RENAISSANCE COUTURE
Olivier Rousteing and Beyoncé decided that fashion and music are indeed the best pair.
When releasing her dancing spirit's most recent album entitled RENAISSANCE, Beyoncé wanted Beyhive — and to be fair everyone else — to simply enter in the mood to release the wiggle,sketching and moving as they listened. Said and done,everyone was consumed by the dance gods and the way they sound so satisfying. Along with all of us, the creative director of Balmain,Olivier Rousteing, felt delighted by her spirit,tunes and messages evoked on the album, which made him fiercely determined to achieve his goals.
And, what does Olivier Rousteing want, after all? Certainly,expand his fashion vision,and there is no better way of doing so than not honoring his very true muse, turning her into more than that. Such commitment has made his summer season full of freshly-released RENAISSANCE songs on repeat, which directly triggered a variety of new ideas and the ease to experimentation.
Sticking to Bey’s true fan base since day one, Rousteing’s work at the French House has always made a certain allusion to the extravagance of the singer’s music — and a co-designing sounded pleasantly natural to prestige their aesthetic. Although the surprise received by their alignment of artistic views, the concept of Balmain and Queen B working together isn’t something entirely new — the singer frequently adheres many of Rousteing's designs to red carpet and awards events, which enhance the intensity of their bond.
However, what was new was the notion of seeing the first wearable album — RENAISSANCE COUTURE has seventeen designs each one named and inspired by a Renaissance track. And, we are going to deeply analyze that,of course.
As the fierce opening track being ‘I’m that girl’, the first look that would evoke its danger was done in a sublime metal bustier in hammered metal paired with spiked bracelets worn over a pareo skirt and gloves in black nappa lamb leather. As the lyrics say, Beyoncé is that girl — and she knows it. So, how would the co-designers represent that in one outfit? Adding some savage,obviously. So, to corroborate the powerful way of being presented in the first track of RENAISSANCE, Rousteing and Beyoncé just decided to make surrealism happen — with some agile help,of course. The strong sun-meets-crown metal bustier was done by the sculptor Elie Hirsch,who already has cooperated with Schiaparelli in many surrealist pieces. The joining of forces between Rousteing,Hirsch and Beyoncé in the look of “I’m that girl” had as their main priority emphasizing the substance that the singer holds in music, fashion and popular culture in general — a goal certainly achieved.
Since the second piece “Cozy” is all about being proud of who we are, its design would also be about the importance of loving yourself, and the best way of doing so? With explosions,of course. A feu d'artifice dress in black velvet embroidered with pink feathers, accessorized with black velvet turban and boots was the solution. Such solution that would make Maison Fevrier’s artisans break boundaries they never had done before — aligned with Balmain team, Beyoncé and her stylist Marni Senofonte, they brought the self-confidence and self-love of “Cozy” simply embroidering an impressive number of bouquets composed of pink plumes,which consequently created the exuberant sensation of being around fireworks’ explosions.
Even with an explosion, there is space for some vibrant Energy as well — in double dose,by the way. Contradicting a little with what the track settled as time, the “Energy” looks weren’t that easy to execute,and probably the most time consuming for Balmain’s team. With the first being a bodice embroidered with black-dyed pheasant feathers, its purpose was to bring the confident energy — evoking a modern view on a mix between Cabaret sensualism and Couture heritage gowns. On the other hand,the singer has always been known for being politically driven in her songs,and “Energy” is not excluded from that pattern. With the second one being more structural, the robust black dress made of braids showed a certain symbolism to Beyoncé’s and Black Women braids,combining African motifs and complex geometries, which led to a political thematic just as the track has in “Votin’ out 45, don’t get outta line”,where the singer made clear references to insurrection of the Capitol building by Trump supporters on January 6 2021, and in “Cause them Karens just turned into terrorists” verses. Exploring sensualism with diplomatic realities, Beyoncé and Balmain’s creative director converted the lyricism to its looks in a successful way — even though it has taken more time to be done, after all, haste makes waste. With the intricate creation process being both seductive and civic, meticulously complexive was delivered bringing a momentum-boost Energy.
Paired with some good spirit, as the true Virgo she is, Beyoncé is a hard-working and dedicated woman — and “Break my soul” is a liberation of soul and mind for those who are demanding too much of themselves. And the best way to cope with freedom of spirit to the pair was through visualism. While still enhancing the motto of release, the concept of never losing her inner energy was also maintained in the “Break my soul” look, that contained a major play with some outrageous visualism that can be described briefly as a hooded draped dress in shiny black velvet paired with a 3D-printed bustier which created the illusion of a bare torso, sprayed in glossiest possible black chrome paint. “Break my soul” wasn’t just visually abundant, a cry of freedom from high exigencies, but also it was full of drama while building confidence and power into the design.
As power is the feeling that keeps everything going on,just as in the lyrics of “Church girl”, Beyoncé decides to be the church girl that she wants to be. And, while illustrating spiritually who she is, Balmain’s craftsmen helped with the creation of a black-and-red velvet cape coat with a 3D printed chest bustier in galvanized metal, creating a light and comfortable armor from shoulder to waist, and a vinyl record-inspired couture black hat. According to Balmain’s creative director, the main goal of all the heads behind the work was to reflect that self-confident spirit of someone who's made it to the other side and now, doesn't feel the need to apologize for enjoying who they are.
