Rihanna+Jahleel Weaver vs Victoria's Secret: Embracing Women

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Rihanna's Savage x Fenty Xtra VIP Campaign Rings In A New Day in Lingerie Leisure

Rihanna rings in the holiday season, sharing her Savage x Fenty three VIP boxes in a campaign lensed by Dennis Leupold. Designs were handpicked by Rihanna’s stylist, creative collaborator and best friend Jahleel Weaver. Talking with British Vogue, Weaver describes the VIP boxes as representing everything the lingerie brand represents: “Expressing the truest version of yourself and celebrating how different and unique we all are.”

From the “Truth or Dare” package to “Still Watching?” and “XXX”, Weaver wanted to include as many lingerie styles as possible for Fenty’s expansive following, writes British Vogue. “The pieces I chose all have their own unique Savage twist and show personality – a mix of strength and sensuality,” Weaver tells Vogue. “I love it when people take risks with their clothes. It’s always so obvious when you can see that a person is having fun with fashion.”

Rihanna Poses in 'Full Fashion Force' by Hanna Moon for Vogue Hong Kong September 2019

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Rihanna Poses in 'Full Fashion Force' by Hanna Moon for Vogue Hong Kong September 2019

“Ultimate fashion force” Rihanna brings her prowess as a singer, actor, businesswoman, philanthropist and fashion designer to the pages of Vogue Hong Kong’s September 2019 issue. Rising image maker Hanna Moon brings her vibrant aesthetic to fashion looks from Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, Richard Quinn, Louis Vuitton and more styled by Anya Ziourova in ‘Full Fashion Force’. / Hair by Yusef; makeup by Kanako Takase

Rihanna Drops Savage x Fenty August 2019 Lingerie Updates | RiRi on Trump, Rihanna Museum

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Rihanna Drops Savage x Fenty August 2019 Lingerie Updates | RiRi on Trump, Rihanna Museum

One fact is for certain: a Savage x Fenty lingerie ad looks totally different from a Victoria’s Secret one. The talented business mogul Rihanna poses in her August 2019 lingerie drop, wearing pastel, muted prints and jacquard knits lensed by Dennis Leupold.

Rihanna Brings Imperial Splendor to Harper's Bazaar China August 2019 Lensed By Chen Man

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Rihanna Brings Imperial Splendor to Harper's Bazaar China August 2019 Lensed By Chen Man

Rihanna makes a dazzling impression in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar China’s August 2019 issue. Xiao Mu Fan chooses modern drama gowns with traditional inspirations from Iris van Herpen Couture (blue) in the cover story lensed by Chen Man. / Makeup by Priscilla Ono; hair by Yusef Wlliams

Barbados PM Mia Mottley Proposes Museum To Honor Rihanna, The Nation's Famous Daughter

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Top: Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. Bottom: Rihanna

Barbados PM Mia Mottley Proposes Museum To Honor Rihanna, The Nation's Famous Daughter

Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley is one shrewd woman. Rihanna supported her candidacy to become Prime Minister in 2018, then joining forces with Motley as Cultural Ambassador for Barbados in September 2018.

PM Motley has raised her own international profile significantly since becoming leader of her country. AOC featured yesterday her role in activating a deliberate, fast-track move towards 100% renewable fuels by 2030. Barbados is joined by Jamaica in the lead and also Dominica in a major drive towards sustainability, now fueled with the activism, money and connections of Richard Branson, who has launched a program throughout the Caribbean post Hurricane Maria.

Now Barbados Prime Minister wants to open a museum celebrating Rihanna and her Work, Work, Work, Work, Work.

Mottley revealed in London that conversations are already underway between Rihanna’s manager brother and the Barbados government on honoring the Caribbean island’s most famous daughter born Robyn Rihanna Fenty , according to The Voice.

Rihanna Covers Interview Magazine Summer 2019, Talks Love With Hassan Jameel

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Rihanna Covers Interview Magazine Summer 2019, Talks Love With Hassan Jameel

The Rihanna show continues to roll through pop culture, as the Barbados-born mogul drops into the pages of Interview Magazine’s Summer 2019 issue. The cover star is styled by Mel Ottenberg in images by Pierre Ange Carlotti./ Hair by Yusef; makeup by Stephane Marais

Rihanna Talks Being First Black Woman In Charge Of Major Luxury Fashion House For T Magazine June 2019

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Rihanna Talks Being First Black Woman In Charge Of Major Luxury Fashion House For T Magazine June 2019

The New York Times T Magazine June 2019 previewed Rihanna’s now open FENTY Collection, produced with her business partner LVMH. Key FENTY looks are styled here by Suzanne Koller for images by Kristin-Lee Moolman. / Hair by Yusef Williams; makeup by Lauren Parsons

In this next act of Rihanna’s journey, the pop star becomes the first black woman in charge of a major luxury fashion house in Paris.

