Here’s why Rihanna’s new Fenty fashion line is a godsend for curvy women
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Hither's why Rihanna's new Fenty fashion line is a godsend for curvy women
Rihanna is 1 of fashion'southward about powerful influencers. Just while some celebrities know how to piece of work – and sell – a dress, her arrival at LVMH has the potential for real disruption.
Rihanna wearing Fenty in the Fenty pop-up store in Paris on May 22, 2019. (Photo: AFP/Martin Bureau)
"I am my own muse," Robyn Rihanna Fenty purred of her new luxury fashion characterization Fenty, created with the LVMH group, unveiled on Wednesday (May 22) and now on sale at a popular-up store in Paris. It will be available online from May 29. "It's badass, it's daring," she continued. "Information technology pushes the envelope. It'south confident. Information technology has a potent silhouette. I desire everyone to wear it. But I've got to make information technology correct for me."
We have met in Paris, in a nondescript edifice, down a narrow street in the Marais. The building has been designated to launch her commencement "release", named 5-19, and is clad in a dazzling Fenty-azure bluish, but the but clue as to its current occupant is the phalanx of stone-faced heavies who stand around in suits.
This collection, the offset under the auspices of LVMH, only really the fifth if one factors in the iv Fenty collections she did when the brand was part of the then Kering-endemic Puma, is what she feels like wearing "at present". And it'due south unexpectedly smart.
"It's badass, information technology's daring. It pushes the envelope. It's confident. Information technology has a stiff silhouette. I want everyone to clothing it. Simply I've got to make it right for me." – Rihanna
Where her previous collections cited "Marie Antoinette at the gym" or vivid moto-leathers, here are tailored blazers in taupe or pink cotton with bumbag belts attached; a boned shirt has a sculptural, romantic sleeve; Japanese denim jackets and shirt dresses are either designed to cinch the waist and short curt curt, or voluminous and oversized; a cotton fiber bodysuit has a bustier neckline and a saucy sensibility. The accessories include stilettos with barely-in that location straps, chunky gold hoops, and massive metal visor-style sunglasses.
It's a wardrobe for someone who wants to be taken seriously, but still wants to feel their vibe. According to Fenty, fashion was only always a second involvement after music. Her passion for clothes was fed by her mother Monica, whose way she has always admired. Merely, this segue into fashion is but another platform from which to sell her "sound".
Excluding the footwear and jewellery – at that place are as notwithstanding no bags – this kickoff release amounts to about 36 different shapes, and items range from about €200 (S$308) for a corset T-shirt to €1,100 for a reversible coat, cost points that are lower than at many LVMH labels only notwithstanding highly aspirational for the consumers 1 would imagine sit in her target demographic. And then once again, it is size inclusive: Wearing apparel run to a French size 46, merely the cuts are and then generous that they actually run far bigger. "I'1000 a curvy girl," she said of the label's proportions. "And if I tin't wear it, information technology's not going to work."
Watching Rihanna it's clear to see how the author of eight albums (a ninth is in the works), with a personal fortune estimated to exist about US$260 million (S$358 one thousand thousand), persuaded Bernard Arnault, the president of LVMH and the fourth-richest man in the world, to do her bidding.
Wearing a Fenty mini shirt-dress in white cotton poplin, she gazes out from under a blackness bouffant of hair like a Ronette remade for the millennial age. Her scarlet-painted talons trace a Barbados-shaped pendant at her neck, ane of many references to her birthplace, and strung among a trove of amulets.
Only information technology's the eyes – catlike, hazel-coloured, lids smeared with an iridescent glow – that agree you. She has an unnervingly direct gaze, which, combined with her easy candour, and that crazy Cupid'south bow, has a hypnotic effect.
"I'g a control freak," she said, lightly squeezing my shoulder for emphasis, every bit she describes a fitting session in the studio. When asked if LVMH were comfortable with the new flexibility she has brought to the maison, she smouldered: "Mr Arnault isn't stupid." She may epitomise the laid-back sense of humor of the Caribbean area island on which she grew up, simply don't confuse that with complacency. Rihanna works to no ane's schedule but her own.
Actually, the collection is pretty good. For starters, it's blessedly absent of logos. Information technology's grown up and womanly, with a femininity undercut with tougher, more masculine looks (later, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful becomes her first male client when he buys a reversible parka in beige and oily black). Simply whether or not this Fenty finds commercial favour is less important. This is just the start release.
