Unique! That’s certainly the best way to describe the fashion featured in Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, which kicked off in Stockholm on Wednesday. The first stop of the 57-show tour featured the singer performing in a dizzying array of club-ready couture creations.
Light and colour were prominent motifs throughout the first show, with multiple outfits featuring holographic or reflective treatments that masterfully adapt the album’s visual aesthetic for a stadium setting. Beyoncé hasn’t been on tour in almost five years but is still ever the showgirl when it comes to her performance attire. There was a dress that changes colour when exposed to UV light. Fans immediately guessed that it’s by the Japanese brand Anrealage—which showcased a similar viral-primed moment in its fall/winter 2023 show. A Jonathan Anderson-designed Loewe bejewelled bodysuit, adapted from a look featured in the brand’s fall 2022 collection, featured pairs of provocatively positioned arms with red nails. It felt reminiscent of another cheeky, body-con piece, designed by The Blondes, Bey wore for a previous tour in 2013.
A custom Balmain, designed by Olivier Rousteing featured a corset designed entirely out of pearls. The new look tapped into the same brand of ballroom-minded codes as the buzzy couture collab Rousteing and Beyoncé debuted earlier this season. (Although, surprisingly, none of those one-of-one looks were featured in tonight’s show—but there are 56 more stops on the tour for it to appear.) London-based fashion designer David Koma, who previously crafted a buzzy tennis ball-yellow gown for Bey, created a wrap holographic dress for the singer.
And the greatest accessory of the night? Undoubtedly the giant, Studio 54-esque sequinned horse Beyoncé flew around on for the show’s epic finale. Though, the spring 1997 Mugler-inspired antennae she wore with a custom Casey Cadwallader-designed bodysuit was a close second.
Overall, the tour feels like a fabulous embodiment of the techno and ballroom-infused sound of Renaissance, which Beyoncé has described as an ode to dance music and queer culture. They also continue the singer’s streak of ostentatiously avant-garde couture fashion for the album’s innovative visual campaigns. A teaser for “I’m That Girl,” which runs a little under two minutes, featured a chaotic flurry of over a dozen custom looks by Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, and others. Beyoncé is well and truly in her fashion girl era.
Of course, Queen Bey has always loved to tinker with her looks throughout the course of a tour—sometimes wearing an outfit solely for one performance in a city. So it is very likely that there is a lot more great fashion to come our way between now and the tour’s conclusion in New Orleans on September 27. Stay tuned for more to come from Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour looks—we certainly will be.
This article was first published on Vogue.com.
