When Virgo season dawned, Beyoncé — perhaps
the world’s most famous Virgo, who named a track on her seventh album,
“Renaissance,” after the star sign — had a birthday request.
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The performer, now in the last month of her
Renaissance World Tour, posted a message on her website and Instagram on August
23 encouraging fans to wear silver to her concerts through Virgo season, which
ends September 22. (Beyoncé’s birthday is September 4; this year she turned
42.) “We’ll surround ourselves in a shimmering human disco ball each night,”
the message read. “Everybody mirroring each other’s joy. Virgo season together
in the house of chrome.”
The tour has already been a fashion show,
with attendees wearing bejeweled cowboy hats and more looks inspired by the
album’s visuals and Beyoncé’s stage outfits. Still, many fans who had planned
their looks months in advance panicked. On TikTok, concertgoers posted videos
of their original nonsilver looks set to audio of high-pitched screaming.
Even celebrities have struggled with the
dress code. Gayle King posted a video on Instagram of her wandering around a
Las Vegas airport searching for silver, while Rosie O’Donnell asked her TikTok
followers where she could find silver garments.
In an undated image provided by Rainbow Manier,
Rainbow-Renee Manier dressed in a silver-sequined dress and accessories she
designed herself.
So when the BeyHive dutifully placed online
orders and ran to the mall, small-business owners also felt Beyoncé’s
influence, as TMZ originally reported. Several small businesses told The New
York Times that since August 23, they had seen a spike in both searches for and
sales of silver clothing and accessories. On Etsy, searches for silver blouses,
corsets, tops and “disco hats” — sparkly, mirrored cowboy hats — increased 25
percent in the week of August 21 over the week before, a representative for the
company said.
Disco ball earrings, a fixture at the
Renaissance tour as well as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, drew fans to Anna
Ferguson’s Etsy shop, OneLoveOneAnna Designs in Newnan, Georgia — and turned
her side hustle into her primary source of income this year.
Many fans have placed rush orders for the
earrings since August 23, Ferguson said, with some customers stressing that
their orders were emergencies. “It’s not life or death; it’s just some
earrings,” Ferguson said. “But really, it is so important, because something I
realized at Beyoncé’s show specifically — everyone there dresses up as their
own version of Bey. The look is 50 percent of the fun. It sets the tone and
vibe for the way you feel.”
In an undated image provided by Rainbow Manier,
a piece designed by Rainbow-Renee Manier.
Ellie May Klimczak, founder of Coquetry
Clothing based in Olive Branch, Mississippi, said in an email that fans
“actually began emailing directly, ‘I need something silver, and I need it
fast!’” Her shop specializes in handmade spandex pieces.
“We have literally just been swapping out
fabrics and styles to make them all silver holographic,” Klimczak said, adding
that her shop had experienced a similar rush for the Eras Tour. Currently, the
store’s most popular fabric choices include “silver kaleidoscope” and “prism.”
Some small businesses that make clothing for
the festival circuit anticipated a drop in sales after the annual Burning Man
festival in late August, said Ilgin Utin, creative director of Utin NYC, which
operates out of New York City and Istanbul. Instead, sales at Utin’s shop have
stayed consistent as people place rush orders for the Renaissance tour. One of
her top sellers is a silver fringe jacket, and orders have poured in from
California and Texas — states with Renaissance dates during Virgo season.
Customers have told Erin Fritts, owner of
Everwind Creations, that they love using her fans when Beyoncé sings “Heated”
onstage because the artist uses her own fan during the song, which draws from
ballroom culture.
In an undated image provided by Rainbow Manier,
a piece designed by Rainbow-Renee Manier.
Fritts, who lives in Charlotte, North
Carolina, opened her shop on Etsy three years ago originally to sell macramé
pieces. She added fans because she always got hot and used them at music
festivals — and now they’re her No. 1 sellers. She attributed the fans’
popularity to Beyoncé; almost all of her fan orders since August 23 have been
silver-colored.
Other business owners were tipped off to
the silver fervor by cultural insiders: their children. Rainbow Manier, owner
of Soul Chains, a line of vintage jewelry with crystals, recalled, “My Gen Z
daughter who’s 22 told me, ‘Mom, you better make a silver post for Beyoncé,’
and I’m like, ‘What?’” The next day, Manier went to her atelier in Seattle and
made an Instagram video spotlighting her silver pieces.
Since then, several clients have booked
appointments for custom jewelry, Manier said, and she has sold a piece every
day; her bestsellers are all silver.
“I have been working 24/7 to accommodate
the BeyHive and the lovers of the queen,” Manier said on a video call, while
dressed in a silver-sequined dress and accessories she designed herself. “Now
I’m looking at my daughter like, ‘What’s next, girl? Tell me what’s coming
up.’”
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