Pirelli's New Calendar Girls

Pirelli isn't exactly famous for featuring shy and retiring types - only last year Joan Smalls, Sasha Luss, Karen Elson and Isabeli Fontana went topless, and Gigi Hadid made her debut, legs akimbo - but for 2016, the brand is headed in a new direction.

Shot by Annie Leibovitz, the 2016 instalment will feature intimate portraits of influential women who are making a difference in the world. Yoko Ono, 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 join the line-up for the calendar that was photographed back in May.

"I started to think about the roles that women play, women who have achieved something. 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," Leibovitz said in a statement. "This calendar is so completely different. It is a departure. The idea was not to have any pretence in these pictures and be very straightforward." The final shots will be unveiled on November 30th.