In 2019, Rihanna became the first woman of color to head a luxury fashion house for the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) brand when she launched her Fenty fashion line. But now she’s shutting down the line temporarily.
WWD reports that Rihanna and LVMH are pressing pause on the brand. Its last collection dropped in November, but there haven’t been any Instagram posts on its pages since January 1. Its e-commerce site is expected to shut down in the next few weeks.
In a statement to WWD, LVMH said, “Rihanna and LVMH have jointly made the decision to put on hold the…activity, based in Europe, pending better conditions.” A skeleton staff in Paris will wind down operations, sources tell WWD.
Rihanna is reportedly “sad” about this turn of events, but as WWD notes, the “challenges of creating eight ready-to-wear collections a year and running a start-up remotely” — due to the pandemic — were too much to handle. And while the brand was reportedly doing well in terms of eyewear, shoes and denim, pricey luxury clothing certainly isn’t as much in demand in this time of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, LVMH tells WWD that it’s going to concentrate instead on the “Fenty ecosystem” — meaning Rihanna’s other brands, Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Savage X Fenty lingerie, all of which are doing great. Sources tell WWD that Fenty Skin has posted sales of $30 million in less than four months on its online store alone.
By Andrea Dresdale
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