In America, they do things differently. When our idea of a film star was still a chaste, tweed-suited Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter, America was turning Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth into pin-ups and delighting its Second World War soldiers with an unknown, scantily clad blonde called Norma Jean Baker. America gave the world pin-ups as a photographic genre. Now photographer Timothy White is reinventing that genre for the 21st century, with a cast of some of the classiest, most beautiful women in Hollywood.

“What a treat,” as Susan Sarandon puts it, “to play the world of the beautiful, perfect, pin-up fantasy!” It speaks volumes for how much Sarandon knows and trusts White that the archetypal liberal Hollywood feminist agreed to be photographed in nothing more than fishnet stockings and a feather boa. White has photographed Sarandon and her family for more than 20 years and, she says, “has captured me pregnant, clutching my children as naked babies and right through to their teenage years. So the photo he took of me for this book was quite a departure.”

There was also the benevolent aspect so close to Hollywood’s heart: where once such photos boosted troops’ morale, these days it’s all about charity – all proceeds from it are being donated to Oxfam America.

Pin-ups began with Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas, who painted seductively posed, semi-naked women for Esquire magazine in the Forties. Known as “Varga [sic] girls”, the drawings weren’t just about a pretty face: Sarandon argues that during the Second World War artists encouraged women to see themselves as not just sensual, but strong, in images that projected wit and intelligence rather than submissive sexiness, and which were painted on the nose cones of US Air Force planes.

The origins of Timothy White’s book date back to 1994 when, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Esquire Vargas pin-ups, he was commissioned to photograph 12 women as a homage. “All the great pin-up artists glorified the female form without being offensive,” he believes. “My infatuation with the pin-up girl has never wavered. To me, she is much more than a beautiful image; she is an empowered woman.”

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin, whose famous red-soled shoes feature in the photographs, agrees. He first encountered pin-ups in an army recruitment office in the Eighties, when he was being evaluated for National Service with the French Army. “After that day,” he remembers, “pin-ups remained for ever ingrained in my mind.”

As Christopher Napolitano, of Playboy (which commissioned the book), says of the 21st-century sirens: “Look in their eyes. They were looking at Timothy, who was looking at them. And now they’re looking at you.”

Hollywood Pin-ups by Timothy White, published by Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, on November 10, is available from BooksFirst priced £18 (RRP £20), free p&p, on 0870 1608080; timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst © Timothy White 2008

Times recommends

• The Boxing Day tsunami: five years on
• What took place in 2010...
• Can you really cure a hangover?