It seems fitting that British Vogue — for the first time in the publication’s 102-year history — will feature a black woman on its cover. That she will grace the famed September issue. And that she is Rihanna.
SEPTEMBER ISSUE!!! @britishvogue
I’m so honored to be on the cover of your first September issue with British Vogue @edward_enninful Thank you for considering me! pic.twitter.com/ur3UlWoIXf— Rihanna (@rihanna) July 31, 2018
Rihanna is fearless and feminine. A shrewd businesswoman and a music-industry icon. A rare blend of talent, beauty, style, and a certain spark of cannot-be-f*cked-with shared only by the upper echelons of celebrity (Beyoncé).
It’s what British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful meant when he said “nobody does it quite like her.” When he wrote in his monthly editor’s letter, “No matter how haute the styling goes, or experimental the mood, you never lose her in the imagery. She is always Rihanna.”
In other words, Rihanna is always real. In the new September Vogue edition, she channeled that candidness into a discussion about her body.
Rihanna, asked about what it’s like being the woman “that every woman fancies” (British speak for “girl crush”), humbled herself. “Ok, you’re asking the wrong person,” she said. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m ‘thicc’ now.”
Indeed, headlines persistently praised the arrival of “thicc Rihanna” (“Thiccana“) throughout 2017 as the gift that simply refused to stop giving. Thiccana fans may be (only slightly) disappointed to learn that the beauty mogul plans on hitting the gym.
“I’m about to get back into the gym and stuff, and I hope I don’t lose my butt or my hips or all of my thighs. I’ll lose some but not all,” she said. “And I think of my boobs, like, “Imma lose everything, everything goes!”
This wisest of prophets then summarized the trade-off demanded by everything in life with an unintentionally rhyming poem: “But, you know, it comes with a price. You want to have a butt, then you have a gut.” Amen, sis.
The FENTY boss had previously discussed body image and body shaming in June’s U.S. Vogue edition, explaining that “You’ve just got to laugh at yourself, honestly,” when it comes to hating on your own body. “I mean, I know when I’m having a fat day and when I’ve lost weight. I accept all of the bodies,” she said.
She’d also described this same fallacy of being concerned with body size in an interview with The Cut last fall.
“I actually have had the pleasure of a fluctuating body type, where one day I can literally fit into something that is bodycon, and then the next day, the next week — I need something oversized; I need a little crop here and a high-waist there to hide that part, you know?”
Oh, we know. “I really pay attention every day when I go into the closet about what’s working for my body that morning,” continued RIhanna. “I feel like that’s how everyone should go after fashion, because it’s an individual thing. And then, if you take it further, it’s like: ‘What week are you having? You having a skinny week? You having a fat week? Are we doing arms this week? We doing legs this week? We doing oversized?’”
Rihanna dropped some helpful dating advice in her September British Vogue feature, as always simplifying topics the rest of us generally overcomplicate into easily digestible capsules of clarity and truth:
“I think a lot of people meet people and then they’re dating the idea of what the person could become, and that person never shows up and then they’re just mad disappointed. A person can always get better, they can always get worse, but you’ve got to be fine with what you met them as.” AMEN, SIS.
Check out the full feature in the September issue of British Vogue, available on digital download and newsstands on Friday August 3rd.