Celebrity Halloween Costumes
Rihanna does not dress up every year, and when she does, she rarely picks the obvious thing. Some years she throws a party, some years she posts a shoot, and some years she skips it. Below is every Halloween costume of hers we could confirm through photos and news coverage, from 2009 to 2024. Years with no verified costume are left out rather than guessed.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon’s party at M2 Ultra Lounge, New York
The earliest Rihanna Halloween costume on record, and the most standard one on this list. She went as a sexy tiger to a Halloween party hosted by Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon in Chelsea, and posed for photos with Coco and Ice-T.
Nothing about it says Rihanna. That is the useful part if you want to copy it: tiger print, ears and a tail, and you are done.
Her own Halloween costume ball at Greystone Manor, West Hollywood
West Hollywood named her Queen of its Halloween Carnaval, and she hosted a costume ball at Greystone Manor on October 31. She arrived in a plain black dress, then changed into a green costume with a green veil.
She never said what the green look was meant to be. If you copy this one, expect to explain it all night.
Instagram photo shoot with friends
Rihanna and a group of friends dressed as zombie cholas and gave each other gang names. Hers was “Shy Girl,” and the group signed off as the “Arleta Zombie Chola Pack.” The photos were shot by Steven Gomillion and Dennis Leupold.
It drew criticism right away for turning Latina culture into a costume. This is the one look on the list I would not copy.
New York City, with friends as the other turtles
The costume that keeps coming back online. She painted her skin green and wore a gold corset, long green gloves, ripped leggings and gladiator heels, with leather straps, a red bandana mask and two sai. Red mask and sai are both Raphael trademarks (Wikipedia). Her friends went as the other three turtles. Doing it as a group? Four turtles and a Master Splinter covers five people.
The photos resurfaced in October 2025, and fans mostly called it relatable, which says a lot about how normal a group turtle costume is.
A Halloween party with friends, venue never confirmed
She wore a black dress, a blue wig topped with a green, pink and black flower headpiece, and full sugar skull face paint. She shared it in Snapchat videos from the party rather than posting photos to Instagram or Twitter.
Some fans called it cultural appropriation, since sugar skull makeup comes from Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos tradition. Others said the look on its own was not the problem. I would think twice before doing a full sugar skull face for a costume that is not mine.
Rihanna did not post a costume of her own that year. She shared photos of fans dressed as her past looks instead, with the caption “Halloween goals!”
Fair enough. By 2016, being Rihanna for Halloween was already a costume category of its own.
Rita Ora’s Halloween party, London
Pink skull face paint with a black patent leather bustier, leggings, shoulder-high gloves and spiky heels. After Rita Ora’s party she went on to a second one at a London club the same night.
The pink face paint is what keeps this from being a regular black skeleton costume. Skip it and the look loses the only part people remember.
Instagram, then her brother Rory’s party in New York
A month earlier, rapper Gunna had been picked apart online for a Fashion Week outfit of a sheer top, a leather vest, short shorts and tall boots. Rihanna copied the outfit, the chains, the sunglasses, his poses and even his caption. Gunna replied that she had “OVERLY WON.”
She then went to her brother Rory’s Halloween party in New York and arrived around 5 a.m. It is the only costume on this list where the person being copied signed off on it.
Dinner at Giorgio Baldi, Los Angeles
Weeks before Halloween she told Entertainment Tonight she wanted “something simple, easy and maybe something I could do myself.” She meant it, sort of. The costume was a hooded leopard-print Savage x Fenty onesie with a red bra.
The accessories were Bottega Veneta sunglasses and clutch, custom Gianvito Rossi heels and about $59,400 in Marie Lichtenberg necklaces. The onesie is easy to copy. The rest, not so much.
Missing a year? We only list costumes we could confirm with photos or reporting from the time. If she dressed up in a year that is not here, we could not find proof of it.
I’d pick the 2021 Gunna outfit. It was funny, it was current, and it only worked because she already dresses like that. The 2014 Raphael costume is the other big one.
A hooded leopard-print Savage x Fenty onesie with a red bra, worn to dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Los Angeles.
Yes, in 2021. She copied his New York Fashion Week outfit, his poses and his Instagram caption.
She and her friends dressed as zombie cholas, and critics said it turned Latina culture and gang stereotypes into a costume.
The 2024 leopard onesie. Any hooded leopard onesie and a red bra gets you there, no diamonds needed.
Yes. She is still in the news every few months, and her red Super Bowl halftime look is the Rihanna costume most people will know on sight. Our Rihanna Super Bowl costume guide covers it.
We could confirm eight public costumes between 2009 and 2024. Other years either had no public costume or nothing we could verify.
Which Ninja Turtle did Rihanna dress as in 2014?
Whose Fashion Week outfit did Rihanna copy for Halloween 2021?
Where was Rihanna crowned Queen of the Halloween Carnaval in 2012?