15 Times Rihanna Looked Too Good To Be True
It's hard to believe that Rihanna has been in the pop star game for eleven years already, but in that time, Rihanna has pushed every style boundary imaginable. Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in Barbados in 1988, the superstar has released eight studio albums consecutively, and each time she's come back with a new and distinct look. Her hair has been jet black and cropped, long and luscious brunette, fire-engine red, almost shaved off and everything in between! In the time it's taken her to go from cute teen pop star to global style icon, she's brought us fashion trends we never dreamed could be chic, from the see-through dresses to the '90s barrettes, to the blonde mohawk! She opts for styles that no one else could ever pull off, and never fails to shock with her combination of sheer edge and elegance. Here are 15 times Rihanna looked too good to be true.
15 2015 Met Gala
This was one of those instances where Rihanna pulled off something that the rest of us couldn't even dream about in a million years. She found this hand-made Guo Pei dress online, and understandably couldn't walk in it without help. Her effort was worth it, though, because the vibrant yellow, the long floral train on the fur-trimmed cape, the cleavage, and the bouncy rusty red bob were a winning combination on the Met Gala red carpet. The leggy gown was still the target of a post-gala meme or two though (which shows us that even the best are made fun of at some point!), and numerous photos surfaced of photo shopped fried eggs and pizzas in Riri's train, and even Wizard of Oz characters walking up her yellow-brick… cape? Some internet users compared the dress to Belle's yellow gown from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which was a much more fitting contrast!
14 2013 Grammys
Nowadays we're used to Rihanna exposing her chest to the world, but the 2013 Grammy Awards marked one of the first times she did it on the red carpet! It was a pretty shocking move, considering it was the prestigious Grammys rather than the VMAs or AMAs, but the superstar schooled just about every other talent on the red carpet with her frock that bridged the gap between racy and classy. Much to the dismay of everyone everywhere, Riri hopped right out of the show-stopping crimson Azzedine Alaia dress and changed twice for her appearances on stage. But while it lasted, the sheer gown was perfect. She got everything right, from the dramatic train to the strategic amount of chiffon used to cover and reveal in all the right places. Add in the hidden Manolos, Neil Lane jewelry, red lip and honey-blonde curls, and you've got a recipe for sizzling success.
13 2015 Grammys
The 2015 Grammy Awards, we saw Rihanna step on to the red carpet in a pink and puffy Giambattista Valli dress that would go on to inspire jokes and memes for months. This was one of the times Riri looked too good to be true, simply because she managed to rock this outfit, and not look hilarious (as most of us would have!). She paired the overwhelming gown with a modest sleeked bun and natural-looking makeup which highlighted her enviably shaped lips and sun-kissed glow. The Bajan songstress was still placed at the top of a few worst-dressed lists, but had she gone for an edgy hairstyle and eye-grabbing makeup, the look would certainly not have made it onto this list at all! The thing is, Rihanna wore possibly the most unflattering dress in the history of the universe, and still managed to look beautiful. Too good to be true!
12 2012 VMAs
Honetly, she makes it look so easy! Rihanna turned all heads as she walked down the red carpet at the Video Music Awards back in 2012, doting a fresh black pixie cut and a graceful white Adam Selman dress which fell down to the floor. Simply knotted at the front, the dress emphasized Rihanna's to-die-for figure. The bright red lip and simple studded earrings combined with her unique printed white nails totally complemented the fashion queen's ensemble for the night and had the Rihanna Navy's tongues wagging. This was just after the Talk That Talk (2011) era, so the change from mousy-brown curls was pretty drastic, but Riri was preparing the world for the release of her record Unapologetic in November of that year, and its raw, sexy feel. 2012 Rihanna was all about maintaining effortless beauty while exploring a dark and honest sound, and this dress is the epitome!
