What the 2018 Pirelli Calendar Says About Race – New York Times

For Mr. Combs, who made headlines in 2001 when he posed with Ms. Campbell for a cover of British Vogue, the calendar comes at a time when there needs to be what he called an unapologetic expression of black pride.

I moved mountains to be a part of this, said Mr. Combs, as he sat in his dressing room after the shoot. It is a chance to push social consciousness and break down barriers. For so many years, something like this would not have happened in the fashion world, so it feels like being part of history and playing an active role. I want to lead by example.

For decades, the Pirelli calendar, first published by the Italian tire company of the same name in 1964, was a soft-core ode to beautiful women. Shot by A-list photographers and usually starring scantily clad supermodels, it is a collectors item and has never been sold on the open market. Instead, it is given to insiders a group of establishment opinion makers including celebrities, media professionals, politicians and chief executives, as well as to Pirellis most valuable clients and distributors.

A year and a half ago, however, for the 2016 edition, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the calendars raison dtre took a sharp turn from prurience to pride. Rather than celebrating women purely for their physical attributes, it started applauding their accomplishments, featuring such figures as the writer Fran Lebowitz, the investment manager Mellody Hobson and the tennis champion Serena Williams.

Then, for the 2017 version, a cast of fully clothed and makeup-free actresses including Helen Mirren, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore were shot in black and white, unairbrushed, by Peter Lindbergh, the better to explore what the photographer described as a different beauty, more real and truthful one not manipulated by commercial interests.

Coming at a time when female objectification and overt sexism had begun to be a more frequent topic of public discussion, the change suggested that while Pirelli knew sex still sold, a corporation that successfully appeared socially aware could and would generate more global attention for its brand (not to mention lift its bottom line).

Still, eyebrows were raised when it first emerged that Pirelli was allowing Mr. Walker, whose reputation has been forged largely on his depictions of eerie romanticism and surrealist fairy-tale worlds in magazines like W, Vogue and Love, to tackle black identity for the calendar.

Would the unveiling of the calendar on Wednesday be seen as a commitment to diversity and positive social change? Or could the campaign spur accusations of corporate exploitation as Pepsi discovered in April after widespread backlash to its protest-themed advertisement featuring the model Kendall Jenner, pulled after only a day, amid claims that it trivialized the Black Lives Matter movement?

Mr. Walker, holding a mug of tea after the shoot in May, was at pains to stress the artistic motivations behind his photographs, rather than underscore specific social messaging.

As a photographer, you dont ever want to do what has been done before, so it was important for me to feel I was doing something completely different here, he said, adding that the decision to cast only black models had been entirely my own. There were zero creative or commercial demands from Pirelli for this project. That is pretty rare in this business.

The story of Alice has been told so many times and in so many ways, but always with a white cast, Mr. Walker continued. There has never been a black Alice, so I wanted to push how fictional fantasy figures can be represented and explore evolving ideas of beauty.

He said that he had devised the concept for this years calendar long before the furor around the Pepsi advertisement, the movie Moonlight winning Best Picture at the Oscars this year or the heightened debate within the fashion industry about a lack of diversity on the catwalks. It is hard to believe, however, that Mr. Walker was not influenced at all by the diversity debate, an issue that has been discussed regularly for the last decade.

This is not about trends, this is about the zeitgeist today, Mr. Walker said. I think we are living in a fantastically exciting time, particularly when a story like that of Alice, that has held such resonance with so many people and been told in a certain way for so long, can now be told compellingly in another.

Mr. Enninful, the Ghana-born, London-bred stylist who was awarded an OBE, or Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his work to diversify the fashion industry in 2016, said that he felt a responsibility to ensure that the shoot was received in the way that it was intended: as a theatrical high-fashion celebration with equality and empowerment at its core.

Carrolls original illustrations for the story, drawn for him by John Tenniel and full of the exaggerated sizing and dramatic flourishes typical of 19th-century British caricature, were the starting point for the creative team.

Mr. Enninful saw associations with the contemporary sculptural creations of Japanese designers like Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto in the work. Shona Heath, the projects set designer, and her team created an overflowing wardrobe of new silhouettes for the calendar (even Ms. Heaths mother chipped in, making the Mad Hatters hat). The cast was chosen by Piergiorgio Del Moro, including Alice herself: the South Sudanese-Australian model Duckie Thot, a newcomer, in towering platforms and cerulean blue thigh-high socks, with a starched silk minidress and a white lace pinafore.

The outfit was made on me we started with two costumes and eventually pinned them into a single look, said Ms. Thot, 21, who started modeling internationally less than a year ago. Asked how she felt about her starring role, she said, I feel like I am living in my own fairy tale, and am proud to be part of something with such an important message about pride and self-expression.

That sentiment was emphasized by Adwoa Aboah, a Ghanaian-British model popular right now and a feminist activist who played Tweedledee.

Tim launched my career, so anytime he asks me to do something it is always a yes; I trust him, she said. To me, the Pirelli change in direction suggests they are observing what 2017 needs, where the youth are going and what kind of imagery should be out there. We dont need any more pinup imagery, and this cast really does depict new ideas of what beauty is. And it certainly doesnt mean not wearing any clothes.

Amid the boldface names, which include RuPaul as the Queen of Hearts, Ms. Goldberg (the Royal Duchess) and the actress Lupita Nyongo (the Dormouse), particularly striking is Thando Hopa. She is an albino lawyer and model, who plays the Princess of Hearts (a role specifically devised for her by Mr. Walker), and she is currently on a sabbatical after four years as a prosecutor specializing in sexual abuse cases in her native South Africa.

When I was young, I didnt have a single role model who looked like me, who could have been a source of inspiration or motivation, Ms. Hopa said. I wanted to expand other peoples imaginations by not letting them be restricted to specific stories or narratives. Any girl, whether she is black, white, Asian or Indian, should be able to have a sense that they, too, can be a heroine in their own fairy tale. If Alice looks differently here, then Alice can be anybody. Your value comes from far more than the narrative that someone else gives you. I hope that when the calendar goes live, people are able to see the intention behind this. It was a unifying effort.

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A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2017, on Page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Not Just Recording History, but Making It, Too.

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What the 2018 Pirelli Calendar Says About Race - New York Times