Rihanna’s show was the talk of the town last night when she debuted her collection, FentyxPuma, on Wall Street to a packed house. The collection was well-received and RiRi no doubt is pleased (and we bet Puma is pretty happy, too). But who helped her along the way before the collection hit the runway? Meet Melissa Battifarano, Rihanna’s design director for FentyxPuma. Affectionately referred to as Mel B by friends in the industry, Battifarano was a Puma veteran who was lured back to the company to help Rihanna realize her vision. Prior, she was busy designing Tory Burch’s first-ever collection for Tory Sport. We caught up with Battifarano at the packed show to see what it’s like working with Rihanna on one of the buzziest collections of the season.
This is a really big moment for you!
I know. This week has been a dream come true—just seeing all the clothes come to fruition. We worked with Tom [Van Dorpe], who styled the show, and just seeing him put all the looks together is just amazing. When Ri [Rihanna] came last night and gave her final input…I was almost in tears. It’s been so, so exciting.
What’s it like seeing Rihanna put her vision into this line?
It’s her collection, so it’s all about her. She always gives the right input. It’s clothing that I’ve designed for her, but it’s really her vision. But it’s been a very collaborative process. I’ve worked with her for the past year on this, so I really know what pieces are important to her so we can style them out. When she came in last night she was like, “OK Mel, where is the Ottoman rib dress? Where’s the crop bra?”
What kind of design directives did she give you?
She wanted to show more body, more sex appeal, more skin. We had all of those pieces, but we layered them a bit differently to accentuate that. It’s the right input—because it should be a balance of body-wear mixed with oversized proportions. That’s really her.
What was the design process like?
Ri has a really busy schedule, as you can imagine. Initially, I designed a few collections that were more sportswear-inspired, meaning things that you could wear to the gym. She said, “This is not me. I want something more luxurious. I want more fabrics.” I threw those collections out the window. We upped the fabric content and looked to Italy and Japan. We found really beautiful fur in Italy, so that’s how the whole range of fur in the collection happened. We have really beautiful bonded velvet, grey heather jersey, and the fur really held those full shapes.
Was she involved in casting?
DM Fashion Studio handled the casting, but she was very, very involved in the whole process. She was sending us pictures of the girls and guys that she wanted in the show. It’s her baby. It’s been wonderful collaborating with her on this process. She really has a specific point of view.
How did you get tapped for the project?
It’s interesting—I actually used to work with Puma 10 years ago and my old boss is still there, so when they approached Ri about doing this range, he called me. I was at Tory Burch at the time doing Tory Sport. I was happy there and I have a great relationship with Tory, but this project just seemed really cool and a little bit more me. So I met Ciarra, who has been working with Ri forever, and that interview went great. Then I met Ri and she looked at my book and references and we just kind of hit it off.
What’s your favorite look from the line?
There’s a lot of favorite looks, but I think the last look on Gigi [Hadid].
Will this be ongoing?
There are a few more collections down the line.
