"When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that's the thrill in fashion"
About this Quote
Her attraction to "the most interesting silhouette" points to an old couture truth - shape is story. A silhouette announces power, playfulness, menace, glamour, belonging, refusal. When she says she looks for something "a little off", she’s naming the productive imbalance that makes style legible as style. Perfection reads like compliance; the slight wrongness reads like authorship. It signals taste that can withstand scrutiny because it isn’t trying to disappear into consensus.
The repetition of "I have to" is revealing. This isn’t casual dressing; it’s compulsion, discipline, even branding. "Make it me" is less about authenticity as purity and more about signature as ownership. For a pop figure whose image has been parsed, sexualized, and commodified, insisting on the final edit is a quiet power move: if you’re going to look, you’ll look at my terms.
Context matters: Rihanna is an artist-turned-mogul who’s rewritten the celebrity-fashion relationship, not just wearing clothes but shifting markets (Fenty, Savage X Fenty) and redefining who gets centered. The "thrill" she describes is the payoff of that risk - the moment when the gamble becomes a language only you can speak, and everyone else has to learn it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Rihanna: Living Out Loud (Rihanna, 2011)
Evidence: It’s become more about taking a risk. When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that’s a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that’s the thrill in fashion.. This quote appears verbatim in Vogue’s feature "Rihanna: Living Out Loud" (a Rihanna cover story promoted as being in Vogue’s April issue). Vogue.com shows the article as published about 15 years ago (consistent with 2011 for the April issue timeframe). This is a primary source (Rihanna quoted directly in an interview/profile), and is earlier than later quote-aggregator reposts. Other candidates (2) Positively Badass (Becca Anderson, 2022) compilation93.6% ... When I am putting looks together , I dare myself to make something work . I always look for the most interesting ... A Doll’s House (Act 3) (Henrik Ibsen, 1879) primary60.0% Song: "A Doll’s House (Act 3)" by Henrik Ibsen |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rihanna. (2026, February 22). When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that's the thrill in fashion. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-am-putting-looks-together-i-dare-myself-to-101643/
Chicago Style
Rihanna. "When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that's the thrill in fashion." FixQuotes. February 22, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-am-putting-looks-together-i-dare-myself-to-101643/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When I am putting looks together, I dare myself to make something work. I always look for the most interesting silhouette or something that's a little off, but I have to figure it out. I have to make it me. I think that's the thrill in fashion." FixQuotes, 22 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-i-am-putting-looks-together-i-dare-myself-to-101643/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.




