Dream A Little Dream

How a steamy garage fixture became a gallery-worthy photography project— Windy Aulia reports from Milan on the launch of the 2019 Pirelli Calendar.

- Windy Aulia

It’s hard to imagine an almanac more famous than the Pirelli Calendar. Named for the Italian tyre company that began releasing them annually in 1964, its pages have been filled with works by famous photographers such as Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Arthur Elgort and Steven Meisel, each giving their own artistic take on “The Cal”.

Initially created as a corporate freebie, the idea was to feature provocative visuals of women so Pirelli’s dealers would hang the calendars up on the walls of their car workshops, ensuring the tyre brand was top of mind all year round. Over the span of 51 years, most editions of “The Cal” have featured naked supermodels in exotic locales, all shot tastefully in the name of art. In 1985, Iman was featured as a glamorous seductress in Edinburgh shot by Norman Parkinson; in 1994, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss were in different states of undress on Paradise Island shot by Herb Ritts; in 1996, Eva Herzigova and Tatjana Patitz in their birthday suits on a film set in El Mirage, California shot by Peter Lindbergh. Then, in 2016, Annie Leibowitz broke from tradition, bringing together 13 women from diverse realms. Besides the choice of subjects—from Serena Williams to Amy Schumer and Tavi Gevinson—the women were also all clothed, besides Williams and Schumer. It was the start of a new direction for “The Cal”, one that celebrated women for more than just their form; a shift that also echoed the cultural zeitgeist.