That Rihanna is one of the best-dressed celebrities of all time is more than conjecture. This is someone who understands that having fun with clothing is a cornerstone of what it means to live well. She also understands that looking good can be an act of generosity: dotting flowers in the gravel of the newsfeed. And last night, the musician-mogul made her postpartum return to street style.
Photographed outside Carbone in New York (where she was celebrating her partner A$AP Rocky’s 34th birthday), Rihanna made her first baby-free public appearance (she and A$AP previously treated fans to an informal family portrait) since giving birth to Riot Rose in an uber-cropped Cecilie Bahnsen bomber, a tulle bustier and Balenciaga pantaboots. Hair tousled into a hasty up-do, notice how she has tucked her fringe behind her sunglasses: just a small accent that emits a halo of enigmatic mean-girl energy.
Though Rihanna’s look telegraphed a sort of street savviness (an update perhaps on that now iconic Molly Goddard ensemble from 2017), A$AP Rocky compounded his own fascination with quirked-up prepsters. Hair festooned in Simone Rocha-indebted pearl clips, he wore an outsized Prince of Wales check blazer with loose-cut jeans and a pale-pink Bottega Veneta handbag. “Dressing for pregnancy was such a piece of cake,” Rihanna said back in February. “But dressing in postpartum, what the f**k do you do?” I imagine that was a rhetorical question, because Rihanna, of all people, knows precisely what to do.