Rihanna

Book excerpt: The official visual chronicle of the year’s “it” girl as she embarks on her first solo tour. The millions of sites tracking her every fashion move, the innumerable magazine covers including the recent ItalianVogueshot by Steven Klein, her past endorsement deals including Gucci and CoverGirl-Rihanna is the reigning style icon of the moment. She has garnered multiplatinum–selling success as an artist (her current album, her fourth,Rated Rhad the highest first-week sales of any of her other albums in the U.S. to date), including Grammys, MTV Video Music Awards, and countless other awards for her performances. Creative director Simon Henwood captures the supernova at the height of her beauty and ferocity in hundreds of photographs that track her enormous influence on current trends and interaction with the world of fashion-from her performances in the most cutting-edge couture (such as Gaultier and Chanel, as well as in pieces from museum collections), to her relationships with the unknown but up-and-coming designers she personally champions, to her fashion shoot with Ellen von Unwerth in Berlin for her album artwork. This is a visually arresting capsule of one of the world’s most talked-about artists of the year.