Rihanna Will Always Be the Ultimate Muse

Musician, mogul, and now the face of Dior J’adore Intense.

Rihanna has become something rarer than a superstar: a full sensory experience. Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s perfume creation director, created the new scent as an ode to her, “based on an image of an unfettered, liberated young woman, who dares to embrace the world with clarity and genius.” Here, Roxane Gay (a professed RiRi fan) pays tribute to Rihanna’s status as a beauty icon.

Rihanna has become something rarer than a superstar: a full sensory experience. Francis Kurkdjian, Dior’s perfume creation director, created the new scent as an ode to her, “based on an image of an unfettered, liberated young woman, who dares to embrace the world with clarity and genius.” Here, Roxane Gay (a professed RiRi fan) pays tribute to Rihanna’s status as a beauty icon.

his one time, I was in Rihanna’s vicinity. It was in Hollywood, at an after-party for something—I can’t even remember what. I was standing awkwardly with a friend, trying to feel like I belonged there. I had an invitation and everything! All around me were the usual people you find at a party in Hollywood, creative types and strivers, preternaturally attractive, excellent footwear. And then the room hushed. Rihanna swanned in.

Even in a room full of reasonably famous people, she commanded the attention of all those proud peacocks. She was…absolutely entrancing. It was one of those moments when I understood, with great clarity, what charisma looks like when someone genuinely has it. Her beauty, in person, cannot be overstated. Her eyes shine bright like a diamond. (See what I did there?) Her skin is dewy and clear. And she smells amazing. As she walked by, I didn’t even try to speak to her. I just admired her and then returned to my awkward shuffle.

Rihanna, as a public figure, has always intrigued me. She is one of those celebrities who are both inspirational and aspirational. You admire and appreciate her work, and sometimes you want to be her—or some approximation thereof. There is her music, yes. As she reminded us during her 2023 Super Bowl halftime performance, she has a deep catalog of memorable hits. It has been a decade since she released her last studio album, Anti, and her legion of fans has been clamoring for new music the entire time. That fevered desire has become something of a cultural punch line.

Whenever Rihanna pops out, people on social media have “jokes” that are, really, thinly veiled entreaties in the way of a greedy public foisting its expectations on public figures, as if those public figures are only there to satisfy their fans. “Where’s the album?” people ask. And she never, ever answers the question definitively. In a 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she said, “To be continued,” when asked about the album. “I like to antagonize my fans a little bit. Well, they antagonize me, too! So they get it right back,” she added. Living her life on her own terms. Inspiration. Aspiration.

It is this tension that has intrigued me more than Rihanna’s many accomplishments. In an industry known to chew women up and spit them out, working them to the bone, she has decided to save something of herself for herself. Only she knows when, or even if, she will make music again, and she won’t be rushed or pressured to do so on anyone’s timeline but her own.

But however long it has been since Anti, Rihanna has been busy doing all kinds of work, work, work, work, work, work. (See what I did there?) In addition to investing in businesses like Tidal, among others, she has been raising a young family and building a beauty and fashion empire. This year, she is partnering with Dior as the muse and inspiration behind Dior J’adore Intense, a bolder version of the fashion house’s signature fragrance, created for her and honoring women for “daring to luxuriate unreservedly in pleasure.”

That Rihanna serves as the face of J’adore is no small thing, and it is a new milestone in her longstanding, groundbreaking relationship with Dior. In 2015, she became the first Black ambassador for the brand. In her ELLE cover shoot, you can practically smell Rihanna through the page, especially in the raw, undone images where her hair hangs in loose curls past her shoulders, she stares at the camera, inviting the viewer closer, but not too close.

There are also the endeavors that carry her name. Savage X Fenty, her lingerie brand, reflects her unique style and ferocious sex appeal. And then there is Fenty Beauty—an inclusive makeup and skin care line that launched nearly a decade ago with 40 shades so all women could find the products they needed without being relegated to the margins or having to beg for the dregs of representation. Women of color, specifically, were centered, not merely included. For Rihanna, inclusivity is not a marketing tool but part of her beauty empire’s DNA. She proved that serving all women’s beauty needs could be profitable, and the rest of the industry ran through those doors. Inspiration. Aspiration.

But more than her music and her business endeavors, how Rihanna moves through the world intrigues me most. She seems to live in her body unapologetically, and she does so with confidence and verve. It’s no easy feat given that women are, generally, punished for aging visibly and having any kind of curves. But instead of making herself smaller or living in her body according to the whims of a fickle and ever-changing audience, she lives in her body on her own terms. She is at home in her body whether she is very slender or in the rounded afterglow of childbirth. She wears what she wants—a glittering green backless halter top with thin strands of material covering her pregnant belly or an oversize orange faux-fur coat over camouflage pants, or a strapless snakeskin dress—and she always looks flawless. She allows her taste to dictate what she wears, not arbitrary ideas about bodies and how they should be clothed. And she is almost defiant in how she presents herself to the world. This confidence and attitude are incredibly alluring because, unfortunately, we live in a world where a woman has to defy a lot of expectations if she dares to live confidently in her body.

At Jay-Z’s third and final performance of his 2026 Yankee Stadium residency, “Extra Innings,” he brought Rihanna onstage for her first public performance since the Oscars in 2023. She sang “Run This Town” and “Bitch Better Have My Money,” and as she performed, she told the entranced crowd, “Oh my God, I missed this shit, y’all.” And we missed this shit, too. It was such a rare sighting—Rihanna onstage, wearing slingbacks, leather capris, and a leather top with a fur-like trim, hair cascading to her shoulders, sunglasses perched on her nose as she strutted across the stage with her characteristic swagger. She looked like she was having a ball, as the muscle memory of performing returned. Mogul. Musician. Mother (MUVA). Inspiration. Aspiration.

Lead Image: Corset dress, custom Dior. Skirt, men’s headpiece, Dior. Earrings, Chopard. Dior Parfums J’adore Intense, $184, Dior.com, Fenty Beauty Hydra Vizor Invisible Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF 30 Sunscreen, Fenty Beauty Instant Setting + Blotting Powder.

Hair by Jawara at Art Partner using Fenty Hair; makeup by Hector Espinal for Fenty Beauty using Fenty Skin; manicure by Kim Truong at A-Frame Agency; produced by GS World Media and VLM Productions.

This story appears in the September 2026 issue of ELLE.

Via: ELLE