Rihanna’s Fenty Fashion Line Has Shut Down
In January 2019, it was announced that Rihanna was planning to expand her Fenty empire with a luxury fashion label under the French fashion mega-group, LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton). LVMH works with all the big names like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Bulgari. Then in May 2019, we got a look at Fenty’s collection and it was perfect for those who love to overpay for ugly clothes. Now WWD says Rihanna’s Fenty ready-to-wear fashion house is taking a break. I guess enough people weren’t out there buying denim crotch-hugging shorts/skirt things. Who’d have thought?!
In a statement to WWD, LVMH and Fenty announced that they have mutually agreed to press the pause button on future collections:
“Rihanna and LVMH have jointly made the decision to put on hold the RTW activity, based in Europe, pending better conditions.”
The last time Fenty posted on Instagram was January 1 and they released their last collection in November 2020, which included footwear Rihanna collaborated on with one of her favorite shoe designers, Amina Muaddi. Sources say a skeleton staff will remain at Fenty’s Paris headquarters and will help with wrapping things up. E-commerce of the fashion house will stop in the next few weeks so buy out all the denim culottes you can, I guess?
Apparently, Fenty just could not handle the coronavirus shift in the world which kept Rihanna grounded in Los Angeles and kept her away from the development team in Paris. Meanwhile, she was able to keep working directly on Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin which are both based in California. LVMH and Rihanna reportedly decided to “make priorities” as Rihanna’s US-based products are killing it and Fenty Skin’s launch was called a “home run.”
Just because Fenty’s fashion house has collapsed, doesn’t mean that LVMH is giving up on RiRi’s brand. WWD learned that private equity giant, L Catterton, led a $115 million fundraising round to support the coming expansion of Savage x Fenty into retail. LVMH has a stake in the firm.
“Following the completion of a fundraising round where L Catterton has taken a stake into Savage X Fenty, LVMH and Rihanna reaffirm their ambition to concentrate on the growth and the long-term development of Fenty ecosystem focusing on cosmetics, skincare and lingerie,” LVMH and Rihanna added in a statement to WWD.
I guess Rihanna will have more time to work on her 9th studio album now. LOL, just kidding. I’m sure she’ll find something else to do. We know she’s in no rush to get that out. She’d rather do trash duty at the White House than record that thing.
Pic: Instagram