Misty Copeland Just Landed a Fashion Gig With Model Gigi Hadid
In the fashion world, being part of the Pirelli Calendar is a career milestone. Supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss have all posed for some of the world’s most celebrated photographers in the annual calendar, and now, ballet is making its mark. For the 2019 edition, Pirelli announced American Ballet Theatre principal Misty Copeland as one of the four featured women, which also includes model Gigi Hadid and actresses Laetitia Casta and Julia Garner. Fellow ABT dancer, soloist Calvin Royal III and Ukrainian ballet star Sergei Polunin are joined by designer Alexander Wang in the roles of supportive boyfriend/mentor.
Shot by Albert Watson (who’s photographed over 100 Vogue covers), the calendar will feature each of the four women in a cinema-style story—captured in photos, of course. According to Pirelli, Copeland’s story depicts her as a ballerina working as a stripper while she dreams of joining the Paris Opéra Ballet. While we don’t love the ballerina-stripper stereotype, we’re sensing a bit of a Flashdance vibe here—and judging from the behind-the-scenes video, it’s not the sole focus of the shoot. Given that it’s impossible to take a bad picture of Copeland, we can’t wait to see the end result later this year (regardless of the storyline).