Last year, the Pirelli Calendar – known for artful erotica and hypersexual photography – scrapped its scantily clad supermodels for a more “influential” lineup. Calling in names like Yoko Ono, Patti Smith and Tavi Gevinson, the 2016 edition was branded as a major departure for the company. “I started to think about the roles that women play, women who have achieved something,” Annie Leibovitz, the calendar photographer, explained at the time.
Now, for its 2017 edition, Pirelli appear to be sticking with the same theme. Shifting the focus further from its high fashion roots, the Italian multinational has instead turned its attention to Hollywood’s most iconic actresses.
The latest calendar – shot by Pirelli alumni Peter Lindbergh – will feature some of the biggest names from the film world’s past and present. This includes Uma Thurman, Nicole Kidman, Charlotte Rampling, Julianne Moore, Robin Wright and Helen Mirren. The biggest breakthrough stars of the last decade – like Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Rooney Mara, and Lea Seydoux – will also feature.
Lindbergh reportedly took the pictures in five locations, over two continents. “(These images are) a love song to the women I really know and really like,” he told Vogue yesterday. “Everyone in this calendar, at one point in my life, I wanted to marry, and I didn't have the balls to ask them!”
He also offered some insight into Pirelli’s new direction, hinting that it was a protest move against the “bullshit” ideals of contemporary beauty. “Beauty today is really twisted, for commercial reasons, so people think beautiful is what you see in advertising and in magazines – all these retouched women,” he added. “You have to be perfect, you have to be thin, you have to be young – you have to be all this, and this is bullshit.”
Sneak a peek at the first behind the scenes images from the shoot above.
