Beauty

Rihanna's First Dior J'Adore Ad Is Here & It’s A Gilded-Gold Dream

We can’t stop watching on repeat.

by Faith Xue
Rihanna for Dior J'Adore
Steven Klein

If you were to pull up a time capsule of the early 2000s, there’d be a few fragrances in there — Victoria’s Secret Love Spell, Clinique Happy, Gap Dream — but none as glamorous as Dior’s J’Adore. The gold-gilded fragrance was first launched in 1999, but officially secured its place in history (and on every woman’s vanity) when Charlie Theron was named the face in 2003. Who can forget the television ads of her dripping in molten gold lava, gliding through hallways, saying iconic things like, “Gold is cold, diamonds are dead, a limousine is just a car”?

Dior announced Rihanna as the new face of its signature fragrance back in June, and this weekend, the long-anticipated video lensed by Steven Klein finally dropped — and it was worth waiting for. The video opens with a sweeping aerial shot of Versailles, which has been bathed in a golden light. Rihanna emerges in a black trench, cinched in the classic New Look silhouette, baseball hat, and oversized sunglasses (all designed by Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, of course).

She grabs a bottle of J’Adore from inside a safe and instantly transforms. The trench comes off and reveals a glistening gold corseted gown, Nerfititi-esque choker, and strappy gold stilettos. She stalks through the Hall of Mirrors like its her very own catwalk, glancing at the camera with a seductive look, giving off some serious “ruin your life” energy. And it wouldn’t be a J’Adore ad without a water-as-molten-gold moment: but instead of emerging from the water like in past advertisements, Rihanna seems to walk — nay, stomp — on top of it. The message is clear: The J’Adore woman is powerful. The laws of physics will not stop her! She is a goddess, commanding air, water, fire to her every whim.

The video ends with Rihanna gazing into the camera, wind whipping her luscious honeyed hair, leaving us with this statement: “Your dreams. Make them real.” And just like that, nature is healed. Laziness is banished. We are all suddenly filled with an overwhelming desire to pursue our dreams and make them our reality. Thank you, Mother.

Watch the new Dior J’Adore video with Rihanna below.