• Mon, Jan 14 - 5:43 pm ET

Kate Upton Is The Platonic Essence Of ‘The Girl Next Door’ In Elle France

kate-upton

Let’s say you meet some aliens or some French people, and you want to explain to them the strange, American mythology of “the girl next door.” You could try to do it in words: “She’s like, just a regular girl…well, actually, she looks like a Playboy bunny, but she wears jeans, which is close enough…and she miraculously lives next door to you, in the American suburbs! Her inner life is revealed to you only through the occasional sexy smile and band t-shirt. And she drinks a ton of low-quality American beer, but she never gets fat.” Or, you could just show them this latest Kate Upton spread from Elle France. Clearly, the people at Elle France know what they’re doing, as they’ve introduced this archetype to the French people in the latter, much more concise way in their February issue.

(Via Styleite)

Photos: Elle France


Kate Upton in Elle France

The cover but hints at all the girl-next-door-ness within.

Kate Upton in Elle France

No pants, a full face of "natural" makeup, and sneakers: these are the building blocks of the girl next door.

Kate Upton in Elle France

So girls, you like roller skatin'? Yeah, everybody loves roller skatin'.

Kate Upton in Elle France

The perfect girl next door has a record collection identical to that of a nerdy rockist male who fetishizes the '70s. (No shade on ACDC.)

Kate Upton in Elle France

You know what else is hot? Still being in school.

Kate Upton in Elle France

The girl next door's mole is painfully perfect.

Kate Upton in Elle France

Sometimes she tries to dress herself, but does it wrong because she's so innocent about dumb, fake things fashion.

Kate Upton in Elle France

Whee, I'm playing dress-up on a bike!

Kate Upton in Elle France

She does a shitty job washing cars, but nobody is willing to tell her.

Kate Upton in Elle France

The girl next door is basically a woman-child, isn't she?

Kate Upton in Elle France

Okay, the French are just making fun of us now.
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  • jenni

    Woot! Represent Oklahoma! Tulsa World is a newspaper in Tulsa (duh). We are high fashion

  • alexandra

    MPDG next door. See also: Carly Rae Jepsen (ironically), early Taylor Swift (not ironically). Actually all I can think of when I see this is Taylor Swift.