The Pirelli Calendar is a "glamour" trade calendar published by the Pirelli company's UK subsidiary.
History
After an unpublished mockup in 1963, the Cal became an annual publication from 1964. The Cal has been created by the British art director Derek Forsyth and is known for its limited availability, as it is only given as a corporate gift to a restricted number of Pirelli customers and celebrities. Publication was discontinued after the 1974 issue as an economizing cutback in response to the world recession from the oil shock. It was resurrected 10 years later and has been published regularly since then. According to Pirelli's CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, the purpose of the Cal is "to mark the passing of time". The annual cost is about US$2 million. The calendar is produced with limited availability. Copies do not go on sale, but are instead given as corporate gifts to celebrities and select Pirelli customers. For the first ten years of the calendar's existence it included photographs of fully clothed women, but an emphasis on nudity developed during the 1980s. From then until the mid-2010s the calendar featured mainly eroticised images, although in some instances the pictures taken by the photographers were considered by the editors to be too risqué to use. From the mid-2010s the calendar moved away from eroticism, and around this time diversity began to be addressed, with the 2018 calendar including only photographs of black models. The 1987 calendar, photographed by Terrence Donovan, was the first to feature only black models, included a bare-bottomed 16-year-old Naomi Campbell. The models were photographed topless in Savannah-like settings and styled in tribal fashion. The 2008 calendar was photographed by Patrick Demarchelier in Shanghai and included a number of Asian models. At the same time a book, The Complete Works: The Pirelli Calendar 1964–2007, was published by Mondadori. The 2010 calendar, photographed by Terry Richardson, used similar imagery to that which was used in the calendar in the 1960s. A 50th anniversary book, Pirelli - The Calendar: 50 Years and More, was published by Taschen in 2015. The 2016 calendar, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, aimed to celebrate women for their accomplishments rather than their physical attributes. It included Fran Lebowitz, Mellody Hobson, Serena Williams, Yoko Ono and Patti Smith to represent inspiring women of diverse ages. The 2017 calendar was photographed by Peter Lindbergh and the women in the photographs were fully dressed and wore no makeup. It was the first calendar in which the photographs had not been retouched. The women photographed included Helen Mirren, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore. For the 2018 calendar, photographerTim Walker chose to feature only black models, including Duckie Thot, Adwoa Aboah, RuPaul, Whoopi Goldberg, and Thando Hopa.
produced three editions of the calendar and Annie Leibovitz two. For Patrick Demarchelier, the Cal is "the most prestigious calendar in the world". In the trend of Me Too movement and Weinstein effect, the Cal 2019 by Albert Watson features Laetitia Casta in lingerie without teasing nudity.
