Rihanna’s glacial and icy looks by Lorna Simpson on Essence
The Bajan fashion, beauty, and music legend Rihanna, 32, comes to life on the cover of Essence for their January/February issue, the very first digital and physical release of 2021.
The artist behind these majestic pages is African American photographer and visual artist Lorna Simpson, who translated Rihanna’s figure into a series of a dozen of collage images, cover included.
The title of this collage portfolio is called “Of Earth & Sky”. Simpson’s interpretation of Rihanna through her art is revisited with different natural scenarios, through a glacial use of icy colors and silver tones, making it almost an enigmatic-oriented piece of art. Rihanna’s looks are distant, yet vigilant and attentive to the eye of the observer. Lorna was able to catch the attitude and the manners of one of the most influential and wealthiest women in the world, by capturing the strongest and most remarkable looks of the subject.
Making Rihanna the face of the first issue of the year was an appreciated gesture that Essence and their creative team produced, along with including important names such as Kamala Harris and Ayanna Pressley, both fundamental and solid political figures and important faces for the representation of the BIPOC American community. Essence succeeded in keeping a balance between fashion and news, incorporating and elevating strong women of color. The cover received several praises from the media community, from journalists to readers, from editors to photographers, and set a high standard for the following months in the editorial and creative fields.
This is not the first time for Rihanna to be on the publication’s cover. She had already made a major appearance in the 2008 September issue, when she revealed the world her mesmerizing hairstyle, with the iconic pixie bob cut and her slim tall figure, while steady and firm in space wearing her pieces by Deborah Marquit. We hope this won’t be her last nor second-last appearance in fashion journalism.
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