Pirelli Calendar Gets A Makeover

The Pirelli calendar, known for its supermodels and exotic locations is changing things up this year.

Over the years, the calendar has featured provocative photos of supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Adriana Lima, Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss and Isabeli Fontana. However for its much anticipated 2016 edition, it has chosen natural portraits of influential women from all different walks of life ranging from Serena Williams and Amy Schumer to Yoko Ono and Patti Smith who are helping shape today's modern world. Helmed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz (who previously shot the calendar back in 2000), Pirelli veteran Natalia Vodianova is the only model alongside the list of powerful women.

"I started to think about the roles that women play, women who have achieved something," said Leibovitz speaking of the calendar's new direction. "I wanted to make a classic set of portraits. I thought that the women should look strong but natural and I decided to keep it a very simple exercise of shooting in the studio. This calendar is so completely different. It is a departure. The idea was not to have any pretense in these pictures and be very straightforward."



Last year, the calendar featured fetish-themed latex-clad high-fashion models Natalia Vodianova, Joan Smalls, Carolyn Murphy, Karen Elson , Isabeli Fontana and Gigi Hadid.

The calendar lineup for 2016 is as follows: Patti Smith, Serena Williams, Fran Lebowitz, Amy Schumer, Tavi Gevinson, Ava DuVernay, Natalia Vodianova, Agnes Gund, Kathleen Kennedy, Mellody Hobson, Shirin Neshat, and Yao Chen.

The much anticipated calendar will also live in a dedicated digital space inside the new website, pirelli.com, which goes live October 20. While it won't be revealed until Nov. 30 you can get a glimpse over at Vogue.