Rihanna and A$AP are expecting a baby
(Picture: REUTERS)Rihanna always shows us how it’s done – and her pregnancy announcement was no different.
Having spent the entire winter shrouded exclusively in giant blanket coats, on Sunday, seeing the snow tufting gently in the New York sky, she made A$AP pop on his best dad jeans and then strode out onto a bridge for the ultimate photo opportunity. Her long hot-pink puffer was parted artfully to reveal a perfect neat bump, covered in jewels, as her face glowed beneficently – the picture of maternal health in her own personal snow globe.
It immediately upped the Anti (sorry, couldn’t resist) for all the Instagram try-hards who have been carving due dates into the sand and keeping the pinboard industry in business for all those cheugy Instagram pregnancy shout outs. Just accept it, no one cares about that grainy, nebulous picture of your foetus – we just want to see how you’re dressing the bump it’s being grown in.
I’ve personally been obsessed with the art of the exposed bump since All Saints’ Mel Blatt played Hyde Park in 1998 with a spaghetti strap vest barely stretched over her growing stomach, Maharishi combats nestled as neatly below it as Rihanna’s distressed jeans this week. The look was neutral, subtle – definitely not the high-fashion head-turner - but the message it communicated wasn’t simply ‘look I’m pregnant’, it was ‘look, aren’t women’s bodies amazing, and yet here I am bossing it on stage too.’ It was the ultimate statement of having it all. Because what Rihanna is reminding us is that, yes, the world’s best-looking baby is on its way, but, she’s still a person too. And that is no mean feat when you’ve got swollen ankles and have spent three consecutive months throwing up .
Rihanna’s announcement was a kind of streetwear take on the fertility goddess shoots that Beyoncé mastered during her pregnancies, veiled, surrounded by flowers, gold crowned – even one with fruit on her head.
Who needs to be low-key when you’re growing an actual human in your belly? I say bring back the Rachel from Friends under-bump vest tops, clutch your impending child like your life depends on it like Meghan Duchess of Sussex, and unbutton that puffer to let the world see the womb. That’s a special kind of magic right there.
