Beyoncé fans are going all out for their 'Cowboy Carter' tour outfits

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour officially kicked off this week, with the first stop at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The highly anticipated concert, which lasted for nearly three hours, marked the beginning of a five-night run at the venue.

For fans like Dillian Frelow, an emcee and stylist better known as Dillian the Celebrity on social media, the tour could not come soon enough.

"Going to this opening night was literally like waking up for Christmas. I laid out my clothes — every single piece that I was wearing was custom-made from the top of the hat, all the way to the bottom of the boot," he said.

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It took months for the designer of Dillian the Celebrity's boots to bedazzle his footwear with more than 11,000 different crystals, according to Dillian. And the opulence didn't stop there. He also commissioned a custom grill embedded with diamonds, a big bedazzled belt buckle wrapping around the circumference of his 10-gallon hat, and a custom one-piece Western jumpsuit adorned with rhinestone and laced with gold fringe.

Dressing to the nines was an important aspect of the tour for him, "because whenever you go to a Beyoncé show, it's like going to the Met Gala," he said. "So you have to make sure you show up correct."

Dillian the Celebrity isn't the only one focusing on fashion. Many fans seem to have planned outfits to match the aesthetic of Cowboy Carter.

Dillian the Celebrity tells NPR every single item he wore to the opening night of Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" tour was custom-made.

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Dillian Frelow

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USA Today Network's Beyoncé reporter, Caché McClay, saw concertgoers sporting Western wear of all kinds. She was also at SoFi Stadium on opening night.

"There were lots of cowboy hats, cowboy boots, denim on denim," she said.

The trend of Western wear coming into the mainstream is one that McClay has been following closely in her reporting. It's a trend, she says, that has been driven by the album.

Following the release of Cowboy Carter in March 2024, McClay noted, "we saw a spike in searches for cowboy core items like cowboy hats and fringe, in Western fashion. And even now, we're still seeing that being at the forefront of fashion trends."

Western wear brands have been enjoying an influx of traffic and sales growth over the last year, with some retailers having reported a rise in first-time buyers. Tecovas, an American boot and Western-style apparel brand, reported a growth of 24% in 2024, surpassing $250 million in revenue. And American Western wear retailer, Boot Barn, logged an increase in purchases of basic black and brown styles, suggesting that many shoppers were trying out Western wear for the first time, according to Boot Barn's senior vice president of marketing, Isa Nicole, in an interview with Business of Fashion.

Smaller bespoke brands are also experiencing a similar Cowboy Carter retail effect.

Mercedes Matz, founder of the luxury cowboy hat brand Maya James, said her custom-made cowhide hats, typically priced at $285, are selling out fast.

"Since the announcement of her tour, I've honestly been trying to keep up with the demand for the hats, and that has been a challenge — a good challenge," Matz said. "There was a slew of people who bought all of the hats my last drop."

In the two weeks after "Levii's Jeans," a song on the album referencing the well-known American denim brand, came out, Levi's sales were boosted by an extra $1.2 million, according to the data analytics company LaunchMetrics.

Beyoncé (center) performs during a halftime performance of the NFL's Christmas Day 2024 game with dancers dressed in Western wear.

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Dillian the Celebrity has noticed upscale brands hitching themselves to the Beyoncé wagon.

"I mean, look at Louis Vuitton. I went into Louis Vuitton and Louis Vuitton is selling a cowboy hat. That has Beyoncé all over it," he said. "They got people that have probably never seen a cow wearing a cowboy hat, you know what I mean?"

Another Beyoncé fan, Bri Giger, has noticed "cowboy core" attire popping up on a lot of retail sites she visits, and is celebrating the growing popularity of Western wear.

"And it's not only Western, it's Black Western," she said. "It's definitely welcomed me into cowboy culture in the sense of honoring ancestors and the history of it, and kind of honing in on the culture that it is American culture."

The Cowboy Carter tour is scheduled to run for 32 shows in major cities across the U.S. and Europe through the end of July.

"Baby, this is a tour to go to," Dillian the Celebrity said. "Go get your looks ready, girl, and go to the rodeo."

Barry Gordemer edited the radio version of this story.
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