With both Beyonce’s Renaissance tour and the release of the Barbie movie, one could say that the summer of 2023 was filled with colour, happiness and loads of glitter. Now that we’re in the colder months, we can think retrospectively about this summer; and once we do that, we can conclude that during May to August there was a lot of dressing up!
It can be said that dressing up for the Renaissance tour would be a given, after all, it is Beyoncé. Rather, it was the collective ability to stay on theme for the Barbie movie that impressed me; I even dug out a pink cropped hoodie with pink butterfly earrings specifically for the day I watched the movie. It wasn’t for nothing either, every outfit that Barbie (Margot Robbie) had on during the whole hour and 54 minute film was something I would do anything to have in my closet.
When the Barbie period ended, we had the Renaissance tour to keep us going. I did say earlier that it is not a great surprise that people dress up for a Beyoncé concert. However, I must say that I have no memory of any concert goer ever pulling out as many stops as they did for this tour.
Beyoncé herself had noticeably put a lot of focus into every outfit she wore, especially on the North American leg of the Renaissance tour. This could explain the outfits of the Beyhive.
But I don’t plan on only praising the amazing and uplifting energy that both Beyoncé and Barbie gave us this summer. I believe that these two events can serve as evidence of our love to dress up as a people, as well as the community that comes from following a collective theme. It can definitely be said that there are other events for this (e.g Halloween), but I’ve not seen such a widespread desire to really show out when going to such a simple event like a concert or even a movie showing.
So what’s my point? Well, two things: more praise and a wish. It sounds really ridiculous getting personal joy from something like this, but considering how self-serving we’ve become, it was so nice to see community and indulgence in themed dressing. I’d really love to see an uptake in this kind of behaviour; not only because I love themes myself, but also because promotion of light-hearted fun is exactly what is needed in our society, especially at this time.
By Sade Smith, student
