![Clothes off: Model Miranda Kerr.](/web/20151224162044im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/i/z/k/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gliyob.png/1449631085300.jpg)
Clothes off: Model Miranda Kerr. Photo: Getty Images
Something very strange is happening in the world of magazines as racy men's publications such as Playboy cover up its centrefolds while fashion bibles including Harper's Bazaar Australia are taking their cover girls' clothes off.
A week after Playboy announced its last nude centrefold model would be Pamela Anderson, home-grown supermodel Miranda Kerr is wearing little more than her birthday suit in what promises to be one of the more controversial fashion magazine covers of 2015.
Next week's issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine features Kerr gracing the cover in nothing but a pair of towering designer stilettos.
![Miranda Kerr graces the cover of <i>Harper's Bazaar</i> in almost nothing but a pair of towering designer stilettos.](/web/20151224162044im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/i/z/b/y/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gliyob.png/1450048019456.jpg)
Miranda Kerr graces the cover of Harper's Bazaar in almost nothing but a pair of towering designer stilettos. Photo: Harper's Bazaar
The cover shows the 32-year-old mother of one arching her back over the balcony of her Paris hotel showing her famous curves off to full effect.
Apparently Kerr had no idea she would be photographed nude for the magazine, not that she had any qualms about it, having done similar shoots before but mostly for magazines aimed squarely at a male audience rather than a fashion publication.
"The thing about nude photographs is that they can look iconic and tasteful, and they can be timeless because there is no fashion that ties them to a particular era. But the funny thing about this shoot was that I didn't know we were doing nudes - I thought we were doing a fashion story," says Kerr, cheekily adding, "We needed to get somebody in quick to give me a wax. I was not prepared at all."
Harper's Bazaar editor in chief Kellie Hush admitted the cover was a "risky" one, explaining that strict rules on nudity and what can and can't be shown meant Kerr had to position her arms and legs strategically to ensure the skin that was on show would meet guidelines and not create problems with newsagents.
"The demise of provocative mens' magazines has been a long time coming and Bazaar is in no way looking to fill that slot. We're now living in an era of Victoria Secret Angels, stolen nude photos and attempts to break the internet with reality stars in provocative poses. This isn't the same thing. Harper's Bazaar has long celebrated the daring woman - someone with vision, commitment, style - and a total lack of fear. Miranda may be naked but she's a trailblazer and this cover celebrates this," Hush told Fairfax Media.
"2015 was undoubtedly the year of the barely-there 'naked' dress, with designers like Givenchy, Versace and Roberto Cavalli creating gowns that left very little to the imagination for the likes of Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez. But this was something more. Our chance to celebrate the femininity of an Australian beauty icon in a sophisticated setting."
Kerr is not the first nude to grace the cover of a fashion magazine, with the likes of Gisele Bündchen and Kate Moss having done similar shoots for Vogue Brazil, a publication which in all fairness has a more risque approach to nudity than its Australian counterparts.
America's sweetheart Jennifer Aniston availed herself with a discreet prop, a red, white and blue men's tie, when she posed naked for the cover of GQ magazine while Sharon Stone needed nothing more than a diamond Serpenti necklace from the Italian fine jeweller Bulgari when she posed nude for Harper's Bazaar earlier this year.