By Loren Adams
Throughout last week songstress, fashion icon, business mogul, and philanthropist better known as Rihanna made headlines throughout social media with her new “Fenty” line. The Bajan singer unveiled her second fall collection for her lingerie brand “Savage X Fenty.” The singer received praise and some backlash from the Islamic community for the fashion show.
The “Savage X Fenty” fashion show was highly anticipated for fans of the renowned singer. In spite of being in the midst of a global pandemic, the “Savage X Fenty” fashion show made its second debut virtually on Amazon Prime Video. Many fans took to social media platforms to praise Rihanna for creating a fashion show that consists of inclusivity by showing models that differ in race, sizes and gender.
In the article “Rihanna Talks Making Music in Quarantine and Celebrating Inclusivity With Fenty Fashion Show” written by Desiree Murphy of Entertainment Tonight, gives details of an exclusive interview with Rihanna prior to the Savage X Fenty fashion show. In the interview Rihannaexplained viewers would see an a range of personalities throughout the show with men, women and non-binary models and that she is particularly excited about new male representation to be a part the Savage X Fenty brand.
“I’m excited about our male representation from Christian Combs,” she said. “We’re doing a collaboration with him which is very special to us. He’s the latest collaborator with the brand. “I’m excited to see how people interpret that new franchise in our brand.”
Many fans, consumers, and other notable public figures voiced many positive opinions on Twitter about Rihanna’s display of inclusivity in this year’s Savage X Fenty fashion show. Joe, (@jxeker) a fan of Rihanna tweeted how they felt about the singer’s fashion show and effort.
“The way Rihanna includes EVERYONE without making it a big deal, thick, thin, black, white, men, women, cis, trans, gay, straight, she even has drag queen walking in her shows. This is how you do inclusivity,” he wrote.
Though many praised Rihanna for incorporating inclusivity into her fashion show, Rihanna also received some criticism apart from that. In the fashion show there was a portion where models dressed in lingerie danced to a song that sampled an audio recording of someone reading the Hadith, which are holy records of words of the Prophet Mohammad and is considered as profoundly revered by those a part of the Muslim community.
Many fans, especially those who are a part of the Muslim community were offended by this portion of this show. Those apart of Muslim community and fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment. Heidi (@ThePinkTwizzler) who is a part of the Muslim community, and a fan of Rihanna said that she was disappointed in the singer.
“As I being a Muslim I’m so offended and shocked by the Rihanna Savage X Fenty show this doesn’t mean its okay, offending a whole Muslim race isn’t okay,” she wrote.
After the show fashion show and the criticism on social media Rihanna issued an apology to the Muslim community via Instagram. The superstar acknowledged that it was offensive and an oversight part and that she never had ill intent.
“I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our Savage X Fenty show,” the singer wrote. “I would more importantly like to apologize for this honest mistake. We understand that we have hurt our Muslim brothers and sisters.Moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding, Rih.”