Georgian model selected as Playboy’s last nude centrefold

Playboy has revealed the final model who will pose nude in the magazine’s legendary centrefold – and she is Georgian.

Kristy Garett, 26, has been named as Miss February 2016 and the last playmate to appear nude in the magazine, marking a highlight of her career and the end of a 60-year era for the iconic publication.

Born in Tbilisi and raised in southern Russia, Garett will feature in a 12-page spread in the January/February 2016 issue, including as the magazine's full-page centrefold. The first model to appear on the cover was Marilyn Monroe in December 1953 and the first centrefold was published in 1956 with actress and model Marian Stafford as the feature.

Garett was revealed as the magazine’s final nude model following a decision by magazine staff in October to cease publishing photographs of naked women. The magazine announced her feature in a Tweet to its online followers:

World, meet Miss Jan @amberleighwest & Miss Feb @KristyGarett, the last two nude Playmates in our Jan/Feb issue: https://t.co/u1HhkYojeu

— Playboy (@Playboy) December 6, 2015

The March 2016 issue of Playboy will be the first edition in 60 years to print without nude pictorials. Other changes will also see the magazine printed on larger-sized page and on higher quality paper.

Garett's pictorial and centrefold photograph will appear in the magazine’s January/February 2016 issue, which will hit newsstands in the US this week. Photo by Playboy.

The Tbilisi-born model was enthusiastic about her appearance in the historic issue of the magazine:

I was so proud to do Playboy. This is history. It’s such a big deal. Being the last nude Playmate makes me cry and feel happy inside," she told the New York Daily News about being selected for the pictorial.

Garett believed the magazine spread could change her life.

She said she hoped to move to Los Angeles following her appearance in Playboy, citing the "lifestyle" of the American city as the reason for her desire to settle there.

"The lifestyle here, where you’re free to express yourself, is my type of life. I am proud of the woman I am and have always dreamed of being talked about because of that.”

Speaking six languages and with rich experience travelling internationally for modelling projects, Garett was chosen by the magazine's editors to represent Playboy's evolution since its founding by publisher Hugh Heffner in 1953.

Playboy called Garett one of the more "worldly” models to appear in its pages.

She’s international, she’s a model — but she still looks approachable," editorial director Jason Buhrmester said while explaining the decision to cast the 26-year old as the last nude model for the magazine.

Playboy editorial staff decided to redirect the focus of the magazine away from nude photographs in October in response to the availability of adult material online.

The magazine's circulation dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to 800,000 today, figures by the Alliance for Audited Media showed. However the editors’ decision to stop publishing nude photographs on the Playboy website in August last year saw the online magazine increase its monthly traffic from four million to roughly 16 million.

One of the celebrity models who posed naked for the magazine over the years was Pamela Anderson, who recently revealed she would appear on the issue’s final nude cover.