9:08pm. The rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum was quiet. The Alaïa show was called for 8:30pm, we had passed the typical 30 minute wait time, and it was the end of a long first day of New York fashion week. Packed on round cream leather banquettes was a packed house of fashion’s heavy hitters.
A Wall Street Journal reporter leaned over and whispered one word, “Rihanna.” She’d heard from her seat mate who’d heard from a photographer outside. “Who else could hold up this room?” she correctly observed.
A minute later the glass doors of the Upper East Side museum flickered with the reflection of flash bulbs from the sidewalk outside. The room was already quiet and then hush. Preceded by a flying V of security, in walked Rihanna, or rather she glided across the terrazzo floor. Clutching her crystal mesh dress across her chest like Botticelli’s Venus emerging from the shell, and surrounded by the nautilus of the Frank Lloyd Wright interior, the singer, brand founder, mother of two, and Vogue cover star several times over was like a siren emerging from a shimmering sea. The sheer fishnet dress fell off her shoulders, the embedded crystals like glittering drops of water, underneath a pearl-adorned cream satin thong corset and strappy heels also decorated with pearls, continuing the maritime theme. Her hair fell over her shoulders in soft, chocolate waves. A new hairstyle for the singer who launched her Fenty Hair collection at Sephora last month and has been wearing her hair a warmer honey shade.
Tonight the mononym icon came directly from receiving the Daily Front Row award at the Rainbow Room and was directed to her seat next to a surprised Liv Tyler who helped the late arrival untangle the crystal fishnet of her dress from her satellite-sized diamond ring. Almost immediately the lights dimmed and the show began with everyone’s faces turned away from Rihanna and up towards the museum’s helical ramp where the models began their descent down the runway.