Rita Ora Everywhere

Rita Ora was everywhere then—radio, clubs, that space where dance-pop and UK garage were still mixing together. When adidas Originals brought her in to design a collection, it felt inevitable. Her momentum was real, and brands know how to spot attention.

The collection was called Black. Soft leather, reptile patterns across the uppers—that specific visual moment when every designer suddenly needed scales or feathers or something textured and breathing. The yellow adidas logo underneath as an anchor. It looked like what a young pop vocalist would think was cool, which is sometimes exactly right and sometimes not.

The thing about celebrity fashion collaborations is how differently people think. Rita works in hooks, moments, the feel of a night. Design is proportions, materials, how something sits on a body. There’s a translation problem there, even with everyone trying. But that gap is maybe what makes it real. She didn’t become a designer, but she existed in that space for a moment, and this collection was proof.

I have no idea what happened to the shoes afterward. They’re probably discounted or forgotten by now. But in that time, they made perfect sense.