and go back to our corn beef or something… I really truly wasn’t into food then. I definitely grew into it… once I started being able to travel and see things. Of course, John opened me up to this whole world of wonderful cuisine that I wasn’t used to or ever getting to have. I remember we would go to dinners and then I would try to come home and re-create it because, this is one of the differences between John and I—John actually does love going out, he loves going out for dinner, he likes staying home too—but I’m definitely much more comfortable just being in the house and cooking, drinking wine, and watching TV. That’s why every meal I do takes four or five hours. It’s a long day, because I truly enjoy it.”

Today, Teigen’s blog is home to some of her recipes, from “The Perfect Scallop” to “The World’s Best Caesar Salad Dressing in the Universe.” She’s starred on two Cooking Channel features: Chrissy Teigen’s Hungry, which followed she and John’s pre-wedding food-tasting adventure, and Cookies and Cocktails, an on-screen holiday gift swap with the channel’s Kelsey Nixon. Most recently, Teigen served as a judge for MTV’s new cooking competition show, The Snack-Off, which premiered this week; she refers to it as “Top Chef for young people.” Growing up eating many TV dinners (which she says she still loves, “even those horrible Salisbury Steak ones.”), Teigen saw the show as a perfect way to feed her guilty pleasures.

“I have never been ashamed to say that I love really dirty food that maybe has high-fructose corn syrup, maybe the ingredients have stuff from old yoga mat parts or whatever,” she says. “I’ve always loved snack food, it’s very comforting to me. I don’t have a sweet tooth—I would take an entire turkey over a chocolate cake… I love a ham & cheese Hot Pocket. I love White Castle frozen burgers. Taco Bell. I actually will doll up the frozen White Castles with fresh onions and cheese. That’s so sad, but I love it. There’s not many frozen foods I won’t eat.”

This coming from a woman who’s a model. Sports Illustrated and White Castle burgers may seem like an odd pairing, but in Chrissy Teigen’s world, it’s a match made in heaven.

Chrissy Teigen took the plunge in a cape blazer at the Daytime Emmy Awards alongside husband John Legend in Burbank on Sunday.

The 29-year-old presenter paired her parted tuxedo jacket with a pencil skirt and stilettos, while the 36-year-old Oscar winner looked sharp in a blue suit.

Posing outside Warner Bros. Studios, the Lip Sync Battle co-host accessorised with a black clutch, sparkly bracelet, and onyx earrings.

Scroll down for video  

Taking the plunge: Chrissy Teigen ensured all eyes were well and truly on her as she attended the 2015 Daytime Emmy Awards at Warner Bros in Burbank, California, on Sunday night 

Cute couple: The model was joined by singer husband John Legend as the pair packed on the PDA on the red carpet 

 Be a cape-able of looking chic in Chrissy's dress by Olcay Gulsen

Not only is Chrissy Teigen a notable supermodel in the fashion industry, but she’s becoming quite a superhero with her personal style.

We always keep one eye on John Legend’s gorgeous wife and she’s prone to wearing some of our favourite designers that many celebs wouldn’t even think of.

Here, the fashion conscious beauty stuns in a cape dress with a plunging neckline by Dutch designer Olcay Gulsen, and it certainly stood out amongst a sea of generic gowns.

What’s more, everything cape-style from dresses, waistcoats and jackets are huge this spring/summer 2015, and have been championed by designers including Lanvin and Salvatore Ferragamo to name just two.

And it's your lucky day because you can buy Chrissy's exact red carpet number from Spotted On Celeb with a click to the right. Woohoo!

It might be a little on the pricey side at £450, but how often can you buy a dress straight up that's been worn by a supermodel at a high profile event? Not too often.

If you'd rather steal Chrissy's look for less, then check out the edit below for our top alternatives from the likes of Missguided, Lavish Alice, Nasty Gal and more.