Tag: Rihanna

Rihanna’s River Island Collection is a Hot Mess

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Rihanna River Island Collection Totally Misses the Mark

So Rihanna was looking to add another hyphen to her already mutli-hyphened self. Pop-Star – Actress – Quasi-Model and Resident Bad Girl weren’t enough, she thought designer would be a nice fit as well.

And why not?

Celebrities have been killing it with fashion lines ever since Russel Simmons thought putting the words Phat and Farm together on some t-shirts would be a cool idea. However there’s always that celebrity whose foray into another artistic endeavor is a seriously bad idea. Unfortunately for Rihanna, her collaboration with River Island falls into the latter category.    rihanna river island collection 01

I get the appeal of a clothing line for both Rihanna and River Island. Rihanna is like a real live dress up doll. Ever since her stint as the best dressed non-model at Paris’ Fashion Week in 2009, she’s solidified her place as a celebrity fashionista. You look to see what Rihanna is going to wear next, just as much (if not more so) than what her next single is going to be.

Add her fashionista cred to her  status as a bona-fide, world famous pop-star, coupled with River Island’s place as a chic and edgy retailer for today’s modern young woman, and it’s easy to see why both parties saw this as a venture made in cash cow heaven.

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The problem is Rihanna’s style is uniquely Rihanna and doesn’t translate well to the masses. The masses who likely can’t pull off the fierce, modern, sexy, tomboy, borderline-expensive escort chic manages to pull off so effortlessly. Instead River island has delivered trashy, skanky, tomboy, cheap porn star style for the masses to consume in their attempt to dress a little like Rihanna

Not a good look at all.

Outside of the totally trashy look and cheap quality of the clothes – the other big question is where is anyone going to wear any of these pieces. Riahnna is a pop-star. Her job is to make forgettable music, and show up and be photographed at any number of events to promote said forgettable music.

So if Rihanna has three-quarters of her boobs out or has some cheek action happening in a pair of too short shorts, no problem. More Skin = More Pictures = More Pageviews = More Sales or at least More Exposure which will then leads to More Sales. Everyone wins. But regualr everyday, average chick can’t run around too many places with that amount of skin exposure, unless of course her day job is one where More Skin = More Sales…and we’re not talking of the music variety.

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The other pieces that offer more skin coverage are just so unflattering and ugly in their attempt to combine that sexy tomboy essence I can’t see anyone wanting to wear them for any reason other than Rhianna’s name is attached to them. And that’s the funny part about all of this – even though this has got to be one of the worst celebrity fashion lines released in the last ten years it is still likely to be widely successful. Hell some pieces from the line are already sold out on the website.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Rihanna is still Rihanna. She is a global phenom even if her music is about as memorable and interesting as a plain bowl of cold oatmeal. She’s managed to make millions convincing people to shell out their hard earned dollars for her forgettable records and cringe-worthy concerts, there’s no reason why she can’t convince them to shell out those same dollars for cheaply made and equally cringe worthy clothing.

Stop Defending Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Defending Domestic Violence

So, what I’ve been able to gather from the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation is that if a woman “escalates conflict” with a man then it is perfectly within the man’s right to beat the shit out of her. No questions asked. And I’m not speaking in hyperbole here. The recent results from a survey done of Boston area teens regarding the Chrianna situation suggest just that many believe domestic violence is okay:

Corcoran’s program, housed in the Commission’s Division of Violence Prevention, surveyed 200 Boston youth ages 12 to 19, between Feb. 13 and 20, using the Chris Brown-Rihanna case to gauge their attitudes toward teen dating violence; 100 percent of those surveyed had heard about the incident. Among the findings:
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* 71% said arguing was a normal part of a relationship
* 44% said fighting was a normal part of a relationship
* 51% said Chris Brown was responsible for the incident
* 46% said Rihanna was responsible for the incident
* 52% said both individuals were to blame for the incident, despite knowing at the time that Rihanna had been beaten badly enough to require hospital treatment
* 35% said the media were treating Rihanna unfairly
* 52% said the media were treating Chris Brown unfairly

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In addition, a significant number of males and females in the survey said Rihanna was destroying Chris Brown’s career, and females were no less likely than males to come to Rihanna’s defense.

On one hand saying Rihanna is equally to blame for her face being bashed in is taking the personal responsibility meme to its natural conclusion: whatever happens to you is ultimately your responsibility, regardless of what it is. Not only that but many men (and women) feel it’s their right to beat the hell out of a woman at the slightest provocation. One of my favorite comments so far:

….the problem is that we are not teaching our daughters to be accountable for their actions….The same way if someone breaks into your home even if he does not have a weapon, you are going to put a bullet in his ass. If a bitch slap you, treat her like [a man] and bitch [slap] and stump her ass.

So since one of my favorite bloggers take on the situation is that “It takes two people to create conflict and those two people participated equally in the escalation of a conflict,” I ask what’s considered “escalation?” Let’s concede that Rihanna slapped up on Chris Brown. Obviously, many people feel that that was reason enough for her to get beat so badly that she was hospitalized.

Okay.

But what if she just looked at the text and then questioned him about it? Is that reason enough to get beat? What if she would have yelled and screamed at him? Is that enough to have your face smashed into the dashboard? How about questioning his authority? Is that reason for him to bite you?

The same blogger says, “Violence just don’t happen for the heck of it, something happened that made it reach up to such a point.”

Really?

How about the pregnant women who get murdered every year because their boyfriends or husbands didn’t want the kid? I guess the “escalated conflict” by getting knocked up and deciding to have the baby, huh?

Or the women who get smacked around because their significant other perceived they’d been “disrespected,” in some way shape of form and how about those chicks who have the audacity to disagree with their boyfriends or husbands…man they should just get their asses wailed on since they knew disagreeing would, “escalate conflict” and result in the royal beat down.

I’m seriously disturbed when there are so many justifications for beating a woman in generally and beating her so badly that her injuries required hospitalization in particular. When did we get here…again?

Was nothing learned over the past thirty years? Do we really believe that it is a man’s right to beat his woman for the slightest offense? I find all this quite sad and I will never cease to be amazed at how many women so readily agree with men when these type of incidents happen.

Is this the future I have to look forward to for my daughter? Are her future suitors going to believe it’s okay to smack her around if she steps out of line? I hope not, but after reading much of the commentary on the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation I’m not so hopeful.

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