FASHION

If Slouch Boots Are Making a Comeback, Rihanna Will Be the First to Know

The singer wears a pair of silver, crystal Saint Laurent boots straight off the Fall 2017 runway while prepping for Fenty x Puma in Paris. Or, excuse us: Pa-RIH.


Rihanna has been occupied during most front-row engagements for the Fall 2017 season. She was accepting a humanitarian award from Harvard University when the Paris shows kicked off, and since arriving in the City of Lights, she’s been hard at work preparing for the fourth season of her Fenty x Puma collection, her second in Paris. She did, however, make time to take in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s second ready-to-wear show at Dior, wearing an edgy black leather version of this season’s hottest street style trend: the beret.

While Dior was her sole Paris front-row appearance, she’s clearly still kept half an eye on the runway during the Fall 2017 collections. Anthony Vaccarello’s slouch boots at Saint Laurent Fall 2017 were one of the most polarizing looks on this season’s runway; for many, they were validation of a beloved early-’00s trend while for others, they were just a hair too early-’00s. Staunchly in the former camp, apparently, is Rihanna, who pulled a pair of bright-like-a-diamond crystal slouch boots straight off the Saint Laurent runway to glam up a grunge look and get Paris-ready.

Rihanna in Saint Laurent, Raf Simons, and Schott in Paris, France, March 2017.

Courtesy Saint Laurent

Who: Rihanna.

When: Sunday, March 5.

Where: Preparing for the Fenty x Puma show in Paris, France.

What: Silver glitter slouch boots from Saint Laurent’s Fall 2017 collection, a Patti Smith sweatshirt from Raf Simons’s Spring 2017 menswear collection, distressed, light-wash jeans, and an oversized black biker jacket by Schott with a high ponytail and hoop earrings.

Why: Rihanna would have been the envy of all the middle school girls circa 2001. If the Saint Laurent and Rick Owens runways are any indicator, slouch boots are about to make a comeback in a big way — and, as usual, Rihanna is the first one to the scene. She pares down the statement boots with a grunge-inspired look featuring a Raf Simons sweatshirt with Patti Smith printed on the front — part of Simons’s collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe archive — and an oversized leather jacket. She combines the current ’70s wave with the apparent future resurgence of the ’00s, as forecast at Paris Fashion Week. One thing is for sure: If new-millennium fashion is about to make a comeback, Rihanna will be the first to know.

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Go behind the scenes of Rihanna’s W cover shoot: