The fact is that Nagel's technical art assistant, Barry Hahn, has confirmed on Instagram that the image of Tarlazzi photograph of Hunt wearing a paisley blouse, graphic cat-eyed spectacles, and a fedora hat was her, not unlike bassist John Taylor's, but still instantly identifiable thanks to her beautiful, toothy grin, was indeed the tear sheet used by his former boss.
According to memories by Annie Zaleski's 33 ½ book about the Rio album, Duran Duran's co-manager in the early '80s, Paul Berrow, was intrigued by Nagel's sharp, stylized work while flipping through an issue of Playboy, so he commissioned the artist to do create two covers for what would become the Birmingham band's breakthrough album back then. The first option, was a woman languidly reclining with a yellow blossom pinned in her hair, was eventually used for the for the "My Own Way" single art cover, but when the band members saw the second's stronger image of a bare-shouldered bombshell alluringly staring down the camera lens, shining and really showing all she can, everyone at the band instantly said: 'Yes, that's it. That's the cover,'.
Then, the renowned graphic designer Malcolm Garrett, well-known for his striking, minimalist album art for acts such like Human League, Culture Club, and the Buzzcocks, added design elements and typefaces to evoke the vintage vacation vibes of 1950s cigar boxes. Nick Rhodes told Zaleski: "It just seemed to represent everything we wanted at that point. It was uplifting. It was fun. It was modern, and colorful, and bright, and optimistic, but with something in it that you just didn't know what was going on."
The trendy artwork similarly captivated music fans of the early-MTV generation, the aspirational promises of champagne & jet-setting yacht adventures. That was a theme that of course carried over into Duran Duran's tropical music videos from the album, in which Nagel's glamour girls seemed to spring to three-dimensional life. That was in fact part of the "Rio" era's appeal for the band's largely female fanbase was undoubtedly its pro-woman imagery. Duran Duran's music video always depicted strong, self-assured women, which was a welcome contrast from the usual video vixens that starred in other exploitative clips of the time.
About why it took more than four decades for the real Rio to be
identified, Nagel, who conducted very few interviews during his brief
lifetime, unfortunately he died less than two years after the "Rio" album's
release, at age 38, he suffered a
heart attack after participating in a celebrity "aerobathon". Then Hunt
retired from modeling and now leads a much more reclusive life.
According to her instagram account which was last updated in 2021, she describes her as a formet top model in Paris, anow she and her husband of three decades have owned and operated the "Dos Lagos Vineyards" winery in Napa of the past 12 years,
Duran Duran were apparently just as surprised as anyone by this news: "WOW!... We suspect the model and maybe the band Duran Duran had no idea Nagel was influenced and used this image to create the cover of their musical masterpiece, He certainly changed many things, most specifically removing her glasses, but he obviously loved her smile. And that smile has been an iconic piece of Duran Duran history for decades, the photo for the album cover was pulled from Vogue Paris issued in February 1981.
