Cristy Thom

Cristy Thom is that rare combination: a centrefold with the soul of an artist. Born on 8 September 1971 in Los Angeles, California, and also known as Li-Wah Thom, she grew up in the city of dreams with an eye for beauty that would one day take her from the pages of Playboy to the walls of a museum.

She made her Playboy debut as Playmate of the Month for February 1991, the perfect Valentine's gift for the magazine's readers. With her long dark hair, delicate Asian-American features and slender, graceful figure, she brought an elegance to the centrefold that set her apart from the typical blonde bombshells of the era. Readers adored her, and the magazine kept her busy with appearances in numerous Playboy videos.

Her photos have an almost painterly quality. Cristy poses with quiet confidence, letting soft light trace the lines of her body, a glance over her shoulder or a slow smile doing more than any dramatic pose ever could. There is a sense of mystery in her eyes, as if she is keeping a delicious secret, and that subtle, smouldering sensuality makes her pictorials some of the most refined of the early nineties.

Europe fell for her as well. The Dutch edition of Playboy named her its Playmate of the Year for 1992, a rare honour for an American model and proof of her international appeal.

Then Cristy did something few Playmates have done: she turned to the other side of the canvas. She studied at the Otis College of Art and Design and became an accomplished photorealist painter, with her work exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Anchorage Museum. The muse became the artist.

This gallery takes you back to the beginning, when the future painter was the masterpiece. Enjoy the graceful, seductive beauty of a true Valentine's Playmate.

Adults only

All galleries