Rihanna says fashion has helped her personal ‘rediscovery’ after having children

Rihanna has told the BBC that being able to wear fashionable clothes in public again after having two children has led to a personal "rediscovery".

The singer revealed she got "too comfortable" wearing pyjamas and sweats after having her second son last year.

After having children, fashion becomes "the least important" thing, she said.

But, speaking at the launch party of her latest collaboration with Puma in London, she said dressing up "does something for you as a woman".

The multi-Grammy Award winner has two sons with rapper A$AP Rocky - RZA Athelaston Mayers, born in 2022, and Riot Rose Mayers, born in 2023.

"With the first pregnancy, I feel like I was able to wear heels all the way through," she said.

"But then with the second pregnancy, you have a toddler, a belly, it's winter, you have a coat, a baby bag. You're like, heels? Hmm, maybe not. That's why I got a little bit more creative with my comfortable style.

"And then I got too comfortable after I had my second kid and I just was in robes, PJs, sweats.

"And now I'm playing again. Now I'm having fun with my clothes."

The star attended the London launch on Wednesday, days after being spotted at the Coachella festival in California.

Returning to the spotlight and thinking about fashion again has given her "a rediscovery" and the licence "to even allow myself that space mentally to approach my closet and create stuff", she said.

"After a while when you have kids, you think, this is the dumbest [stuff], the least important. It really is the least important thing.

"But it does something for you as a woman, and as a mum that's important for us."

The star was praised for rewriting the rules for fashion when she was pregnant, refusing to wear conventional maternity clothes.

"I approached it like everything else I approach in fashion," she told BBC News. "I just want to do things my way. I just want to always stitch it up and put my own twist on it.

"But I just refused to buy maternity clothes, really and truly. I was like, whatever fits was what's going to work. And that made me challenge myself to get clever with style."

Refinery 29's Venesa Coger told the Guardian in 2022 that Rihanna had made "it OK to still enjoy the fashion styles you loved wearing prior to becoming pregnant".

The 36-year-old star has stepped away from music in recent years, last releasing an album in 2016.

It hasn't stopped her from becoming a self-made billionaire, and she is estimated to be worth $1.4bn (£1.12bn), according to Forbes.

Her income has mostly come from her make-up and skincare brand Fenty Beauty and lingerie brand Savage x Fenty.

She has appeared on a few tracks in recent years, including Lift Me Up in 2022, the lead single for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Soundtrack.

She revealed her second pregnancy during the 2023 Super Bowl half-time show, her first live performance in more than five years. It was seen by more than 121 million viewers, making it the event's most-watched half-time show in history.

Writing about Rihanna's maternity style, Vanessa Friedman said in The New York Times that she "has a history of consciously using her own physicality and profile to force a reconsideration of old prejudices and social conventions about female agency and beauty".

Many of her looks, both during and post-pregnancy, have given a nod to high fashion, but have been described in Glamour as "accessible" due to the use of everyday outfits.