Robyn "Rihanna" Fenty is the new generation's Mariah Carey or the millennial Whitney Houston. Born on February 20, 1988, Rihanna is a hugely popular R&B singer who hails from Saint Michael, Barbados. Like Eminem, who was discovered and managed by music giant Dr. Dre, Rihanna was discovered and managed by music giant, Jay Z. She originally gained fame in the world of music through "Pon de Replay," her first single.

However, the song that really gave her a boost to superstardom and remains to be her most popular work is her signature song, "Umbrella," from her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad. It was this song that allowed her to truly find her voice and become a breakout star who moves to the beat of her own drum, rather than be some manufactured, bubblegum pop idol who is cut in the same vein as many other forgettable R&B diva wannabes. It helps that she's genuinely talented and closely linked to her loyal fans.

Alas, her worldwide fame came from the infamy of her tumultuous relationship with on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who physically assaulted her back in February of 2009. She has since been romantically linked to the famous rapper, Drake, and a Saudi billionaire, Hassan Jameel. With that said, even though she's a celebrity with millions of followers in real life and social media, that doesn't necessarily mean that she's an automatic fashion icon. In fact, her fashion sense, if it can be called that, is more "Bjork wearing a duck dress" than "Queen Beyonce on the red carpet."

2016 FN Achievement Awards

A dress with a cap. Why? Why would you do that? It's bordering on anti-fashion or even punk culture the way Rihanna mixed and mismatched a black t-shirt over a long dress with gloves, a necklace, sneakers with no socks, and a baseball cap. It offers mixed signals that are not at all good. You could easily tell that Rihanna and that style don’t mesh at all. It looks like she's in the middle of changing from her fancy dinner party dress to casual wear.

What was she thinking? At the very least, her fans (which she refers to as the Rihanna Navy) will probably defend her, saying she simply doesn't care about what she's wearing. Then again, that's not really a good way to defend this random collection of clothes that were mixed and matched to form something akin to a walking laundry pile. Needless to say, she should fire her stylist.

2017 Annual Parsons Benefit

This is a good example of why wearing something revealing doesn't necessarily mean it'll look good. Although Rihanna was all about proudly showcasing her cleavage, the intriguing effect of the front part of the outfit is mitigated by the fact that it's oversized. It looks like she got the outfit from her father or perhaps her boyfriend. She looked less like of a girlfriend wearing her boyfriend's clothes and more like a little girl trying out grownup clothe. It was not the best thing to wear to an event that raised over $2 million for design student scholarships.

2011 Grammys

Here is another "out there" attempt to look stylish by Rihanna that finds a way to be more bizarre than revealing or titillating. The parts that are not covered by material are see-through. Normally, this is acceptable fashion on the red carpet for women who want to make a sexy fashion statement. Remember Jennifer Lopez's and Halle Berry's "barely there" outfits that only had enough threads for a whole scarf between them?

That's probably the effect Rihanna was going for. Too bad she looks more like a Christmas ornament than a fashion icon. The dress, if it can even be called that, has a gaudy appearance to it that keeps the Barbados beauty from showcasing her full-figured body. It's like a pretty face ruined by clown makeup, in short. The flirty and teasing see-through parts that would normally result in the male gaze are overshadowed by the fluffy stripes over them.

2016 Brit Awards

Rihanna's domestic abuse incident with Chris Brown has changed a lot in her life, from the way she approaches relationships to her music. She was once a pop-laden and upbeat kind of singer. Since then, her recent works have evolved into something edgier and darker. Even her happiest of songs nowadays have a sardonic edge to them that gives her music a lot more depth than her other contemporaries.

So it's a bit of a mood whiplash to see her on the red carpet wearing silly outfits fit for a circus performer or the random doodles of a bored, colorblind, five-year-old girl fancying herself a fashion designer even though she still has no concept of long division. What Rihanna wore on that red carpet looks like a discount prom dress or an accident at a textile factory. Her skirt looks like a bean bag, for Christ’s sake. And the colors don’t match.

