A$AP Rocky on Rihanna, Virgil Abloh, and Blurring the Gender Lines With Fashion

A$AP Rocky tracks time with fashion. “I remember years by outfits,” he says. “When you tell me [what I had on], I remember.” Vogue put one of our May cover stars—and esteemed 2025 Met Gala co-chairs—to the test with the latest installment of Life in Looks.

Fashion has always been central to the rapper’s identity. Long before Rocky and Rihanna graced the Met steps or announced her first pregnancy with a fashion-filled paparazzi shoot, they united for his “Fashion Killa” music video. “I just hit up the flyest chick that I knew,” Rocky says of casting his now-partner in the video. “I’ve got the perfect song. It’s called ‘Fashion Killa’—I’m basically talking about you; I drop your name in it.” Even though it was 2013—more than six years before they would become a couple—Rocky maintains that there was always that spark. “She knew she was my boo back then too,” he says.

Rihanna wasn’t the only major name attached to the “Fashion Killa” video: Virgil Abloh directed the project. “Working with Virgil was easy. We were kindred spirits,” Rocky says. “I think that him being in the position he was in, it was inevitable for him to do great things.” The late designer was just one member of the fashion community Rocky counts as a friend. Others include Alessandro Michele and Jonathan Anderson. “I pick his brain from time to time whenever I get to speak to him,” he says of the latter.

Not every outfit in his extensive repertoire may be a hit with his fans. “I ain’t gonna lie, they roasted me on the internet for this,” he says of the yellow Balenciaga puffer vest he wore in Milan in 2017. “This outfit was kinda fire if you think about it…Nah, I was wilin’,” he says. “That’s my Flavor Flav era right there, you know what I’m saying? It was tacky but fly.”

But when the risks work, they work. “This was a daring fashion statement. I chose to embrace being a grandma’s boy,” Rocky says of his babushka era, where he would wear floral Gucci scarves around his head like a grandmother. “I’m a firm believer that you can’t use clothes as masculinity anymore. Those lines are blurred as well, so I like to play with that. And I thought it was unfair that guys couldn’t wear a silk scarf on their head with glasses,” he says.

The scarf is far from the only piece of (traditional) womenswear Rocky has adopted. Look no further than his enviable bag collection. “My love for bags is more of a recent thing,” he says, pointing to his look from the Gucci spring 2020 show in Milan. “I’ve always had bags but now I have an incentive,” he says. No kidding—the father of two undoubtedly has necessities to tote around at all times. “We’ve got stuff to put in bags! I shouldn’t have to carry around my phone, my brush, my comb, my Chapstick, like nah, put that in the bag!” While he prefers the term “satchel” to “murse,” (though, “whatever floats your boat”), Rocky has conquered yet another gendered piece of fashion. “Look at us now. Fellas, we’re holding it down with our murses and our satchels.”

Here, watch as A$AP Rocky recounts his life in looks—from his Live.Love.A$AP album art to his May 2025 Vogue cover—and scroll below to see some of our favorites.

Director: Yohan Yoon
Director of Photography: Brandon Yoon
Editor: Michael Suyeda
Producers: Rahel Gebreyes, Bety Dereje
Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg
Assistant Camera: Kirsten Potts
Gaffer: Devan Davies
Audio : Lily Van Leeuwen
Production Assistants: Quinton Johnson, Maya Layne
Set Designer: Elaine Winter
Set Design Assistant: Jacob Kander
Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar
Production Manager: David Alvarez Paz
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy
Director, Content Production: Rahel Gebreyes
Senior Director, Video: Romy van den Broeke
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming: Thespena Guatieri
Images Courtesy of:
Tyler Mitchell
Willy Vanderperre, Art + Commerce
Steven Klein