Rihanna is a queen for many reasons—her bops, her IDGAF attitude, and her constant array of fashionable outfits among them—but one that perhaps deserves the most applause is the level of inclusivity she's brought to the beauty and fashion landscape with her Fenty brand.
When Fenty Beauty launched in 2017, it included one of the widest range of shades in foundations and concealers the industry had ever seen. Soon other companies followed suit by expanding their own offerings. Rihanna followed that with her Savage x Fenty lingerie fashion show, which was praised for featuring women with all different types of bodies. Now, as Rihanna launches her brand-new luxury fashion venture, Fenty, fans have noticed yet another way she is making a statement.
In an image released for the collection, a model's facial scars are completely visible with no evidence of the retouching that was once the industry norm. Take a look:
Naturally, the social media response was overwhelmingly positive.
"I love that the images used on Fenty are not retouched, and that the models skin is not perfect by societal standards," one fan wrote on Twitter. "Wow! As a girl with scars, this really touches my heart. I’ve never had any reason to feel less terrible about my scars until seeing this," another said.
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The model, Awen Mayen Chuol, has previously spoken out about her scars. "I don’t know if you’ve seen images of me, but I have a lot of facial scars,” she told Dazed and Confused last year. “People tell me I look like a jaguar or that I’m ‘exotic,’” she says. “Sometimes I just want to shout at everyone: ‘Look at me, I’m not just a scar, I’m a human.’ But I get it, it’s a curiosity. I know I’m different, I know my facial features are different, but to me that’s beauty.”
The good news: While Fenty is leading the push for more inclusivity, it's not the only brand to show unretouched images. In 2018 CVS announced that ads in its stores would be Photoshop-free; beauty brand Urban Decay has also started to use unretouched images on Instagram. Let's hope even more follow Rihanna and her Fenty brands' lead to change the norms in beauty and fashion.