Rihanna is interviewed by Jeremy O. Harris, an American actor and playwright, known for his plays ‘Daddy’ and ‘Slave Play’. This is no ordinary, glossy interview. Harris writes:

“For three years, I have been a diligent student of Rihanna’s 2016 song “Work.” The first lesson it taught me was in the fine art of ubiquity: The omnipresent earworm hovered over casual intimacies, significant encounters, mundane journeys and made sense of itself wherever, in whatever crevices it chose. Then “Work” found its way into my own work. In my script for “Slave Play,” which debuted at New York Theater Workshop in 2018, the protagonist Kaneisha suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and Rihanna’s “Work” plays in her head on repeat, taking on a frighteningly oppressive quality and revealing the historic bedrock I was attempting to excavate: namely, that black people, specifically women, must live with the knowledge that their emotional and physical labor is the backbone of every relationship that they endeavor to have with their partners, with America. The song, which weaves through the dialogue, brought more attention to the play than any other device could have. “

Rihanna Fenty Blitz Rolls On With Scorching Savage x Fenty June 2019 Lingerie Drop

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Rihanna Fenty Blitz Rolls On With Scorching Savage x Fenty June 2019 Lingerie Drop

Rihanna launches her own 2019 summer celebration with a Savage x Fenty lingerie drop saturated in neon colors and bright embellishments. Dennis Leupold captures the super-status pop star, beauty mogul and first black woman to head a luxury brand Fenty Collection (in partnershp with LVMH) in yet another torrid blitz for her sexy, inclusive lingerie brand . / Hair by Yusef; makeup by Priscilla Ono

Rihanna and LVMH Team UP With Potential To Create Dynamic, People-Centric, Global Luxury Brand

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USA-France ambassador Jane D. Hartley, Rihanna, Bernard Arnault, and his wife Hélène Mercier at Christian Dior SS 2016 fashion show.

Rihanna and LVMH Team UP With Potential To Create Dynamic, People-Centric, Global Luxury Brand

Vanessa Friedman asks for The New York Times: “Is Rihanna the Coco Chanel of the 21st century?” Can the multi-hyphenate talent, without an ounce of fashion training, launch a new powerhouse luxury brand?

Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, thinks so and is in serious talks with Rihanna about launching a new global Fenty brand. Friedman writes that execs at Fenty Beauty and LVMH corporate were astonished over the runaway success of Fenty Beauty, launched in a diverse array of skin tones and with a fan base of 6.3 million Instagram followers. Fenty Beauty was named one of TIME magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of 2017.

Robyn Rihanna Fenty IS a real, live heritage brand with a global reach. No ‘authentic’ story must be created around her image. Rihanna IS the story and she has created it — not with mood boards on Madison Avenues — but with her entire life.

Rihanna comes to the world of luxury brands having made them her canvas for a decade. Luxury fashion has brought her far beyond the limits of the music world. Styled by Mel Ottenberg since 2011, Rihanna has aligned herself with emerging designers and luxury brands like Lanvin and Givenchy. Rather than working with a luxury house exclusively, she used these same brands to suit her purposes.

In 2014, she was named fashion icon of the year at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards, where she appeared in a sheer crystal-spangled Adam Selman dress and matching cap, a white fur wrap strategically draped around her body, setting off a so-called naked trend in red carpet dressing. The next year, at the Met Gala, she wore a giant yellow cape from the Chinese designer Guo Pei, and enshrined her skill at making an entrance.

Not mentioned in Friedman’s piece, but a key component in the forthcoming Rihanna/LVMH alliance is the social conscience of the new luxury brand. Here there is an opportunity to set a very high bar, and all my instincts say that Rihanna and Arnault understand well global politics and human suffering.

RIHANNA AT THE COSTUME INSTITUTE GALA 2018. Image DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

With governments in chaos worldwide, but Rihanna anchored deeply in the lives of everyday people, I fully expect a new paradigm to emerge with a Rihanna-led Fenty house that is an activist house, too. Rihanna is deeply embedded in the obligations that women leaders have assumed in creating real change in the world.

