Between the Spreads: Settling the Rihanna-Ciara Twitter War
Mar 01, 2011 - by Lester Brathwaite
The Twitterverse was all...a-twitter this weekend over the 5-minute war launched between two titanesses of R&B, Ciara and Rihanna. The fur went flying after Ciara paid a visit with Joan Rivers on E!' s Fashion Police and mentioned a recent unpleasant encounter she had with RiRi. Then Rihanna set out to prove how unpleasant she can really be, in 140 characters or less.
@rihanna: My bad ci, did I 4get to tip u? #howrudeofme
[@LesFabian: Ouch. #bitch]
@rihanna: U gangsta huh? Haaa
@ciara: Trust me Rihanna you don't want to see me on or off the stage.
@rihanna: Good luck with bookin that stage u speak of
[@LesFabian: Oh snap! #BURN]
@ciara: pure comedy...
[@LesFabian: #nocomeback]
@rihanna: Ciara baby, I love u girl! U hurt my feelings real bad on TV! I'm heartbroken! That's y I retaliated this way! So sorry!
[@LesFabian: How...sweet... #lyingherfaceoff]
@ciara: Rhi, u know its always been love since day 1! Doing shows and everything. You threw me off in that party! Apology accepted. Let's chat in person.
[@LesFabian: Translation: Bitch, wait til I twist my fingers through that troll doll hair. #illcutabitch]
Things have calmed down dramatically since then, but whenever divas duel it out in the public arena, there is an inevitable choosing of sides and bitter argument over who's better, blah, blah blah.
Well, since I live for these moments, I've decided the only logical way to determine who is the baddest bitch on the block (clearly not including Beyoncé who could blink and take out both of them) is to compare both RiRi's and CiCi's editorials from European Vogues... naturally.
Rihanna covered Vogue Italia's special couture supplement in 2009, shot by the incredible Steven Klein and styled by Patti Wilson:
Then last year, Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci styled Ciara for a Vogue Paris shoot with the dynamic duo of Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
For me, the answer is clear. Ciara's editorial easily trumps Rihanna's, achieving a poetic and sensual beauty that's more effective than the hard, technical sexuality of the Klein shoot. Which is not to say that both spreads aren't great, but Ciara possesses a grace and classic beauty that makes her actually look like a model and not just a moonlighting popstar in it for some free couture.
Plus, she totally gets extra points because Riccardo said this about her:
"Ciara is like a black Betty Page. A very refined hip hop queen. Although she is American, she has a sort of European class, a Parisian chic."
Musing for Givenchy beats out openly stealing from David LaChappelle any day of the week.


















