Styled by longtime Vogue editor Tonne Goodman and set in Miami—both on the beach and in the studio—the calendar features a diverse, influential cast spanning the worlds of television, film, fashion, and art: Simone Ashley, John Boyega, Vincent Cassel, Elodie Di Patrizi, Connie Fleming, Martine Gutierrez, Hoyeon Jung, Padma Lakshmi, Hunter Schafer, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Jenny Shimizu, the latter of whom appeared in the 1997 Pirelli Calendar shot by Richard Avedon. It also features James, who, having photographed a group of people willing to strip down for the camera, decided it was only fair that he do the same.
Ahead of the calendar’s release today, James, Goodman, Boyega, and Lakshmi all gathered at the Mandarin Oriental to discuss putting it together.
Ethan James Green on being asked to shoot the 2025 Pirelli Calendar:
“I was super excited; I found out on my 34th birthday. I was not expecting it. It’s a huge thing to be asked because as a photographer, you’re included in a club, in a way, and you’re part of the history of the calendar. So many of the photographers in the past have been huge inspirations for me, and many of them made me want to be a photographer. So to be able to be included in that, it just feels like a huge milestone. I’ve had such an exciting career and it’s just nice to have a new thing. The last time I felt this good was probably my first Vogue cover.”
How Tonne Goodman approached styling the calendar’s minimal looks:
“To say that it was a challenge is the wrong word, because for me, a challenge means that you’re fighting against something. But it really wasn’t that. I approached Ethan very early on and I said, ‘Is it about fashion?’ Because there was a lot of fashion that displayed a lot of transparency. Saint Laurent did everything sheer and I thought, should I use that? And Ethan said, ‘No, I don’t want to do any fashion; I don’t want fashion to be part of it at all.’ And then I just thought, okay, but I have to have something—there has to be something that they can relate to, that they feel sensuous in, that they can let it slip off their shoulder or they can let it blow away or they can let it get wet. And that does not really smack of fashion at all. It just smacks of something beautiful that becomes part of them and part of the art piece.”
What Padma Lakshmi thinks when she hears “Pirelli”:
“Every time someone says Pirelli, I don’t think tires, I think calendar. I think beautiful fashion photography, I think beautiful, tasteful, artistic pictures, always exalting the female form.”
