Shortly after announcing her retirement from music, Nicki Minaj is slated to release her new Fendi capsule collection.
The Queens native spoke to Elle Magazine about Fendi Prints On, her new collaboration with the luxury fashion house. A line from her single "Chun-Li" inspired the name.
The 36-year-old isn’t the type to stamp her name on something. The rapper said she made sure the collection was authentic.
Minaj said she was adamant about including the color hot pink because she knew “everybody’s going to be like, ‘Where’s the pink, bitch?’”
The "Super Bass" rapper said she was intentional about making the clothing accessible for all of her Barbz.
“If I’m going to do Fendi,” she explained. “I want to feel like I’m back in Southside Jamaica, Queens, New York, wearing Fendi. I don’t only want to be front row rocking my Fendi; I want to be in the hood rocking my Fendi, too.”
She knows the price point is steep for some, but she encourages her fans to be smart about their finances.
“I totally know that there are a lot of people who think that they can’t afford Fendi, and those are going to be some of our new customers because they’re going to go and get the sneaker, or the hat, or the T-shirt,” Minaj said. “If you love your fashion, then sometimes you save up for certain things that you really love.”
Minaj also designed the clothes to fit curvy women like herself. She said the line is “for everyone who wants to show skin. We all go to the beach, we all get sexy, we all have sex, we all bust it open!”
Even superstars have insecurities and want to feel sexy.
“What I want [to tell] girls is not necessarily, ‘Go and gain weight and have a big booty,’ but ‘If you do have curves, be proud of it, flaunt it—love the skin you’re in,’” she declared. “As clichéd as that sounds, I’ve been really trying to teach myself that. This is who I am; take me or leave me, bye!”
Curating this collection is a full-circle moment for Minaj, who came up with the tagline while she was freestyling.
“I ended up saying, ‘Fendi prints on,’ just freestyling. I didn’t write that lyric down; I was just having fun,” she shared.
Minaj ended up wearing Fendi for the single’s cover.
“I can’t believe that when I was doing that little picture that day, with the Fendi jacket and Fendi panties on,” she continued. “I didn’t think that the actual company would think that that was dope. To know that they liked it that much, and now it’s on a T-shirt, is so iconic to me.”
She worked with former Fendi creative director Karl Lagerfeld for her July 2018 Elle cover. Lagerfeld gave the “Megatron” artist his blessing before he died in February. During the planning stages, she thought of her friend.
“We all were super emotional because we were talking about Karl,” she said. “I just wish he’d gotten a chance to see this come full circle, because I remember how supportive he was of me on the [ELLE] shoot, and it made me feel really good.”
Page Six reported Fendi Prints On will launch online on October 14 and in stores two days later.
