No matter how you look at it, Beyonce is having a good year. It’s only June but she’s already reached legendary levels, and now she has also been named the CFDA Fashion Icon for 2016.
Taking a short break from her Formation World Tour, she attended the ceremony with Jay Z, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, and mom Tina Knowles-Lawson. Clearly not looking to disappoint, she wore a sequined Givenchy suit and wide-brimmed black hat. Introduced by CFDA Chairman Diane von Furstenberg, the singer used her speech to reflect on the role fashion has played in her own life. Noting that sewing has been passed down as a necessity in her family, her grandmother paid her mom’s Catholic school tuition fees by sewing for the priests and the nuns.
In turn, when Tina learned to sew she made early outfits for Destiny’s Child when they were rejected by every major New York fashion house. “When we were starting out in Destiny’s Child, high end labels didn’t want to dress for black, country, curvy girls,” Beyonce explained in her speech. “My mother and my Uncle Johnny, God bless his soul, designed all of our first costumes and made each piece by hand…When I wore these clothes on stage I felt like Khaleesi.”
Looking at her style legacy today it’s unimaginable that designers missed how important her taste would become. Lemonade alone has given us countless instantly iconic moments: that yellow Roberto Cavalli dress billowing around her as she destroys a car. The Yeezy crop top and leggings combo in the parking lot. Casually lounging next to a twerking Serena Williams in a Yousef Al Jasmi bodysuit (Serena went for Brandon Maxwell). Owning power dressing in a Gucci suit… But her fashion pedigree is hardly new. From the moment her mom created those iconic matching outfits for Destiny’s Child, she’s been starting trends. Will humanity ever be able to forget the image of her in a white tank top, cut off shorts, and red pumps stomping it out to “Crazy in Love?”
She joins past icons including Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Kate Moss.
Credits
Text Wendy Syfret
Image via Twitter