Pirelli has released it’s 2018 calendar featuring an all star cast of the bold and the beautiful in fashion, film and music.
The stand-out aspect of this calendar is that all the featured subjects are black.
From Whoopi Godlberg and Ru Paul, to Duckie Thot and Adwoa Aboah, the line-up of celebrities is indeed impressive.
It has the story of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ at its heart.
Speaking about the relevance of the choice to make the subjects of the calendar solely black, Aboah’s mother, Camilla Lowther, said that “everyone had had enough” of the lack of inclusion in the fashion industry.
“The first thing clients used to say was, ‘no black models’,” she told The Guardian.
“They actually used to say that. But nobody would say that now. It’s time.”
But this isn’t the first time a team in the industry has chosen to go with an all-black team to represent a powerful brand.
In a world where former editor-in-chief of British Vogue feels justified in featuring just two black models (Naomi Campbell and Jourdan Dunn) as solo cover stars in 25 years, it’s important to acknowledge those who’ve successfully gone against the grain.
Yeezy Season 4 may have got some interesting reviews, but Kanye West’s use of an all black line-up of models was a refreshing move.
The most empowering takeaway was the celebration of natural hair and paired back beauty.
Franca Sozanni broke the mould when she dedicated an entire issue of Vogue Italia to black models.
In ‘Franca,’ the documentary made by her son months before her death, Sozzani was asked what she was most proud of in her entire career.
The late editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia named the all black issue as that moment. The issue was so popular that they had to do a second run.
The prints sold out twice and original copies can now be bought for over £1,900 on eBay.