display

As is so often the case in life, success and failure are very close together with singer Rihanna: As the fashion industry magazine "WWD" reported, the value of her lingerie company is estimated at around one billion US dollars after a successful round of investors.

Under the name Savage x Fenty - the real name of the singer is Robyn Rihanna Fenty - Rihanna sells underwear - so successfully that the online magazine CultureBanx assumes that Savage x Fenty can at least take over the market leadership in the global lingerie market by 2025 .

So basically everything is a reason to be happy.

Especially since Rihanna's make-up and care brand, which she also sells under the name Fenty, is extremely successful.

At the same time, the luxury group LVMH, to which Rihanna's brands belong, announced the temporary end for the high fashion line, which is also part of the Fenty lifestyle universe.

It was agreed in a jointly published statement to suspend the fashion line, which operates from Europe, until the situation improves, meaning the restrictions caused by the pandemic, which have hit the fashion industry badly.

Not only are production and distribution channels impaired, the concept of luxury has also changed: the attraction of exclusive fashion is evaporating.

Where should you strut in spectacular outfits - from the kitchen to the desk?

LVMH had big plans with Rihanna's fashion line founded in 2019: the luxury business in the young target group should be revitalized.

The collections were published in so-called "releases", a reference to the music business.

The last "release" was in November 2020: Designer Amina Muaddi designed a collection of strappy sandals for Fenty, price point: 700 dollars and up.

display

Since then, nothing has changed in the online shop.

Nothing has happened on the clothing line's Instagram channel, which is of fundamental importance for the Fenty branding, since January.

Instead, Rihanna now wants to focus on the beauty and underwear line: As a new investor, the L Catterton Group is injecting 115 million US dollars into the bra business, which had a sales increase of 200 percent in 2020.

“Savage x Fenty has shaken up the lingerie industry with incredible success,” Jon Owsley, Co-Managing Partner of L Catterton, quotes in the “WWD” report: “The brand achieves a rare combination of affordability, fashionability and comfort, stands for Inclusivity and diversity. ”Customer loyalty is“ unsurpassed ”.

Models present a Fenty underwear collection in 2019

Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Savage X Fenty

Presumably, this assessment also hides the reason why the so-called Fenty effect, with which Rihanna wrapped millennial women around the world in particular, cannot so easily be transferred to the world of high fashion: your beauty -Line revolutionized a make-up world with more than 40 foundation colors, in which 1000 shades of beige were previously mainly represented.

She staged her lingerie on women who did not allow themselves to be squeezed into the previous bikini beauty ideal à la “Victoria's Secret”.

All of this was well received: a megastar who understands the wishes and needs of ordinary women and supplies them with products that make everyday life a little nicer, a little more comfortable, a little more sexy.

The feeling of being really addressed by a brand, however, cannot be combined with the exclusivity claim of a high-end ready-to-wear brand.

Fenty in the $ 1,000 range is no longer the fan’s Fenty - LVMH should have guessed that.