The Five Steps to Getting Rihanna's Style

Who Rihanna's style is for: Good girl's looking to go bad, vampy tomboys, future dominatrixs, glam rock & roll chicks. Read along to find out how to get it.

Get an Edgier Haircut... Obviously

A key factor of Rihanna's style is her haircut; because it gives even her most girly ensembles a slightly tomboyish edge which makes whatever she wears look that much cooler.

If your current hairstyle could be described as pretty or just plain boring - you have to get cooler hair to get Rihanna's look. The key is to get a style that stands out in a crowd for being cool, edgy, and slightly bad-ass.

A short pixie with full bangs would be ideal, but if you don't want to go so short or copy her hair exactly you still have other options.

Hair that's above the shoulders for Rihanna's style is best, because you can get edgy cuts with blunt angles or messy layers. You could also color your hair a bold black, an intense red, or a platinum blonde like Gwen Stefani. For those of you on the tamer side you can always just cut bangs.

Adopt a Cool Color Palette

Before Rihanna switched her style up, her wardrobe a few years ago consisted of a lot of random bright colors. But once her style went edgy her color palette became streamlined and slightly more sinister.

Now she practically lives in all black ensembles with the only color in her look coming from a touch of red or pink lipstick.

When she's not in all black you can expect her to be in an outfit that incorporates the color. She most often pairs white and black together in separate pieces, or in striped tops and accessories or graphic prints.

But Rihanna is not immune to color - she occasionally will wear other shades with black. They are usually either moody or bright colors - like magenta, plum, eggplant, emerald, denim blue, grass green, acid yellow, or neon pink - or they are neutral shades like gray, silver, bronze, brown, nude.

Every once in the while Rihanna lightens up and abandons the black altogether. Sometimes she'll wear all white, gray, silver, or tan ensembles, or combinations of the colors. And from time to time she'll add in a hint of color with soft shades of pale pink, sea foam green, sage, or pale blue.

Get Slightly Girly...

Even though it doesn't seem like it, Rihanna often wears pieces with lots of feminine details and some of her ensembles could even be described as girly. She's not afraid to wear lace or ruffles, polka dot and floral prints, hearts on her shoes, pearls around her neck, and even a tiara.

Rihanna even wears girly rompers, frilly mini skirts, and a ton of dresses. She's rocked everything from classic wraps, fitted sheaths, and Grecian styles, to trendy maxis, and mini dresses with bubble hems.

But Toughen Up...

While most girls would be fine wearing a pretty dress and calling it a day, Rihanna always goes the extra mile to make her ensembles unique by toughening them up with a masculine details or accessories (even if it's just her hair) which is what sets her style apart.

She usually goes for cool leather pieces - biker jackets, fingerless gloves, driving gloves, booties, leggings, etc. And she picks jackets with cool details like pronounced shoulders or hardware like zippers, studs and grommets.

She often wears jewelry with a hard vibe, favoring chunky pendants, bold rings, cuffs, and even studded bracelets, spiked earrings, and bold rectangular sunglasses.

Even Rihanna's jeans have a rough edge, because she often chooses acid washed ones with tears and rips, and her denim shorts usually look like they're cut-offs.

And Don't Be Afraid to Be a Vamp

Rihanna also isn't afraid to show off her sexy side - most of the time it's expressed in a dangerous "I want to be a dominatrix" sort of way.

She has worn thigh high black leather boots, corsets, bustiers, black leather leggings with web-like cut-outs, a rigid black top with cut-outs, a harness, dark red nails, and boots with fetish influences like lace-up knee high patent leather platforms.

Other times her sexiness is expressed in a more traditional way. Rihanna's not afraid to wear form-fitting clothes or those that show a little skin (though she usually just shows off one area - legs, cleavage, or stomach and leaves the rest covered). She's worn midriff revealing cropped tops, short shorts, mini skirts, as well as cardigans and short trench coats as dresses.

And often she's completely covered wearing a tank and jeans with pumps or Nikes and still comes across as sexy because of her sheer confidence.