Remunerating Rita

The chart-topping Londoner is on a roll, signing seven-figure deals with superbrands and cosying up with Jay-Z and Madonna. Is there no stopping Rita Ora?
Meteoric rise: Rita Ora
23 April 2014

Less than two years since releasing her debut album Ora, Rita has not messed around. Between being Cara D’s ‘wifey’, Calvin Harris’ girlfriend and Jay-Z’s protégée, she’s become a bona fide business mogul quicker than you can say R.I.P. Here’s the skinny on Rita’s riches:

SNEAKER PIMP

Speculation is rife that Rita is designing a collection for Adidas, having cut a £1.5 million deal with the sports brand. She’s joining stars such as Stella McCartney, Jeremy Scott, Raf Simons and David Beckham in being given free rein to create a line.

ALL MADE UP

The glam 22-year-old’s beauty collection for Rimmel London will hit shops in February, following in the footsteps of Kate Moss. The capsule range will be a ‘mash-up’ of catwalk and high street — and will draw on her London upbringing. We can only hope it’s not named after her hit song ‘Facemelt’.

NY STATE OF MIND

DKNY has enlisted Ms O for its resort 2014 campaign. Dare we wonder if this contributed to that spat with Cara this summer, when she replaced the top model as the face of the brand? Rita even made a surprise appearance closing DKNY’s catwalk show in New York in September, stealing the limelight from Karlie Kloss, who also walked in the show. Rita said: ‘I always thought that maybe one day I could be one of those girls.’ #HumbleBrag

SUPERGAl

Not everyone’s an Ora adorer. We can’t imagine Alexa Chung was best pleased when she swiped her gig for Italian shoe brand Superga, becoming its fizzog (and feet) for spring/summer 2013. Her sparkly lamé pumps were paired with chic dresses in the ad campaign, meaning that she singlehandedly made it OK for glamazons to wear flats.

CHANEL HOPING

Last month Rita was whisked off to gay Paris with her special friend Cara D (they’re friends again; keep up), where Karl Lagerfeld swathed her in Chanel for what fashionistas think could be her very own Chanel campaign. NO WAY! Don’t you have to be like, properly, majorly famous for that?! Oh... right. Rita added the hashtags #secret #surprise to her Instagrams of the shoot, so something chic is surely afoot.

ROC OF AGES

Thankfully no one told Jay-Z that Rita Ora once auditioned to be the UK’s Eurovision entry, because the hip-hop supremo thought her the coolest thing since Nicki Minaj when he signed her to his record label Roc Nation. It took four years of hard graft for her first single ‘R.I.P.’ to be released, but a platinum debut album, one MOBO award, four MTV Music Award nominations and two Brit award nominations later and Papa Jay couldn’t be prouder. Particularly as she’s the only performer on the label to spawn three number one singles from a debut number one album in a market outside the US.

LIKE A VIRGIN

Madonna’s mini-me Lourdes collaborates with her hot mama on fashion label Material Girl, which specialises in fashion for teens, and now Rita is its lead clotheshorse, gazumping, yet again, another top model — this time fellow Brit Georgia May Jagger, in what was rumoured to have been a £500,000 deal.

BEST OF BRITISH

Before crossing the pond to fish for big money-spinning campaigns, Rita made sure she declared her love of homegrown fashion as the British Designers’ Collective brand ambassador. She launched this year’s Bicester Village pop-up looking memorably glam in a Roksanda Ilincic dress, Nicholas Kirkwood heels and Mawi jewellery, making sure she’ll always be welcome on these fashion shores.

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