2016 MusiCares Person of the Year Gala

Remember how in The Sound of Music in 1965 starring Julie Andrews, her character, Maria von Trapp, made clothes for the Von Trapp children using curtains? Yeah, that's what Rihanna's dress looks like here. It appears to have a print worthy of curtains, if not altogether made from curtains. Some celebs are able to pull this look off, even though many fashion blogs are quick to criticize such floral prints. But not so Rihanna. Why? She wore sneakers with "heels" along with what seems to be a granny dress with some cleavage showing. What's worse is that the floral design of her dress looks less like a bed of flowers and more like what you'd see under a microscope; like germs or bacteria or even maybe cancer cell. The black bacteria are fighting against red and white blood cells, it'd seem.

2016 Black Girls Rock!

Rihanna has released seven albums in the course of 12 years, making her one of the more prolific modern-day artists or musicians of her generation. This has also left her in the public eye all that time (for good or for bad) due to her annual song releases from 2005 onwards. It's this discipline of hers that allowed her to skyrocket into one of the most successful singers of all time. She has sold over 150 million records. Even though it's only a little over a decade since her first album release, she was able to sell that many records in the post-MP3 and post-Napster era of music. So it boggles the mind of many a fashionista why she'd wear something so plain, yet so gaudy at the same time. The fur coat does not mesh with the dress shirt and white shorts at all. AT ALL. For someone so rich, she could afford to hire a fashion expert to handle her style. It's amazing how she bull-headedly insists on showcasing her warped sense of fashion taste.

2008 Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Party

On one hand, it's hard to criticize or make fun of Rihanna's tribal outfit because it's a cultural faux pas in the 21st Century, akin to the Giuliana Rancic and Zendaya controversy, wherein Guiliana made borderline racist comments on Zendaya's hair, with Mrs. Rancic saying, "The hair to me on her is making her a little more boho. Like I feel like she smells like patchouli oil" back in 2015.

So saying that Rihanna looks like she's wearing a Pocahontas costume for Halloween is probably more than a bit of a controversial no-no as well (especially if there's some sort of symbolic significance with her choice of outfit). With that said, even when it comes to today's sensibilities and an increase in the focus of political correctness, it's hard to defend Rihanna's tribal look as stylish or appropriate. At best, it can be considered "earnest." At least it's not a baseball cap over a dress skirt and a black t-shirt.

2017 Met Gala

We think those are flower petals or they could be some sort of tumor or outgrowth from fungi. The dress might even be alive and we'd believe it. Rihanna indeed is a good girl gone bad— as in bad fashion sense. Again, she outdoes herself in terms of looking like a walking laundry pile. Or, come to think of it, more like bra pads stitched together.

Maybe Rihanna is ahead of her time and she's showcasing fashion from the future. The distant future, at that. She's a genius with her music, so perhaps like in the case of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who's a genius at boxing but has trouble reading (according to 50 Cent), she has used up all her talents in music and has little left for anything else, much less her taste in fashion. If that were true, that would sound pretty accurate, huh?

2010 Pre-Grammy Gala

This time around, Rihanna went for a cotton candy dress and a Cruella de Vil look. The Rated R superstar who knows how to "Talk That Talk" has gotten her hands on a dress that looks so delicious you could eat it, but not in a praiseworthy fashion sense. To say that her dress is out of this world would be an insult to the extraterrestrial life forms we have yet to get in contact with.

The Tina Turner hair is a nice touch, though. Like she's about to engage against Mad Max (whether it's the crazy grandpa Mad Max of Mel Gibson or the silent grunting wanderer Mad Max of Tom Hardy, it's up to you to decide). It's cool but for all the wrong reasons. This is more like Grace Jones' idea of a red carpet dress.

2017 Paris Fashion Week

Although we're giving Rihanna a hard time over her fashion sense (or lack thereof), we're not at all making fun of Rihanna as a person. The girl is amazing, and her songs like "Rude Boy" offer great messages to her fans. In the song, she challenges the so-called bad boy to put his money where his mouth is, thus proving that not all girls necessarily want the bad boys as the stereotype goes.

