Rihanna Has Her Own Idea of What’s Sexy, and Victoria’s Secret May Suffer

Rihanna’s guests sipped bubbly rosé as they waited for her runway show to begin on Wednesday night of New York’s Fashion Week. The venue at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was appointed with surreal decor: a glass atrium filled with lab equipment, strange botanical domes, and even an indoor pond. A woman with a headset warned onlookers clustering near the platform, “It’s not going to be what you think.”

She was right. As the models appeared, it became clear that this was not your typical lingerie show. The women who crept, twisted, or marched down the catwalk were tall and short, big and small. They were of all colors and sported plenty of tattoos. Two of the models were pregnant. A mashup of runway presentation and performance art, the display was a big reveal for the singer’s collection under the Savage x Fenty brand. (Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.) The rundown included bralettes, bodysuits, slips, and everything in between. It was a consciously subversive challenge to an industry still clinging to archaic definitions of beauty.