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"  In BAZAAR&amp;#039;s newest weekly column, digital artist Avery Nejam will illustrate a fashion, music or pop culture figure who, for lack of a better phrase, is winning at life. Nejam is a Mississippi native who attended Parsons School of Design and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts and has worked under artists like David Lachapelle. She goes by the name The Candid Observer, which all makes sense when you see her uncanny ability to find the essence of a celebrity&amp;#039;s personality in seemingly simple designs. For our first installment, all eyes are on Rihanna. Below, reasons why Rihanna is #winning. The singer was named the CFDA Style Icon Award winner just a few days ago and will receive her award in early June at the CFDA Awards. After radio silence on who the style icon might be at the nomination ceremony, the announcement came as little surprise to those who have charted Rihanna&amp;#039;s stunning array of Balmain, recent Prada runway looks and Lanvin at Paris Fashion Week. She also made mini-waves as of late for an ensemble that included a sheer Simone Rocha skirt over bright pink underwear\u2014a look that echoed the sheer mesh tops she donned in Paris with nothing underneath. On anyone else these ensembles might be deemed inappropriate, or, worse among the style set, trying too hard. The difference, of course, is the girl wearing them\u2014a fearless, beautiful one who stands out in a crowded space of It girls for one simple and very important reason: authenticity. We believe in Rihanna because she is who she shows us she is. She is candid on social media\u2014she calls people out, takes photos with her friends that look like they could be any 20-somethings photos (if everyone&amp;#039;s friends were especially good looking), smokes blunts and vamps for the camera. We&amp;#039;ve seen her low and we&amp;#039;ve seen her high (double entendre intended) and we&amp;#039;re all happily along for the ride. She&amp;#039;s not pretending to be saccharine sweet, or without fault, or without pain\u2014she doesn&amp;#039;t want to be a role model, she wants to be real. And she is. And now she&amp;#039;s officially an icon. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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