CeleBeauty Watch: Rihanna Covers the May 2020 British Vogue Wearing a Durag

Only Rihanna could rock a durag on the cover of a Vogue publication. As a matter of fact, @badgirlriri is the first to make a durag fashionable on the cover of British Vogue. 

This isn’t of course the first time Rihanna has donned a durag. Who can forget that infamous blinged out see-through dress with accompanying durag Rihanna wore as the recipient of the 2014 CFDA Award. But who was looking at her hair?

The durag, a potent symbol of black life – of self-preservation, resistance and authenticity – has an important place in popular culture, yet it is rarely viewed through the prism of high fashion. Yet there is the most fabulous, aspirational and beautiful durag on the cover of this month’s magazine. It takes a person of extraordinary charisma to pull off such a moment, a woman I am lucky enough to count among my closest creative collaborators.

For this month’s shoot, she wanted “Rihanna for a new decade.” We worked through a substantial archive of visual references (her fashion and cultural knowledge is encyclopaedic) to find a new proposition. Then suddenly, at 2am, my phone pinged with the latest WhatsApp: “How about we go with a durag?” ~ Edward Enninful