The Style Evolution of Rihanna:

Rihanna:

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, better known as the Barbadian RnB recording artist ‘Rihanna’ was born on the 20^th February 1988 in Saint Michael, Barbados. Rihanna decided to move to the United States when she was just sixteen years of age in order for her to pursue a recording career. Shortly after her move to the US she auditioned with Jay-Z’s record label ‘Def Jams Recordings’ which she passed and signed a contract with.

Rihanna is now a celebrity who sets the trend and leads the fashion scene via the many styles she has had over her years an RnB artist. Throughout her career Rihanna has gone through three major style transformations so far: the sun kissed island beauty, the dark rock n roll chick and the most recent red-haired bombshell.

Sun Kissed Island Beauty look.

Dark Rock and Roll Chick

Red-Haired Bombshell.



Rihanna’s first single was named ‘Pon de replay’ which came from her first album ‘Music of the Sun’ where she showed off her island moves and similar clothing to this genre. Her clothing included bright, colourful tops and crop tops, trainers, boyfriend jeans which all resembled that of a bubbly, lively teenage girl. Her iconography during this time was her natural beauty and showing off her Barbadian background to her audiences.



At 0:31 in 'Umbrella'



Upon the release of her most famous and most popular single ‘Umbrella’ which came from her next album ‘Good Girl Gone bad’ Rihanna’s iconography completely transformed and shocked audiences across the globe as she unleashed herself as a new artist with a more risk taking style. She started to wear edgier, rock chick clothing which consisted of outfits such as leather, studs and even a risky new black cropped haircut. The once bubbly island girl had suddenly grown up and become a girl who now appeared to have way more style and was someone who was perhaps seen as a girl who was rebellious and mischievous. Rihanna explained to her audiences that her decision to change her style was merely because she felt that the genre characteristic of her album’s continued to change so it was only right that she would change her iconography alongside her music album. For me, the video that displays Rihanna’s more edgy, rebellious look is in her hit single ‘Umbrella’ where she opts to wear leather, biker jackets and dark clothing in order to portray herself in a new light.

While Rihanna’s style was originally darkened before, it began to morph into that of a trendy artist as began to wear eccentric outfits such as her Michael Jackson denim jacket which she matched with a with a white bandage leotard during one of her performances. She also decided to change the colour and style of her hair again by dying it blonde and cutting the sides of it in order to compliment her fashion edginess.

With the release of her newest album ‘Loud’ Rihanna has also appeared with a brand new look which has brought on the bright red hair and her more feminine style. With the release of her new album she has began to perform more power ballads which audiences had never seen on her previous albums, these being: ‘Californian Dream Bed’ and ‘Man Down.’  Recently she has started to wear clothing such as floral prints, colourful accessories that are exactly what is expected during this summer and winter seasons. She has also started to wear longer, prettier dresses, some of which have been coloured deep red to match her hair colour.

 

It has become noticeable that she has slowly started to transform her fashion image back to the bodycon look from when she first appeared onto the music scene a few years back.

Her new and current image is outgoing and eccentric yet still resembles that of a cute, good girl. Rihanna has taken sections from her previous styles and incorporated each of these into her new transformation enabling her to look more expressive and frivolous. Her newest look seems to be the best yet and reflects what a happy, successful artist Rihanna is.

In many of Rihanna's music video she showcases herself as being confident, sassy, cheeky and often a bit promiscuous. Rihanna isn’t afraid to show off who she is an artist and is never scared to act edgier and different. She likes to keep her fans talking about her. For instance, in Rihanna’s video “Don’t stop the music,” she comes across extremely confident and depicts herself as having a lot of fun as she dances along to her song with her friends in a club scene which is depicted here.

Additionally, she portrays herself as also being a bit flirty and promiscuous when she is seen lying down on top of a table whilst flaunting her body to the camera attempting to engage her audience.

She then goes on to sit upright still facing the camera whilst singing straight into it whilst reaching out her arms towards the camera, using a hand gesture which suggests that she is asking people to come towards her.

Evidently, Rihanna gives off a seductive look in these scenes emphasising her sexuality.  Her image is being used to address her target audience and to draw them in. Again, her seductive look also appeals to her audience (Male Gaze.)

 In another of Rihanna’s videos “Rude Boy,” critics claimed that this video projects a dominant female image that is exactly what is needed for this video. Clearly, Rihanna presents herself confidently in this video as she is seen dancing alone and is depicted sitting on top of both a stuff lion and zebra, perhaps illustrating her authority which is shown here.

Furthermore, lyrically the song is quite promiscuous and a bit shocking as she sings, “come here rude boy, boy, can you get it up, come here rude boy, boy, is you big enough…” which she matches with promiscuous scenes in her video. For example, in one shot she is seen bending over in a pair of hot pants against her male friend/potential boyfriend and in another shot she is depicted opening up the males trousers looking down as she sings “is you big enough,’ clearly leaving little to the imagination about what she is looking down at.

Overall, Rihanna is a successful artist who continues to suprise her fans via the many different ways that she portrays herself throughout her music videos. Whilst, some of her videos may portray her as confident and sassy, and others a little promiscuous we still continue to support and love her and look forward to her next video releases.