Rihanna Brings Sexiness to the Mall: Go Inside the First Savage X Fenty Retail Store

Rihanna has landed at the mall. Her Savage X Fenty brand of high-gloss, super-sexy lingerie and intimates is opening five stores in shopping malls across the United States this month, first in Las Vegas, and then Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Houston. “Our expectation is you won’t be able to walk past these stores and not go in, even if you’re not in the market for lingerie,” says Savage X Fenty’s co-president and chief marketing officer. Natalie Guzman. 

For those among us who would blindly follow Rihanna into the depths of hell, yes, you will definitely go into the Savage X Fenty retail store. But what the store design and technology aim to do is bring everyone into the Savage universe, even those not shopping for lingerie or—seemingly impossible in this day and age—those not under Rihanna’s spell. 

The first thing mall denizens will notice is the store’s radiating color palette. Unlike other intimates retailers that have cultivated a boudoir aesthetic, Savage X Fenty’s stores bring the adrenaline of its filmed runway shows into its bricks-and-mortar retail. Neon lights in fuchsia, emerald, and sapphire illuminate the space. The playlist will “definitely have the Savage vibe,” says chief merchant and co-president Christiane Pendarvis, “and there might be a little Rihanna in there,” she winks. Mannequins span a diverse range of body types, with some forms made from 3D scans of human Savage models. “We want to make sure whoever you are as a customer, you see yourself in our stores—and that’s not just the marketing and what we’re doing in terms of things like mannequins and imagery, but also the people that are there to help service and support you,” continues Pendarvis. “We frankly just don’t know how to operate in any other different way.”

The sexy inclusivity of Savage is expected by fans, but what might not be is the level of technology embedded in each physical store. “We’re not necessarily known as a technology brand, but we’re taking this opportunity to really merge physical and digital in a way that we just haven’t seen done in the mall, particularly not in this category where fit and comfort in your body and confidence is so important,” says Pendarvis. The company partnered with Fit:Match to launch Fit Xperience, a body scanning app powered by LiDAR with at least two devices in each store that allows customers to get a 3D scan of the body and product recommendations based on what might flatter them best.

“It’s not intended to a replace the expertise of an associate, but it it’s an amazing way to get a really accurate view of an individual's body and make personalized recommendations based on our assortment. We think this is going to be a game changer for us.”

In addition to the 3D scan technology, the fitting rooms in Savage X Fenty stores will have different vibe settings so shoppers can try out their looks in the right atmosphere. (Who understands dressing for one’s vibes more than Rihanna?) Hangers are made from compostable wheat byproducts and the entire store design, from its mannequin wall to its interactive spaces, is modular. “It’s inspired by the idea of a dollhouse,” says Guzman. “We wanted to be able to have this endless merchandising ability and to always be able to change the spaces so we can continue to deliver the best Savage experience.” The space also intends to be selfie-ready from any angle: “The entire store is highly Instagramable,” affirms Guzman. 

But don’t just take it from Rihanna’s business partners. The musician, icon, and entrepreneur—and, I would add, expert shopper—is certain that her fans will find her mark throughout the Savage space. “The store tells a story and is highly focused on a true experience. Every detail was curated carefully to immerse people in the brand and elevate the consumer experience, while being playful, welcoming and fun.” Rihanna says. “We wanted to be able to connect with our customers in real life and give them something they have never seen before. Creating the space took a lot of imagination, married with things I’ve always wanted to change about my own experiences as a customer myself, from mannequins to the Fit Xperience, to customer service. We are so happy with the outcome and now I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Forever André: Anna Wintour on Her Extraordinary Friend and Colleague

André Leon Talley and I first met in 1983. Grace Mirabella, the then editor of Vogue, had just hired me as the magazine’s creative director, while André was its fashion news director. He’d arrived at Vogue having been at the Costume Institute, Interview, and the Paris bureau of WWD, where he was the toast of the town.

We quickly became friends, in part because neither of us quite fit in with the no-nonsense and totally beige corporate atmosphere of the office: André had enough volubility to be onstage at the Metropolitan Opera, while I was just the weird Brit. Looking back, I really didn’t help my cause by having the eccentric Isabella Blow as my assistant, who took to cleaning her desk with generous spritzes of Chanel No. 5 at the end of each working day. André applauded—adored—the aristocratic insouciance of it all.

