With Carine Roitfeld and Steven Meisel at the creative helm, this is no ordinary calendar...
Carine Roitfeld styled it, Natalia Vodianova and Joan Smalls are starring in it, and legendary photographer Steven Meisel shot it. And all for a calendar for a tyre company?
But this is no ordinary calendar. Pirelli’s annual offering has become an international institution, with the iconic images it creates with its mega-budget shoots just as revered as those in editorial magazines.
And thanks to Carine Roitfeld’s magic touch, the 2015 edition is one of the best yet.
After dabbling with demure images in previous years, the Pirelli calendar has returned to more familiar territory with a bang with a full-on fetish theme, for which Steven Miesel has shot 12 of his favourite beauties.
All 12 models were styled by former French Vogue editor – and style icon in her own right - Carine, in looks based around corsets and bustiers. From red latex stockings to quite a lot of nipple, this is fetish-meets-high-fashion– just like the Carine-styled Gucci campaigns of the 90s.
Inspirations include Brigitte Bardot and Catwoman, and even features Isabeli Fontana sporting a Raquel Welch-esque whip and cowgirl pants get-up. – need we say more?
But the big news this year is that the 42nd edition of ‘The Cal’ features size-16 model Candice Huffine. While Huffine is not quite the first 'plus- size' model to grace the calendar's pages - that accolade went to a young Sophie Dahl in 1998 – it does reflect how the world of modelling is opening up to women of different sizes.
How very 50 Shades of Grey…