Now that we’re done frothing at the mouth let’s talk about Rihanna’s naked dress.
On June 2, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) held their annual fashion awards.
And
all the right faces showed up. Then Rihanna arrived. Dressed in a
custom-made Adam Selman gown hand sewn with over 230,000 Swarovski
crystals, held by a personal trainer whose phone must be ringing off the
hook, a nude thong and the insouciance of a very attractive woman, the
US musician was named 2014 Fashion Icon. READ: Rihanna Bares all.
Introduced
by the Vogue editor Anna Wintour as someone who “enjoys pushing buttons
while remaining true to herself,” Rihanna accepted the award declaring
with no sense of irony whatsoever fashion was “an outlet for me to
express myself, to speak up, to say who I am and to be very loud about
it at times. Fashion is just a world of thrills, it’s exciting, there’s
no rules. I mean Wintour has a ton of rules. There are rules! But rules
are meant to be broken.”
NORMAL IS BORING
Let’s
start from there. No one else on the planet could have worn this dress.
We may have been shocked at it, not who wore it. Rihanna’s body is
frankly a work of art from every conceivable angle.
This
Naked Dress as it came to be known was pieced together by little more
than imagination, well-lit swaths of carpet and sheer audacity. Still,
there was an elegance to her carriage that overshadowed the nudity.
Truth
is Rihanna has prepped us for months. This was no bare-bottomed
decision. Her dressing has progressively disappeared to the point of no
return earning a ban from Instagram.
From
the very beginning, fashion has been controversial. Normal is not just
boring, it’s a faux pas. The Naked Dress attracted moral outrage and
aptly so, from how dare she, role models, print boycotts to what the
heck is wrong with this child and where is her mother!
On
the flip side, people will discuss this into 2044. I loved everything
about the look. The provocateur appealed to me. Turning up naked in
public is such a dread, psychologists tag it our most common dream.
Rihanna simply wore it with a shrug.
Driven by the need to be
proper, you may think a near-naked woman on a red carpet shouldn’t shift
your world. Except she must. At 26, RiRi is worth $90 million with 87
million likes on Facebook, 35.7 million Twitter followers and 111
million hits on Google. It would be wrong to presume she wields no
influence.
This Naked Dress on this
particular body matters. It carries the realisation just how deep
morality and fashion are linked, weighs on reality, interactions and
assessment of people, illuminates political correctness and proves we do
judge women based on clothing and looks more than the measure of
accomplishments; even one as notorious as Rihanna.
A
few months back, a woman posted in the comments section of a Rihanna
story: “It’s now official. I have seen her butt cheeks more than I have
seen my own.” Hilarious. Except it reveals a disconnect from her own
body as much it is reaffirms another’s penchant for underdressing.
It’s
easy to automatically presume Rihanna piece of meat peddled for her sex
appeal and the inevitable traction translating into money. Because
would a woman actively and repeatedly objectify herself or allow her own
objectification? Good question.
Women
have been taught to err on the side of demure. Sexuality, suggested,
hinted or overt, has consequences. I’m not privy to boardroom politics
when her team discusses career trajectories.
FEMALE BODY
However,
women who are smart enough to realise they possess other avenues of
power. Rihanna is/may be on top owing to her talent and/or sex appeal.
But in fashion she is the ultimate industry muse not for being
beautiful, but for constantly making it possible to push the envelope
and express itself through her.
She’s
the perfect rule-breaking conduit who always makes fashion a point of
relevance, examination and discussion. Admit it, you had no idea CFDA
Awards existed prior to this and didn’t care.
Beyond
the morality of public nudity lies another, more powerful conversation.
The attitude towards the female body, a woman’s expression of her
sexuality, women’s fashion choices, society and women’s role, expression
and power in it and how fashion is the thread tying it all together
come up.
Most of us will never be as
comfortable naked as we are fully clothed. Still, how much do you own
your body. To what degree are your fashion choices truly your own as
opposed to informed by others, rules and fear; enough to be
unapologetic, fully trusting what they say as clear and unmistakable?
Bold enough to wear daily, consistently. Unexpected instances like this
lend themselves to deeper self-examination. Once you’re done reacting,
your truth will out itself.
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