Yet that was only part of the story for André and me. Friendship with him meant being part of his erudite, gilded, and fiercely self-created existence; of being in the orbit of someone who had the incredible gift, one amplified by his immense charm, of always being able to joyfully turn the volume of life up—way, way up. I’d never met anyone who had so many friends known only by their first names: Paloma, Karl, Andy, Yves, Diane. And before long, André had joined their ranks.

André was also an intrinsic part of both my family life and my personal life. He’d stay weekends with us in Long Island; that’s where this portrait of him was taken. He was forever generous with his time, and he was always the most entertaining house guest, critic, and cheerleader. He could lift everyone up. His cameos in our family summer movies were classic. And André consulted on fittings for whatever my daughter, Bee, and I would wear to the Met any given year.

The night before the May 2016 gala, André emailed Bee and me with some thoughts on her hair for the night: “A soft loosely knotted back, and off the neck, clean off the neck. It can’t be messy. But it has to look like you just caught it in a one twist, like a soft figure 8 caught with [the] same color band as your hair. And you can still wear the little tiny band of diamonds. But never too tight, yet never messy, like you came off the tennis court.”

The day after André died, I started going through many, many years of his emails to me. While before this he used to communicate via violently colored faxes, email was a revelation to him, and his—always rendered in different colors and fonts—were brilliant, explosive, funny, opinionated, and exhilarating. People always say that tone is lost over text and email—not with André.

Those emails say so much about him. Here he is writing from Kanye West’s wedding to Kim Kardashian in Florence in 2014:

“I have never seen such organization, such imagination, and a sense of perfection. And such a diverse mix of people. Jaden Smith, 15 years old, went as an albino bat to the ceremony, it was beyond genius. An albino bat, go figure. And apparently he has his own clothing line. Kanye looked so handsome in Lanvin. And Alber Elbaz now really wears shoes, worn, beaten and coming apart, like Charlie Chaplin.”

Unsurprisingly, clothes—his, mine, and those seen in runway shows—made for some of André’s most incisive and hilarious commentary. One collection invoked his ire: “What was all that stuff, Amish uniforms on steroids. Pretentiously artistic! FASHION NUNS Meets The Handmaid’s Tale.” Another, from Marc Jacobs, a designer who André believed in so much, brought an opportunity to rave:

“What I really want to say is that Marc Jacobs as usual is the only great, great show in New York City. Why do we have to sit through a tsunami of crap just to get to him? We have to. It’s life. It was a master class of style, true style. A master class. I was knocked out by the beauty, the sheer brilliance and polish. People must be embraced, loved, and supported. No matter what it takes. I just send missives to Marc. I don’t even go backstage anymore. He prefers the words.”

André clearly had a way with words, but his actions also spoke volumes. Years ago, when my mother died unexpectedly, I had just made it to London, despite a ferocious snowstorm which had gripped New York, and my husband and children couldn’t join me for the funeral. I was so low, which André immediately realized. Being the force of nature that he was, absolutely nothing was going to stop him crossing the Atlantic to be there for me and for my family. Amidst a lifetime of memories of André, I will never forget his kindness, his chivalry, and his friendship.

Can We Briefly Discuss Shiv’s Wardrobe on This Season of Succession?

The HBO series Succession is a font of many things—intrafamilial subterfuge, swearing, inventive new ways to permanently damage the people around you—but the show’s attention to fashion has always been one of its most notable elements, from wannabe cool guy Kendall Roy’s expensive baseball hats to beleaguered lawyer Gerri Kellman’s signature blazers and pearls. Nobody on Succession was more fashionable (or more carefully costumed), though, than the scheming, dissatisfied youngest daughter, Shiv—until this season, at least.

To be fair, Shiv’s style has been consistently evolving. In a 2019 New Yorker article, Rachel Syme wrote of the character’s season-two look: “Turtleneck sweaters and high-waisted slacks have rarely looked so ruthless.” As Syme notes, even then Shiv occasionally looked “more like a recent law-school graduate in a midsize firm than a big shot prepared to take over an empire,” but season three ushered in a new low—or was it a new high for Shiv-related sartorial discourse? Suddenly, Shiv’s suits were cheap looking; her dresses for big, important events were oddly fitted; her entire sartorial sense of self seemed to be hanging by a thread. Ironically, Sarah Snook, the actress playing Shiv, looked better than ever, but her costuming appeared to be fighting her at every turn.

