Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 04/01/2011 at 2:35 PM News

The Popdust Files: rihanna, rolling stone

In a week of Britney Spears absolutely dominating the pop headlines, Rihanna has managed to carve out a piece of the conversation for herself with her provocative Rolling Stone cover, featuring the star leaning on a railing with only the sparsest of jean scraps covering her bountiful behind. So much pub has the cover photo gotten that Rolling Stone published an article featuring an interview with B. Akerlund, the stylist behind the eye-opening shot. Turns out, the stylistic reasoning for the photo was simple enough. “Everyone kept on saying super sexy, super sexy,” said Akerlund. “And I’m like, okay, I’ll give you sexy.”

Akerlund also talked about working with designer Michael Schmidt, from whom she commissioned Rihanna’s now-famous jean almost-shorts. “I was trying to come up with like, what is the hottest short on the planet, basically,” said Akerlund. “And then we came up with this concept of photo digitizing on top of metal mesh.” The stylist knew she was pushing the envelope with the minimal garment, but like so many great artists before her, she decided to keep going with his vision. “I just kept on saying, go shorter, go shorter,” said Akerlund. “I knew we couldn’t go much shorter, but I think the end result was just right.”

“Just right” sounds about right to us.