Posing for two: How Rihanna's pregnancy photoshoot is aesthetically different from those of Demi Moore, Beyonce

The framing of Rihanna and ASAP Rocky’s photoshoot is carefully calculated in its pretend intimacy. Rihanna and ASAP Rocky have announced their first child with the release of a street shot by Miles Diggs, aka Diggzy, aka the 20-something photographer named by Vogue as “fashion’s favourite paparazzi.” The series of pictures, posted on Instagram and sold to a variety of media outlets, including The New York Times, feature Rihanna in a long pink puffer coat with jeweled gold buttons over extra-long ripped jeans puddling in the street, and held up by a gold and leather Chanel chain belt. That snap set a new standard for managing the public pregnancy reveal, becoming not only Instagram’s most-liked photo of the year when it reached 11.1 million likes, but also the first of an entire series of high-concept maternity photoshoots dropped by the star. Unlike the Moore tradition, which often involved being as naked as possible, or the Beyoncé picture, which dipped into art history, Rihanna chose a look and composition that seems like a sly nod to fashion itself — specifically, Anna Wintour’s first Vogue cover, in 1988, which featured Israeli model Michaela Bercu wearing old Guess jeans and a Christian Lacroix jacket with an elaborately jeweled cross on the front, her hair windblown and wavy, laughing on the street. Already, according to online shopping site Lovethesales, searches for “pink padded coats” increased 200 percent in the hours after the photos were posted; for “ripped blue jeans,” 175 percent; and for “pearl necklaces,” 80 percent.