Beyoncé ushers in a Renaissance in Fan-Made Fashion

PER CAPITA Culture

Beyoncé’s Renaissance has inspired a thriving culture of creation and community.

With disco ball tiles, silver body armour and a bejeweled hobbyhorse, Beyoncé’s Renaissance has inspired a thriving culture of creation and community.

From Loewe, Valentino, McQueen, Coperni, Balmain, Courrèges to Mugler, Beyonce’s Renaissance tour wardrobe is a ‘who’s who’ of designer brands. Mixing custom creations with fresh off the runway it’s clear to see why the renaissance wardrobe team of 25 people includes 15 additional styling assistants.  

But Renaissance’s beginnings didn’t always lie within high-end designer brands.

In fact, one of the most sought-after and most replicated designs goes back to a seller on Etsy, an online handmade and vintage item seller, called Abby Misbin. Misbin first established her business in 2020 as a self-proclaimed ‘side hustle’ decorating cowboy hats in university colours. One hat and 15 000 hand attached mirrored tiles later, Beyoncé was wearing Misbin’s design across the World Tour’s promotional materials.  With a waiting list of 6000 prepared to buy an original Misbin hat for $350, the importance of the fan culture surrounding a tour like this can’t be underestimated.

Fans provide Critical Acclaim to up-and-coming Fashion Designers

Concerts are the next best reason to branch out your Fashion.

Fans were responsible for recognising and publicising fashion designers and artists in the first place– it was Beyoncé fan pages that credited Misbin’s designs to her in the first place, the all-important Instagram tag missing in stylist B Åkerlund’s post.Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Harry Styles ‘Love on Tour’ have inspired similar phenomena. Swifties hand-beading bodysuits, mirroring atelier Versace in both look and skill or harking back to her early career, often reference in-jokes and easter eggs that have become commonplace within the fan community.

Fan creation isn’t just for an Instagram photo, instead, they’re beginning to take centre stage as a testament to what a fan base can do given the autonomy.

Lucian Koncz suggests that  “more key than a faithful recreation or even the clothes themselves is what’s being communicated, for Koncz he thinks “people feel empowered by this album and this tour is our dance floor to be ourselves! We want to look our best. We want to get the spotlight”.  However, Koncz found the pitfalls of such a faithful recreation remarking “Some elderly fans thought I was one of the dancers from the tour and I just went with it.” attracting attention not only online but by official photographers and videographers covering the night.

Fan Fashion is a testament to the Star’s Artistic Prowess

Fans’ fashion isn’t solely about copying Beyoncé. Instead, taking her now synonymous aesthetics of chrome and silver fans are exploring their fashion, creating for themselves, as testament to the artist’s prowess itself.

“Fan creations transform the concert into a more sensory and immersive experience, where artistry transcends the stage and permeates the audience,” said one long-time fan Radhika Srinivasan. Srinivasan is a longtime fan, artist, mechanical engineer and owner of a medical and a textiles company. She felt that one night of Renaissance was the perfect opportunity to branch out.

Taking inspiration from the hot pink Tom Ford breastplate worn by Zendaya, Srinivasan focused on combining high fashion and the ethos of the Beyhive noting that fans creations serve far more than a small aspect to the night. “Fan-made outfits, like my breastplate, act as a medium for fans to connect with the artist …igniting creativity and allowing everyone to interpret the artistic vision in their own unique way”, she continued.   “I knew the concert would be an exuberant celebration of artistry, and I wanted my outfit to match the iconic nature of Beyoncé’s performance … seeking to create a look embodying the “power, uniqueness, and femininity” of the Renaissance tour, she commented.

Sharing Fashion on Social Media has provided fans with a new community

Social media has given fans the platform for connectivity. It’s in this corner of the internet that demonstrates fan culture’s community, something that has now for the first time in years been allowed to manifest itself in person.

One such fan Nerrisa Pratt, shown above, recreated the custom Loewe bodysuit regularly updating an online audience on TikTok. “I think it’s brought the fans together in a different way, they’re giving each other insider tips, sharing outfit inspiration and more – it feels more like a community.”

Pratt admitted that recreating the looks that she showcased to her combined audience of two million-plus viewers was “all about securing that upgrade … It was honestly the most wholesome experience, my videos from the ‘making’ over have a combined 2+ million views and if you check out the comments, they’re all super positive which is nice.” Pratt elaborated that “from the first video I shared about the process my followers were hooked and so it just snowballed from there. I think this tour as well as Taylor Swift and Harry Styles combined with social media attention really has created a different kind of approach when it comes to putting your best fashion foot forward.”  She recollects “when I was at the show, people were literally shouting ‘Oh my god you’re the TikTok girl’! It’s probably the closest I’m ever going to get to feeling like Beyonce!”

Fans are incentivised to Emulate Design

Emulating designs is well documented online with best dressed securing seats onstage in the European leg of the tour, often creators sharing a step-by-step process for followers that join them either on the journey or after seeing semi viral outfit pictures.

Creating guides and showing the journey is for some creators an excellent way to cash in on the buzz around the concert.

She knew from the very beginning just how to harness other fans excitement for the concert “the combination of the buzz around the outfits for this concert and just knowing this would be a great piece of content to share got to me.

In the world of luxury fashion, unreachable for most wallets and unthinkable for every day, a custom designer piece sported by Beyoncé on stage every night is out of the question – unless you can find a way to create it yourself.

Edited by Suchir Salhan