Beyoncé and Balmain Have Created a Couture Collection Inspired by Renaissance Lyrics

Everyone wants Renaissance visuals and to that Beyoncé says, here is some Renaissance couture instead. Today, the singer announced that she worked alongside Balmain's Olivier Rousteing to bring the album "to life in couture." The limited edition collaboration—with hammered metal breastplates, and crystal pendant bustiers meant to look like chandeliers—may not be those damn visuals everyone is (still) eagerly anticipating, but they do come close.

The idea unknowingly began when Rousteing was away on summer vacation, where he spent all his time creating sketches inspired by the constant stream of Renaissance's sixteen tracks blaring on repeat in his home, office, atelier, and vacation rental, according to a press release. He said he had no "plan, project, or expectation." He was just luxuriating in the simple pleasure of creating something new and channeling Beyoncé's "glorious, joy-filled art" into his own.

Eventually, he made the decision to give her a call about what he had been working on. And after years of asking the singer to be his muse, he instead asked her to be a co-designer for the very first time. Over the course of five months, Beyoncé, her stylist Marni Senofonte, the Balmain design team, and Rousteing came together to turn the sketches into actual couture creations. In January, Balmain even transported its atelier to the West Coast to work closely alongside Senofonte and Beyoncé on the finishing touches.

Each one-of-a-kind couture piece is directly inspired by a specific Renaissance lyric. The first look, a bustier in hammered metal created by the sculptor Elie Hirsch, is styled with long black leather gloves, a long pareo skirt and matching spiked bracelets. The look was created in homage to the lyrics from "I'm That Girl": "From the top of the morning, I shine (ah-ooh) / Right through the blinds (ah-ooh) / Touching everything in my plain view / And everything next to me gets lit up, too (ugh)." A black velvet dress with fluffy pink feathers that appear to explode outwards, encircling the garment, is fittingly called the feu d’artifice (fireworks) dress, and it was inspired by “Paint the town red like cinnamon / Yellow diamonds, limoncello glisterin’ / Rainbow gelato in the streets,” from "Cozy." Rousteing wanted each piece to be as infectious and joyful as Beyoncé's lyricism, and he did exactly that.

The collection came as a surprise to everyone. Rousteing said the elimination of a roll-out and marketing plan allowed for this dream environment in which they could just create art. In the press release, the creative director noted, "I can’t help but be thrilled by the history-making aspects of this collaboration. This appears to be the first time that a Black woman has overseen the couture offering from a historic Parisian house. And those designs were created in partnership with the first Black man to ever oversee all the collections at a historic Parisian house. Let’s hope those two firsts help inspire plenty of others."

While the entire internet complained over the difficult process of securing tickets to Beyoncé's tour, getting your hands on a Balmain x Beyoncé look will be infinitely harder, although it is unclear when that will even be possible. No word on those Renaissance visuals either, but at least we have this couture collection to hold us over until then.

See every single look from the Renaissance Couture Collection, below.

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