The Colorful World
of Rianna + Nina

(Wonderland) Stepping into one of RIANNA + NINA’s boutiques feels like entering another universe. Suddenly, everything is light, colorful, and alive—like a dream from which you never want to wake. Behind the overwhelming sensuality lies a great deal of self-confidence, individuality, female empowerment, and a joy in beauty. For co-founder Rianna Kounou, her label is not a traditional fashion brand. Rather, RIANNA + NINA is a curated cosmos of vintage fabrics, hand-painted clothing, art objects, and textile visions.

In conversation, it quickly becomes clear: this woman lives her label. Rianna, born in Greece, inherited her creative DNA from her mother. “She was my university, my mentor, my everything,” she says. From her mother, she also learned that taste is not dogmatic but an opportunity for constant evolution—a call to curiosity. This mindset is the foundation of Rianna’s work. Every garment, every lamp, every painted wall tells that story.

What began in Berlin in 2014 with vintage kimonos has grown into an international success story. After pop-ups at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Joyce in Hong Kong, and A’maree’s in Newport Beach, the two visionary women fulfilled their dream and opened a boutique in the Palais Royal in Paris. Within days, a space emerged in the historic arcades where, even today, anything seems possible. Customers who enter this world usually leave delighted and slightly intoxicated.

Now, Marbella. Rianna describes the Marbella Club as almost a stroke of fate. “It was a lucky coincidence,” she says. While traveling with her founding partner Nina Knaudt, she discovered this charming Mediterranean resort and found it to be the perfect place to further develop her idea of luxury, joy of life, and deep love of detail.

What Rianna creates doesn’t stop at clothing: she paints fabrics, and designs lamps, carpets, and often entire homes. “I want to collect vases, buy vintage ceramics, design spaces.” She’s currently working on a hotel project in the Cyclades, furnishing an apartment in Marbella, and planning another flagship store in her hometown of Athens.

Her working method is free of drafts and is radically intuitive: no sketches, no plans, no patterns—just fabric and feeling. “I cut directly into the fabric,” she says. That might be the day before a show—or months later, when the fabric is ready for her. The seamstresses working for RIANNA + NINA have had to get used to this approach. Today, they know: if Rianna sees something, it will turn out well.

Her clients—including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Madonna, and even Jared Leto—already know that—a fact that fills her with great pride. The relationship with her clients is personal, almost familial. “When I see a piece, I often immediately know who it’s meant for,” she says. Then Rinna picks up the phone and simply calls.

What distinguishes Kounou and Knaudt is their radical subjectivity. Their designs follow no trend but an inner rhythm. “I don’t even know what’s going on out there,” Rianna laughs. Their pieces are wearable art, made from vintage silk, brocade scarves, jacquard fabrics—all telling stories. Many pieces are one-of-a-kind, others strictly limited. Sustainability isn’t a buzzword but a given. “I want my clothes to still be worn in 20 years—by my daughter, my granddaughter.”

Rianna’s Greek heritage is both a source of strength and inspiration. In her house in the Peloponnese, she finds peace and ideas—while cooking, swimming, painting. This place gives her the strength to develop new visions. The next step? Wallpapers. Fabrics. And even more places for her colorful universe. Or, as Rianna puts it: “We’re not a fashion brand. We’re a world.”