Pirelli’s Verona 2020

BY: Sarah Sunday

For more than 50 years, tire company Pirelli has veered in a more artistic direction with their creation of the Pirelli Calendar, playfully known as the ‘Cal’. Each year, marking the passage of time, a photographer is selected along with a host of models to create the calendar. Names such as Annie Leibovitz, Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh, and Steve McCurry have all shaped the creative process and photographed for various years, each in a different part of the world.

For this next year’s 2020 calendar, Pirelli found itself in Verona with Italian fashion photographer Paolo Roversi; the poised title of the 2020 Cal: Looking for Juliet. Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s everlasting love story Romeo and Juliet, Roversi studies nine models as a search for Juliet commences between Claire Foy, Mia Roth, Chris Lee, Indya Moore, Rosaliá, Stella Roversi, Yara Shahidi, Kristen Stewert, and Emma Fox. Each individual exudes a sense of femininity, mystery, romance, and power — although each in a distinctly unique and novel manner. Some are fiery while others are soft. Some are dainty while others are bold. Yet, all are graceful and absolutely enchanting.

What sets Roversi’s Cal apart is the videography of the creative process, never done before. Giving a keen insight to the entire process, each model speaks with Roversi about their interpretation of Juliet and which facet of the character they envision in themselves. However their expositions differ, each speaks fiercely and endearingly of love. In the end, it is the overarching theme, finding itself in the center of it all — love found and love lost. Roversi admits to not finding Juliet; he concludes he might not ever find her, as “there’s a Juliet in every woman,” and “in the end, Juliet is a dream.”