News: Boss Lady Fundraising Haul for Rihanna's Savage X Fenty

Before hopping to Rihanna’s latest fundraising haul of $115 million, AOC doesn’t recall ever writing that Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners LLC was key in launching Savage X Fenty’s initial $50 million investment in 2019.

With Las Vegas now open and Culver City, Calif. opening on Feb. 12, Riri is rolling. Other 2021 locations include Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. More details at WWD.

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners Was Original Savage X Fenty Investor

Reading that Jay-Z was on the investor’s list led by Neuberger Berman this week, I checked back on prior participation and note our error in not crediting Marcy Venture Partners previously as a key player on Savage X Fenty’s birthing team.

To be honest, this factoid is just another data bit on the deep roots and exciting synergy that LVMH and the Arnault family personally have into Black culture in America and beyond.

For those who don’t know, Jay-Z sold 50% of his champagne brand Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades to LVMH in 2021.

While Kanye West runs his mouth around town about having final say on everything Ye, Jay-Z not only got a board seat in his LVMH financial transaction but the deal is an unusual 50-50 transaction.

In simple terms, Jay-Z and Bernard Arnault’s LVMH team must find consensus in a common brand marketing and financial strategy for Armand de Brignac. Both parties will create a new business investment paradigm in select cases — a team of equals — if they can pull off this unusual agreement without a massive boardroom fight.

To understand now that Jay-Z also had a hand in Savage X Fenty’s original funding is equally impressive.

Rihanna Unleashes Savage X Fenty Lingerie Valentine's Day 2022 with Lourdes Leon

Rihanna Unleashes Savage X Fenty Lingerie Valentine's Day 2022 with Lourdes Leon AOC Fashion

Superstar talent Rihanna amps up the sexual heat with her “Bring the heat this Valentine’s Day and you’ll be the treat.” The lingerie and beauty mogul combines her two business into a single Valentine’s Day 2022 campaign for the first time. lensed by Dennis Leupold.

The megastar is joined by models including Lourdes Leon, Quannah Chasinghorse, Tess McMillan, and more with a clear message to she, he and they, who wear the Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty brand: ‘Slip Into Som’m Sexy To: You From: You.

As Victoria’s Secret continues to revamp its marketing, toning down the male gaze vision that came to dominate the brand, there remains a critical difference between the VS and Savage X Fenty approach. The VS Collective remains a third-party talking about their problems and issues in a way for all women to understand. But the models remain the message and the focus.

Message From Black Women: I’m Talkin’ to YOU

Rihanna takes a different approach from the lady bikers to her ‘Slip Into Som’m Sexy’ message. It’s the same ‘I’m Talkin’ to YOU’ message I referenced in my comments about the new British Vogue nine African women cover and inside fashion story.

The message is 1) I’m talkin’ to YOU, dear reader, SM follower; wannabe like me. 2) Are you listening? Because you can’t become this she, he, they lingerie lover, if you don’t hear me.

Get out of your comfort zone and fly. Goddess knows I had to learn this life lesson as a Black woman. So RISE, girl. Enough with all this self-doubting, crowd-pleasing anxiety.

This was the original Victoria’s Secret direct-to-women message, one that I worked very hard to craft. We were leaders in that self-empowerment drive — and around the trickiest subject of all: sexuality and typically female-identifying sexuality.

As Rih says: “Keep it in the fam.”

Backed by Bernard Arnault via the $115 million series B round of financing led by LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton to help the lingerie brand scale up, the Savage X Fenty lingerie brand is ready to rumble.

Savage X Fenty Stores

Rihanna just announced the first five inaugural store locations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington DC. The Vegas store will provide fans with a direct-to-consumer shopping experience that’s billed by the Savage X Fenty team as the “next step” in the brand’s aim of providing a “fuller expression” to its clientele.

OMG! Rihanna Says ‘Keep It in the Fam!’

My mind is now on fire. Rhanna’s “keep it in the fam” comment and the Catterton investment, plus writing about Virgil Abloh last night, the most brilliant idea popped into my mind.

Sorry, Kanye. You’re not going to Louis Vuitton Men, and please don’t have a breakdown.

Among the options to replace the beloved Virgil Abloh is the concept of a curator in charge of Louis Vuitton Men — as no one can follow in Virgil Abloh’s steps. Let Virgil Abloh live on in 3-D. Keep him alive and deeply embedded in the brand’s DNA.

The talent I mentioned in my earlier post ARE three of the perhaps five names on the list. So Anne is already swinging the bat quite well, win or lose.

BUT, if Louis Vuitton wanted to be truly daring, they would put Rihanna as the curator in charge of Louis Vuitton Men. They would ‘Keep It in the Fam!”

Working on the collections a la Moncler with all the creative talent she knows and LVMH knows, she can develop a huge rival to Victoria’s Secret at the same time in the Savage X Fenty business. AND, unlike some of the names mentioned, Rihanna can easily become an ‘ambassador’ for Virgil Abloh’s memory. Her own me-me-me halo doesn’t need burnishing.

Kanye West is too “I, I, I, I, I should have had the Vuitton Men’s job in the first place” to EVER promote Virgil Abloh’s memory and values. Forget Kanye West being up to his eyeballs in Republican scum politics. Kanye thinks he’s God.

Rihanna Is Virgil Abloh’s Ubuntu Goddess

Rihanna — on the other hand — knows she’s a goddess and is perfectly situated to advance Virgil’s thinking and vision. And she’s got her own thing goin’ on — already backed by LVMH — and Bernard Arnault loves her.

