LOS ANGELES — A fashion show showcasing pop star and entrepreneur Rihanna’s lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, which includes several BDSM lifestyle items, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming.
The 2020 Emmy Award nominations announced this week included a nod for the Savage x Fenty fashion show, prerecorded with a live audience for Amazon Prime, in a category that also includes “So You Think You Can Dance” and the Oscars telecast.
“The Savage x Fenty show was really more than a fashion show,” explained Vogue’s Brooke Bobb. “Filmed inside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, it [showcased] musical and dance performances featuring Halsey, Migos, DJ Khaled, and others, along with supermodels like Bella and Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne. Laverne Cox also made an appearance on the stage-slash-runway, as did Rihanna herself. Most importantly, it was a show about empowerment and body positivity with a diverse cast that wore its lingerie with intoxicating pride.”
The only fashion show previously nominated for Emmys until this week has been the Victoria’s Secret show, which has been indefinitely cancelled.
“It’s not only ironic that Savage x Fenty was hailed as the new, much-needed and more progressive Victoria’s Secret show,” Vogue wrote, “but also that the nomination comes at a moment when the industry as a whole is completely rethinking the traditional runway-show model.”
Part of this progressive outlook is Savage x Fenty’s low-key embracing of the BDSM lifestyle, in the form of items like whips and paddles offered on their website, under the slogan “Kink it up a notch.”
“Rihanna's brand may be best known for its lingerie, but it also sells some pretty kinky sex accessories in the Savage Xcessories category,” wrote Cosmopolitan this week.
“We're talking riding crops, floggers and whips and even a vegan leather spanking paddle,” Cosmo continued. “She's also got anyone covered who likes to tie [or] be tied up with [a] restraint kit.”
The BDSM inclusivity is on-brand for Rhianna, whose 2010 album “Loud” included the song ”S&M,” with the lyrics, “I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it / Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it” and “sticks and stones may break my bones / But chains and whips excite me."
