Venus Williams, Gwendoline Christie among 2026 Pirelli Calendar stars

LONDON :Actors Tilda Swinton, Isabella Rossellini and Gwendoline Christie are among the models starring in the 2026 Pirelli Calendar, which photographer Solve Sundsbo says looks at the human connection with nature.

The 52nd edition of "The Cal" features famous faces interpreting elements like tennis star Venus Williams posing with a fiery design, model Eva Herzigova underwater and singer FKA Twigs covered in sand.

“The main point for me was the casting, to work with women that I could relate to, both in terms of age and in terms of having worked with them already," Norwegian-born Sundsbo told Reuters.

"We wanted to work with sensuality, we wanted to work with women, we wanted to work with nature... then you have to find a way of doing that, that doesn't feel derivative of things that's gone in the past, but has echoes of what the calendar has been before.”

The Pirelli calendar was first published in the 1960s with a limited run and has usually been gifted to the Italian tyre maker’s clients.

In recent years, it moved away from featuring images of barely dressed models to more artistic themes, featuring celebrities.

"It has moved with the times and changed and expressed beauty and society in different ways," Christie, whose 2026 calendar theme is ether, said. "I love that progressiveness.”

Completing the 2026 calendar cast are actors Luisa Ranieri, Du Juan and Adria Arjona, model Irina Shayk and fashion designer Susie Cave.