Beyonce for Allure: Style Evolution



Beyoncé was low-key behind the scenes at the shoot (she requested Uno cards for her dressing room), but certainly not low-energy on the set. When a Michael Jackson song came on, she danced with hairstylist Kimberly Kimble. The day's playlist also included music by Beyoncé's sister Solange and by Kelly Rowland. The moment her husband Jay Z's 2001 album The Blueprint started, the singer laughed and said, "Oh, you can't play this—you're going to make me blush." And then she danced to the entire album. Here, she poses in a beaded silk tulle dress by Roberto Cavalli.

"This sultry but still natural look is perfect for Beyoncé," said makeup artist Francesca Tolot. Getting as "close as possible to the lashes," she applied a creamy eyeliner and blended brown and gold shadows from the outside to the inner corners of her eyes. To make the star's cheeks glow, Tolot swirled on a combination of blush, bronzer, and highlighter. The final touch: nude gloss. Hairstylist Kimberly Kimble twisted sections of Beyoncé's hair around a curling iron to give her a "sexy, just-out-of-bed" look, then pulled on the curls so they wouldn't be too tight. Kimble then ran her fingers through Beyoncé's hair, using a styling cream to "create a little more texture." Here, her sequined leather booties are by Cesar Paciotti.

In February, the star will release a new fragrance called Beyoncé Heat, an earthy blend of red vanilla orchid and honey. She has fond memories of the power of fragrance, thanks to her mother. "I grew up with my mother walking past, and you could smell the faint scent of her fragrance—it always gave me this sense of comfort. I just thought it was so beautiful that she would walk by and leave her scent."

Photographed in New York City by Michael Thompson for the August 2002 issue.

Beyoncé is rarely seen with a hair out of place these days, but when she was starting out—way before this picture—that wasn't always the case. "I remember when I started doing my hair myself—I cut bangs, and I started curling my hair and pressing it, literally, with an iron," she says with a laugh. "The girls from Destiny's Child, we would put our hair on the ironing board, and iron it, which is so crazy! My mom [who used to own a hair salon] was like, 'We have to get you out of your own hair, because you are destroying it!'"

Photographed in New York City by Michael Thompson for the August 2002 issue.

Beyoncé is extremely protective of her personal life, but she speaks candidly about her plans for a family someday. "I definitely want to have a child," she says. "But I know from my nephew it's a lot. I hope that those things will just happen naturally. I still haven't had time to relax."

Photographed in New York City by Michael Thompson for the August 2002 issue.

"I know that my niche is anthems, and I think that's what I'm good at as far as songwriting," she says about the type of music that has made her famous. "Probably the best songs I write are about relationships, and flipping the roles between women and men, and things that women go through. Growing up in a female group and in a hair salon, I have always been passionate about women. I just think we need each other, and the things that inspire me to write songs are things that I think women need to hear. I'm happy to be a voice, one of the many. I'm happy to be, in some way, a role model."

Photographed in New York City by Michael Thompson for the August 2002 issue.

Sizzling hot as always.

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