Rihanna’s Fenty Maison
She'll Shatter Fashion's Rules at LVMH
Rihanna has just made history.
It was officially announced last week that the pop superstar will be working with LVMH to create her very own fashion house, fittingly called Fenty Maison. This marks the first time that a female (let alone one of color) has created a fashion house with LVMH, and will also be the first house added to the LVMH roster since Christian Lacroix in 1987.
The House of Fenty Maison will produce ready-to-wear, shoes, sunglasses, and jewelry, and will have the potential to permanently shake up the luxury fashion industry. For one, as I mentioned before, never before has a woman of color been granted such a high-level opportunity in the design sector. Also, at a time when diversification in the fashion industry has become so essential, the timing of this collaboration couldn’t have been better.
The most important task for Rihanna and LVMH will be to separate the celebrity from the brand, which, if Kanye West’s foray into fashion tells us anything, can be hard to do. However, Rihanna’s success so far with her beauty line (Fenty Beauty) and lingerie line (Fenty X Savage) has proven that her name alone won’t be what will sell her products. It’s legitimately good stuff. Rihanna’s challenge now will be to identify the inevitably different audience that will gravitate towards Fenty Maison. She will need luxury staples like high-quality fabrics and forward-thinking design to connect with this new ready-to-wear consumer.
Even though we’re still weeks away from Fenty Maison’s debut, its effects on the fashion industry are already being felt. Aside from Rihanna’s star power and business success, Fenty Maison stands as a welcome symbol of a shift in the fashion industry. It proves that a brand such as this one can enter the fold without being spearheaded by a privileged white male designer. Although some might argue that what Rihanna really needs to do is put out new music, from a fashion standpoint, this multi-faceted superstar is giving us JUST what we need.
Here are some of our favorite examples of Rhianna’s style genius…
