A thank you to Rihanna and her chipped manicure in her latest Vogue shoot

Rihanna styled herself for this Vogue photoshoot. Photo / Instagram/Vogue Italia

OPINION:

All hail Queen RiRi, who this month did more for exhausted women's self-confidence than any expensive concealer or cucumber face mask could ever do.

Rihanna is on the cover of this month's issue of Vogue in Italy with a self-styled shoot that combines fiercely glamorous looks with something I wear quite a lot myself too, albeit unintentionally: an utterly terrible manicure.

The Grammy award winner is on the cover of the "Do It Yourself" issue of Vogue Italia and, in tune with the theme, she styled her own photoshoot, so it's a fair assumption to say her chipped nails are all her idea.

Rihanna is busy. Rihanna uses her hands, maybe hand-washes a few dishes here and there. Rihanna is tired. Rihanna cannot be bothered keeping impeccable nails.

Rihanna is all of us.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri)

In a world of immaculate made-up looks on social media, her imperfect manicure on the pages of the world's most iconic fashion magazine is something to write about.

Whether that is the message she is trying to send or not is irrelevant. You take from it what you want. And I'm taking from it that not only are my chipped nails okay, they can even be trendy.

As someone who can't afford the money, time or patience required to get professional manicures, I wholeheartedly approve the adoption of this new trend.

Here's something I'm finally legitimately able to say I was doing before it was cool. I'm such an early adopter of this fashion trend, I usually chip my manicure while I'm still doing it, as I use the flimsy wands to brush my nails with $4.99 nail polish I impulse-bought out of boredom, waiting for my prescription at the pharmacy.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri)

When you think about it, bringing the chipped mani back into fashion is a predictable step in pandemic fashion. In New Zealand we get the luxury of forgetting this but, for most of the rest of the world, getting a professional manicure is either a risk or an impossibility at the moment.

There are a lot of bad early-noughties trends making a comeback but this is one I can get behind.

I'm no complete idiot - just your average run-of-the-mill idiot, so I know Rihanna's chipped nails in these photos are a carefully crafted look that probably took an awfully long amount of time to style that way (although, RiRi, if you want tips on how to do it super quick, give me a call).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vogue Italia (@vogueitalia)

Regardless, intentional or not, these chipped nails are a good thing. They're a stance against the pressure on women to always look their best, perfectly made up to mask their exhaustion (to the point all that work has been repackaged as "self care" and "pampering" to make it sound like something they should feel good doing).

Fixing my chipped manicure was on my list of things to do today but, you know what, I think I'll wait. I've got pans to scrub and surfaces to wipe so I think I'll keep my Rihanna nails.

It's called fashion, look it up.

via GIPHY