.jpg)
Beyoncé was everywhere during New York Fashion Week. Well, her voice at least.
While there were plenty of trends emerging throughout the week—Rapunzel-length hair, skirts over pants, monochromatic styling—perhaps the biggest and most zeitgeist-y did not involve clothes at all. It was more of a soundtrack, a soundscape, and a mood all rolled into one. Beyoncé’s ballroom-inspired album, Renaissance.
Tracks from the singer’s latest album blared out at shows across the city. This is not too surprising for a major musician like Beyoncé, who can sell out a stadium in seconds, but her wide-ranging presence throughout the week did feel notable. Tia Adeola played “Heated” during her show. LaQuan Smith played “Thique” and “Pure/Honey.” Frederick Anderson closed out his show with “Break My Soul.” For Opening Ceremony’s 20th anniversary blowout, every other song seemed to be from Renaissance (with a few older tracks from Beyoncé’s discography thrown into the mix as well). Kevin Aviance, whose thunderous voice appears on the magnum opus as a sample, even performed during OC’s grand affair midway through, providing bona fide vogue glamor. And love for the top-charting album was not limited to designers of color. Tommy Hilfiger, who presented his collection during a rainstorm in Brooklyn, included at least four tracks.
“I think you can feel a lot of the pent-up energy and the need for collective and individual joy that this album brings to people,” says Oscar Nuñez, who DJ’d at the Opening Ceremony party. He played “Alien Superstar” and “Heated” during his sets. In Nuñez’s opinion, the album matches up to the joyous and triumphant energy that dominated NYFW this season, after nearly two years of COVID restrictions and, consequently, more muted—and masked-up—shows.
“We’ve been through a lot in the last two years, and we’re still going through it,” says Nuñez, who is also a cofounder of Papi Juice, a collective that throws parties for QTPOCs. “So I feel like this album is a great, joyful release for a lot of us, especially when we get to experience it together.”
Designer Frederick Anderson says “Break My Soul”—the lead track from Renaissance—played a crucial role in the creation process of his spring collection—by happenstance or osmosis. “Renaissance was on constant repeat as I designed, styled, and prepared spring 2023,” the designer says. The result: looser and sexier tailoring on the signature crochet tops and slit dresses that Anderson sent out on the runway. To Anderson, the inspirational tracks aligns with the times. “‘Break my Soul’ is the perfect song—anthem really—at the perfect moment,” he says. “As we all start a new ‘post-COVID’ life in a changed world that still continues to surprise us daily. Throw whatever you want at me, I can take it. You cannot and won’t break my soul!”
Designers connecting to an album declared by the Cut as the start of Beyoncé’s “capital-F fashion era” makes sense. The singer mentions a bevy of designer names on the tracks, including Telfar, Hermès, and Tiffany. Beyoncé has worn a number of knockout pieces by knockout designers in the album’s Studio 54–tinged promotional imagery: Schiaparelli, Mugler by Casey Cadwallader, Balenciaga, Maison Alaïa by Pieter Mulier. At the same time, there has always been a deep connection between the underground ballroom culture and fashion, where many houses pay homage to designers through their names (i.e., House of Mizrahi, House of Balmain).
My colleague José Criales-Unzueta, fashion news writer at Vogue Runway, says the crowds at fashion shows—a notoriously stoic bunch—would noticeably perk up whenever Renaissance tracks came on, particularly at LaQuan Smith. “You could feel the mood in those rooms lift and see some folks mouth the lyrics and connect with each other through it,” they say.
This was exactly the intention for Smith, who put together his runway soundtrack with help from powerhouse DJ Diplo (who, coincidentally, produced Beyoncé’s explosive 2011 single “Run the World”). “When I came to Diplo about curating the sound, it was only fitting to add a few songs from the album,” Smith says. “We also played the album backstage and at our look book shoot. The songs are sexy and bold just like what my collections embody.” There is an aesthetic alignment: Smith designed a dress Beyoncé recently wore in a Tiffany & Co. campaign, which matched the visual codes of Renassiance’s ballroom-inspired imagery.
As the fashion weeks rage on in cities across the world—namely Milan and Paris— it will be interesting to see if the singer’s voice also dominates the runways. Either way, the album is still resonating strongly with the fashion crowd here in New York. “How many times is too many times to listen to Renaissance a day?” a fashion PR agent joked to me this week. “I’m currently at two to three.”