Fluctuations in shape are an inevitable part of being alive, and while few have access to the resources of Rihanna—including super-stylist Jahleel Weaver—anyone navigating a changing body (bear with me) could take a cue from her latest maternity look: a spring summer 2001 Issey Miyake dress made from semi-sheer pleats in a gradient of sorbet tones with a shoulder-engulfing neckline. She paired the dress with neon green and silver Ottolinger X Puma Mostro sneakers, a blossoming pink rose ring, and silver floral earrings.
Originally worn by a straight-sized model in Miyake’s September 2000 show—staged in collaboration with Japanese electronic duo Silent Poets, and inspired by a futuristic tribe—the look reinforces the late designer’s interest in seeing the body as something fluid, rather than fixed. It’s why his designs—in particular his Pleats Please line—are that rare thing in luxury fashion: accommodating of bigger bodies. “Few brands have done what Issey Miyake has in the luxury designer space,” writer Tracy Achonwa wrote British Vogue in March. “Catering to women who want the best plus-size, high-end clothing, [the brand] boasts a cleverly designed textile that expands with accordion-like pleats.”
Not everyone will get it. “Rihanna steps out in odd attire,” read one tabloid headline. Her own fans weren’t much kinder: “What is up with what she’s wearing?” But tell me, what is the point of being one of the world’s most famous billionaires if you can’t step outside the margins of what’s considered normal, and wear things others wouldn’t? Now pregnant with her third child, Rihanna is leaning full tilt into these sorts of bizarro-chic silhouettes—like the so-called “condom dress” from Pieter Mulier’s fall 2025 collection for Alaïa, which she recently wore to dinner at her favorite restaurant of all time, Giorgio Baldi—as her own form shifts. Good for her. To quote Miyake himself: “The space created between the clothes and the body is what interests me and communicates the most.”