NYFW goes silent for Rihanna at Alaïa

These days, New Yorkers have come to accept that Rihanna will most likely not be at the function – and that new music is probably not coming soon. (And good for her!) She’ll casually skip the Met Gala and barely pop out to New York Fashion Week unless Fenty is doing something, like in 2017 when she threw a blowout party for the brand’s launch. So when Rihanna does decide to make a NYFW appearance, it’s like time stands still. Last night, at Alaïa’s Spring/Winter 2025 show, she entered the Guggenheim Museum right before the models walked the runway, and the entire room went silent (except for the noise of people scrambling for their phones, of course).

The singer and businesswoman wore a pearl-encrusted bodysuit with a layered sheer mesh dress and strappy pearl sandals. Earlier in the day, she’d also worn an Alaïa baby pink teddy coat, a bustier dress, and another pair of wrap-around sandals for the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards, where she presented her friend Jahleel Weaver with the Magazine of the Year award. After wearing two back-to-back Alaïa fits, it’s clear Rihanna is as excited as we were that Pieter Mulier brought the French house back to New York for the first time since 1982. It was also the first fashion show to be held at the Guggenheim in the museum’s 85-year history.

Those who could actually focus on the show (and not too hypnotised by Rihanna’s crystals and pearls), saw an exploration of American beauty. “For me, American beauty means freedom, of body and of spirit,” Mulier said in the show notes. “And both for Alaïa and myself, America is a home away from home.” The collection – which included circles, squares, spirals of fabric wrapping the body, in double-face cashmere, fine knit, sculpted poplin and silk taffeta – was inspired by American sportswear’s ease and practicality, American fashion greats like Adrian, Halston, Charles James, and Claire McCardell, as well as both Alaïa and Mulier’s obsession with sculpture.

“This collection is about honouring tradition alongside modernity,” says Mulier. “It is a celebration of an American ideology of dress, and through that of a spirit that can unite New York and Paris – of the body in motion, liberated.” And what’s more uniting and liberating than Rihanna bringing the room into a shared (and shocked) moment of silence?