Kate Moss is doing something most 40-year-olds don’t do to celebrate topping that hill. She’s going nude for Playboy magazine, according to E!, and she’s going to show the world what 40 can be. You know, if real life had airbrushing.

The issue also celebrates the magazine’s diamond anniversary-60 years of Playboy. The British beauty turns the big 4-0 on January 16th, but the issue comes out in December, and will look back on 60 years of Playboy, starting with the first Playmate, Marilyn Monroe, in 1953. Oh, and let’s not forget the great articles…

Moss has the approval of Hef. “She’s a worldwide celebrity and iconic and crosses the boundaries from sexual imagry to upscale modeling,” he told the Los Angeles Times, which broke the story on Tuesday.

“This is a massive global brand,” Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy’s editorial director said of the magazine. “You need a global icon in order to celebrate that — that was the impetus. You’re talking about the face of Burberry, the biggest supermodel in the world on the cover of Playboy. She’s the perfect partner for us to help launch the next 60 years.”

Kate, who has been the face of high profile campaigns for such designers as Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and Bulgari, among many others, will reportedly go full frontal, accessorised with cuffs and bunny ears. She shot to fame in the ’90s with her “heroin chic” look, all thanks to her waif-like frame, which makes her one of the top-earning models in the business, earning nearly $20 million in 2012.

The spread will be shot by fashion favorites Marcus Pigott and Mert Atlas and will be the photo tandem’s first assignment for the recently rebooted and newly upscale Playboy. Fashion fans were first tipped off to Moss’ Playboy shoot with rumors earlier this year that were confirmed in June when Oribe Canales, Kate’s mouthy hairdresser, accidentally divulged that he had worked on her shoot.

“This creates a heat for the brand globally,” Jellinek said. “It started with Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Playboy 60 years ago, an icon for her time. Now we’ve got Kate Moss!”. Over 60 years, the magazine has provided a reliable cover showcase for nude supermodels with such fashion luminaries as Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Stephanie Seymour and Eva Herzigova.

And for her part, Moss, who’s currently married to Jamie Hince, guitarist for the alt-rock band the Kills, but more famously Johnny Depp’s ex, is no stranger to modeling. The British model has stripped down in the past for Love magazine, Vogue Brazil and the Pirelli calendar as well as ads for David Yurman jewelry and St. Tropez tanning products.

But Moss’ Playboy cover slot puts her in the company of such curvy cover models as Pamela Anderson, Dolly Parton and the Barbi Twins, all of whom served as the magazine’s forward faces over the years, but all with different shapes, leading to a certain recognition of beauty in all forms.

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