Style Icon: Rihanna

From the little 16 year old girl from Barbados singing pop jams like “Pon De Replay” to her x-rated album “Rated R”, Rihanna has become an international music and style icon.

Over the past year, Rihanna has been all over fashion blogs and magazines. In their January issue, Vogue called Rihanna the “girl with fashion va-va-voom”. Incorporating both sexy and and high fashion into her look, Rihanna was one of the top style icons of 2009.

Rihanna started to get the attention of the fashion world when she cut her hair into a sleeky angled bob, and by the 2008 Grammy’s it was all the way to a sexy chopped pixie cut. She showed up the event in a fun bright blue Zac Posen cocktail dress, solidifying Rihanna’s rise as a style icon.

Rihanna’s  face was soon everywhere.  Her signature looks started to become trends;  her  versatile short hair, natural glamour and star trail neck tattoo. That infamous tattoo became part of the inspiration for Gucci’s United Nations Children’s Fund,  for which Rihanna was the spokesmodel. Handbags, clothes, and other accessories were adorned with stars, like the back of Rihanna’s neck.

But in 2009 Rihanna took her look to the next level.  Rocking more edgy and avant garde looks, like at the 2009 Metropolitan Costume Institute Gala, where she wore  an ultra-femme Dolce & Gabanna  tuxedo, but kept it rock and roll her  super side swept bangs and leather gloves.

With the release of “Rated R” Rihanna’s look has become a fabulous combination of couture, grunge, and military bad ass that is all her own.  Sporting avant guarde looks in her latest video for the song “Hard” Rihanna is a sexy,  wicked, and “hard” military commander wandering around the desert look tough yet gorgeous.

All this topped off with a golden blonde semi-mohawk, Rihanna has claimed her spot as in international superstar, both in music and fashion.