"I'chiliad designing what I desire to vesture, for when I want to habiliment information technology," she said of the make's roll out, which will run across wearing apparel distributed in "drops", like a cult streetwear make, and sold direct via the website.
There will be no shows. Not unlike singles on an album, each release volition represent completely dissimilar attitudes. Today, Riri wants a shirt dress. But next month, she might want a string belong, such as she might wear on holiday. Or an omelette gown, like the spectacular Guo Pei number she wore to the Met Gala in 2015.
If a brand is congenital on its DNA, Fenty's defining characteristic will be its changing aesthetic. Information technology will be as mercurial and unexpected as Rihanna is herself. "I don't desire to go to a show and and then wait for vi months to buy a look in a shop," she said of dispensing with the business concern model on which near brands nether LVMH accept traditionally been dependent. "With Fenty, you come across it, you wear information technology. I'm too greedy to wait."
"I'1000 designing what I want to vesture, for when I desire to wearable it. I don't want to become to a show and and so wait for six months to buy a look in a shop. With Fenty, yous meet information technology, you wear it." – Rihanna
Now 31, with more than 71 1000000 Instagram followers to her proper name, Rihanna became ane of fashion's most powerful influencers the day she invited usa to stand under her umbrella in 2008. But while some celebrities know how to work – and sell – a dress, her arrival at LVMH has the potential for real disruption.
She beginning worked with the group when she starred in a campaign for Dior, for whom she later designed a capsule of eyewear. When Kering sold Puma, she brought the characterization to Arnault. In 2017, she launched Fenty Dazzler, an inclusive corrective line that now offers brand up for 46 shades of pare tone. That generated more than The states$500 million in retail sales in its beginning year.
This latest venture combines a farther fix of firsts. She's the first woman of colour to front an LVMH fashion label – "I am an immigrant, of mixed race, and I bring that perspective with me," she said of her racial identity, which includes blackness, white and Latin American heritage. She'southward leading the outset style firm LVMH has built from scratch since 1987, not only creatively but in the function of master executive alongside her director, Veronique Gebel, and LVMH main of strategy Jean Baptiste Voisin.
She's too the start celebrity to have been given a label at a luxury group that has typically banked on the skills of the couturier. LVMH have invested €30 million in Fenty – and the vocaliser is reciprocating with a like investment in her time. Voisin attests that she's putting in the hours, and that her work ethic is ferocious, only when one of the biggest, most prestigious and successful luxury groups is now putting their money on a vocalizer and not a star designer one wonders if the fate of way now rests in the hands of a celebrity?
Sidney Toledano, chairman and chief executive of LVMH Mode, who is non directly responsible for Fenty merely worked with her at Dior, said that Rihanna is simply an exception.
"She's not just a celebrity designer," he said. "[LVMH] know her. Nosotros met her years ago at Dior and you could encounter even and so she was above celebrity. She'due south super smart. Fifty-fifty at our first coming together she really impressed me. Rihanna is not couture, merely she has the talent."
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Fifty-fifty then, having a major global celebrity in the house does offering family Arnault the cachet of modern cool. And asoupcon of mystique. Certainly, the clandestine nature of this first launch has been epic. While the bargain was done two years ago, Voisin was so secretive about the characterization that until very recently only three of his five-fellow member strategy squad even knew of the brand'southward beingness. Those in on the cloak-and-dagger referred to the project as "Yard", which stands for "Mademoiselle". (Riri fans volition annotation that early incarnations of the Fenty Dazzler line were named "mattemoiselle".)
Of course, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was the first "Mademoiselle". And according to Voisin, the 2 share much in common. "Both women with a potent vision," he said. "Both very smart. Both hard workers. Both powerfully charismatic."
Is Riri the 21st century's equivalent of Coco? The vocalist has already far exceeded the Chanel founder's global achieve, simply the comparison draws some handy parallels. During her career, Chanel transformed traditional modes of concern, designed to conform her own sartorial needs, revolutionised the female wardrobe and made a fortune flogging olfactory property. More chiefly, she marched to no 1 else's tune.
Rihanna brings the similarly disruptive point of view, a bold assurance and the calm authority of a adult female in absolute command. Fifty-fifty better, she's devised a creative surroundings in which she can U-turn whatever fourth dimension. If something's not working, she can just change her mind. And release something else. Every bit a concern proposition – it'south LVMH's most badass move even so.
By Jo Ellison © 2022 The Financial Times
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