Rihanna has lost a staggering $36million (£27M) from a failed fashion venture with Louis Vuitton, according to accounts for her British company Denim UK Holdings, Daily Mail reports.
The American singer, 37, launched her clothing range Fenty in 2019 in collaboration with the luxury French brand, but it flopped and closed down in 2021 due to the pandemic.
Due to travelling restrictions during Covid, hands-on designer Rihanna couldn’t see the atelier in Paris or get to the Italian fashion houses making the products, stated reports at the time.
When she launched the venture, it was revealed that Rihanna had ploughed in €29,988,000 ($34.86M) while Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH put in €30million ($34.88M)
The French-based business had the trade name of Project Loud France, in a nod to Rihanna’s fifth album, Loud.
Rihanna – who has an estimated net worth of $1.4billion – invested the money through Denim UK Holdings and became a 49.99 per cent partner shareholder.
In 2021, Rihanna and LVMH made a joint decision to close down the fashion business to focus on cosmetics and lingerie.
A joint statement at the time read: ‘LVMH and Rihanna reaffirm their ambition to concentrate on the growth and the long-term development of the Fenty ecosystem, focusing on cosmetics, skincare and lingerie.’
Fenty – named after the Umbrella hitmaker’s full name, Robyn Rihanna Fenty – was meant to build on the singer’s joint cosmetics venture with LVMH, with a full range of clothing, shoes and accessories.
But the line was pricey – nearly $1,000 for a padded denim jacket and $810 for a corseted shirtdress – and failed to generate as much interest as her other lines.
The Fenty clothing label was tailored to the high-end market, whereas Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty were more affordable.
The launch was covered by all the top fashion mags including Vogue, who excitedly wrote in May 2019: ‘The wait for the first glimpse of Rihanna’s LVMH-backed fashion label is finally over.
‘The new luxury Fenty maison, which will comprise ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, will officially be unveiled in Paris.’
Rihanna herself said in a press release at the time: ‘Women are forces of this earth. We are multifaceted, complex, vulnerable yet bulletproof, and Fenty speaks to all of our intricacies.
‘Some days I want to be submissive, many days I’m completely in charge and most days I feel like being both… so it was imperative that we created a line versatile enough to embrace and celebrate us in that way.
‘The collections are easily worn together and meant to be staples in our wardrobe. I’m just hyped to see people in my clothes, man.’
Since launching her career as a singer, Rihanna has established herself in the fashion and beauty business with her successful lingerie and makeup lines.
In 2022 she made history when she became America’s youngest self-made female billionaire at the age of 34.
She de-throned fellow A-lister Kim Kardashian, then 41, to earn the title, after amassing an impressive net worth of $1.4billion through her many ventures.
Her phenomenal financial success was first revealed earlier that year, when Rihanna was featured in Forbes’ annual list of America’s richest self-made women, on which she was ranked 21st.
The B***h Better Have My Money singer was the only woman under the age of 40 to feature in the line-up.
Barbados-born Rihanna was discovered in 2003 in her home country by American record producer Evan Rogers, who sent her demo to Def Jam Recordings.
It eventually fell into the hands of Def Jam’s president Jay-Z, who invited her to come in and perform and instantly fell in love with Rihanna – and the rest is history.
She went on to become one of the best-selling music artists of all time – having sold more than 250 million records worldwide for her hits like Pon de Replay, Umbrella, SOS, Unfaithful, Good Girl Gone Bad, and Don’t Stop the Music, to name a few.
Rihanna also starred in a few movies and became a big name in the fashion industry for collaborating with brands like Armani, Dior, and Puma.
She put her music career on pause in 2017 to focus on her business ventures, launching Fenty Beauty – which includes products like foundations, highlighters, bronzers, blush and lip glosses, and surpassed other celebrity cosmetics brands such as Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty in sales.
A year later, she expanded the company with her Savage X Fenty lingerie brand, which sells underwear that comes in a variety of sizes to fit all kinds of people.
Rihanna has been running her empire while also expanding her family – recently welcoming her third child with rapper A$AP Rocky.
She announced the birth of daughter Rocki Irish Mayers last month. She is also mother to sons RZA, three, and Riot, two.