The October 1976 issue of Playboy's Italian edition featured Eva Ionesco in a breathtaking pictorial that showcased her versatility and allure. The photo shoot, which took place in a luxurious Italian setting, captured Ionesco in various states of elegance, from sophisticated evening wear to playful, carefree poses. The images, taken by a renowned photographer, highlighted Ionesco's captivating features, including her piercing eyes, raven-black hair, and radiant smile.
Bourboulon was highly regarded for his use of natural light, outdoor settings, and sun-drenched European landscapes. The pictorial placed Eva Ionesco on an empty coastal terrace and beach front. The composition relied heavily on: and soft focus filtering.
The publication triggered immense scrutiny regarding parental duty and child welfare. Irina Ionesco consistently defended her work as pure artistic expression, claiming she was documenting her daughter’s changing identity through a surrealist lens. However, the real-world consequences for Eva Ionesco were profound. The October 1976 issue of Playboy's Italian edition
: The title, "Classe del 1965," refers to Eva's birth year, highlighting her extreme youth at the time. Historical Significance & Controversy : Eva Ionesco remains the youngest model ever to appear in a Playboy nude pictorial. Legal Aftermath
In October 1976, the Italian edition of Playboy published a multi-page feature titled "Classe del 1965" (The Class of 1965). The pictorial focused on Eva Ionesco, the daughter of French photographer Irina Ionesco. At the time of publication, Eva Ionesco was merely eleven years old, a fact explicitly highlighted by the title's reference to her birth year. Bourboulon was highly regarded for his use of
Several major international publications faced significant criticism for their editorial choices during this era, with some later removing specific issues from their archives or publicly addressing the ethical failures of that period. From Subject to Storyteller: Eva Ionesco’s Perspective
The pictorial itself, photographed primarily by her mother Irina (with some shots attributed to studio assistants), is a dark, baroque fever dream. There is no bubble gum or beach blankets. Instead, the reader finds Eva posed in cluttered Parisian studios—heavy drapes, taxidermy animals, decaying chandeliers. She wears sheer stockings
Today, Eva Ionesco is a filmmaker and actress in her late 50s. She has publicly disowned the work of her mother, Irina, and won a long legal battle to reclaim and destroy many of her childhood photographs. In 2013, her film My Little Princess (starring Isabelle Huppert as a monstrous version of her mother) dramatized the abuse of her childhood photoshoots. Regarding the Playboy spread, Eva has called it a "kidnapping of my childhood."
The October 1976 issue of Playboy Italia (Edizione Italiana) occupies a contentious space in the history of publishing. While the magazine, launched just four years earlier in 1972, was known for its blend of lifestyle, satire, and softcore photography, this particular issue stands out for a feature that today generates widespread unease: a pictorial of Eva Ionesco, a French child model born in 1965. At just eleven years old, Ionesco was already a notorious figure in European art and fashion, thanks to the provocative photographs taken by her mother, Irina Ionesco. The Playboy spread did not feature new nudes—rather, it repurposed existing artistic images that blurred the lines between fine art, eroticism, and child exploitation. To examine this pictorial is not to endorse it, but to understand the cultural and legal blind spots of the mid-1970s, the disturbing aesthetic of "Lolita" chic, and the lasting trauma of a child caught in the crossfire of artistic freedom and commercialized desire.
Eva is made up like a silent film star: heavy kohl eyeliner, pale foundation, crimson lips. She wears sheer stockings, lace garters, high heels, and little else. In one now-infamous shot, she reclines on a chaise lounge holding a cigarette holder, her expression one of bored, spectral knowingness. In another, she peers through a shattered mirror, her prepubescent silhouette reflected infinitely.
Eva Ionesco’s life served as the basis for the film My Little Princess (2011), which she directed herself to tell her side of the story. 🗞️ Broader Context
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