Mr. White, who did not style Ms. Farris for Afropunk, but has also styled Megan Thee Stallion, Latto and Summer Walker, said: “Everyone has their own style and idea of what they’re comfortable with, but for her, I think she’s just a little bit freer and more open.”
“I don’t think she’s scared to do anything,” he added.
Ms. Farris turned the body shaming into positivity. In October, she asked her fans to post photos of themselves in their natural state, showing their natural bodies and natural hair. Many responded with photos and notes of solidarity and thankfulness. When she recalled the responses she received, Ms. Farris’s voice broke.
“I already get emotional when people say that my music helped them get through any type of situation in their lives,” she said, her eyes welling. She dabbed her tears with her palm, to avoid disrupting her precise eyeliner. “To see so many people and specifically Black women, see how I stood up for myself — it made them feel like I stood up for them.”
After she took to Twitter to defend herself, she received a direct message from Rihanna, one of her childhood idols.
“I was really on the battlefield,” Ms. Farris said. “I was really out there like fending for myself, like I am right in the midst of it all, then here comes Rihanna.”
She was already in negotiations to become an ambassador for Rihanna’s lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, she said, but their conversation accelerated the agreement. After her fitting for the “Dungarees” video shoot, Ms. Farris started getting ready for her first Savage x Fenty photo shoot.
To set the mood, she put on “Let It Show,” a song she had recorded the night before while on Instagram Live. Her bright voice rang out in the chorus over a bass-heavy beat from her iPhone speaker:
“Where my bad girls with a big belly?”
