The last time Rihanna caused this much commotion was when she arrived late, and clutching a flute of champagne, to a press dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai. The entrance precipitated a small stampede of iPhone-wielding journalists who had deployed to China to report on Moncler’s City of Genius, for which A$AP Rocky had designed a “ghetto expressionist” installation alongside a handful of other names, including Vogue’s global creative and cultural advisor Edward Enninful and Lucie and Luke Meir of Jil Sander fame. This evening’s Fashion Awards was a chance for Moncler’s party people to reunite in direct view of the fashion press.
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There was, after all, cause to celebrate – Moncler’s CEO Remo Ruffini was being honoured with the Trailblazer Award and A$AP was deservedly being named a Cultural Innovator – which is reason enough for a business-minded billionaire to attend a red-carpet event that might just (just) birth further deals. And so, Rihanna was the last to arrive at the Royal Albert Hall, dressed in a sculptural Christian Lacroix autumn/winter 2002 minidress cut from thick pelts of teal fuzz with a matching hat of Monsters, Inc. Brobdingnagian proportions and Paula Rowan gloves. A$AP stood beside her in oversized Bottega Veneta tailoring sealed with a leather tie. It was obvious: tonight’s image would be splashed across tomorrow’s front pages.