Amy Schumer's No-pants look is literally ON FIRE

Vanity Fair

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Mixed in with the cheeky pinup shots and sisterly portrait inAnnie Leibovitz’scover shoot ofAmy Schumerfor theMay 2016 issue of Vanity Fairis a photograph that’s literally incendiary: the comedian, in a T-shirt, with her otherwise uncovered crotch ablaze. The only other thing she wears is an expression of utter ease, or possibly, mild panic.

Schumer, photographed in N.Y.C.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz; Styled by Jessica Diehl.

“I begged Annie to photograph me with no underwear on in just a T-shirt,” Schumer says. “I explained to her how important it was to me and she finally agreed. I felt powerful and beautiful. She understood once we shot it. Or maybe she ran to the bathroom to throw up. It was one of the most meaningful moments of my life.”

“It was very her,” saysV.F.fashion and style directorJessica Diehl.She noted the “no coffee, no workee” tee was Schumer’s own: “The whole attitude, the T-shirt, the slogan on the T-shirt—it just felt very real, with everything else being so surreal.”

On the cover, Schumer keeps it red hot in a red, sequin Calvin Klein Collection bodysuit, striking a retro-calendar-girl pose and a come-hither twinkle.

“For those women in Old Hollywood who posed in that bombshell, pinup way, there’s almost a series of poses and body positioning that signify that era,” Diehl says. “Legs nicely together, feet pointed, and arm up with ample cleavage display—those are sort of the codes of the time.”

Schumer, photographed in N.Y.C.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz; Styled by Jessica Diehl.

Making a sly stylistic wink at those tropes flavors the spread as a kind of send-up of the machinery involved in making a celebrity glamour shot. Inside, in another steely silver playsuit from Calvin Klein Collection, she straddles a phallic missile, posing as an actual bombshell.

That spirit of satire, Diehl says, was an effective way to encompass all the roles that Schumer plays—comedian, writer, actress, glamour girl.

Schumer, photographed in N.Y.C.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz; Styled by Jessica Diehl.

“There had to be some sense of humor in the glamorizing, because [the glamorizing] is not the point of her,” she says. “The point of her is not to be a red-carpet star—she does so much more than dress up for premieres or press circuits.

“We’re not telling a fashion story—we don’t have to stick to one look throughout,” she continues. “And she’s so multifaceted that if you put her in one box, you’re really not telling enough of this whole person’s story. Her voice is very zeitgeisty, and ballsy, and feisty, that it didn’t seem she could be boxed into one concept.”

(VANITY FAIR)