Are you Bunny material?

Few silhouettes are as instantly recognizable as the Playboy Bunny. Cinched bustier, floppy ears, voluptuous curves and fluffy tail, the Bunny manages to be a symbol of sex, class and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire and a rabbit all at the same time.

By today’s standard the famed outfit might be considered conservative – you can catch more skin at any summer time pool party or on the go-go platforms at nearly every Las Vegas club – but forty-nine years after the first Bunnies squeezed into their then-shocking outfits, women are still lining up to slip into the famed suit.

On Sunday, January 25, Playboy Club kicked off its year-long model search for the local women who embody the venue’s glammed-up girl-next-door style. Each month Playboy will invite women to fill out a brief questionnaire and pose for a few photos, trying their best to channel the club’s playfully elegant vibe while competing to win $1,000 and a weekend at the Palms. However, the real reward for the model selected in the new monthly competitions is the exposure that will come from being the face of the club in advertising and promotional materials for the next 30 or so days.

At the end of 2009 an overall winner for the year will be chosen to receive a yet-to-be-determined grand prize.

But winning is harder than it looks. The ideal candidate is confident but not vain, flirtatious but classy. It’s a precarious balancing act, much like navigating the club’s crowded hallways in heels and a tail with a tray full of quivering Kamikaze shots.

Sunday night, Playboy Club and guest host Jessica Burciaga, herself a former Playboy Bunny dealer at the Palms and February’s playmate, had no trouble finding a suitable model to represent the club for the next four weeks. Pristine in a white dress with sparkling trim, 21-year-old Las Vegas resident Destiny Moniz accepted the bouquet of red roses and the title of this month’s Playboy Club model with a thrilled grin and a hug from Burciaga.

The next time we see her, it may be in more classically Playboy attire – a tight-fitting corset, a set of white cuffs, two over-sized ears and a white cotton ball tail.