“Sexy is not a body type but a state of mind.”
Style icon, makeup entrepreneur, and the first black woman to head a luxury brand under LVMH, AND as the wealthiest female musician in the world, Rihanna is no stranger to successfully disrupting a market. Last year at her debut Savage X Fenty NYFW show, models of ALL shapes, sizes took the runway by storm and this year showed no signs of that slowing down. She even incorporated transgender models and models with disabilities within her presentation. No wings, no theatrics. Just body positivity and women owing their beauty.
Standards of beauty have tremendously changed in the last couple of years and we have Savage X Fenty to thank for that. Rihanna has officially disrupted markets causing brands with “antiquated” views of beauty, *cough* Victoria’s Secret, to scramble in regards to re-evaluating their brand.
Representation of the female body in fashion has always been marketed as the standard: Caucasian model, tall, blond, and thin. Occasionally you can find a sprinkle of women of different ethnicities but with almost the same characteristics. The problem is evident, when you have a male dominated executive board running the brand, you’re bound see skewed standards of beauty through the eyes of men. Through the power of social media as many other brands do, Fenty utilized the low cost effort of marketing, user generated content, to show followers, spectators, and competitors that these are what REAL bodies look like.
cc: @evie_spice
Is Savage X Fenty giving them a run for their money? Is it too late for VS to make a comeback? Victoria’s Secret is currently doing damage control by working to improve its quality control of bras, partnerships, playing with a new aesthetic through marketing efforts, etc. They’ve even gone as far as not airing their annual fashion show for the first time in years due to a decline in low ratings. A spokeswoman of L Brands stated “We’re re-evaluating the fashion show. We are taking time to evaluate the right marketing strategy going forward.”
Tune into the second annual Savage X Fenty fashion show, streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime on Friday September 20th. The show is packed with performances by Rihanna, Migos, A$AP Ferg, Tierra Whack and more, in addition to your favorite supermodels gracing the runway.
DeAnn Harte 