If LVMH is equally courageous and up to the task, we might see a new luxury brand DNA that moves beyond the rarified and exclusive vision of Coco Chanel to one that touches people in big and small ways worldwide. If anyone can jumpstart this new 21st century, luxury brand vision, it’s the combined prowess of Rihanna and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault.

Rihanna Plays Naughty in SAVAGE X Holiday 2018 Collection By Charlotte Rutherford

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Rihanna has launched her holiday SAVAGE X Holiday 2018 lingerie collection in a series of scalding images by Charlotte Rutherford. There’s a grand tradition of church hats in the African American and Caribbean communities and Rihanna wears a perspex bubble chair with a wide-brim had made of electric blue tulle.

Her holiday collection will offer denim reworked into lingerie and sleepwear, including printed denim chiffon in a range of sizes from 32A to 40DDD in bras and XS to 3X in underwear and sleepwear. 

'We getting NAUGHTY-not-NICE this season,' the pop star/fashion designer captioned the sultry images on Instagram, where she poses in scarlet briefs that read naughty on the waistband.

In a marketing move that’s a true volley across the net to Victoria’s Secret, Rihanna is promoting her 12 Days of Savage, with a special collection selling at a deep discount with a different style/item every day.

Rihanna’s SAVAGE X brand is a blip on the screen, compared to the embattled Victoria’s Secret brand. But her marketing prowess gives key pointers in how to play David and Goliath hardball with the retail giant.

Rihanna Becomes Key Ambassador For Barbados, Eager To Work With PM Mottley To Reimagine Barbados

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Rihanna and Prince Harry in Barbados on World AIDS Day 2016

Rihanna Becomes Key Ambassador For Barbados, Eager To Work With PM Mottley To Reimagine Barbados

Pop star extraordinaire, collaborator and founder of Fenty brand cosmetics and lingerie, Rihanna has already raised island home Barbados’ international profile and has acted as a cultural ambassador for Barbados.

Now RiRi has a new title and it’s a doozy: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. “Rihanna has a deep love for this country and this is reflected in her philanthropy, especially in areas of health and education,” Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said in the announcement. “She also shows her patriotism in the way she gives back to this country and continues to treasure the island as her home.”

Her “multidimensional achievements and global influence” will lend to her new responsibilities, which include promoting education, tourism and investment, the announcement said.

“She has also demonstrated, beyond her success as a pop icon, significant creative acumen and shrewdness in business. It is therefore fitting that we engage and empower her to play a more definitive role as we work to transform Barbados.,” Mottley said in the Thursday announcement.

Rihanna Is Floral Goddess In 'Rihanna Rules' By Nick Knight For Vogue UK September 2018

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Rihanna Is Floral Goddess In 'Rihanna Rules' By Nick Knight For Vogue UK September 2018

Rihanna covers the September 2018 issue of British Vogue as the first black woman to front the mega September issue in 102 years. The superstar is styled by Edward Enninful for 'Rihanna Rules', lensed by Nick Knight./ Makeup by Isaaya Ffrench; hair by Yusef Williams

Japanese Flower Artist Makoto Azuma Makes Rihanna's Headdreses For British Vogue September 2018

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Japanese Flower Artist Makoto Azuma Makes Rihanna's Headdreses For British Vogue September 2018

While social media obsesses over Rihanna's pencil-thin eyebrows, AOC is enchanted with Makoto Azuma's floral headpieces worn in her September 2018 British Vogue cover story. 

The Japanese flower artist arrived in London with just a pair of scissors in his kit. The lush, often rare botanicals that would become part of RiRi's headpieces were ordered in advance from London's New Covent Garden Market. 

“We became one,” Azuma says, of teaching the hair stylists teams of Isamaya Ffrenchand Yusef Williams how to attach the flowers safely onto Rihanna’s head. Once the skinny brows and vinyl lips were complete, "Azuma swooped in to make the final arrangements to her facial bouquets," writes British Vogue.

Rihanna Is First Black Woman To Cover British Vogue September Issue

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Rihanna Is First Black Woman To Cover British Vogue September Issue

Rihanna covers the September 2018 issue of British Vogue, captured by fashion photographer Nick Knight. Vogue UK editor-in-chief Edward Enninful chooses a Prada dress and gloves and Savage X Fency lace bodysuit. Rihanna is the first black women to cover the blockbuster September issue of British Vogue in its 102-year history. / Makeup by Ismaya Ffrench; hair by Yusef Williams

Speaking about the new issue, Enninful writes (paragraphs out of orde3r):

“I always knew it had to be Rihanna,” editor-in-chief Edward Enninful wrote in his monthly editor’s letter. “A fearless music-industry icon and businesswoman, when it comes to that potent mix of fashion and celebrity, nobody does it quite like her. No matter how haute the styling goes, or experimental the mood, you never lose her in the imagery.”

