THE QUEEN CONQUERS FASHION
NICKI MINAJ HAS TEAMED UP ON AN OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD FASHION COLLABORATION
Nicki Minaj turns designer.
IN A BLACK CROP TOP and leggings, padding around her house during a wardrobe fitting, Nicki Minaj is a low-key host. So laid-back, in fact, that as she offers everyone water, it’s hard not to think, “Did I really just meet the Nicki Minaj?” But to see her the next day, as she dramatically poses for Steven Klein’s camera, is to Get It. Flanked by male models, she’s wearing a pink swimsuit that curves around her body like a NASCAR track and a matching hooded jacket. She is transformed. She is Queen. She is, to quote the virtuoso verse that imprinted her on the world’s consciousness, a motherfucking monster.
As for the clothes she’s wearing (along with those on the models around her), they’re part of her collection Fendi Prints On – a 127-piece collaboration with the esteemed Italian fashion house that has just launched and caters to women, men and even children. Minaj has a history with the brand. Last year, she appeared on the cover of ELLE US, in a shoot by the late Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi’s then-creative director. It was a busy time for Minaj, but she jumped at the chance to make it happen. “He was always someone I wanted to work with, and I was just counting down the moments,” she says. And her impression of Lagerfeld? “He wasn’t as serious as I thought he would be. He was focused, but not mean. And he was so interesting to just watch in his habitat.”
Cut to a recording studio “at three, four, five o’clock in the morning”. Minaj started freestyling over a beat that became the basis for her song “Chun-li”. “I ended up saying, ‘Fendi prints on.’ I didn’t write that lyric down; I was just having fun.” The refrain made its way onto the track. On the cover of the single, Minaj wore a Fendi logo bomber jacket with matching vintage Fendi bikini briefs. The seeds of the collaboration were sown. “I can’t believe that when I was doing that little picture that day,
with the Fendi jacket and Fendi panties on... I didn’t think the actual company would think that was dope,” she marvels. “To know that they liked it that much, and now it’s on a T-shirt, is so iconic to me.”
Wearing head-to-toe double Fs is a dream come true for Minaj. “Certain brands have always been sought after, because we’d hear rappers rap about them all our lives, and we think that these brands signify some sort of success in life. And then, when you’re able to actually afford them, it feels like, ‘Wow, I’ve accomplished one of my goals, at least in the fashion world.’ Now, looking back, I don’t think brands make me successful, but I do think there are certain ones out there, like Fendi, that make women feel glamorous.” She’s drawn to the logo because “it’s super-confident. It’s like, ‘I don’t give a fuck what you feel about it, this is what I’m rocking.’ Hip-hop embodies that cockiness.”
Minaj has walked the talk: she wore a Fendi Mania logo look to the brand’s SS19 show last September, and in March she was invited to the house’s Rome headquarters. “What we liked about Nicki is that she plays with feminine codes, but from her point of view, which is that of an independent, successful woman,” Fendi’s creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi says. “She talks about being strong and getting what you want, and I think it’s liberating for women.”
Minaj had very specific ideas when it came to design. There had to be hot pink – her signature shade – as well as bodyconscious pieces that showcase curves. “I want to make clothes that make girls with my body look sexy,” she says. “We’re in a new time, where you don’t have to feel bad if you’re not the tiniest you’ve ever been. Women struggle with that so much, because we’ll go back to old pictures and be like, ‘I used to be so skinny!’ and we start making ourselves feel bad. What I want [to tell] girls is that if you do have curves, be proud of it, flaunt it – love the skin you’re in. I’ve been really trying to teach myself that. ‘This is who I am; take me or leave me, bye!’”
Minaj also felt strongly about including accessible pieces. “I don’t only want to be front row rocking my Fendi; I want to be in the hood rocking my Fendi, too,” she says. Thus the collection includes more approachable pieces like T-shirts and sneakers, made specifically with her fans in mind. “I know there are a lot of people who think they can’t afford Fendi, and those are going to be some of our new customers, because they’re going to get the sneaker, or the hat, or the T-shirt. If you love your fashion, then sometimes you save up for certain things you really love.”
Minaj has been quick to post some of the looks on Instagram, including a video of herself wearing a hot pink jacket that riffs on her “Chun-li” cover outfit, netting more than 14 million views. “She really wanted it to be something that she could wear,” Venturini Fendi says of the collection. “She’s going to wear it in real life – it’s not just something that bears her name and that’s it.”
While Lagerfeld sadly didn’t get to see the collaboration come to fruition, he championed the project. “I just wish he’d gotten a chance to see this come full circle, because I remember how supportive he was of me on the [ELLE US] shoot,” Minaj says. The designer was on her mind as she promoted the collection. “I definitely was thinking, ‘Would he be proud of this look? Would he be proud of this pose?’” she says.
Asked whether she’d ever launch her own fashion line, Minaj, who’s currently working on a new album that she calls “fierce, fun and unapologetic”, doesn’t hold back: “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! The Fendi collection made me feel like I would love to continue doing this – getting to that boss status. That’s where I would like to take fashion, for sure.”