The All-Black 2018 Pirelli Calendar Is Here and It's My Childhood Dream Come True

Friday morning, the perennially-anticipated 2018 Pirelli Calendar was revealed in all its glory at a press conference at the Manhattan Center in New York City. While it doesn't come as much of a shock that the Pirelli calendar would strive to push boundaries, explore, and advance what we define as beautiful in our society, this year, the mood behind it was especially powerful and palpable.

The calendar, photographed by Tim Walker and styled by Vogue U.K. editor in chief Edward Enninful imagines an all-black cast (for the first time since 1987) of the classic Lewis Carroll tale, Alice in Wonderland. Buzzy Sudanese-Australian model Duckie Thot was chosen to fill the role of Alice, and the photos, as you see, are nothing short of stunning. Walker says that he was trying to present a different take on the age-old story. "It was written a long time ago for the times that were then, and I think we're living in different times now. I wanted to talk about Alice in the times we're at today," he said. Some of the changes? A black rabbit instead of a white one. The gardeners paint the roses from red to black in this version, as opposed to the customary white to red. And, of course, there's the cast, which is black AF.

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Courtesy Pirelli

Amongst the people tapped for the calendar are musicians, activists, models, and more. There's Djimon Hounsou plays as King of Hearts, model Adwoa Aboah as Tweedledee, Lil' Yachtcy as the Queen's Guard, Lupita Nyong'o as the Dormouse, Naomi Campbell and Diddy as Royal Beheaders, Whoopi Goldberg as the Royal Duchess, model Slick Woods as the Mad Hatter, Gambian activist Jahah Dukureh as the Wonderland Princess, and RuPaul as the Queen of Hearts — to name a few.

The story is especially timely in the current political climate in the West, where extreme right-wing, white supremacist sentiments are bubbling up, and some certain people seek to normalize them. With all the negativity rising, marginalized people, in this case, black people, have to fight even harder so that our society does not fall back into the old, deplorable traditions it clung to for so many years.

The message that anything is possible, that black is beautiful and aspirational is a message that for Diddy (who got Alice in Wonderland quotes tattooed on both of his inner arms five years ago), is long overdue. "The message was a little late, but at the end of the day, it's come right on time," he said. "What you're foreseeing in these images is the future and the past. This is our race's past. We were born kings and queens. These images should have been shown a long time ago, and it's just beautiful that you're starting to see images like that of us. I think Pirelli was smart enough to see the future. This is the future — black excellence."

Diddy, who poses alongside Naomi Campbell in the calendar, says that the cultural climate we're living in today was part of the reason he decided to get in on this project. And though he is portraying a royal beheader, getting into the character of someone royal or close to royalty came naturally to him while he was shooting. "I was inspired by my ancestors," he said, after noting the seemingly never-ending circulation of negative images of black people in our society. "Jail don't feel natural and comfortable. When I'm in my castle, with my kings and my princes, or we step into this and we're in the fantasy, it's something that you feel comfortable with because it's a part of us, a part of our true history, and it's a part of our magic. So I didn't really have to channel anybody."

Courtesy Pirelli

Djimon Hounsou agreed that it was refreshing to see this portrayal of black people as royalty "on this side of the world." Naomi Campbell noted that she hoped this kind of inclusivity doesn't wind up being just a trend.

"To see a black Alice today means children of all races can embrace the idea of diversity from a very young age," Enningful said in a press release. And taking a look at the images, I can certainly feel that mood. Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite stories from childhood. I always imagined what it would be like if the cast looked more like me, and now, I have that opportunity. Duckie, with her elegant limbs, teased-out hair, and her deep, dark skin looking like absolute wealth, gives me that kind of magical feeling Walker was clearly trying to convey through these photos. At a time when all the news alerts on my phone stress me out, it is wonderful to see that in spite of it all, people are still trying to push the conversation in a more progressive direction is more than heartening. It's uplifting.

"We can't take images for granted. You can't take the images that have been flooded into our consciousness," Diddy said. "I have three little girls that are 11, and it's important that they see these images and not the images that are always just portrayed."

Courtesy Pirelli

The magnitude of the calendar was not lost on RuPaul, who was basically born to play the Queen of Hearts. "This is an important time. Mark your calendars, kids, from now on, because things are changing. When a butterfly transforms into its beautiful self from a caterpillar, the middle part, the transformation part, is very violent. It's very confusing," he said. "That's what we're witnessing on our planet right now. So this conversation, moving it forward, this transformation, is a landmark, and this calendar really represents that."

"Darkness, black has been seen as forbidden or a mystery that we can't understand. Now, we are shedding light on that and seeing that it is nothing to be afriad of. It is something to embrace."

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