Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty will be available in China starting in April. The brand is already a billion-dollar business for her – and now she’s expanding its reach to a billion-citizen nation, just a few weeks after launching to another billion population, India.
To promote the Chinese release, Rihanna covers the new issue of Vogue China.
It’s multiple covers, actually, and RiRi says it’s one of her favourites, wearing clothes from well-known fashion houses, like Louis Vuitton by Pharrell, and emerging Chinese designers. The magazine says it was a joint effort – Rihanna worked with editor-in-chief Margaret Zhang and stylist Alvin Yu and a diverse creative collective…
But also, sorry sorry, I don’t mean to make it about myself, but I just realised this because I don’t often see her name in print in Chinese, but this is how “Rihanna” is said in my mother tongue: “LUI OH NA” – so look! Her name is my last name!
This is the character, “LUI”, it means thunder.
Badgal THUNDER!
Rihanna is photographed here by Hailun Ma, one of China's top visual artists of the post-90 generation. I first heard about Hailun in American Vogue back in 2022 - she did an amazing photo essay that was a reflection of China’s ethnic diversity. If you have the time, you should check out that interview and those pictures.
On working with Hailun, Rihanna told Vogue that:
"I felt like I could just be a canvas... because I trusted her. I felt like she knew exactly what she was doing. She knew exactly the result she wanted, and she was able to get me there."
You can see it in the images.
