THE LOOK

Rihanna Wore a Vintage John Galliano Kimono at the Queen & Slim Premiere

Her vintage look came from John Galliano’s Spring 1995 collection.


AFI FEST 2019 Presented By Audi – "Queen & Slim" Premiere – Arrivals
Frazer Harrison

Rihanna—a superstar who is enormously busy building her fashion and beauty empire and fending off questions about her ninth studio album—somehow found time in her schedule for the Los Angeles premiere of Queen & Slim

On Thursday night, she showed up to support the film’s director, Melina Matsoukas, who also directed the singer’s music video for “We Found Love” in 2011. And she did it in a vintage kimono.

The black and gold ensemble came from John Galliano‘s Spring 1995 collection, which was shown during Paris Fashion Week. The previous season, the designer had been inspired by both Kiki de Montparnasse and Japonisme, which resulted in a somewhat modernist take on early 20th century fashion. Some of those aesthetics trickled into the Spring 1995 collection later that year, which is how this particular kimono came to be. The piece was originally modeled by Marie-Sophie Wilson-Carr.

It should be noted that Rihanna is not the only celebrity to get really deep into the vintage game lately. Kim Kardashian has been reviving pieces by Thierry Mugler, Versace, and Galliano, too. (She was spotted wearing a newspaper print skirt from Galliano’s Fall/Winter 2000 collection this summer).

And Gwyneth Paltrow wore vintage earlier this fall to the 2019 Emmy Awards. Her slow, penguin walk across the stage in a Valentino gown from 1963 even spawned a meme. (She couldn’t help it—the midcentury gown didn’t have a back slit to allow for unrestricted movement.)

Rihanna, of course, had no such problems. The woman can do anything.

Related: Rihanna Finally Acknowledged Her Relationship with Hassan Jameel