As fashion is not my forte (I am, famously, but a humble culture writer), I called upon Vogue’s fashion news editor, Sarah Spellings, to help me interpret what this change in Shiv’s style could mean. “Succession normally does a great job with rich-people fashion. Just look at Caroline [Collingwood, the Roy siblings’ haughty English mother] wearing a textured coat over pants to her wedding! Or Kendall’s Loro Piana hat. There’s not a ton of logos—it’s not flashy (normally, save for Kendall’s birthday Gucci bomber),” Spellings notes. “In past seasons, Shiv wore wide-leg trousers and turtlenecks that made her look powerful, put together, and, most importantly, casually superrich. This season, she looks like she’s trying harder as she’s struggling for power and in uncomfortable positions. For the most part, that comfort and ease is gone and she looks less comfortable in her clothes.”

It would be simplistic to think that Succession’s costume designer, Michelle Matland, didn’t have a specific and thought-out plan for Shiv’s wardrobe this season. (After all, nothing on TV happens by accident.) But even allowing for the possibility that Shiv was supposed to look uncomfortable as she grasped for control of her family empire—and finally ascended to a position of real power at Waystar Royco, despite being constantly diminished by her father, her brothers, and pretty much everyone else around her—the shift in her wardrobe still felt jarring.

“It all started with that terrible little black bag they had her carrying in the first episode of season three,” opined Vogue contributing editor Laia Garcia-Furtado. “She accessorizes unnecessarily, her suits are matronly and bad, and I don’t see Shiv shopping for these clothes herself, but I can’t imagine someone shopping for her and bringing these things back and her approving them. It’s like she’s cosplaying as a rich businesswoman who did a business and failing.”

Ultimately, maybe it doesn’t matter whether season-three Shiv is (a) a woman slowly coming undone whose internal turmoil is metaphorically symbolized by her increasingly off-kilter clothes (b) a clueless rich lady who doesn’t actually know what looks good on her or (c) some combination of the above. After all, in the final episode of the season, Shiv is potentially betrayed by her long-suffering husband, Tom, all while he’s clad in a light, flawless, Italian-vacation suit that seems like nothing so much as an antidote to all of Shiv’s weirdly fitted, chromatically off suiting this season. Who knows where we’ll meet her and Tom in season four? All we can do is hope against hope that it’s somewhere marginally more stylish—but, then again, who are we to negotiate against Shiv’s glow-down? After all, isn’t the definition of a good TV outfit one that gets people talking?

Why Jennifer Coolidge Credits Ariana Grande for Her Career Revival

It’s easy to toss fashion out the window when temperatures plummet. It’s hard to deliver a look when the brisk air feels like knives against your skin! Generally, a giant puffer coat is the sign of fashionable defeat. It doesn’t matter how fabulous the outfit beneath is, a matte black, ankle-length puffer rarely has you feeling your most stylish. But, it turns out you can be both snuggly and formal this winter—at least, that’s what celebrities are proving. Stars like Rihanna, Irina Shayk, and Bad Bunny have all elevated their puffer coats by choosing styles in unexpected colorways or silhouettes.

Sure, we’ve seen high-fashion puffers on the runways for a few years now. Remember Balenciaga’s fall 2016 collection, where a red puffer was paired with a bejeweled turtleneck? Until now, though, that juxtaposition between formal and sport seemed more editorial than wearable, but today’s stars are bringing the idea to the streets. Earlier this month in New York, Rihanna emerged in a color-blocked puffer coat with faux fur trim. It was a statement coat on its own, but she elevated it even further with a pair of metallic Balenciaga boots. Shayk offered a minimal take. Her long, voluminous puffer coat was offset by her more tailored pants and sleek, discreet sneakers.

Puffers in fun, unexpected colors have also been a hit with celebrities. Both Kim Kardashin and Billie Eilish have favored long, puffy coats in a deep crimson color. Bad Bunny wore a mint puffer coat to the American Music Awards this month, proving a pastel style can even be red carpet-ready. Lil Nas X, meanwhile, performed at the iHeart Jingle Ball wearing a metallic pink puffer coat and pleated skirt—giving it more of a theatrical twist.

It goes to show that the puffer really is this season’s pair-with-anything coat. It adds a more sporty, casual touch to virtually any ensemble—so just be sure to pair it with more high-fashion accessories or refined clothing, to replicate that true A-lister feel.

Below, more stars who have nailed the dressy puffer coat.