Sock it to Them

Stance is a sock company with friends in high places –rapper, entrepreneur and ‘Mr Beyonce’, Jay Z, invested in the company and sang about them in his 2013 track, ‘F.U.T.W’. Rihanna’s collaboration as Creative Director with Stance was therefore suitably super-fashionable and super-fabulous. The partnership began in 2015 and lasted a cool three years. During this time, the most fun foot-coverings imaginable were created. She started out with a ‘Murder Ri Wrote’ collection and continued aiming high with a ‘Bitch What’ trompe l’oeil toe sock, complete with red toe-nail varnish and designs plastered with money and gothic lettering. The two ‘box-sets’ of socks produced in 2017 were a classic example of Ri’s imaginative creativity. The first was adorned with BadGal’s CFDA ‘naked’ Adam Selman dress and the yellow Guo Pei Met Gala gowns woven into the fabric. The other featured the denim hotpants from her ‘Pour it Up’ video, and the dancehall red, gold, black and green net dress she wore for the ‘Work’ track promo. The launch press release explained the rationale: ‘When you’re the music industry’s reigning Original Bad Gal, everybody wants a piece.’ And Ri knows how to give it in the best possible taste.

Rihanna disrupted the status quo of maternity wear when she was expecting her first child and in doing so, forever changed the way pregnancy wardrobes can look. She wore silver mesh tops and matching miniskirts by Miu Miu. She wore latex cropped vests and chainmail headdresses by Gucci She wore nude leather dresses by Off White, all the time with her baby-bump as prominent as possible: no hiding, no dieting, no apologies. Shot by Annie Leibowitz for the cover of May 2022 Vogue magazine, she looked majestic, wearing a red lace Alaïa bodysuit, gloves, and shoes, with dazzling Chopard earrings. She didn’t change her sartorial stride while she was expecting and said in the accompanying interview: ‘As much as it’s happening, it’s also not happening. Sometimes I’ll walk past my reflection and be like, Oh shit.... It’s too much fun to get dressed up. I’m not going to let that part disappear because my body is changing.’

Rihanna’s signature mission in fashion has been to promote inclusivity and diversity. While pregnant, she became a walking billboard for her purpose and personified everything