Independent on Saturday

LIFESTYLE: THE STAYING POWER OF RIHANNA

GERRY CUPIDO geraldine.cupido@inl.co.za

FROM the moment Rihanna leapt onto the entertainment scene in 2005 she has been an unstoppable force.

When the then 17-year-old young woman from Barbados released her first single, Pon de Replay, no one knew she was going to reach the incredible levels of success she has today.

While her music career has been on pause since the release of her last, Anti, in 2016, she has been making a whole lot of noise on a number of creative platforms.

Her music has earned her an impressive collection of awards including nine Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 13 American Music Awards (including the Icon Award), and seven MTV Video Music Awards.

For most artists this would be more than enough, but not for the Umbrella hit-maker.

When Robyn Rihanna Fenty (her full name) said, “Success for me isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. Everybody’s working to get to the top, but where is the top? It’s all about working harder and getting better and moving up and up,” she meant every word.

And just as we think she has reached the top, she pushes the boundaries further than we could have imagined.

During her singing career she started dabbling in other forms of entertainment and made waves in Hollywood, which landed her leading roles in movies like Ocean’s 8, in which she held her own beside mega female stars like Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett.

She also appeared in Battleship and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, as well as being the voice of Gratuity “Tip” Tucci in the successful animated movie Home.

But it’s not her successful music or movie career that helped her achieve the status of being the wealthiest female musician in the world. According to Forbes, the 34-year-old is now worth $1.7 billion (about R27bn) and that’s all thanks to her beauty empire Fenty Beauty, from which the bulk of her fortune (an estimated $1.4 bn) comes. And with Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin having launched in Africa this week, there is bound to be more big bucks coming her way.

When she launched Fenty Beauty

in 2017, the brand instantly acquired iconic status and created a storm in the beauty industry when she released a range of foundations in 50 shades.

Fenty Beauty was the first ever make-up brand to release foundation

shades for every skin tone. Time magazine named Fenty Beauty one of “The 25 Best Inventions of 2017”.

She single-handedly revolutionised the cosmetic industry, forcing even the most established brands to change

their approach to diversity. Light, dark and medium had immediately become a thing of the past.

Her strive for diversity and allinclusivity wasn’t just aimed at the beauty industry.

When she launched her lingerie label Fenty x Savage in 2018, men and women in all shapes and sizes stood up in applause as one exceptional garment after the other, from bodysuits to thongs, was showcased at New York Fashion Week. The all-inclusive lingerie is yet another one of her brands to reach iconic status, setting a precedent.

Throughout her career, all eyes have been on her sense of style and her ability to constantly change her looks – her effortless ability to head into a grocery store in luxury designs and heels and the next day turn up to an event wearing baggy pants and her oh so popular basketball cap.

When it comes to putting a look together the billionaire businesswoman says, “It’s become more about taking a risk ... I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that’s a little off.”

No matter what Rihanna wears, it becomes trendy as soon as she wears it.

Nico Amarca of Highsnobiety magazine once wrote “in the course of her career, [Rihanna] has undergone one of the most significant aesthetic metamorphoses the world has ever seen”.

Her impeccable sense of style and her influence on fashion led to her receiving the 2014 Fashion Icon Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Her natural beauty, ever-changing style and all round success have landed her on the cover of Vogue 30 times – making her first appearance on the cover of Vogue Italia in September 2009 and her most recent cover on the May 2022 issue of US Vogue. Here, Rihanna, who recently gave birth to her first child, showed off her then baby bump in a maternity style that, like all she does, has become legendary.

During her pregnancy, she remained true to herself as she continued to push the boundaries of fashion. From her risqué sheer outfit at the Dior show at Paris Fashion Week to wearing bikini bra tips with microminis, Rihanna forever changed the way people looked at maternity wear.

On the topic of her maternity style, she told Bustle, “It’s been me personally saying, ‘I’m not going to buy maternity clothes. I’m not gonna buy maternity pants, jeans, dresses, or [do] whatever society told me to do before’. I challenged myself to push it further and really just have fun.”

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2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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