For the first time since 1987, the famous Pirelli calendar is featuring an all-black cast of models, singers, and actors, this time in a high-fashion take on Alice in Wonderland.
Styled by Edward Enninful, the new editor-in-chief of British Vogue, and shot by Tim Walker, the calendar features household names like Naomi Campbell as the Royal Beheader and RuPaul as the Queen of Hearts. Walker told The Guardian, “Alice has never been told like this.”
South Sudanese–Australian model Duckie Thot stars as Alice, alongside Adwoa Aboah as Tweedledee and Lupita Nyong’o as a dormouse. But wait, there’s more — Sean “Diddy” Combs, Whoopi Goldberg, and Lil Yachty also star.
The Pirelli calendar, historically, is known as fashion’s sexiest calendar. Lately, though, the vision has gotten more ambitious. In 2016 Annie Leibovitz shot a calendar of (mostly covered up) women known for their “professional, social, cultural, sporting and artistic accomplishment,” including Amy Schumer and Serena Williams. Last year, the calendar was largely “makeup-free” and shot by Peter Lindbergh.
Thando Hopa, who plays the Princess of Hearts, told The Guardian what Tim Walker had said of the shoot, “He said … any person with a different color should be able to see themselves in any way. So any girl, whether she is black or Chinese or Indian, they should be able to have their own fairy tale.”