It’s easy to dismiss the early aughts “It’s so bad it’s good” style revival as merely a flash in the pan, but as Rihanna proved last night, the throwback fashion moment has legs. Leaving her dentist appointment in Manhattan wearing a fire engine red Vetements x Juicy Couture tracksuit, the pop singer transformed the one-time uniform of “celebutantes” into an athleisure-inspired staple for the cool girl in the know. Rather than accessorizing with a pair of Ugg boots, she instead slung an oversize leather biker jacket over her shoulder and held on tight to a campy pair of red opera-length gloves. Zipped into a pair of metallic Vetements ankle booties and with gigantic diamond hoops dangling from her ears, Rihanna completely elevated the velour tracksuit from its mall roots.
Despite her more conceptual interpretation of the throwback tracksuit, Rihanna's two-piece attracted all the same kind of attention from the paparazzi that her style usually does. A telling sign that perhaps we'll be seeing more of this trend to come.