Meanwhile for some insanity is considered something bad, in fashion can actually be an impressive positive factor. Not surprisingly, “Plastic of the sofa” insane bustier dress built around a pink chrome upside down bow was just ultra-dramatic, proving again that insanity can actually be beautiful. While evoking the glorious, disco-flavored groove of the album, Balmain team united three very different concepts; sensual silhouette, combo of two iconic Parisian couture signatures: the bow and le smoking and finally, the creation of new twists on bow sizing, shape, and placements — according to Rousteing, it’s classic sensual, after all.
While converting the intense six minutes from “Virgo’s groove” to an aggressively chic couture gown, Elie Hirsch was back again to sculpt a smooth sensual metallic décolleté, that aligned with the sculptured Corolla robe with exposed shoulders brought a disco-infused mixed with sex positivity. To add some Balmain’s heritage, there was also a hat based on a vintage design reinterpreted in metal, which only enhanced the intensity of the look.
As the album’s goal was to make us move, a song with that reference would be fair enough. The assertive reggaeton anthem “Move” was converted to a draped dress in thermo-strass bleu-gitane jersey with matching thermo-strass hat and corne headdress to capture the leading power that the trio Beyoncé, Grace Jones, and Tems displayed on the track. Each detail was there to symbolize one of the singers; the bleu-gitane is Bey’s favorite color, the eye-catchy corns are a reference to iconic Grace Jones images from the 80’s and the shimmery is for Tems vibe.
With dream becoming reality in a complex construction, “Thique” look was served in double;a hammered brass and crystal pendant illusion bustier worn over a black-velvet bodysuit with black-velvet turban and tassel chandelier earrings and in an option were the crystal bustier is a skirt, now with the bodysuit being without pants. Très sexy. Just as the track, homaging all women with curves,Beyoncé and Olivier encourage self-confidence and unleash your inner self, regardless of size, representing a body-positivity message done in a really chic and extravagant way.
Still sticked with exuberance and sensuality, “All Up in Your Mind” look focused on precision, being an exquisite feather embroidered life sized fan paired with black velvet and satin jumpsuit along with gloves and rhinestone adornment for Balmain and Beyhive’s ballroom.
Talking about ballrooms, it’s time to mention the most club pop-like track on the album; “Pure/Honey '' look had a pretty exuberant joyful goal — this being to generate the boldest possible statement in the wearing department. With disco night in mind, the way the team managed to put that on paper was through a mix of psychedelic, harlequin, marinière and zebra patterns on an ensemble embroidered with sequins and feathers accessorized with draped earrings in metallic mesh and a black jersey turban.
Since disco wiggle was Bey’s mood “Summer Renaissance” would also stick to that applause vibe, now displaying the equilibrium between opposites, converted in perfectly tailored minimalism dress paired with the maximalism of the long cape that is definitely designed to be placed upon B’s shoulders — adding some extra of fringes, crystals and rhinestones embroidery.
As the song “American Has A Problem” portrays the supreme confidence of someone who has no doubt that they’re simply the best, its Balmain cooperation look would honor that concept. While interpreting all the assurance in the lyrics, the co-designers’ idea was to pick an red carpet-like crimson velvet jumpsuit with a 3D printed bustier electroplated in gold chrome — that would be attention grabbing just as a confident woman.
Indeed, “Heated” was pretty hot. Taking things in the literal way, once again the exuberant team was inspired by a self-affirming message, making clear the importance of recognizing and celebrating one’s own worth — and this self-appreciation is made through a gown paired with Balmain’s vintage hat in thermoformed black velvet, set with crystals.
Looking like it comes straight from a SCI-FI movie, the futurism of “Alien Superstar” was also taken literally — turning out the look to be a rare couture design that as Rousteing said “would shine just as brightly under the spotlight”. Aggressively exuberant, the 3D structured gown embroidered with crystals certainly shines — from miles away, perhaps even galaxies, Rousteing and Beyoncé’s shine is unique.
What caused confusion on Beyhive and the fashion one was the lack of a “CUFF IT” look, but as the true hopeless that the audience is, the hypotheses are already being done. Given the fact that this year’s MET theme is "Karl Lagerfeld: A line of Beauty",aligned to the detail of Lagerfeld having already been one of the creative directors of Balmain let fashion fanatics and Bey’s one consider that the look of “CUFF IT” will be presented at the fashion event in honor of the legacy of the designer — however, nothing is concrete yet.
What is concrete though is the magnificent factor that such collaboration caused in the fashion industry — and how Beyoncé’s music impacted many lockdowns around the globe. Just as said by the singer to Harper's Bazaar "I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible,” the renaissance after so much time at isolated happen and now it’s time to dance — and be a little bit fashionable too. Finally, along with Olivier Rousteing in this chic entertaining journey, the duo managed to represent the so-talked RENAISSANCE discography through the fashion lens, aligning both in simply one at Couture. And, at the end of the day, Beyoncé and Olivier’s promotion on freedom and diversity do more than make us dance and be fashionable — they make us live. And for that we say Thank you Ms.Carter and Mr Rousteing.