Rihanna for River Island SS14
Rihanna in London
Rihanna isn’t just a pop star, and she’s definitely come a long way from her S.O.S. days back in the early ’00s. Not only has she shed her good girl image — she’s gone bad, in case you missed it — and her devil-may-care attitude towards fashion and just about everything else has caught the attention of paparazzi and high fashion designers alike. She’s a fashion favorite, having work Tom Ford to the Met Ball, show-stopping gowns to red carpet events and even designed her own line of clothing for British High Street brand River Island. But not only does she wear great clothes (and, we might add, look great doing it) she’s inspired Peter Dundas’ new collection for Emilio Pucci, grounding the high glamour brand with a sense of street and cool that made critics fawn and songstresses everywhere wishing they had even a bit of bad gal Riri’s edge.
Rihanna’s transformation from sweet R&B chanteuse to bonafide fashion icon was as simple as a haircut. When she debuted her new blunt bob with the release of her single “Umbrella,” everyone took notice of her sleek new look. Follow that change with a harder edged album and a practical avalanche of media attention (as well as countless unforgettable red carpet looks) and she was being invited to sit first row at Givenchy, walk the runway at DSquared2 and design her own line. Designers took notice of her ability to seamlessly blend street savvy with high fashion, an ethos that was steadily gaining steam thanks to designers such as Ricardo Tischi, Hedi Slimane and Humberto Leon and Carol Lim of Kenzo. She gained more fashion cred with appearances at Chanel and as her tattoo count went up, so did her gravitas in the industry. She’s got a collaboration with River Island that’s selling well in England and online and designers are practically drooling to dress her for just about any occasion from shopping in SoHo to movie premieres. Suffice to say she’s hit the big leagues, so it was only a matter of time before her personal style inspired an entire runway show.
Emilio Pucci Spring 2014
Emilio Pucci Spring 2014
Emilio Pucci is a label known for after-dark dressing these days and boasts a heritage that’s all about sunny resorts and island getaways to Capri and St. Barths. Peter Dundas’ latest collection eschews just about everyone’s expectations for the label. Instead of a collection of slit up-to-there gowns or Ibiza-ready maxi-dresses, he showed a heavily embellished collection of street-ready staples that will have his girls looking tougher than usual. Fresh off designing outfits for Rita Ora and Beyoncé’s tours (he doesn’t declare them as muses outright, though we could practically hear the big-voiced divas belting out their hits as the models walked), models were wearing embellished logo hoodies, leather harem pants and plenty of sheer tops that Rihanna herself would be proud to wear. Track pants were paired with laced gladiators and colors clashed in a technicolor homage to the psychedelia of Pucci’s past. There were even gowns made from mesh usually reserved for basketball shorts and actual basketball shorts were shown in a liquid-silver lamé. Fans of the brand’s fun-in-the-sun past might see the collection as too far flung from sandy beaches, but we’re certain that musicians, models-off-duty and more will be spotted trotting off of yachts and walking the cobblestone streets of the Greek isles wearing Dundas’ daring take on outfitting the new jet set.
Images courtesy Style.com
