Padma Lakshmi is one of the stars gracing the 2025 Pirelli Calendar, titled “Refresh and Reveal.” Photographed by Ethan James Green, this year’s concept, which also features Hunter Schafer, Simone Ashley and Jodie Turner-Smith, among others, explores “playing with nudity in photographs that communicate empowerment and self-expression, enabling each individual’s essence and ‘true self’ to shine through.”
We’ve been eagerly anticipating this release, especially after the former Top Chef host teased it months ago. On August 14, Lakshmi shared a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram, giving her nearly two million followers a glimpse into the shoot, including a video of her modeling waist-deep in the Miami ocean, wearing a sheer white top.
In an interview published with the calendar, Pirelli asked Lakshmi how she approaches modeling nude “in our age and society after the MeToo movement,” to which she replied: “It’s hard. I was modeling in the 1990s, and it was much freer then. I think we’ve become much more conservative today. And some of that is good; a lot of the stuff that was happening in the 1990s needed to go away. But I don’t think that nudity is anything to be afraid of because I think a woman’s body is one of the most beautiful creations in nature.”
“It’s never what you do in the photograph. It’s how you do it,” she continued. “Anything can be vulgar, no matter how many clothes you have on. And you can also do it in a beautiful, meaningful, elegant way. It’s not nudity in and of itself that’s the problem, it’s how it’s manipulated by the subject and the photographer.”
Modeling for the Pirelli calendar has been a longstanding dream of Lakshmi’s. “The @pirelli calendar is iconic and when I was modeling in Italy in the 90s I’d always wondered what it would be like to be photographed for it,” she captioned the aforementioned Instagram post. “I can’t believe I finally got to tick off a major bucket list item for the 25 year old me. Better late than never!!!”
Thank you Pirelli for making a dream come true and thank you to the amazing glam team: @tonnegood, @fulviafarolfi, @lucas.a.wilson for making me feel not only safe and cared for, but also beautiful, womanly and totally at home in my own skin,” she concluded. “I’m glad I waited until now to do it because I appreciate it so much more. Ladies don’t let anyone ever tell you it’s too late. Your best life and work could just be ahead of you. It’s how I’ve been feeling lately and I hope the same for you.”