Rihanna Releases Fenty Beauty 'Moroccan Spice' Makeup Collection

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Superstar Rihanna releases her Fenty Beauty 'Moroccan Spice' makeup palette with its collection of 16 shades of eyeshadow. Priscella Ono did the makeup on the new campaign. Fenty model Slick Woods announced a few days ago that she is seven months pregnant. 

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

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Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

When 10 current and three former heads of state and more than 100 ministers gathered at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference in Dakar, Senegal, the conference marked the first time an education financing conference has been hosted by a developing country. 

President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal and President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic welcomed the more than 1200 participants including leaders from UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, civil society, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. Rihanna, GPE’s Global Ambassador supported by Global Citizen, also participated.

Thankfully, Senegal's President Sall didn't bow to the generally unreported but very real protests in Senegal, demanding that Rihanna be banned from the event because of her involvement with the 'Illuminati'. 

Snopes writes that activist celebrities like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry are common targets of Trump's friends -- the conspiracy theorists -- who argue that these pop culture leaders are either Satanists or part of the Illuminati. This top conspiracy theory about the Illuminati posits that ultra-wealthy celebrities, bankers, billionaires and politicians are all globalists who secretly rule the world, putting their party above countries or religion. 

Hillary Clinton is considered to be among the most dangerous of the Illuminati, as Alexandra Petri wrote for The Washington Post in October 2016, three weeks before the election in: "The hideous, diabolical truth about Hillary Clinton".  

The Illuminati is believed to include many Freemasons. Although the two groups are believed to share many members and common values, they are historically separate.

Juergen Teller Eyes Guest Editor Rihanna For Vogue Paris December/January 2017.18

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Juergen Teller Eyes Guest Editor Rihanna For Vogue Paris December/January 2017.18

Rihanna makes another appearance in Vogue Paris December/January 2017.18, styled by Anastasia Barbieri & Bernhard Willhelm with images by Juergen Teller./ Hair by Yusef Williams; makeup by Yadim

Rihanna Sizzles For 'In Bed With Rihanna' By Inez & Vinoodh For Vogue Paris December/January 2017.18

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Superstar Rihanna serves as guest editor and super model for the December/January 2017.18 issue of Vogue Paris, lensed here by Inez & Vinoodh. Rihanna's own stylist Mel Ottenberg chooses sensual fashion looks from Dior, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Adam Selman and more for 'In Bed With Rihanna'./ Hair by Yusef Williams; makeup by Stephane Marais

Eye: Rihanna Channels Queen Nefertiti As Cultural Appropriation Cries Mount Against Vogue Arabia

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Eye: Rihanna Channels Queen Nefertiti As Cultural Appropriation Cries Mount Against Vogue Arabia

Mega star Rihanna covers the November 2017 issue of Vogue Arabia, channeling Queen Nefertiti. Riri loves the ancient Egyptian queen with such passion that she even has a Queen Neferti tattoo on her torso. Vogue Arabia writes:

Ruling over Ancient Egypt next to Pharaoh Akhenaten almost 3 500 years ago, Nefertitiis still one of the most beloved icons of the Middle East. Known for her unmatched beauty, the queen had a very active role in the country’s political sphere, giving mankind an early lesson in women empowerment. Although her death is still shrouded in mystery, Nefertiti’s myth took on a new dimension at the beginning of the 20th century, when German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt and his team discovered a painted limestone bust of the royal in Amarna. It was found in the ruins of the workshop of court sculptor Thutmose, and was described by Borchardt as “the most alive Egyptian artwork.”

The expected claims of cultural appropriation from the Twitter-universe are proliferating social media. Some loud voices in social media demand that only a model of Egyptian or Arab descent is allowed to channel Queen Nefertiti. The cultural appropriation police are further pounding the drums, demanding that black and African models not be used in an interchangeable manner. A black model -- or presumably an African American model of Kenyan descent cannot channel a Kenyan woman because she is technically American. You get my drift. The rules about who can model what and where are increasingly governed by a very, very tight noose of allowable creativity by the cultural appropriation police. It will be interesting to see how all this ends up in our melting pot world. It seems that the cultural appropriation police do not permit intermixing of racial identities and heritages, or being inspired by cultural influences. They are total purists about intermarriage, color mixing, and any other attempts to water down purity. Sounds pretty white nationalist to me.