Fenty x Puma

Rihanna returned to New York Fashion Week with a mix of motocross and beach in her Fenty Puma collection. Her collaboration with Puma- which has shown in Paris for the last two seasons- made an impressive return to New York Fashion Week with a Park Avenue Armory show. The collection – partly X Games inspired motocross meets retro surf- unfolded into a high-octane assortment that displayed against the backdrop of gigantic pink sand dunes over which motocross riders vaulted to open the show. With a color palette of blue with pops of olive drab, orange and neon pink, the spring and summer 2018 Fenty Puma by Rihanna runway collection served up silhouettes that ranged from super-baggy to curve-hugging, with a lot of strap, buckle and bungee cord details.

The motocross influence came by way of one-piece body-conscious race suits, racing-style stripes and fonts and checkered-flag details that ran down the arms of zip-front hoodies, up the legs of track pants and around the waistbands of mesh booty shorts. Water-sport references included surfer-appropriate retro palm-tree prints, the words wet and drowning splashed across tops and light outerwear, pink-neon-accented zippers and neoprene fabrications throughout- including in a version of the lines popular creeper shoe with bungee-cord laces. But the biggest splash in this department came by way of swimwear, a first in the partnership with Puma– wetsuit-inspired bathing suits, bikinis, a couple of navel-bearing one-pieces and hooded terrycloth après-swim gear that hits the cabana-meets-the-street sweet spot. Instead of a traditional show-ending runway bow, Rihanna waved to the crowd from the back of a motocross bike that sped around the catwalk. It was perfectly BadGalRiRi, and perfectly bad-ass.