What went down at Rihanna’s Paris Fashion Week show

Following on from Kanye’s Yeezy Season 4 show at NYFW, tonight Rihanna became SS17’s second musical artist turned designer to hit up fashion month. This evening, the singer staged her Fenty x Puma show at Paris Fashion Week, marking her second collection created in collaboration with the German sportswear giant – here’s what went down. 

SHE LEAKED A PREVIEW ON SOCIAL MEDIA

With 44.4 million followers on Instagram and 66.1 million on Twitter, it was only natural that Riri would wield her social media power to drum up some excitement for the show. An hour before, she posted this clip giving us a sneak peek of what was to come – a shot of pastel-coloured fabrics hinted at a more typically feminine collection than her previous outing, which was quite dark and vampy.

THE SHOW WAS STREAMED ON TIDAL

Like two of Kanye’s Yeezy shows before it, Fenty x Puma was available to watch via Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal – but not just for those who’ve forked out for a $9.99 monthly subscription fee, for everyone. And, as was clear from the amount of people instagramming and tweet screenshots from the show, lots tuned in.

THE ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE GYM’ COLLECTION 

The whole collection felt very Rihanna. Speaking backstage she described the inspiration as, “If Marie Antoinette was going to the gym and needed something to wear” – and it was clear what she was trying to do. She seemed to reference rococo and contemporary streetwear in equal measure: pastel-hued gowns, reworked camisoles and deconstructed bustiers came trimmed with lace and accessorised with long strings of crystals and pearls. These were teamed with baseball caps, bucket hats and doo-rags in coordinating shades. There was also a strong element of chinoiserie in the silk, the cherry blossom prints and the lace fans emblazoned with “PUMA”.

It’s interesting to note that Rih recently appeared as Marie Antoinette on the cover of CR Fashion Book wearing a pink corset by Dilara Findikoglu – perhaps this was a source of inspiration?

THE ANDROGYNOUS MENSWEAR

Just like last season, there was Riri pour homme – but this season, her designs were very androgyous. Rendered in the same girlish shades as the womenswear, the men’s clothes were also cut from lace and accessorised with the same overly-generous amount of jewels – there were even a couple of corsets.

THE CAST

Rihanna enlisted a killer cast to model the collection (only the best for Riri). Former Dazed cover star Yasmin Wijnaldum opened the show and was followed by Gigi and Bella Hadid’s little brother Anwar, pink-haired beauty Fernanda Ly, Gurls Talk founder Adwoa Aboah, VS Angel Taylor Hill and editorial girls Dilone, Lexi Boling and Issa Lish.

THE FINAL BOW

As is tradition, the designer came out at the end of the show to take her bow. Rihanna did so modelling the collection herself: a pink gown hewn from broderie anglaise and a pearl choker.