Yes, it's been over 20 years since Beyoncé released "Crazy In Love." The singer was catapulted to solo stardom in June 2003 with her debut album , Dangerously In Love , proving that she was a force to be reckoned with alongside Destiny's Child. The album won five Grammy Awards and spawned four Billboard top five hits, including her infamous collaboration with now-husband Jay-Z.
However, the album also proved that she was becoming a fashion icon. All it took was Beyoncé to throw on some crystals to create a memorable cover that remains one of the most iconic images in pop culture.
Beyonce's iconic crystal top
Bey, who was styled by her mom Tina Knowles, wore a custom plaid top made entirely of Swarovski crystals and secured at the shoulders with chunky floral stones. Even the sleeves extend into a crystal grid, creating a majestic cape-like effect.
In 2023, photographer Markus Klinko told Interview about the process of shooting the album cover, and revealed that Bey was inspired by his 1990 photo of French supermodel Laetitia Casta on a diamond spider web. "She asked me if she could do something similar, but smaller for her, and I didn't really know what to do," he recalled.
Fortunately, he didn't have to look too far, as Knowles delivered exactly what Klinko envisioned. "When they arrived on set, I looked at the look pieces and there was a top made of Swarovski crystals, and I grabbed it and said, 'This is what we were talking about. We can do something amazing with this. Amazing things.”
In December 2020, Knowles reflected on a top she designed with jewelry designer Jose Barrera, inspired by the crystal pants Cher wore on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1990.
"I saw the cover in his showroom and asked, 'Can Jose make this into a Beyoncé top?'" she wrote on Instagram. "We added a few extra touches. Jose is a genius. The rest is history!" However, Bey wasn't actually keen on the crystal dome at first.
dangerously in love with jeans
To keep her top sparkly, Beyoncé kept the rest of her outfit simple, pairing just the crystals with blue jeans, but that wasn't the original plan. Bay and her mom brought the dress to the set, and she initially wanted to ditch the crystal top because she thought it was too much.
"She said, 'I don't know because we only have dresses and it's going to look very red carpet,'" Klinko recalled in an interview . "So I said, 'I think this should be paired with denim. What if you wear mine? I'm wearing Dolce & Gabbana men's jeans.' She said, 'Okay,' and I went and took them off Down, they fit her like a glove."
Yes, even though Beyoncé was able to keep the jeans on display in a museum, they went back to Klinko. "A few months later she returned the jeans. She had cleaned them and wrapped them nicely in ribbon," he told The Guardian .
