Inside Michaela Stark’s provocative, Leigh Bowery-inspired 2026 calendar

Historically, the “sexy calendar” has presented us with a very specific, standardised idea of beauty. The pin-up. The size zero fashion model. Even the famed Pirelli calendar, which underwent a forward-thinking rebrand in the mid-2010s, has primarily featured male photographers in the years since, continuing to filter its progressive ideals through the male gaze. These calendars are filled with images and ideas that Michaela Stark’s work “just isn’t about,” as the Australian, London-based designer tells Dazed. So, for the last few years, she’s simply made her own.

This year, the Michaela Stark calendar was inspired by a visit (actually, two) to Tate Modern’s Leigh Bowery retrospective. “I couldn’t help but relate, in some ways, to Leigh Bowery – a queer who moved over here to work in art and fashion,” she says. “He could have been a friend, he would have slipped easily into the queer scene in London today.” As she looked at his work, she adds, “I was thinking, it looks like he was just having so much fun. He didn’t care if a film he was making was pixellated, because it wasn’t about that. It was about the performance in the moment, and embracing his queerness, and his body, and his humanity. Perfectionism sometimes really kills the joy in the work.”

In case you’re somehow unfamiliar, Stark’s own work spans performance art, fashion design from couture to ready-to-wear lingerie, photography, modelling, and styling, all under the catch-all of “body morphing”. When she’s focused on couture, she says, the work is serious and, yes, perfectionist – “every millimetre, every stitch” – but the calendar allowed her to tap into the more fun, free-spirited side of her creativity. 

The result also takes inspiration from Bowery: specifically, a story about him getting arrested after dancing in the street, illuminated by car headlights, naked except for a merkin and a headpiece. From January to December, Stark poses in spots across London – her “stomping ground” – in a similar state of undress. Aptly titled Spread Across London, we see her sprawled on a double-decker bus, bound by a De Beauvoir Town telephone box, posing on a Lime bike, stalking through Bank, and throwing a middle finger up to the Houses of Parliament. 

Below, she tells us more.

What was your approach going into the calendar, and how did Leigh Bowery come into the picture?

Michaela Stark: There’s this feeling I have in my work at the moment, where everything has to be perfect. I was so inspired by entering Leigh’s world, seeing the fun that he was having, and the joy in the creation. I got this sense that his work was so much about the moment, and I really wanted to embrace that within the calendar. I wanted to create all of these moments around London, which is my stomping ground, the stomping ground of my community. So I asked the stylist Jessica Temple and a camera operator, Nora Nord, to come with me around London to film these little moments. We went from the South Bank to Westminster to Hackney, Bethnal Green, Victoria Park, all around.

What was it like to shoot in these public spaces? 

Michaela Stark: You could really feel the difference between areas in London. In Victoria Park, Hackney, and Bethnal Green, I was naked, and no one batted an eye. Shooting the bus one, it was an empty bus going from Bethnal Green to Clapton, so it was just three of us trying to get the scene. Nora was dropping the camera because the bus kept bumping. I kept falling smack bang down on the ground. I was trying to clench the bus seat between my bum cheeks to try to keep myself upright. And so we thought the bus was empty the whole time, but when we got off, we realised it had filled up in the time that we were shooting, and there was the little screen downstairs, so they were all watching the full performance. Clearly, no one wanted to come upstairs, for some reason...

Another funny one was overlooking Westminster and Parliament House, giving the middle finger. We accidentally picked graduation day, and so to the left and right of me were people with their families, graduating. There was a girl getting married next to me. There was a girl in front of me doing her own photoshoot in a ball gown. And then, obviously, the work commuters. And then me, topless, giving the middle finger to Parliament.

There’s a political aspect to this kind of public performance, given increasingly retrograde views on women’s bodies. Were you thinking about this issue directly when making the calendar?

Michaela Stark: Yeah, there was definitely a political aspect. Two political aspects. First, there was the feeling of being offline. Obviously, being censored online is becoming more and more of an issue. Almost every one of my pictures... I honestly think in the last two weeks I’ve had 14 images deleted for ‘sexual solicitation’. Instagram, and the wording that [its] users use, is so intense, it feels like just showing your body as a woman is something that can incite sexual acts. 

So doing this offline meant that I wasn’t subject to that censorship, and I felt completely free. It felt really empowering to do this in public without that unfair censorship or trolling that we get online. Of course, we did have some comments. We did have people who were a little bit upset. I mean... I was butt-naked in the middle of central London. But most of it was encouraging, honestly, on the street.

It felt like we were sort of reclaiming the streets. We were reclaiming our bodies in public, allowing ourselves to celebrate the female body, and to take up space

When I’m wearing my art, specifically, I almost have a shield on. It’s funny, because when I’m not in my art and I’m walking down the street, I get so much harassment from men. And London is starting to feel more and more dangerous. I think the far-right is gaining confidence because they’re finding peers online, trolling and leaving negative comments, and that behaviour is coming offline. For women, for queer people, for trans women, for Black and brown women, it’s becoming more and more unsafe. So it felt like we were sort of reclaiming the streets when we did this project. We were reclaiming our bodies in public, allowing ourselves to celebrate the female body and to take up space. And it’s funny that being on the street as a naked woman, or showing your body, even if you’re wearing a corset, is political. It was never intended that way, but I’ve had to fight for my rights on- and offline more and more. So I guess, yeah, it was political, for sure.

What appeals to you about a calendar, not just as a seasonal gift, but as a way to display art?

Michaela Stark: I mean, the first time we released the calendar, it was to raise money for my ready-to-wear brand, Panty. But it became a thing where I was able to share my work offline, for people who really wanted to see it and who maybe couldn’t afford my prints, or didn’t have access to see my work. To be able to share an entire year of my work, uncensored, is really special. It kind of rebels against that online censorship, and also the way that the industry works online. It brings it offline and makes it slower.

And I also think it’s really fun to be able to reclaim [the] sexy calendar. August is quite a sexy month this year. But it’s, you know, me photographing myself. So it’s me taking ownership of my body, and taking it away from the male gaze. Or, if men are into it, I’m still in full control. 

If men are into it, I’m still in full control

The final aspect is that every year, I’ve been able to collaborate with different people and do projects with my friends around London, creating work that we would never make the time to do otherwise. It’s really nice to be able to carve out that time every year and collaborate with different people in your life. It’s about making those really special moments that mark a relationship, and mark a moment in time that when I’m older, I’ll be able to look back on, and really appreciate the community of London and the work that we were able to create together.

Are there any dates you're already counting down to in 2026?

Michaela Stark: Yes! At the moment, I’m working on a really special project for the Met that I can’t speak too much about, but I’m really looking forward to that being released, which will have, happen in the first six months of the year. Aside from that, there are a few other fun things that I’m looking forward to – performances and stuff that I can’t wait to tell you more about.

Michaela Stark’s 2026 calendar, Spread Across London, is available to buy here.