Nov 9, 2005

Bunnies get a new look

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Roberto Cavalli redesigns the Playboy Bunny.
She still wears her trademark abbreviated tuxedo, but it has been subtly updated with S&M overtones. In a Cavalli sketch depicting her with hooded eyes, a vixenish swag of blond hair, a cigarette dangling from her lips and bondage-style cuffs on her wrists, she is more Donatella Versace than Barbie.

"The bunny costume has become old-fashioned, something like vintage," Cavalli says at his Madison Avenue boutique, "so you need to interpret it in the new direction of fashion, the young way."

His young new bunny is ready to bow, tray of cocktails in hand, with the return of the Playboy Club. For the first time since 1991, when the last of the clubs were shuttered, Playboy plans to open a new one next spring at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The club is intended to be a showpiece in Playboy's larger effort to revitalize its image and reverse its declines of recent years.

"Bringing the bunny back is a natural part of that," says Playboy's founder, Hugh Hef-ner, who turns 80 in the spring.

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