Hor-RI-fic

So the Rihanna for River Island AW13/14 collection has been revealed and will be landing in stores on September 12th. I was dubious about this collaboration from the start, mainly because celebrity fashion lines are usually created by the fashion brand using a celebrity ambassador as the 'face' of the line and then charging double the price of the brand's regular collection. However, when I saw Adam Selman -Rihanna's costume designer and boyfriend of my old boss and Rihanna's stylist Mel Otternberg- was co-designing the line with Rihanna I knew at least her team had full design authority even if the Barbados beauty wasn't fully involved.

Admittedly I thought her debut River Island collection was quite cool- funky verging on trashy as only Rihanna does best- but definitely wearable and moderately priced considering the famous name attached to it. Her SS13 collection saw a more adventurous mishmash of garish yellow -that would only suit Rihanna's beautiful skin tone and is a disaster for Irish colouring- and oversized jeans with knee-high lace-ups but again the collection was carried by wearable stand-out pieces that could be easily incorporated into your existing wardrobe.

Rihanna's AW13/14 collection however has gone a step too far. I'm all for 90s grunge but camouflage leather shorts and baseball jersey maxi dresses scream hoochie mama, and not in a good way. Rihanna can wear virtually anything. Fact. The 20/30 something year old random British/Irish girl that makes up River Island's target market cannot. Perhaps these pieces would work for the American customer I just cannot see -and hope to never see- an Irish woman in PU basketball shorts as she goes about her daily errands. If the collaboration between Rihanna and River Island is to continue for future seasons, Selman needs to look at commercial viability and garment wearability over what Rihanna herself would look cool in during a stage performance.

The Good...

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