LVMH closes Fenty, Rihanna's fashion brand

It's a tough business world. After making a very successful debut in the world of lingerie and cosmetics, Rihanna's fashion brand Fenty was "put on hold", and therefore closed at least for the moment, by the LVMH group. According to reports, the site will go offline in a few weeks and the last staff members, at the Paris headquarters, are dealing with closing the latest operations. This does not mean, however, that the relationship between Rihanna and LVMH has been damaged, on the contrary, the company L Catterton, of which LVMH is a partner, has in fact invested in Savage x Fenty and in the lines of Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin that will therefore continue.

LVMH has issued a very vague statement, saying that the Fenty brand will have to wait «better conditions» but the truth probably lies in a disappointing commercial performance of the Paris-based brand. Fenty's prices were in fact very high and, for a brand based entirely on Rihanna's public image and therefore on her huge fanbase, they turned out to be unattainable. The problems were also logistical in nature: Rihanna, who lives in Los Angeles, is engaged in the American launch of Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics line that has recorded $30 million in sales over four months. It is natural that, since Rihanna's cosmetics lines are based in California and so profitable, they have gained priority over a luxury brand that was supposed to produce eight collections a year without, among other things, the possibility of traveling, a serious logistical difficulty given that Rihanna lives in Los Angeles, the brand's headquarters is in Paris and its production centers in Italy.

Rihanna's brand was supposed to represent a historic turning point, as the first brand created from scratch by LVMH since the 1980s with a black woman. According to an op-ed of Business of Fashion, which argued that Fenty would mark the end of the pure designer, «in the age of social media, as fashion becomes less about clothes and more about entertainment, designers may be no match for true celebrities like Rihanna in their ability to gather a community and drive sales». And yet, Rihanna's celebrity has proved bankable in the beauty and lingerie sector, two areas much more democratic than those of fashion luxury, in which the heritage of a brand still has its own weight and serves to justify high prices. But the last word is not yet said: Fenty would in fact only be on hiatus and it is not excluded that, in some time, he will be brought back to life by the same board that has now closed it.