Rihanna's S&M

I originally wrote this one for the ladies over at Miss, however it has yet to post so...I'm housing it here. That is all....Wait no it isn't. I wrote this before learning of David LaChapelle's intent to sue Rihanna over blantly ripping off his aesthetic. While I do not claim to know a thing about the law there is something sketchy about shopping around a LaChapelle-esque video without talking to LaChapelle and trying to reproduce his work without consulting him because he's pricey, oh and it makes you instantly lose street cred when people start accusing you of stealing their creativity and attempting to pass it off as your own. fin.

This week Rihanna burned up the blogs and stirred up ton of controversy with the release of her latest video S&M. Filled with overtly sexual imagery and lyrics, this video affirms Riri’s status as a good girl gone bad for better or worse. While I haven’t been a fan of Rihanna since Pon de Replay, I can say that I generally love her style and S&M does serve up a huge helping of our girl’s signature edgy style. So for a brief moment let's forget about the fact that Rihanna, who we all know is not baby, is sending a very profound message about sexuality to the legion of girls under the ripe old age of 21 who are her fans and who are already suffering the effects of being over-sexualized in the media and that as a woman of color she is perpetuating the stereotype that all brown girls are insatiable nymphos who deserve to be treated as such everywhere form rap videos to real life, and focus on the fashion.

From the first frame, when Rihanna pops onto the scene sporting a fuzzy vest, huge frizzy hair and tiara, the video feels insanely familiar almost like an update of something I saw around the turn of the millennium. Despite the deja vu I get from beginning to end with S&M, I am head over heels for the hair and makeup Riri dons in this one. The close ups of her when she’s holding her mock press conference from behind a sheet cellophane remind us that she is indeed capable of injecting a bit of old school charm into this less than classy video. Moving to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Rihanna’s huge, frizzy mass of hair is amazing in a Christina Aguilera in Lady Marmalade kinda way. I also love how she brings in some of spring’s beauty trends, juicy lips, bright eyeshadow and Dynasty-esque blush. Oh and as usual, her nail game is tight. Instead of opting for over the top nail art, she keeps it simple with pale pinks, bright red and what looks to be shimmery white color-its hard to tell with her moving so much. While her hair and make up are perfectly on point in this one her fashion earns her another gold star in my book.

Starting with the newspaper print gown and matching thigh highs, moving to the nude number she wears to walk Perez Hilton and ending at the sick hot pink spandex number, Rihanna definitely shows off some sick style. Even her lingerie inspired looks are sick, especially the one she wears in the scene reminiscent of Basic Instinct. Although I would never be caught dead in any of this stuff, aside from that gorgeous gown, I can say that I will be taking a few notes from this video’s overall love of body con styles.

At the end of the day I don’t care if Rihanna has a high freak number or not, she’s grown, I do however take issue with the fact that her fans, most of whom are still trying to come to terms with their own sexuality, are not mature enough to really understand what exactly goes with having a “whips and chains excite me” image. Other than that I love the video, not the track its pretty generic, and I can’t wait to do big hair like Rihanna this summer.