Remember Rihanna’s Revealing, Crystal-Embellished Gown? There’s More Where That Came From

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To many of you reading this, the name “Adam Selman” probably doesn’t ring a bell. But how about Rihanna’s nipples? Does that ring a bell? And don’t even try to tell me it doesn’t because I KNOW it does. Specifically, this number:

If you recall this outfit (and I know you do), then you know Adam Selman, because he’s the man behind this dress. Both figuratively and, in the case of the picture above, literally: he’s the man standing behind the dress. I bet you’ve heard of the type of crystals that adorned the dress too — Swarovski. And sure, that could have something to do with the fact that Swarovski is the only crystal company anyone has ever heard of, but I like to think it’s because you all know a lot more about fashion than you care to admit.


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Adam used 230,000 Swarovski crystals for this dress, to be exact. And though it was certainly this dress that propelled him to the front of everyone’s fashion radars, he did exist before this too. It’s similar to how your parents had lives before they had you — a hard concept to wrap your head around, but nonetheless true.

It was 2011 when Mel Ottenberg — Rihanna’s longtime stylist — brought Adam Selman on to help design Rihanna’s costumes. (I can’t say what Adam was doing before 2011; up until 2011, he may as well have been dead to me.) Things like Rihanna’s pineapple bikini that she wore in her Vita Coco ads and the white dress she wore to the premiere of Battleship are among Adam’s many creations for Rihanna. Adam has his own label too: Adam Selman, which came out with its first collection in Autumn/Winter 2013. But in light of his most recent success, it’s only fitting that Adam chose to do his first runway show this year during New York Fashion Week.

And though it looked nothing like Rihanna’s CFDA gown, his collection still impressed. Naming Harumi Yamaguchi and Jane Birkin as his predominate influences, Adam’s collection featured Pajama-style shirts, kittenish dresses and bathing suits, and lots of pearls — on chokers, hanging off of string bikinis, and covering t-shirts.

Personally, I’m most excited for his white baby-doll dress, which Rihanna showed up to his show wearing (after the show was over, obvi).

Taking cues from the designer, she paired it with a long pearl necklace, and now it’s suddenly come to my attention that my wardrobe is conspicuously lacking in pearls. BRB, gotta go ransack my mother’s jewelry box!