Savage X Fenty

Savage X Fenty is an American lingerie brand launched on May 11, 2018, by the singer and entrepreneur Rihanna in a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group, the Los Angeles e-commerce company. It sells bras, underwear, lingerie sets, sleepwear and loungewear online and in its own stores, and it reached a valuation of about $1 billion in 2021.

An Instagram launch and a Brooklyn pop-up

The brand did not buy a traditional launch campaign. Pre-launch marketing ran on Rihanna's own Instagram account, and on launch day the website went live alongside a pop-up shop in Brooklyn. The debut collection sold out within a month.

The pairing with TechStyle was practical. TechStyle had built JustFab and Fabletics on a membership model, with monthly offers and member pricing, and Savage X Fenty adopted a similar VIP membership. That choice later brought trouble, covered below.

A different idea of the customer

From the start the casting was the message. Campaigns and runway shows used models of many sizes, skin tones and gender identities, at a time when Victoria's Secret still built its business around a narrow, televised ideal. The products themselves were conventional lingerie: lace plunge bras, unlined balconettes, mesh bodysuits, thongs and high-cut briefs, in a wider size range than most mass brands then offered.

The shows

The first Savage X Fenty show was staged during New York Fashion Week in September 2018, with Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid and Slick Woods among the models. The second, in 2019, became a filmed production, "Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 1", released on Amazon Prime Video on September 20. Vol. 2 followed on October 2, 2020, and included breast cancer survivors as part of an awareness campaign. Vol. 3 premiered on September 24, 2021. All of them were choreographed by Parris Goebel.

The format was a pointed reply to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which network television stopped broadcasting after 2018. Where the older show was a parade of angel wings, Rihanna's productions were closer to a music video, with dancers, performers and celebrities moving through elaborate sets.

Money and recognition

Fast Company named Savage X Fenty one of the ten most innovative style companies in 2020. In 2021 the brand was valued at about $1 billion. A January 2022 round led by Neuberger Berman added $125 million, and Abu Dhabi's Multiply Group invested $25 million the same year. In March 2022 Forbes reported that the company was weighing a public listing that could value it at about $3 billion. No listing has taken place.

Stores and a settlement

In January 2022 Rihanna announced that the brand would open physical stores, with the first five planned for Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The membership model caught up with it the same year. Savage X Fenty agreed to a $1.2 million settlement over deceptive practices in its VIP program, made up of $1 million in civil penalties, $150,000 in restitution and $50,000 in investigative costs.

New management

In June 2023 Rihanna stepped down as chief executive and became executive chair. Her replacement was Hillary Super, the former chief executive of Anthropologie Group. Super stayed a little over a year. In September 2024 she left to become chief executive of Victoria's Secret, succeeding Martin Waters, a move widely reported to include a pay package worth about $18 million.

That hire tells its own story. The executive picked to revive Victoria's Secret was the one who had been running the brand built as its opposite. By 2024 the two companies were selling similar lace in similar size ranges with similar casting, which is a fair measure of how far Savage X Fenty moved the market in six years.

Design and leadership today

Philippa Price has served as the brand's creative director, and Rihanna remains its founder and public face. The range now takes in sleepwear and loungewear as well as bras and briefs, but the core is still the lace set in a color that would have been called daring in a department store in 2017 and is now routine.

Last updated October 7, 2026