Naomi Campbell says the all-black casting of the 2018 Pirelli Calendar is a “big statement” and marks a “new time” in the fashion industry.
All 12 months of the calendar, being unveiled tonight in New York, feature 18 personalities from fashion, acting, activism and music.
They have been shot by photographer Tim Walker and styled by Edward Enninful, the first male and black editor of British Vogue, who releases his debut edition today.
Campbell said: “The message is so big and the timing could not be more perfect. It is an amazing time. It is a new time. I feel it will remain this way.”
The Streatham-born model featured in the 1987, 1995 and 2005 Pirelli calendars, and was the first black cover star of Vogue Paris in 1988.
“This week has been iconic and phenomenal, with British Vogue and Pirelli,” she said. “There have been some really great moments this year.”
This is the 45th edition of the Italian tyre firm’s calendar - in recent years it has been re-established as a cultural work rather than a provocative pin-up.
Pirelli Calendar 2017
This time it is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland and the illustrations John Tenniel drew for the first edition in 1885. Campbell, 47 - she was 16 when she first appeared in a Pirelli calendar - is the Royal Beheader with rapper Sean Combs her accomplice.
“It was fun ... Off with their head! - I love it,” said the model. “I am very bossy anyway so it is perfect. ‘Don’t do what I want? Off with your head!’”
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Actress Lupita Nyong’o is a dormouse, model Slick Woods is The Mad Hatter, Whoopi Goldberg The Royal Duchess and model Adwoa Aboah Tweedledee.
South Sudanese/Australian model Duckie Thot is Alice, actor Djimon Hounsou King of Hearts and drag artist RuPaul Queen of Hearts.
Gladiator star Hounsou, 53, who was born in Benin, said: “Society should embrace people of all colours.” Walker described the calendar as a “celebration of black beauty”.
The first all-black Pirelli calendar, in 1987, featured Campbell, Waris Dirie and Colette Brown.