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At just 31, Rihanna has officially been named the world’s richest female musician by Forbes.

A new Forbes report published on Tuesday estimated the singer’s massive assets to be worth about $600 million, thereby placing her ahead of fellow music superstars as Madonna ($570 million), Celine Dion ($450 million) and Beyoncé ($400 million).

This is coming on the heels of the news that her early mentor Jay-Z has just become the first rap billionaire.

A breakdown indicated that Rihanna’s earnings tripled as a result of her partnership with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant run by billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Rihanna and LVMH co-own the makeup brand Fenty Beauty which was launched in September 2017.

Not only did the business quickly become a viral success, it also racked up a reported $100 million in sales in its first few weeks, propelled by Rihanna’s fame and 71 million Instagram followers.

Forbes said Fenty Beauty generated an estimated $570 million in revenue last year, after only 15 months in business.

The entire operation is worth, conservatively, more than $3 billion.

Forbes estimates that LVMH owns an estimated 50% of it, while Rihanna has about 15%, a figure a spokesperson for the artist disputed but would not clarify further.

The Barbados native, who overcame hardships including an abusive addict father and a well-publicised assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009, also co-owns the Savage X Fenty lingerie line with Los Angeles-based online fashion firm TechStyle Fashion Group.

She has millions in earnings from her career touring and releases as a singer, which make up the rest of her fortune.

Her empire continues to grow. In May, LVMH and Rihanna announced Fenty, a new clothing house that will make high-end clothes, shoes, accessories, and jewelry.

Credit: Premium Times

Rihanna’s luxury clothing line Fenty is the first luxury line helmed by a woman of color at fashion conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). Accordingly, Rihanna took that groundbreaking spirit and infused it into every detail of Fenty’s first collection.

In conversation with Vogue UK, Rihanna spoke about the campaign’s imagery,which draws inspiration from the 1960s Black Is Beautiful movement. In the images, Rihanna takes us to history class, as she juxtaposed her models directly against vintage photographs by Kwame Brathwaite. In the 1950s and 60s, Kwame was a photographer who documented the cultural richness of Harlem’s African-American community. He also organized pageants to celebrate Black beauty; the pageants were so successful that they ran for five years and inspired the term Black is Beautiful.

“When I was coming up with the concept for this release, we were just digging and digging and we came up with these images,” Rihanna told Vogue UK. “They made me feel they were relevant to what we are doing right now,” adding that she received permission for Kwame (who is now 81) to use the images. “It was a really strange and powerful parallel.”

That parallel plays out in the stark campaign images. Using Kwame’s photos of the Grandassa models — a group of pageant models and activists who promoted the Black is Beautiful idea — Rihanna tied together historical depictions of Black women and the Fenty aesthetic. In one image, Nomsa Brathwaite (Kwame’s sister-in-law) wears a headwrap and a long chandelier earring; next to her, Rihanna’s models play together in white power suits, wearing rhyming earrings.

Ultimately, the campaign serves as a necessary reminder that, at one time, Black beauty was not widely promoted or accepted as activists had to fight for visibility and acceptance of African-American features and styling. Even today, beauty diversity is still nowhere close to where it needs to be — though Rihanna, through her makeup and clothing, has been instrumental in encouraging accessibility in the fashion industry.

Still, Rihanna is careful to explain that while her clothes embrace the legacy of black creatives, they aren’t necessarily meant to be political themselves. “Well, I don’t know if it’s political so much as embracing the fact that people should be more aware,” she said. “But definitely, we want people to see the parallels between what was then and what this is now, in a modern way.” And Fenty’s clothes are definitely modern, with their sharp tailoring and monochromatic colors.

pCourtesy of Fentyp
Courtesy of Fenty
pCourtesy of Fentyp
Courtesy of Fenty
pCourtesy of Fentyp
Courtesy of Fenty
pCourtesy of Fentyp


Credit: Teen Vogue

On the 10th of May, singer-turned-entrepreneur, Rihanna made history, becoming the first woman to launch an original brand at the LVMH luxury goods collective, which is home to brands such as Givenchy, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and now Fenty Maison.  

While the brand debuted in Paris on Friday, the online global launch is still to come. To prepare us for the latest episode of Rihanna’s world domination, Fenty has been releasing a steady flow of sartorial images, shot by the talented Nigerian photographer, Ruth Ossai

Speaking with The New York Times, who first aired the news of Rihanna’s latest business exploit, the LVMH chairman, Bernard Arnault said “to support Rihanna to start up the Fenty Maison, we have built a talented and multicultural team…” of which Ruth Ossai seems to be a member.

Ruth Ossai has an incredibly unique photography style, comprising of animated backdrops and textured mats for her distinctive sets, which have now appeared on Fenty’s Instagram story, as they tease their upcoming campaign. 

(Photo: Fenty/Instagram)

Last week, Fenty aired behind the scenes footage of another campaign. Using a variety of different scenes for the set design, some of the landscapes behind the Fenty-clad models looked surprisingly familiar, with Lagos and potentially other parts of Nigeria being used for the backdrops.

Watch the Fenty teaser video below:

Credit: konbini.com

LVMH and Rihanna’s fashion venture is finally materializing. Riri is set to present her first collection for the new label, which will be branded Fenty, later this month in Paris.

The label is called Fenty, after the singer’s full name – Robyn Rihanna Fenty, and will launch in Spring 2019.

Rihanna will become the first woman to create an original brand at LVMH, the first woman of color at the top of an LVMH Maison, and her line will be the first new house created by the group since Christian Lacroix in 1987. It joins such storied heritage brands as Dior, Givenchy, Celine and Fendi and positions Rihanna as a breakthrough designer on a number of levels.

The singer, who has 70 million followers on Instagram, is widely known for her bold fashion choices.

Fenty, which will produce clothing, shoes, and accessories, is the first new label under the LVMH brand since 1987. The label will join around 70 brands already in the LVMH group, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Givenchy.

In a statement, Rihanna said that she had been given a “unique opportunity to develop a fashion house in the luxury sector, with no artistic limits.”

She added: “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.”

The chairman and CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, said Rihanna would be supported with a team and resources.

“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,” HE SAID.

The singer’s cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, reached nearly 500 million euros (£431 million) in sales by the end of 2018. The brand has been widely praised for its inclusivity.

Rihanna also launched her own Savage X Fenty lingerie line in 2018.

Credit: Fab Woman