Amy Schumer, Serena Williams, Yoko Ono featured in Pirelli 2016 calendar

Annie Leibovitz recently shot Pirelli's 2016 calendar, but instead of doing the usual deal and shooting a bunch of famous models - I can already hear the sound of women breathing a sigh of relief and men's hindbrains hitting the snooze button- she chose to shake it up.

Topless women out, female luminaries in: the latest edition of the famously titillating Pirelli calendar presented in London by USA photographer Annie Leibovitz has won praise for its feminist makeover.

Amy Schumer has gone nude in the 2016 Pirelli calendar and is being applauded for her authenticity.

The calendar usually focuses on glamour and seduction and has previously featured the likes of Naomi Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford and Sienna Miller, but Annie - who has taken control since 2000 - was keen to take the shoot in a different direction this year.

On its website Pirelli said its calendars, which have been produced since 1964, are a "mirror of the times".

"Beautiful, gross, strong, thin, fat, pretty, ugly, sexy, disgusting, flawless, woman".

Supermodel-turned-humanitarian Natalia Vodianova, patroness Agnes Gund, writer Fran Lebowitz, charity boss Mellody Hobson, film director Ava DuVernay, young blogger Tavi Gevinson, Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono also feature. "I think the company has wanted to shift for a few years and my mandate was that they wanted to see some change", said Leibovitz.

"The whole idea was not to have any pretense in these pictures, and be very straightforward, and show these women exactly who they are", Leibovitz says.

"It is the one thing Chinese, Italians and Russians can all agree on - we'll never give it up", Tronchetti said.

Schumer's tweet of her photograph on 2016 Pirelli calendar has received great reviews from her followers.

What are your thoughts on the new Pirelli calendar? Witness Amy Schumer, coffee cup in hand, covered only in sheer panties and heels.