Rihanna is the kind of person who texts you in the middle of the night when she has a stroke of genius before going to bed.

I know this not because I know her, but because designer Adam Selman told me. And he knows her better than most. Selman worked as the Grammy winner and mogul’s stylist for many years, creating some of her most recognizable custom looks, like the shimmering naked dress she wore to the 2014 CFDAs, where she famously received the Style Icon Award and in her acceptance speech talked about fashion having been a defense mechanism for her growing up: “She could beat me, but she cannot beat my outfit.” (Even 10 years later, no one can.)

Selman went on to create his own eponymous brand, which he closed in 2019. In 2022, Rihanna came calling to see if he would come on board as the chief design officer for her lingerie brand, Savage × Fenty. “When Rihanna calls,” he told me on a recent Zoom call, “I pick up. Every time.”

He also never leaves her on read when she texts, which Selman and Savage × Fenty CEO Hillary Super, on the same call, tell me she does often. Recently, the three have been in constant communication about the brand’s next chapter, Soft N’ Savage.

Rihanna teased the rebrand this morning on Instagram, with a video of herself walking around a room in a simple brown bra and underwear, layered underneath a long fur coat. Her voice can be heard over the camcorder-sH๏τ footage, speaking in a tantalized, teasing whisper, “My body … my feeling … my being … my flavor … my freedom … my love … my move … my ease … my people … my sensation.”