After Pharrell Williams, newly appointed creative director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s line, now another star has been called to wear the designer’s (cool) clothes: Beyoncé, pop star with millions of records sold, he returns to his great love, fashion, and becomes co-designer for Balmain of a capsule collection inspired by her latest album. The idea starts from Olivier Rousteing, creative director of the Parisian maison, who had already made the singer his personal muse. Inspired by the songs of Renaissance, as he says, “while I was listening to him, I made sketches after sketches, as if in the grip of a sort of raptus. I imagined those drawings in relation to the album, as much to the music as to the lyrics of the songs. I didn’t plan to do anything like that, but I was inspired by the music. That’s how it all started.” decided to ask the American artist to create together a series of dresses that reflected her glam and pop style.
A happy marriage that originated there Renaissance Couture Collection by Beyonce x Balmain, a collection of seventeen outfits, one for each track on the disc, from which they take their name. The duo worked with Marni Xenophon, the singer’s stylist, to translate the sketches into real fashion proposals, in an atmosphere of full creativity. Indeed, as Rousteing stated, “The lack of budgets, roll-outs and marketing plans eliminated typical boundaries and constraints, creating a dreamlike environment that allowed us to simply experiment, dream and push each other to maximum”. The extravagance that characterizes the looks has extended the collaboration with other artists and creatives, in the most disparate fields: the metal bustiers were created together with the sculptor Elie Hirschthe historic Parisian maison Fevrier he cured the applications of feathers, the macrame laces are handmade by Laurentine Perilhou and to Maison Michel was entrusted with the construction ofthe colossal size hats, in a creative firework that also led to printing in 3D of rigid busts painted with a finish comparable to that of automobiles, up to the involvement of manufacturers of crystal chandeliers and the master jewelers of The Chemin des Maquettes. Beyoncé, who had already given a preview of her creations on the red carpets of the BRIT Awards and the Grammy Awards, will also be on the cover of Vogue France in April to illustrate and advertise the collection.
Olivier Rousteing underlines that “it is the first time that a black woman has supervised the couture of a historic Parisian house, and those models were created in collaboration with the first black man who directs all the collections. We hope these two firsts help inspire many more.”