11 The Diamonds World Tour
Launched to support her album Unapologetic in 2013, the Diamonds World Tour was the fifth highest-grossing tour of the year. But the real success? That would definitely be the costumes designed for Rihanna by a range of talents, including Givenchy, Christian Dior, and Adam Selman. Her amazing footwear, including both white and black thigh-high boots which we all wished we owned, was just casually designed by Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik (as you do). For the five acts and one encore of the show, the singer sported an array of stylish costumes. There was everything from black leather bras to color-block leather pants, to red halter necks and matching skirts, to shiny jumpsuits with necklines which plunged enough to reveal Riri's body art. Her hair transformed throughout the tour which almost ran for a year and whether she showed up with long faded blonde locks or thick wispy bangs, she killed it.
10 2012 Grammys
Rihanna has pretty much shown up to every Grammy show with a totally different hairstyle and color. In 2012, prior to chopping off her locks for the famous pixie do, the superstar arrived at the red carpet doting this slinky Armani black dress (which she co-designed with Giorgio himself!) and literally wowed fans and critics alike. She'd just lost a whole bunch of weight that she'd put on during the Loud Tour in 2011 (she still looked better than everyone else), and it was pretty clear she wanted to show off her slim new figure. Everything from the thigh slit to the dirty blonde, to the open back and bling-draped cleavage oozed sexiness, and she knew it too! Afterward, Rihanna changed into slightly more conservative black leather shorts for her on-stage performance, first alone and then with the iconic Coldplay. She still looked smoking hot, but not to this extent!
9 NY Times Photoshoot 2015
These are probably some of the less-known photos of the superstar, but the material that came out of her New York Times shoot for one of the October 2015 issues is just too good to surpass! From her natural hair pulled back to reveal her flawless face, to her perfectly filled dark brows, humble contouring, and a glossy shine on her lips that overcomes the black and white editing, she looks like the definition of true beauty. This photoshoot, which accompanied the singer's revealing interview with Miranda July in the issue, shows the world that Rihanna doesn't have to hide beneath the world's top fashion to look beautiful -- she just has to show up! Mind you, the Eva Fehren nose ring she's wearing is priced at $4,895, and the other pieces of assorted jewelry cost more than all our prom dresses combined. But this stripped-down look is definitely a winner!
8 Dior Cover 2015
Becoming the fashion house's very first spokeswoman of color must have been a proud moment for Riri, so luckily she has this incredibly stunning cover to remind her of her achievements! This issue of the magazine, which only comes out four times a year, also features several other pics of Rihanna. With that red hair that we all love so much sleeked behind her ears, the dark lips and that long slender neck, the singer looks a little too good to be true! The best part about her typical look is that she doesn't really have one: it changes all the time. In this shoot, she blends the sophisticated with the spicy, and it totally works! All the photos in the issue are highlighted in all the right areas to emphasize Rihanna's God-given cheekbones and figure and have her showing off some of the hottest pieces from the Autumn/Winter 2015 collection.
7 ANTIDiaRy
This is Rihanna's eighth studio album ANTI was released this year and was definitely the most anticipated record from the singer to date since it followed her well-deserved hiatus! To rev up the hype a little bit more Rihanna partnered with Samsung and released a stream of online video diaries online. The videos definitely got our mouths watering for the release of the music, but the singer's new look had the whole world talking. A little girl, probably symbolizing a young Rihanna, makes an appearance in the diaries, but the adult Riri stars too, complete with blue-black hair. Her signature dark lip is back, but the shiny gold crown is a new addition, and it suits the pop royalty like no other accessory has before! There is yet to be a definite explanation of the videos, but everybody agrees that this darker side to Rihanna is where it is at!
6 Loud Tour Bikini
Following the release of her fifth studio album Loud (2010), Rihanna headed across the globe on her fourth tour to wow the Navy. While this tour was packed with amazing costumes which had even the most conservative of us eager for more (see below!), there were a few stand-out pieces that had Rihanna looking so good, they will be remembered for decades. The superstar opened the show in a short electric blue dress but soon ripped it off to reveal a colorful bikini, which showcased her toned body. Match that with the red hair she had for most of the tour and the pink leather boots, and what do you have? Rihanna looking too incredible for this world! In this outfit she sang Only Girl (In the World) (2010), Disturbia (2007), Shut Up and Drive (2007), and Man Down (2010) before diving below the stage to throw on something else.
5 777 Tour
To promote 2012's Unapologetic, Rihanna did what few artists have done before: completed 7 shows, in 7 days, in 7 different cities of 7 different countries! The 777 Tour ran from November 14 to November 20 and visited Mexico City, Toronto, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, London, and New York City. The amazing thing isn't so much that Riri could survive a crazy schedule like this, but that she looked flawless while doing it. With her shiny black hair half shaved, curled and combed over, Rihanna wore a different outfit every night but still kept up her edgy style, playing with leopard bras, denim skirts, and sunglasses, but you'd never know how tired she must have been. Well, there was the incident in London where the singer was experiencing sound problems so lashed out at her band mid-song. Just from looking at her, though, there were no signs of fatigue or bad moods!
4 Loud Tour Ballad Dress
Yes, the costumes in Rihanna's Loud Tour were so epic that more than one made this list! The opening two-piece may have been one of the hottest things we've ever seen, but no one can deny that Riri looked like a real goddess in her bright yellow ballad dress and brown leather boots which climbed all the way to her thighs. The magic was grounded in the vibrancy and contrast of color: the yellow in her gown, the brown in her boots, the bronze in her skin and the red in her hair. The dress even seemed to dance as the singer belted out her famous slow songs, including a solo acoustic version of Hate that I Love You (2007), Unfaithful (2006) and the spine-chilling California King Bed (2010). Few people can pull off such a bright yellow, but as we've seen more than once, Riri can do it superbly. Pretty cool.
3 California King Bed Video
Riri's done some pretty smoking hot videos throughout her extensive career, ranging from the intensely sexy S&M (2010) to the early pre-superstardom and comparatively innocent S.O.S. (2006). It's hard to single out just one video where she looked breathtakingly gorgeous, but since you're asking, it has to be the California King Bed (2010) video. We're suckers for Rihanna's bright red hair, but it's more than that! The red together with the white of her dress looks like something out of a music video (wait, what?) and the room looking like it's come straight from paradise, the heavenly bed, the man candy, and the outstanding cinematography all come together to create sheer perfection. Anybody would feel like a superstar if they got to sing about loneliness while lying in the sun clenching fistfuls of grass, but Riri looks the part for sure. Here, she reveals vulnerability and emotion and balances them with fire.
2 Rated R
Rihanna's fourth studio album Rated R (2009) marked the first time the world learned the extent of the songstress's rebellious nature. We had had a taste of the unruly side of her through 2007's appropriately-titled Good Girl Gone Bad, but we had no idea all the delicious fashion experiments, and hair and makeup styles that were coming our way! The promotional material for the record got people talking and arrived at a world of speculation after Rihanna had survived domestic violence at the hands of Chris Brown. Rather than rolling over and dying, Riri rocked one of the raciest, most powerful looks to date to accompany tracks like Russian Roulette and Hard (feat. Young Jeezy). The shaved head, accumulation of tattoos, seriously wicked winged eyeliner and wild costumes you wouldn't want your grandmother to see all lured the eyes of the world to Rihanna, and she's held them ever since.
1 2012 Victoria's Secret Show
It just doesn't get any better than this! Riri performed twice at the Victoria's Secret Fashion show in New York back in 2012, but it's the first outfit that we think rendered her seriously too good to be true. To sing her smash hit Diamonds from Unapologetic, Rihanna wore a tight black gown which grazed her thigh, and accessorized with lace gloves, pearl earrings, choker and trimmed shades, and the sexiest garter belt in history. She looked more angelic in her next piece, which she wore while belting out Phresh Out the Runway (2012). The ensemble was made from pale pink lace and highlighted with pink boots. Though she still looked dreamlike and was still probably the envy of all the girls on the planet (including those six-foot models!) it was the first outfit that made the top of this list. Okay, we'll just say it. She shined like a diamond.