After being named Forbes’s richest female musician in the world, the singer’s Savage X Fenty lingerie line is now worth $1 billion. A second round of funding for the fashion line secured $115 million, Forbes said. L Catterton, a private equity firm that fashion house LVMH has a stake in, is taking a percentage of the line.
“Following the completion of the fundraising round where L Catterton took a stake in Savage X Fenty, LVMH and Rihanna reaffirmed their ambition to concentrate on the growth and the long-term development of Fenty ecosystem focusing on cosmetics, skincare, and lingerie,” LVMH and Rihanna said in a statement to WWD.
Rihanna’s lingerie line that was launched in 2018 posted revenue growth of more than 200% in 2020, the year that loungewear and lingerie saw a spike in sales due to the lockdown. The line’s VIP membership also shot up by more than 150% establishing the Savage x Fenty brand as a force to be reckoned with in the $13.1 billion women’s underwear industry in the U.S.
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This comes as no surprise as projections indicate the “Work” singer’s lingerie line is pegged to be the global market leader by 2025. In that same year, the value of women’s activewear is expected to hit $216.9 billion and the mogul has her eyes set on the activewear industry.
One of the major things that get people drawn to the LVMH backed brand is that it has proven to be an option for a more diverse group of women as it has a wide array of sizes, easily accessible and its marketing strategies could lead to “an even greater goal, equity in feeling sexy.”
The nine-time Grammy Award winner had an $85 million stake in her popular lingerie line and now that the value has shot up, Forbes estimates her stake to be around $375 million.
This news comes barely a week after Riri’s Fenty fashion house was shut down by LVMH barely two years of its launch in anticipation of better conditions.
The release of the Fenty fashion label made Rihanna the first Black woman to create a Luxury Brand with Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (LVMH) and it was the first time Chief Executive Officer of LVMH Bernard Arnault launched a brand under the parent company of Louis Vuitton from scratch since Christian Lacroix in 1987.
Fashion analysts believe that the prices may have been too steep for consumers despite Rihanna’s huge following.
“Celebrity-originated brands can be very popular very quickly, but their staying power is questionable,” Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said. “The risk is that they end up being a flash in the pan.”
