Shot in the iconic Louvre, we see Beyonce in a striking, head-to-toe Versace look. Her pose and mannerisms are an homage to the Portrait d’une femme noir (‘Portrait of a Negress’) by Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1800), a significant piece of art in a time of colonialism and slavery. In this entire video, Beyonce uses herself as an object, inviting the viewer to think on racial and cultural supremacy, and on barriers and how they can be broken.

The music video is striking for another look — Beyonce’s pink Peter Pilotto suit (Jay-Z is in Dries van Noten). This is Bey and Jay’s narrative and, standing in front of the Mona Lisa, a pale figure in the highly vaunted museum that has not placed an emphasis on people of colour, this husband-and-wife powerhouse clad in contrasting tones are suddenly the most interesting things in the room.

She wore this gold embellished sheer gown by Norwegian designer Peter Dundas on a day when she walked off with the Best Urban Contemporary Album award for Lemonade. The gold gown referenced Gustav Klimt and the African goddess Oshun, and made her baby bump (those were the twins in there) look absolutely gorgeous.

Black is definitely Beyoncé’s go-to colour, and so are sheer numbers. She killed it in this delicately embellished sheer black dress by Gattinoni that she wore to make her entrance at the star-studded Tidal X 1015 benefit concert.

For this year’s WACO Theater Center’s Wearable Art Gala in Los Angeles, the theme was to dress up as fictional characters from Wakanda, the imaginary afro-futuristic city from Black Panther. This gold ball-gown, created by designers Falguni and Shane Peacock, drew inspiration from the Nubian warrior queen, Amanishakheto.

Beyonce took to Instagram to celebrate her twins, Sir Carter and Rumi, when they were a month old. The Madonna-like image saw her donning a silk ruffled dress designed by Alejandro Gomez Palomo. Fun fact: the designer’s Palomo Spain label is actually a menswear label known for dismantling gender norms. In the Palomo Spain Spring 2017 lookbook, the dress you see on Bey was modeled by a man.

She may have turned up late for the Grammys, arriving mid-show, but she sure made a grand entrance in this gown with double leg slits by Nicolas Jebran. Accessories were Alain Mikli sunglasses, a giant saucer hat, and Lorraine Schwartz earrings. The entire outfit was witchy, weird and wonderful.

Beyonce made cultural and political history as the first black woman to headline the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April 2018. She quoted Malcolm X, hosted a Destiny’s Child reunion, and sang Lift Every Voice And Sing (AKA the “Black national anthem”). She appeared in a total of five outfits that were custom collaborations between her stylist Marni Senofonte and Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing — befitting of such an event.

The embellished bodysuit with a gold and black studded cape was topped off with stunning waterfall earrings, a stylish reinvented top hat and gold and black cane — all reference to Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

The theme was Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology, and Beyonce looked pretty Ghost in the Shell in this liquid latex dress by Givenchy Haute Couture.