Rihanna is breaking history this week with the launch of her partnership with Fenty Maison and LVMH. On Friday, May 10th 2019, Chairman and CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, made the announcement that this Spring they will be launching a new Maison and Robyn Rihanna Fenty would be taking helm as creative director. The launch will not only see Rihanna be the first new house created by LVMH since Christian Lacroix in 1987, it’s also the first time that a woman has created an original brand with the group and the first time a woman of color has been at the top of the LVMH Maison. A Maison is the way in which LVMH organize their brands, of which they have 70 and 6 different sectors.
Rihanna has already proven her success working with LVMH. She began her partnership with the luxury market leaders two years ago back in 2017, in their cosmetics and beauty sector with the launch of her Fenty Beauty Brand. The collection includes 40 shades of foundation in order to make the line an all inclusive one. It worked, Fenty Beauty saw a turnover of $562 Million USD in their first full year.
Fenty Maison will be based in France. Speaking about the new deal on her Instagram Rihanna said, “Big day for the culture. This is proof that nothing is impossible.”
This deal really is a huge feat for Rihanna and in fact a change to the fashion industry. LVMH and indeed many luxury design houses have been slow to diversify the creatives at the helm of brands. In 2018, when Virgil Abloh took over as menswear artistic director of LVMH’s Louis Vuitton he broke history by being the only black designer to be at the helm of a heritage fashion house and to this day still remains the only one.
This news is certainly a step in the right direction to changing this. With Rihanna’s massive social media following and her authenticity, this will hopefully help make the fashion industry more open to bringing in some diversity to their houses. Particularly as this new deal with Rihanna and LVMH is a true partnership. Not just being the face of a brand makes Rihanna’s partnership extremely different to any previous celebrity deals.
Fans will be able to see the first collection late Spring debuting in Paris.
Visit : www.fenty.com for more information