If he didn’t think she had tremendous talent and promise as a merchant, he wouldn’t have invested $115 million in Savage X Fenty via L Catterton.

Bernard Arnault is dying to take on Victoria’s Secret with Rihanna. Seriously! This move would give her a reach far beyond these first five stores. CONSTANT engagement with activism and young talent, a halo that can bring new customers to Savage X Fenty.

Yes, Anne is ALWAYS thinking out of the box. I LIKE this new box that just popped into my mind. If such a hair-brained option ever happened, you know who expressed the idea first. Suddenly my other three options sound perfectly reasonable. But this one??

Woah! Even I’m impressed. But it’s so LOGICAL. It’s rational.

Related: EXCLUSIVE: Louis Vuitton CEO Talks Final Virgil Abloh Collection, Succession Plans WWD

Like I keep sayin’ “You better buckle up, VS. These people are coming for you. And I still don’t think you have a plan figured out. Nor do I think the VS Collective is the answer to your problems, but I love all those women. Don’t get me wrong. And, for the record, that new store design looks like Kohl’s. But I do want you to succeed. Make no mistake. I want you to succeed.” ~ Anne

Savage X Carmel Curves Bad-Ass Biker Ladies Were Born to Ride in Rihanna's Lingerie

[Image: Shaniqwa Jarvis/courtesy of Savage X Fenty]

Republish via AOC at FeedBurner CC 3.0 License Attribution Required: Daily Fashion Design Culture News

Savage X Carmel Curves Bad-Ass Biker Ladies Were Born to Ride in Rihanna's Lingerie AOC Fashion

When AOC saw the headline about Savage X Fenty’s newest lingerie campaign with ‘Carmel Curves’, we smiled big.

We wrote about the Carmel Curves Motorcycle Club, a 10-woman biker gang of some of New Orleans’ best Black beauties three years ago. Caramel Curves Motorcycle Club was founded 16 years ago by Nakosha “Coco” Smith and Shanika “Tru” Beatty. Back then, we wrote:

The group consists of 13 [now 10] women with a decades-long love of motorcycles and a desire to bike with other women. "The ladies wear helmets ridged with fluorescent pink mohawks and matching vests bedazzled in blingy patches and sequins. Finishing the look are Barbie-pink stilettos. Their bikes are big Suzuki Hayabusas (that they call “busas”) and Gixxers, and Can-Am Spyders, airbrushed in shades of pink, with brightly colored rims to match. And when they stunt, with curving burnouts or wheelies, their tires send off plumes of magenta-hued smoke."

In fact, the Savage X Fenty team read the same New York Times article that AOC did. Read our original post below.

Here’s the Carmel Curves Instagram Page. It seems that members also have their own personal page. Shaniqwa Jarvis [IG] is the photographer behind the campaign. We’re working on lining up the names of all the bikers featured.

I love it. Victoria’s Secret has got their VS Collective all lined up with star power that includes: Adut Akech, Amanda de Cadenet, Eileen Gu, Megan Rapinoe, Paloma Elsesser, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Valentina Sampaio — totally fab women chosen to keep the brand on track with what women really want.

And then Rihanna swoops in with probably the most body-affirming, pro-woman lingerie video ever created to inspire American women.

If VS was really game, they would ask the VS Collective to critique this totally out-of-the box video. I promise you that at least five — if not all seven — members of the VS Collective LOVE the Savage X Carmel Curves campaign.

The Carmel Curve ladies don’t typically ride in lingerie. But they DO ride in heels. They ARE the sisterhood in action, and the body-affirming, pro-empowerment message of the documentary-style video cannot be overstated. It’s just absolutely the BEST!

'Valley of the Dolls' Is No Accident in Sydney Sweeney's Savage X Fenty Campaign

'Valley of the Dolls' Is No Accident in Sydney Sweeney's Savage X Fenty Campaign

The boys club led by Gore Vidal, and Truman Capote totally panned ‘Valley of the Dolls’, turning up the heat on author Jacqueline Susann, saying she looked like a “truck driver in drag” on The Tonight Show. Other critics said Susann must have written her best seller on a “cash register.”

Vice generously provides a key link to a 2000 Vanity Fair article ‘Once Was Never Enough’ about Susann’s life pre and post dolls. She died an early death from breast cancer , saying “Yeah, I think I’ll be remembered . . . as the voice of the 60s . . . Andy Warhol, the Beatles and me.”

Rihanna and Susann

Besides the obvious connection that the drug scene is at play in ‘Euphoria’, with Sydney Sweeney’s character Cassie having lived in Susann’s head, consider also that Rihanna is channeling Susann here. The author’s response to critics of her tacky, talentless self was “Too many male writers are writing for the critics,” she declared. “I write for the public.”

Susann’s feminist success was a precursor to Rihanna’s own self-created success in business, not only the music industry. Riri brings the same “I create for the people” attitude to everything she does. Last week, Rihanna made her debut on ‘The Sunday Times Rich list. Her third place spot on the richest musicians list had her overtaking legends Elton John and Mick Jagger.

Rihanna Taps Adam Selman for Savage X Fenty Valentine's Day 2020 Campaign

Rihanna Taps Adam Selman for Savage X Fenty Valentine's Day 2020 Campaign

Photographer Dennis Leupold captures the strobe lights colors with models Adesuwa Aighewi, Tiffany Luu, Joan Smalls, and Paloma Elsesser model the lingerie pieces Selman admits channel the best of Frederick’s of Hollywood.