IT'S A DATE

The New Year is approaching and dance cards are already filling up with 2008 festivities, which means you'll need a clever place to store all of those dates. The good news is, calendars have lately evolved from passive wall hangings to bona fide works of art.

First up: the annual Pirelli calendar, famous as much for its limited availability as for its undressed starlets captured by major names. Kate Moss, Sofia Loren, and Naomi Watts have bared all for Pirelli in the past, while this year's “Pearls of the Orient” edition takes a slightly different approach.

Photographer Patrick Demarchelier had his subjects (a who's who of catwalk queens, including Gemma Ward, Coco Rocha, and Sasha Pivovarova) working conceptual ensembles like only mega-models can.

But Pirelli isn't alone in elevating the calendar from mere practical object to collectible artifact. We've rounded up our eight favorite date-trackers—Pirelli included—for a creative take on the timeworn calendar.