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BET Rip the Runway is on the come up. When the long-running special aired on March 20, the masterminds behind the fashion extravaganza had a new goal. They wanted to raise the fashion stakes, blending urban music with “luxury couture.”

Singer Kelly Rowland and actor Boris Kodjoe hosted this year as Rip the Runway: 2013 “become a sartorial spectacle that rivaled the more dramatic showcases of Fashion Week,” reports TheGrio.

It was high fashion all the way. Rip the Runway fashion producers Carline Balan and Michou St. Jules, whom we profiled recently, initiated the change taking the show away from its earlier “ghetto chic”e roots.

Balan and St. Jules pulled in leading fashion industry talent to help expand the BET brand.

“From last year’s show, to what it is this year, we were able to get Beagy, who’s a Vogue stylist,” Balan explained to The Grio. ”We got people who’ve never worked on the show to come on board. We really went in and chose stylists who hit the entire spectrum: editorial stylists that are Vogue, that are V magazine, that are Marie Claire, that are that world… and then we got a couple of stylists that are music stylists.”

Although the fashions went couture, Rip the Runway didn’t abandon its musical roots. There was still party on a stage, with performances by Rick Ross, Meek Mill, and Trinidad James. Omarion serenaded the models as they strutted down the catwalk. And Jaden Smith debuted his Misfits collection with the help of his little sister Willow. Even co-host Kodjoe went into runway action and modeled his menswear collection, Alfa.

“That’s our goal with every year, pushing the envelope on the fashion, so that when you are watching, the music is there, but it’s all about the fashion,” St. Jules told the Grio.

You can catch another airing of BET Rip The Runway tonight.

Rex Features via AP Images

The reviews came in and (at least one in particular) panned Rihanna’s new line for British label River Island. But guess what? Her fans don’t give a flying fig.

Buzzfeed has pulled out a number of fan tweets praising the collection, with many promising to buy pieces when they become available on March 5. Actually, one fan with money to burn writes: “Love Rihanna’s River Island collection!!! Can’t wait to buy everything.”

Now that the collection has launched, the advertising is beginning. Vogue UK has some of the shots from the ad campaign, starring Jourdan Dunn. The campaign was shot by fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti. We’ve got one image below.

And click through for a couple more looks from the collection. It’ll be available online, so you could purchase pieces if you wanted to. Do you want to?

via Instagram

You know Sean “Diddy”‘ Combs always has something up his tailored sleeve. When he first got into the entertainment game he has became known as the unique marketing — literally taking it to the streets when promoting the late Notorious B.I.G. and his own record label Bad Boy. Soon it became the norm to see a crowd carrying Bad Boy picket signs at all the major music industry events.

So now in this high-tech age, Diddy has turned to social media to promote his Sean John jean fashions. The hip-hop mogul recently held the first ever Instagram Fashion Show during New York’s fashion week.

“In honor of New York Fashion Week we wanted to do something that has never been done before”, said Combs in a press release (via The Huffington Post). “With Instagram technology we are bringing Sean John to the social media runway where our consumer lives.” Combs (aka @iamdiddy) posted his Fall 2013 collection in order to reach people via their smartphones. Every 30 minutes on Friday from 10 am to 5pm,  he posted the images.

We’ve got a few of the images after the jump, ICYMI. Any favorites?