Rihanna Encourages Her Fanbase To 'Buy Black' With Historical Photos

Source: IPA/WENN.com / WENN

The buzz around FENTY, Rihanna’s new high fashion line in partnership with LVMH has people buzzing. The singer, beauty mogul, fashion icon, and now Creative Director of her own maison has been pumping the brand for months leading up to this day.

Source: Jackson Lee / Getty

In January, she was spotted in NYC wearing sunglasses that we later discovered was part of her line.

Last week she had her pop-up event in Paris, where fashion royalty like the founder of Colette, major fashion photographers, the VP of Communications at Christian Dior, the Creative Director of Balmain and more came to pay respect and show love to the newest high fashion star on the market.

She’s been posting for the past week photos of her wearing her new clothing line.

…and looking damn good wearing it too!

Well, today her line officially dropped and she took to Instagram to subtly (not so subtle if you are Black), let us know that we should be buying Black.

She posted a photo to Instagram taken by photographer Kwame Brathwaite. Kwame Brathwaite is a photographer that is known for documenting life, culture and more in Harlem. The image she chose was undoubtedly intentional and she revealed to Vogue, “When I was coming up with the concept for this release, we were just digging and digging and we came up with these images – they made me feel they were relevant to what we are doing right now.”

The photograph is from 1968 and shows the Grandassa Models at the Renaissance Casino Ballroom in Harlem on Garvey Day modeling clothing. In the back of the photo, you can see a photo that reads “Buy Black”. The Grandassa Models designed and made their own clothes, focusing on African inspiration, jewelery, headwraps, and more. The Grandassa Models helped create entrepreneurship in Harlem, with self-owned boutiques and entrepreneurship with makeup aritsts, stylists, hairstylists, and more starting businesses.

I stan a good history lesson and love that Rihanna is not only utilizing her platform and new brand to pay homage to the past, but also re-introducing her audience to some important figures in fashion and Black culture.

When I saw the images, I crossed my fingers hoping her American pop-up would be in Harlem. A girl can dream!