It was Britain’s hottest day on record, and in a huge, un-air-conditioned set in King’s Cross, you could tell.
Joining me to swelter slowly and crouch in front of one of the free-standing fans were none other than supermodels Cara Delevingne, Lila Moss and Adwoa Aboah. Misery likes company, and the company was top tier. They were here, alongside Chinese model He Cong and photographer Emma Summerton, to shoot 2023’s Pirelli calendar. It is the prestigious, annual creative undertaking of the Italian tyre manufacturing company, which started as a racier endeavour 58 years ago and is now the stomping ground of A-list photographers, from Patrick Demarchelier to Annie Leibovitz, and cultural icons including Yoko Ono and Nicole Kidman.
“I thought they’d cancel because of the heat, but it’s too many people to reschedule,” one backstage member whispers as I walk in. Lining up the diaries of these fashion bohemoths is no small feat: it would take more than a measly 40C to shut this show down. But it does mean we are missing a few characters. Namely, a fox, a chameleon and a snake. “They cancelled due to the heat, because it was against the rights of the animals,” says set designer Viki Rutsch. “My assistant found taxidermy alternatives online yesterday afternoon, though. We sat and picked the butterflies and insects we wanted at 4pm, and by 5.45pm they were here.”
The freeze-dried bugs are perched in the grassy wonderland that rising star Lila Moss, daughter of Kate, is reclining on — one of four sets the team of six built in two days. “She has a very calm certainty about her,” the Australian photographer says of Lila afterwards. “I’ve shot her mother before, they share that sweetness.” Lila, who recently made her British Vogue cover debut, told us she “was honoured to be asked to be a part of this year’s Pirelli calendar because of all the iconic people who have been involved in previous years” — her mother included.
He Cong was next to face the lens, armed with a huge headpiece and stuffed bird. “There’s the big black Harris Reed hat. Then you’ve got a black flower here, a ribbon, and pale yellow stockings,” says mesmerising stylist Amanda Harlech, a long-time collaborator of Karl Lagerfeld, to reporters afterwards. “Mmm, so the hat is made in a nice Harris Tweed, is it?” one of our huddle asks her. The smile turns to instant horror. “No! Harris Reed. The designer,” Harlech barks back in disbelief.
She is most animated when talking about Adwoa, who has spent hours in the dressing room having a huge, braided headpiece put in place by hair stylist Eugene Souleiman. When ready, she parts waves in a long-trained, gilded gold, vintage Mugler gown, and adopts her given role as ‘Queen’ in the desert backdrop. “My mother used to call me Nefertiti when I was a child,” Adwoa says post-shoot. “It was fabulous — but I haven’t seen the photos yet!” A woman beside her whips up a picture on a phone — “Oh wow! That’s insane. I’m so happy with that,” she says, beaming.
And having only seen flashes of Cara whip through the room in hotel slippers, a robe and headscarf, tethered to an equally glamorous assistant, time has come for the day’s final star turn. With a dandelion forest behind her, she takes a squat in her string-thread skirt for a last make-up touch-up.
“She’s naughty, wild and fun — a performer,” says Summerton. “She moves fast, and I have to keep up with her… but I knew that was going to happen.” Around the crew, there are grunts from sweating removals men who have started sizing up the stacks of countless flower-filled plant pots, boxes of dead bugs, and the odd freestanding ladder to get out. “This is going to be a nightmare,” one says. But the shots —which are set to come out alongside others including Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid, who were photographed in New York — are spellbinding.
Summerton is still smiling when we speak the following day. How did she come down from the buzz last night? “Champagne and pasta,” she says. “It’s important to celebrate these things.”
