Irina Shayk was in Prague on Friday evening for the launch of the Pirelli Calendar 2026, joining calendar mates including Gwendoline Christie, Tilda Swinton, Venus Williams, and Susie Cave. It was the supermodel’s debut appearance in the pages of the famed calendar, now in its 52nd year—it was also the debut of a major new beauty era.
Shayk stepped out with freshly bleached eyebrows—she was in Prague the previous day too for press junkets, and still had her brunette brows intact—that compounded a statement-making look. The Russian model had a luminous complexion and a deep, plum-toned matte lip, paired with brown smoky eyes, and a flick of feline eyeliner. With her bleached brows, she looked otherworldly and gothic. The rest of Shayk’s look matched the vibe, wearing a sheer black spring 2026 Francesco Murano and 150 carat emerald earrings by Lorraine Schwartz. (Emerald is the birthstone for May, which might hit at which page of the Pirelli calendar you could expect to see Shayk in.) Wrapped in a vintage headscarf, she was striking.
As celebrity glam teams have long noted, a change to the eyebrows offers a dramatic impact: From new album era Miley Cyrus to the bleached brow disciple Julia Fox, Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, and Bella Hadid. Jenna Ortega was one of this year’s most dramatic new recruits to the bleached brow brigade, having always sported signature strong black eyebrows.
The Irina Shayk school of beauty has loomed large over pop culture, from her turns on the Victoria’s Secret runway and elsewhere. She loves a dark lip as a focal point on the face, but isn’t afraid of letting her natural radiance glow and going makeup free. Photographed by Sølve Sundsbo for the calendar, Shayk’s page sees her in dewy glam, with glossy, just-bitten lips and shimmering eyeshadow.
“For the 2026 calendar, I want to capture emotions, instincts, and states of mind that’s central to human life so: longing for freedom, curiosity, thirst of knowledge, I guess you can call it,” Sundsbo said of this year’s calendar. “Some kind of mystery, imagination, passions, the desire for emancipation, the connection with nature and our relationship with time and space. It’s a way of connecting us to something that we come from. Very big issues, but you know, let’s try to be ambitious.”
“The Pirelli Calendar is not just beautiful images, it’s art, [and] to be part of the calendar was always my dream, so it’s an honor,” Shayk said of her own appearance.
Shayk’s choice to forgo her brows feels very much in keeping with Pirelli’s 2026 vibe, driven by high-art aesthetics and the ambition to explore new territories—whether that’s with a bathroom cabinet staple like bleach or otherwise. Will Irina Shayk’s bleached brow moment carry through to 2026? We’ll just have to wait and see.
