Everything you need to know.
After months of speculation, it’s official: Rihanna is launching her own fashion label with LVMH. Simply called Fenty, the collection will include ready-to-wear, shoes, and accessories, and will be based in Paris.
In a press statement, Rihanna said: “Designing a line like this with LVMH is an incredibly special moment for us. Mr. Arnault has given me a unique opportunity to develop a fashion house in the luxury sector, with no artistic limits. I couldn’t imagine a better partner both creatively and business-wise, and I’m ready for the world to see what we have built together.”
Rihanna’s Fenty brand is the first fashion label to be launched by LVMH, which owns behemoth brands like Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Dior, since the conglomerate created the Christian Lacroix label in 1987.
As the founder of Fenty, Rihanna will join the ranks of Nicolas Ghesquière, Jonathan Anderson, Hedi Slimane, Clare Waight Keller, and other LVMH-backed designers, proving that her brand of insouciant cool is just as covetable as a new Louis Vuitton bag or Slimane’s bourgeois Celine boots. (Incidentally, Givenchy also teamed up with a music powerhouse today, naming Ariana Grande its new brand ambassador.)
Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH, said in a release: “Everybody knows Rihanna as a wonderful singer, but through our partnership at Fenty Beauty, I discovered a true entrepreneur, a real CEO, and a terrific leader. She naturally finds her full place within LVMH. To support Rihanna to start up the Fenty Maison, we have built a talented and multicultural team supported by the Group resources. I am proud that LVMH is leading this venture and wish it will be a great success.”
The biggest question now is: what does Fenty look like? Rihanna’s past collaboration with Puma offers a sense of what we might expect—irreverent casualwear with haute inspirations—as does her Savage x Fenty lingerie collection—lethally sexy without being cheap. But with the resources of LVMH behind her, the options for Rihanna’s own collection are endless. What’s for certain is that when the inaugural collection is released later this autumn, we’ll all be in a full Fenty frenzy.
This story was first published by Vogue.com.