Awards and party seasons are at full pelt, and Rihanna shows us year-on-year that she knows exactly how to steal any celebratory show. She kicked off the week in London at the Fashion Awards, the last to arrive to the Royal Albert Hall’s red carpet, wearing a corseted, turquoise fuzz-enrobing Christian Lacroix autumn/winter 2002 minidress and a massive, shaggy hat to match. She was there to champion A$AP Rocky, who wore oversized Bottega Veneta to collect his Cultural Innovator award, both joining forces to be the night’s biggest sartorial talking point and focal image of everyone’s best dressed galleries. The night ended at 4AM at London’s Chiltern Firehouse.
Last night (December 4), Rihanna kept the victory lap going, heading out again with Rocky to collect another award. This time, they were attending the 38th annual Footwear News Achievement Awards in New York—think of them like the Oscars, but for shoes—where the rapper was being honored alongside Puma for Collaboration of the Year. Rih has been and done it here, of course. She won Shoe of the Year with Puma in 2016—but you can always count on Rih supporting Rocky, and a show-stopper fit to match. Setting aside the week’s earlier gargantuan headpiece, there was still a neck-up statement to be made with some intriguingly chopped bangs.
Her hair was up in an ornate, spiky up-do, recalling the Black beauty details of the iconic 90s film B.A.P.S. starring Halle Berry and the late Natalie Deselle-Reid. But with an arpeggiated, choppy set of bangs, there’s also a hint of 90s cyberpunk to the style. The fringe hits at varying, short and sharp lengths, with considered, defined lines like origami.
Rihanna also wore some of her favorite labels: a custom white Azzedine Alaïa dress with a stiff collar and plunging neckline, as well as custom Manolo Blahnik sandals that laced up her legs. A moment for the jewelry too: she wore a stacked Mikimoto x Chrome Hearts pearl and diamond choker. Winter whites and ice done right by Rihanna.
The singer has cycled through plenty of fringe styles and trends over the years: from the “Umbrella” era side-sweep to the full and blunt bangs that made as big and lasting of a statement as ANTI did. This new, deliberately botched job is a Bad Gal’s naturally boundary-pushing (and kitchen scissor-wielding) hair evolution. So take note for the rest of this year’s party season, and sharpen those scissors first.
