Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour has been a spectacle not only for musical entertainment but for the Haute Couture fashion as well. Major fashion houses, including brands like Givenchy and Iris Van Herpen, have added to the tour’s catalog. According to Beyonce’s mom, Tina Knowles-Lawson, A topping 600+ looks were designed for the tour.
What is Haute Couture?
By direct translation, Haute Couture means “high dressmaking.” To explain, Haute Couture is the work of expert artisans crafting at an elite level of elegance and sophistication. In order to qualify as an Haute Couture house, brands must meet a series of qualifications:
- Design made-to-order specifically for private clients.
- Have an atelier (workshop) in Paris that employs 20 full-time staff members and at least 20 full-time technical people.
- Present a collection of at least 25 original designs twice a year (January & July) at the Paris Couture Week.
Some of the most notable Haute Couture brands include Chanel, Christian Dior, Valentino and Elie Saab.
Balmain x Beyonce
French fashion house Balmain co-created a Haute Couture fashion line with Beyonce subsequently inspired by her Renaissance album. With the assistance of creative director Olivier Rousteing, they created 16 looks: one for each song on the album, thus making this the first “wearable album.”
Beyonce wore one of the looks to The “Renaissance: a film by Beyonce” premiere in London on November 30. To accompany her new platinum blonde hair, she wore a blue and silver Balmain look endowed with crystals. The gown was paired with chandelier earrings and black velvet gloves.
Royal looks in the United Kingdom
To open the five-night stint in London at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Roksanda adorned Beyonce in a royal blue chiffon gown with structured draping. A color only fitting for the Queen.
After the first show of the tour, Alexander McQueen also dressed the singer for the second night in London. This time, she wore a beaded burgundy mini dress mimicking liquid metal.
Vivienne Westwood opted for a black latex off-the-shoulder dress with spiral boning on the sleeves for night four.
The final opening look was an asymmetrical black suit-dress with exaggerated ruffles on the sleeves. London-based designer Robert Wun was responsible for the look.
Hometown heroes
For most tour stops, Beyonce highlighted designers native to the city. To explain, when in Amsterdam, Haute Couture designer Iris Van Herpen got the call. Their ateliers created a silver nude-illusion gown that looked as if it were a skeleton of a celestial being. Additionally, she wore a matching cape along with it.
In Houston, the singer decided to showcase her own brand, Ivy Park. Collaborating with Adidas, Beyonce and special guest Megan Thee Stallion wore custom camouflage-inspired looks in their hometown.
Iconic couture
The Renaissance World Tour had several looks that transcended the tour and infiltrated the realm of pop culture.
Haute Couture brand Mugler created a black, yellow and silver metal body suit that resembles a bee. Known as the Queen Bey to her fans (the BeyHive), the look was made for her, figuratively and literally. There was also a matching helmet with giant metal antennae hanging off her head.
Arguably the most memorable look from the tour was the Loewe gold hand-printed body suit that was completely encrusted in crystals. This became one of the most recreated costumes for Halloween this year. There was also a red and silver version of the body suit that was as well received as the original.
No dancer left behind
Beyonce wasn’t the only one receiving custom looks for the tour. Each dancer had a custom look to coincide with Beyonce’s new wardrobe. With 16 dancers on tour, these designers had to create a custom collection for every costume change. This allowed for each tour date to be entirely unique for the viewer and the tour crew.
Fashion is freedom
Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, is a U.S. holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery. In honor of this, for the show on June 19 in Amsterdam, Beyonce solely wore Black designers.
To open the show, she wore a Ferragamo beaded red gown with a high slit by Maximillian Davis. The next look designed by Olivier Rousteing for Balmain was a silver-plated catsuit taking the shape of body armor. Next, sporting her Ivy Park line, the tour personnel lit up the stadium in hot pink sportswear.
For the one date that Loewe didn’t dress Beyonce for the Plastic Off the Sofa section, Feben took the reins. Specifically, he placed her in a full-body pink, gold and silver bodysuit. Afterward, she wore a red crystal studded leotard with bootstraps and matching thigh highs.
All the buzz
In her penultimate costume every night, Beyonce wore a bee-inspired look. Along with the aforementioned Mugler look, Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, Mary Katrantzou and Nicolas Jebran created these ‘sweet’ outfits.
Balmain created a reptilian skin yellow body suit with black accents anatomically corresponding to the singer’s body. Additionally, her adorning piece was a matching Avant Garden hat. Originally including pants, however, they were scrapped later in the tour.
Dolce & Gabbana emphasized the thorax with a Swarovski crystal beaded piece with black and yellow stripes with a partially detached bottom on the back. She wore patent leather boots on the bottom half.
Mary Katrantzou took a less literal approach with their look gold perfume bottle-shaped mini dress. However, to tie it back together, she wore sunglasses with antennae.
Nicolas Jebran crafted an all-yellow lace bedazzled bodysuit with sleeves and intricate detailing on the bosom and bikini area. This piece took over 200 hours to create as stated by the designers.
Kudos to the stylists
On the tour, Shiona Turini, Julia Sarr-Jamois, Karen Langley and KJ Moody were in charge of styling Beyonce each night.
A stylist’s job is often under-appreciated in the industry. For example, the accessorizing of looks that are custom-made means they have no blueprint to go off of. Furthermore, the jewelry, shoes, hair and makeup included can make or break an entire look. Consequently, styling has to be the perfect marriage of all aspects. Thus, a major kudos to the styling team of the Queen.
