Rihanna Turns Dior Into a Full-Body Mood for ELLE’s September Issue
Photo: Inez & Vinoodh for ELLE · Styling: Jahleel Weaver
Queen of music, beauty, business and casually making a fashion image look like it has its own gravitational pull: Rihanna covers the September 2026 issue of ELLE, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh and styled by longtime collaborator Jahleel Weaver.
The issue frames Rihanna as “our forever muse”, with writer Roxane Gay tracing the particular kind of cultural magnetism that has followed her from music into beauty, fashion and motherhood. There is no big album-announcement bait-and-switch here; the feature is interested in Rihanna as a presence — somebody who can disappear from the usual celebrity churn, reappear on her own terms and still instantly bend the room around her.
Dior, J’adore Intense and a Very Rihanna Kind of Power
The fashion story is dressed in Dior throughout, tying into Rihanna’s latest chapter as the face and muse of Dior J’adore Intense. ELLE notes that her relationship with the house stretches back years: in 2015, she became Dior’s first Black ambassador, and the September feature pushes that connection into a moodier, more stripped-back visual language.
Across the portfolio, the clothes swing from sculptural headpieces and sharply controlled black looks to richer texture and volume, while the beauty direction keeps Rihanna unmistakably Rihanna. Jawara handled hair using Fenty Hair, Hector Espinal created the makeup with Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin, and Kim Truong handled the manicure.
Gay’s feature also places the fashion moment inside the bigger Rihanna machine: Fenty Beauty, Savage X Fenty, fragrance, family life and the still-hovering question of when music comes next. The answer remains hers to give. Which, frankly, might be the most Rihanna thing about the entire story.
Inside Rihanna’s September 2026 ELLE Fashion Portfolio
Photographed by Inez & Vinoodh and styled by Jahleel Weaver, the September portfolio places Rihanna in Dior throughout, moving between stark black-and-white portraiture, the issue’s “Forever Muse” cover and richly textured fashion frames.
Source: ELLE — September 2026 cover story by Roxane Gay; photography by Inez & Vinoodh; styling by Jahleel Weaver.
