Today, Rihanna is golden. Her hair is long and honey-caramel, with face-framing layers cut to highlight her cheekbones and famous cupid’s bow. Strands of champagne pearls climb up her swan-like neck, likely an homage to a highly coveted necklace from her own collection designed by John Galliano for Dior in the 2000s. And then there’s the room she’s in—Versailles’s gilded Hall of Mirrors—reflecting a resplendent shimmery aura around her, not like she really needs it. It’s absolutely fitting for the moment: the singer, actor, entrepreneur, mother of two, and so much more is officially the new face and muse of Dior’s J’adore fragrance.
The J’adore scent has long been special to Ri and the entire Fenty family, starting with her mother, Monica. “My mother worked in a perfume shop,” she tells Vogue exclusively. “She used to always bring home the J’adore testers when they were almost empty, so there was always a bottle in the house. I have always loved this perfume.”
The newest iteration of J’adore is L’Or de J’adore, crafted by Armenian fragrance wunderkind Francis Kurkdjian, who joined the house as perfume creation director in 2021. He describes it as “sunshine hitting the curve of a shoulder” while at a park in bloom: a bouquet of jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, and violet.
Rihanna has long been a fan of Dior. She was the house’s first Black ambassador, and whispers of a potential collaboration first started in January when the singer made her return to Couture Week at the Dior couture spring 2024 show (and yes, that’s where she told Natalie Portman she was a “bad bitch”). Next, eagle-eyed Navy members (that’s what Rihanna stans call themselves) spotted the star at Versailles earlier this summer—that’s when the campaign was shot with longtime friend Steven Klein.
“Versailles is enchanting,” she says of her time there. “Everything is astonishingly beautiful. It embodies so much history and the magnitude of French luxury. Being able to wander around there early in the morning was a privilege and a breathtaking experience from beginning to end.”
The J’adore campaign builds on a 25-year-long legacy, previously graced by lustrous faces Carmen Kass and Charlize Theron. Rihanna describes the J’adore woman as “beautiful, strong, sexy, and resilient at the same time.” And it goes without saying, all of these things are emblematic of the shade gold. “J’adore is closely connected to gold, through its color, its bottle, and its image. Nowhere else in the world could you be surrounded by as much gold as Versailles. It is a dream in gold!”