Alexander Wang is the first designer to feature in the Pirelli Calendar

Pirelli has been producing an annual calendar filled with some of fashion’s most iconic images since 1964. Last year, they brought together an all-black cast including Naomi Campbell and Whoopi Goldberg for their Alice In Wonderland-themed shoot, as captured by fashion photographer Tim Walker. Now, following the announcement that Scottish photographer Albert Watson would be shooting this year’s iteration, a behind-the-scenes look at the 2019 images has arrived.

No stranger to fashion photography – he’s been prominent in the field since the 70s – Watson decided on a movie theme for the shoot, with each of its female models playing the role of a character on the way to achieving (or having achieved) their goals. Not that Gigi Hadid or Alexander Wang – who play a wealthy woman and her confidante respectively – need to inhabit a character: they’re high-profile enough in themselves. Wang also enjoys the added bonus of being the first designer to ever feature in the calendar. 

Joining them is dancer and former Another Man cover star Sergei Polunin, actress Julia Garner and model Astrid Eika (who play a botanical photographer and a model), and dancers Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III, among others.

The behind-the-scenes images include shots of the aforementioned dancers mid-dance as Watson looks on, and Hadid and Wang looking gloomy in their fictional New York apartment. There will also be a BTS video, with words from the models and intimate clips of their relationships with Watson.

Watch a BTS video below: