Not only do the musical lists and red carpets, Rihanna and $ Ap Rocky dominate, have become one of the most influential duos of the contemporary stylistic panorama with its own aesthetic language that marks trends.
As a political, cultural and emotional statement, the artist tandem has managed to raise fashion to its own and very distinctive language that transcends the aesthetic to transform into shared identity, sought and replicated by signatures and also by consumers.
The influence that is not bought.
According to the annual Lyst Index report of 2024, each appearance of Rihanna and Rocky in high -profile events translates into an immediate increase in searches related to their brands or garments.
The phenomenon is more noticeable when they appear together: coordination, contrast game and aesthetic coherence are perceived as something organic, not imposed by stylists.
This differentiates them from many other media couples, where the style is choreographed to the millimeter. In his case, authenticity seems to be born from an intimacy shared with fashion. “We did not wear to like, but to be,” he told Rocky during a talk at the Parsons School of Design.
Rihanna: an icon that challenges labels.
Since his early years in the industry, Rihanna has shown that she is not willing to fit into molds. Its stylistic evolution is a tour that goes from Caribbean pop to European haute couture, without losing its character or instinct to anticipate industry changes.
In 2019, the Barbadense artist made history by launching Fenty under the umbrella of LVMH, being the first black woman to lead a luxury brand inside the French conglomerate. “I’ve always dressed for me. If others like, great; if not, it’s fine too,” Rihanna told Vogue in 2022.
This attitude has defined its way of understanding fashion: with autonomy, freedom and a high sense of aesthetic risk. To this is added its inclusive lingerie firm Savage X Fenty, which has displaced traditional paradigms by presenting diverse bodies and non -binary genres.
His pregnancy in 2022 marked a milestone in the way pregnant women can be represented by turning their belly into the protagonist of “looks” of Jean Paul Gaultier, Rick Owens or Dior. “My body is doing something incredible. I’m not going to hide it under a big shirt,” he explained.
A $ Ap Rocky: from masculine fashion rap.
Rakim Mayers, known as $ Ap Rocky, has been one of the great responsible for breaking the rigidity in male dress. From the collective to $ AP Mob to his collaborations with Gucci, Dior Homme or Raf Simons, Rocky has displaced the limits of the “streetwear”, opening it to the game with luxury.
Femininity and vintage are two elements that introduce in their way of dressing, which wins as many lovers as detractors. “I like to play. I don’t want clothes to limit me, I want me to express me,” he told GQ in a 2021 interview.
His recent appointment as creative director of Ray-Ban Studio confirms that his relationship with fashion is not episodic, but structural. In the same conversation with GQ, Rocky expressed his vision: “I want to create models that transmit that: personality, contradiction, freedom.”
The style as a couple.
Since they made their relationship public in 2020, Rihanna and $ Ap Rocky have positioned themselves as referents of social networks baptized as ‘Power Couple Fashion’. But his thing is not just about clothes, but the synchrony of two aesthetic identities that nourish each other.
The Red Met Gala 2021 carpet was a clear example. Rihanna, wrapped in a monumental black coat of Balenciaga, and Rocky, with a layer of Erl’s “patchwork”, presented themselves as a declaration of stylistic and political union: the glamorous and the everyday.
On his birthday, last February, Rihanna opted for a set of Saint Laurent in chocolate brown, while Rocky looked a large tailor suit in graphite gray. The couple planned their outfits to create a complementary shadow effect, a choreography of textures beyond superficial aesthetics.
“We inspire each time.
Breaking gender codes.
One of the most contributions from the couple to contemporary fashion is their ability to blur gender lines. Rocky has dressed Scottish skirts, pearls and silk blouses without being perceived as transgression but as naturalness.
Rihanna, meanwhile, has taken male suits, military boots and XL caps and straight and wide lines, without losing an apex of sensuality. In an interview with Id Magazine (2023), at $ Ap Rocky was clear: “Fashion must be a safe place, not a jail of binary standards.”
That philosophy, shared with Rihanna, has made its public appearances a manifesto of expressive freedom that has impacted both young designers and global consumers.
Culture, identity and legacy.
From references to Panafricanism to winks to hip hop from the 1990s, his way of dressing is also memory. In a conversation with Edward Enninful, Rihanna explained: “I feel indebted to black women who challenged rules before me. Every time I have seen something that is not done to ‘like’, I think of them.”
Rocky, meanwhile, has defended the use of recycled materials, collaborations with emerging designers and capsule collections that benefit vulnerable communities. “I don’t want fashion to be just for those who can pay it. I want it to inspire, to cause, to transform.”
A future that is designed to two.
With two young children and personal projects, they continue to mold a common story where love, aesthetics and resistance go hand in hand. In their outputs by New York – often captured by street photographers – they look from vintage tracks to comme des garçons file pieces.
For many, they are a master class of couple style; For others, a utopia achieved: the possibility of loving without diluting, of dressing without limiting itself, of creating without concessions.
Rihanna summarizes it in Vanity Fair (April 2025): “I don’t have to explain with him. I feel seen, and that is also reflected on how we dress. Our clothes tell our story, without words, without filters.”
In an era where fashion often seems to repeat formulas, the couple formed by Rihanna and at $ Ap Rocky reminds us that it is still possible to wear clothes to narrate something bigger: a way of being in the world, of loving, of resisting and creating future.
María Muñoz Rivera.
EFE Reportes
