Rihanna’s second child is already making a subtle appearance in fashion campaigns. Yesterday, Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton’s new menswear creative director, unveiled his first men’s campaign starring Rihanna. She poses in the photo showing her baby bump. She shared the image on Instagram yesterday evening, writing, “LOUIS VUITTON MEN Spring Summer 2024.”
Williams also posted the photo on his own page, sharing a shot of him posing in front of the ad.
Williams and Rihanna are of course friends and collaborators in the music industry. In November 2020, he offered gushing words to Allure about Rihanna and her work so far on her highly-anticipated ninth album. Rihanna had teased she was working with Williams and his producing partner, Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D., in February of that year.
“Rih is in a different place right now,” Williams told Allure. “Like, wow. She’s from a different world.” He joked that she may just be from Venus: “I’m willing to bet, because Venus is gaseous, that if they had a telescope that could zoom through all that sh*t, you’d see Rih laying there naked.”
Rihanna teased to British Vogue this winter that she really does intend to drop the album sometime in 2023. “I want it to be this year,” she said. “Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos.”
She added that she was trying to move past her perfectionistic tendencies so the music could be finalized and released. “I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that,” she said. “So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.