Why Rihanna is Fashion’s Ultimate Game-Changer

Anne Hathaway has set the red carpets on fire with her maternity style, with publications applauding the actress for “reinventing” pregnancy fashion and taking maternity wear to a “whole new level.” While we love to see Hathaway show off her bump and have fun with her outfits, we can’t forget who really turned maternity style into what it is today: Rihanna.

In fact, pregnancy attire isn’t the only thing the “Work” singer has helped to revolutionize for the better. Across different avenues in beauty and fashion, Rihanna has carved out lanes to make the industry more inclusive. Here’s a quick look at how she’s shifted the culture, proving that diversity and bold statements are what the beauty and fashion industry needs.

Jawdropping Maternity Style

Until RiRi stepped on the scene, pregnancy wear was often plain. Consisting mostly of long, flowy dresses or baggy shirts that hid the bump, there weren’t many exciting style options — but Rihanna turned that on its head. With the announcement of her first pregnancy in 2022 with son RZA, the Bajan singer flashed her belly proudly on the streets of Harlem, adorning it with jewels and making sure to stand out on a chilly winter day in a bright pink puffer coat.

Related: How Rihanna’s Daughter Just Became the Most Fashionable Baby in Hollywood

The looks only got better from there. For Paris Fashion Week in March of that same year, she strutted around France’s capital city in a sexy sheer dress, and the month before, at Milan Fashion Week, she wore a latex crop top and a purple fur jacket. She kept up the momentum during her 2023 pregnancy with son Riot by wearing dresses that accentuated the curve of her belly, and in 2025 with daughter Rocki Irish Mayers, stepping out for the MET Gala in a custom-made Marc Jacobs suit that showed off her stomach.

Now, maternity wear is bolder and focuses more on celebrating pregnant women by putting the bump on display rather than hiding it behind a boxy T-shirt.

Launching Fenty Beauty

Before 2017, finding beauty brands with diverse, high-quality shade ranges for Black women was hard, to say the least. The makeup industry had a giant hole in its market, leaving Black folks to mix different foundation shades together and do hundreds of swatch tests just to find a product that would suit their skin tone — and Rihanna came to fill that void.

With the launch of Fenty Beauty in 2017, the “Where Have You Been” singer gave Black women the high-quality products they’d been looking for. The brand made its intentions clear through an Instagram post stating, “Foundation for all. 40 shades. What’s yours?” and with models and stars of all skin tones used to promote its products, it was clear Fenty was serious about making sure everyone felt included as it continued expanding its shade ranges to be as diverse as possible.

To this day, the brand continues to receive praise for its wide selection of foundation shades, and it has helped bring more attention to other Black-owned beauty brands, such as Danessa Myricks, which has been blowing up in the makeup world.

Shaking Up The Runway With Savage x Fenty

Finally, there’s the Savage X Fenty lingerie brand, which celebrates all body types and makes it clear that no specific figure or size owns the word “sexy.” Before Savage X Fenty, the standard for a catwalk was set by the strict guidelines of slim, towering Victoria’s Secret models, but Rihanna changed that in 2018.

Her New York Fashion Week runway featured pregnant, curvy, short, tall, slim, and tatted models, highlighting that she was serious about inclusivity and making “women feel confident and expressing themselves through a little lace, a little corsetry, a little T-Shirt bra,” which she said upon the brand’s launch. Following her successful fashion shows, RiRi sparked a trend of other lingerie giants attempting to replicate the magic she created on the runway by making their own shows more inclusive.

Rihanna’s fearless creative decisions and bold statements on inclusivity have not only carved out lanes for the music and style icon but have also been catalysts for change across the fashion and beauty industries — and that cannot be forgotten.