The singer Kylie Minogue has joined actor Sienna Miller and model Claudia Schiffer in being captured by celebrity photographer Mario Testino wearing nothing but a broad grin and a silk sheet printed with the target logo of the fashion industry's campaign against breast cancer.
The images launch this year's Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign, which aims to raise more than £1m for cancer research over the next six weeks through a range of special clothing in high street, online and designer collections.
It is the first time that Minogue has joined in a breast cancer campaign since her own successful treatment five years ago. "I wholeheartedly support their efforts to raise funds for the vital work undertaken by Breakthrough Breast Cancer," she said.
The annual fashion industry campaign was started in New York by the designer Ralph Lauren after his friend Nina Hyde, fashion editor of the Washington Post, died of the disease.
Since its launch in the UK – where more than 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year – in 1996 it has raised more than £10.5m. From the original logo T-shirt, it has grown to include a wardrobe full of specially designed garments, with not less than 30% of the purchase price going directly to the charity.
While Minogue was being treated in 2005, one of the engagements she had to cancel was an appearance at a cancer charity ball in London. Instead she sent a defiant message: "I am a cancer patient. I aim to be a cancer survivor."
She had to abandon the Australian leg of her Showgirl world tour when the disease was diagnosed, but was as good as her word in November 2006, taking up the tour again in a string of concerts described by one Australian critic as "nothing less than a triumph".
