It’s here folks. If you are die hard you may have spotted it on the Web already, but Rihanna’s Vogue Italia couture spread has found it was to the illustrious pages of the Fashion Cult*. And where better to display the incredibly decadent shots of one of the world’s biggest pop stars? Thanks to the cult-like devotion to the Barbados-born performer at RihannaDaily.com, those of us out of reach of a timely copy of the magazine can gawk at these HQ scans.

In review, I’m somewhat underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong! Every photo is gorgeous. The styling is fantastic and Klein photography is, of course, stellar. However, it’s definitely in danger of falling into the “one note” category. There are upwards of 20 pages in the spread and at about 8 I start to get somewhat restless. There’s no real story and yet each the mood is so similar in each shot. Thank goodness for the one splash of color and that shock of white in the corset dress. Peep my favorite shot, then a gallery of the full spread below.

Source

Sorry Rihanna fans. The popstar is NOT on the cover of the September 2009 Vogue Italia cover. Not that I don’t think she could land such an honor. But the cover you see on the left is for the couture supplement, not the main cover. That homeless-chic nonsense you see on the right is the actual cover.

Supplement or not, though, it’s a huge fashion coup for the young starlet to be on any September cover. Is it me or is she channelling Grace Jones here???

Stay tuned for the full spread… If you’d like an email alert for it, sign up here or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Source

Colored Girls Rule!

*Gasp!!!* Did she say colored? Yes, ladies and gentles, I did. I also said “negro” – which isn’t so maligned a term, but still has a rather stale ring to it. But before you get your PC panties in a bunch, note that by “colored” I was referring to the dresses… mostly.

The composite photo seen above was clipped from Netaporter.com, a Web shopping portal for fashionistas with pockets deep enough to buy looks straight from the runway. It’s certainly true that these vibrant colors are especially beautiful against golden brown skin and perhaps that’s why there are an unusually high ratio of black models in this collage. Still, I can’t help but wonder if black girls aren’t somewhat of a fashion fetish at the moment.

Vogue Italia’s “Black Issue” last summer was a smash hit. So much so that even after numerous reprints, people are still hawking $50 copies on eBay. The issue set the industry on fire and got people talking (more) about the general lack of melanin on the pages of fashion magazines and on the runways. According to some subsequent shows did feature a sprinkle more black models, but will the change be lasting? And what about print? Will we see more models of color on the Vogues, Elles, and Bazaar’s of the world?

The post-black-issue success of Ubah Hassan indicates that, at least maybe, we will. Ubah is the one of the newer faces of Ralph Lauren.