Rihanna's business empire now stretches far beyond music. Following her wildly popular Fenty Beauty cosmetics company her luxury fashion brand Fenty is about to be launched under the LVMH umbrella.
Rihanna fans were surprised to discover this week that Rihanna is currently living in London, in order to be closer to the team at LVMH in Europe - and perhaps also to oversee the launch of Fenty Beauty at high street chain Boots.
The word 'Fenty' is now synonymous with the star’s business ventures, but it's not immediately clear why the name was chosen.
While Rihanna is famous enough to go by her first name (joining the ranks of Madonna and Cher) her full and legal name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.
Ahead of her fashion brand launch (it arrives May 29 online) the singer revealed to The New York Times that part of the reason she chose the name ‘Fenty’ rather than ‘Rihanna’ was because she was nervous about watering down her brand.
She explained, “I used to be afraid to step into the whole celebrity make-up world. I saw brands like Hilary Duff and Hannah Montana have so much success [in the aughts], but it got to a place where they were so oversaturated in the market that it diluted their personal brands.”
“It made me think, 'I’m not going to do this, because you lose your respect and credibility,' and so every collaboration I did outside of music, I used Fenty so that you didn’t have to hear the word 'Rihanna' every time you saw something that I did. So Rihanna stayed the music, the person. But these other brands are called Fenty,” she continued.
What does Fenty mean?
In Rihanna’s interview with The New York Times, the singer was surprised when actor and playwright Jeremy O. Harris revealed the meaning behind her name. Harris explained that the Barbadian singer’s name actually has Medieval Spanish and Portuguese roots.
He told her, “It derives from the word 'infante,' a title for the children of royals.”
The wholly appropriate meaning took Rihanna for a loop as well, as she responded, “Get out of here!... That is tripping me out.”
Fenty is owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH - the initials for Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
