By Moving beyond the realm of fashion collaborations, beauty, and lingerie, Rihanna will launch her own luxury fashion house called Fenty. The brand, under Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton LVMH, the parent company of Dior, Givenchy and Fendi, will reportedly span ready-to-wear, leather goods, and accessories and could be released in tandem with her ninth album out later this year, according to multiple sources.
Fenty would be the first fashion brand that Bernard Arnault, Chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH, has launched from scratch since Christian Lacroix in 1987 and the first celebrity-owned, black-owned brand LVMH has partnered with. LVMH has reportedly already begun selecting employees from Louis Vuitton and Celine to work on the project with Rihanna nearly a year ago in Paris.
Speculation of the beauty conglomerate debuting her own luxury brand began in January when Rihanna was spotted out in New York City wearing a pair of gold shades with the word "Fenty" inscribed across the temples. It was a small tease for what's to come and reportedly just a prototype of what to expect from the line.
Rihanna's history with LVMH dates back to 2015. After she began attending shows for Christian Dior, she appeared in a Dior campaign shot by Steven Klein called "Secret Garden IV," featuring the singer wearing Dior sunglasses and wearing designs from the Espirit Dior collection.
Rihanna's design debut was in 2013 in collaboration with British brand River Island and inked a deal with Puma to be its creative director in 2014. After Off-White founder Virgil Abloh was appointed men's director of Louis Vuitton (also LVMH), Rihanna became one of the first people to wear his new creations, for his debut Vuitton runway in June 2018 show no less. Rihanna arrived at the Grand Palais in an Abloh-designed white monochromatic look, featuring a wide-leg jumpsuits, pumps, and sunglasses. She sat front row alongside other A-listers Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, and A$AP Rocky.
Last September, she also introduced her own lingerie collection called Fenty x Savage during New York Fashion, releasing sets of size-inclusive intimates adhering to her overall message of diversity and inclusivity. Fenty will reportedly have a more elevated, luxurious slant than that of Fenty x Puma and Fenty x Savage.
In September 2017, Rihanna launched her own cosmetics line called Fenty Beauty after collaborations with M.A.C. Cosmetics in the past. Fenty Beauty was launched through Kendo, a beauty incubator owned by LVMH, and the line's shade inclusivity and 40 shades (now expanded to 50) of Pro Filt'R Foundation led other beauty brands to release more inclusive foundation shades. The wild success of Fenty Beauty led to it being named one of Time magazine's best inventions of 2017 and according to Arnault, sales of Fenty Beauty reached $573 million by the end of 2018.
