There’s no ignoring the earth-shattering impact that Beyonce’s album, Renaissance, had when it dropped last summer. Her 300 million fans on Instagram certainly helped to raise the roof! After a six-year wait, they finally had some new music from the incomparable Queen B to dissect, remix, and listen to on repeat without ever tiring of it. Fresh out of its release, Renaissance almost instantly became a timeless classic. Fusing old school and modern sounds, disco and house, the album offers an homage to yesteryear’s masters, an awareness of our current world and a liberation of the senses. It acts as an invitation to a party. When the album dropped, Beyoncé said to her community, “Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom..” Of course, in the meantime, a lot had changed, with a new president, a pandemic, and the murder of George Floyd, the mood of the United States had shifted. The new world envisioned by Beyoncé is one that is resilient, but certainly not forgetful. Renaissance, along with its music and its lyrics, had a particularly strong impact on Olivier Rousteing of Balmain, so much so that it inspired him to design a couture collection entirely dedicated to the record. This was an unprecedented, extravagant gesture, with no ulterior motive, other than declaring his love for his idol and muse. Hand in hand with Beyoncé, Olivier designed sixteen pieces, one for each track on the album, culminating in a collection expressing his incredible admiration – a love letter inscribed in thread and cloth. If we have been lucky enough to see the collection, it is only at the discretion of its inspiration, the Queen Beyoncé herself. Olivier Rousteing and Beyoncé have exclusively shared a number of these exceptional pieces with Vogue France. Here, the designer talks us through this crazy (in love) adventure.
How did this story begin?
I think that the album is incredible. As soon as it came out, I would play it on repeat. At that time, I was working on my pre-collection. I was sketching while listening to Beyoncé's songs. In the evening, at home, I just kept on listening! I soon realized that I was building a collection that was purely inspired by her songs. So, I decided to contact Marni, her stylist. This was at two o'clock in the morning in Paris, so in the afternoon in Los Angeles. I told her that I had a couture collection for Beyoncé. "She's gonna love the idea!" Later, I talked Beyoncé through the journey behind this collection made for her, whom I admire so much, and for this album, with its music that blew me away. "Go for it!" she said, and so this incredible experience began.