So it pains us to point out that Rihanna's choice of the pink and white ensemble would make even people from the 1980's say that what she is wearing is too gaudy. She bares her midriff but it doesn't look good with her top, which clashed with a shin-length skirt and high heels. She really does seem like a little girl trying to fit in more adult outfits using a childish view of adulthood. She can do so much better.

Battleship Premiere in Tokyo

Who wears pajamas to a red carpet world premiere of a major Hollywood movie? Rihanna, that's who. Unlike Madonna and her cone bra or Lady Gaga and her literal meat suit, the "Disturbia" singer isn't trying to make a major fashion or activist statement. We wouldn't be surprised if she woke up wearing that dress and just decided to add high heels and go with the look.

The silken pajama ensemble is far, far away from the look she had in the "Disturbia" music video, where she's decked out in black leather and chains. She looks like she's off to go to a slumber party in middle school, not attending the world premiere of the movie, Battleship. However, her outfit is just as childish as the movie in question.

First Annual Diamond Ball

This is probably the most decent dress Rihanna has of the bunch. It's well put together and her makeup and hairdo don't clash with her rose-colored, satin dress. It looks rather Oscar-worthy, even. Sure, the wrist tattoo on her left hand clashes with the glamorous look of her silken dress, but she manages to pull it off with (uncharacteristic) poise and style. The tattoo looked like some sort of wrist jewelry.

So why is this on a list of things that made us question her fashion sense? It serves as a great contrast to the Bjork-like anti-fashion statements she's been making throughout her red carpet expeditions. It's like, "See? She can pull off a red carpet dress when she tries or when she's in the mood!" It's too bad then that this look is more often than not the exception to the rule.

Garbage: 2009 American Music Awards

Ah, she did so well in the last entry, but here we go again. This time around, Rihanna has decided to wear something that looks like it's straight out of an origami or die-cut class. Her black dress looks like it's made out of paper. Her hair looks like it belongs in movies like The Fifth Element or some avant-garde French film in black and white. The whole ensemble screams experimental.

She could donate this particular dress to a museum and they wouldn't bat an eyelid when they got it. They might even put it in the abstract or modern art section of their establishment. The Rihanna Navy might argue that Rihanna is more of a fashion pioneer or trendsetter, but it's not as if people anywhere started wearing cutout dresses like Rihanna. This isn't like Jennifer Aniston helping set new late 1990's trends left and right, from hairdos to wardrobes.

2012 Met Gala

Actually, this one is pretty decent. At most, Rihanna can be accused of wearing something impractical. However, as a red carpet outfit, it's right up there with the rose-colored, satin dress. Sure, upon closer inspection, the leather dress looks like melted toffee over Rihanna's body. It's even practically painted on with how tightly it fits. Regardless, it looks cool, which is more than we can say for most of the other entries on this list.

However, like the leather daddy version of Batman back in the 1980's and 1990's, it's hard to walk around in that dress. Just as Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer had a hard time moving their necks to look at something, so they're forced to "move like a bat" and make their whole torso move to allow them to stare at things from their periphery. Rihanna probably had to walk like a geisha in a kimono or a penguin (the literal animal, not the Batman villain).

 2015 Met Gala

Huh. Well now. This look has been described as a shaggy, muppet coat. As if a muppet from Jim Henson's workshop had to die and offer up his pelt so that Rihanna could have this gown/cape hybrid of a mess. Which muppet? Our guess is Big Bird from Sesame Street. In fairness to the diva, it's a huge improvement from the baseball cap and t-shirt "dress" ensemble. However, it looks less like a red carpet gown and more like a costume for Las Vegas.

It's eye-catching, but it assaults the senses as much as it assaults bystanders with its long flowing and impractical skirt that eats up more space than Google Chrome or more real estate than predatory realtors at a neighborhood full of foreclosed homes. That's the thing with Rihanna — she embodies the millennial, laid-back attitude and her actions speak louder than words (or louder than her dress).