Rihanna has on countless occasions schooled culture on the art of wearing fashion. Her hardest-working students will understand that it’s not so much about the look – or the expensive labels sewn inside – but the attitude and moxie with which it’s worn. Yesterday afternoon, the musician was photographed strolling through Design Miami with a bodyguard, whose apparent sole mission was to transport her cream Alaïa Teckel handbag from booth to booth, relieving her hands for more important things, like waving.
Even more casual, more cold-blooded, were the clothes Rihanna wore: a skin-tight, spring/summer 2025 MM6 Maison Margiela dress with Balenciaga pantaboots, ripped, laddered and shredded into flesh-baring bits to resemble distressed stockings. It was a look that first emerged in Demna’s autumn/winter 2024 show, during which models marched through wraparound screens playing an overwhelming montage of AI-aided visuals in tailoring cinched with tape, cocktail dresses made of straggly boas, and evening gowns collaged from bras. Rihanna draped herself in a deliberately rangy stole.
“What’s more important, perfection or imperfection?” the designer asked Sarah Mower at the time. “For me, it’s actually this coexistence of both, because that’s what makes us human now – the imperfection, the failure or the ‘miss.’ I love that idea. I think it’s beautiful.” Much to the amusement of the tabloid press, a pair of hole-ridden Balenciaga tights will set you back £1,150 – the “rip off” headlines wrote themselves – but Rihanna’s lesson comes at a significantly cheaper price: there are old, disintegrating tights languishing at the back of most people’s drawers.
