beyonceincopyspeechphoto
Credit: Instagram @formationtour2016

Many of us forget that Beyoncé didn’t come from wealth. She wasn’t always the Queen of the stage, the last to arrive at the Met Ball or the glass-ceiling smasher we now know. Today, dressed in a Givenchy tux and the same wide-brimmed hat that follows her on her Formation World Tour, Beyoncé accepted the prestigious award for this year’s CFDA Fashion Icon, presented to her by Diane Von Fustenburg. With husband Jay-Z, her mother Tina and daughter Blue Ivy in the audience to support her – and Becky with the good hair also in the same room – Beyoncé paid tribute to every designer who, like her mother and grandmother, work tirelessly as “fairy godmothers, magicians and even therapists.”

An excerpt from her inspiring speech below. It really is #blackgirlmagic at its finest.

“I feel so much love and I feel so proud. As long as I can remember, fashion has been part of my life. Its effect on me actually started before I was born. Many of you guys don’t know this, but my grandmother was a seamstress. My grandparents did not have enough money, they could not afford my mother’s Catholic school tuition. So my grandmother sewed clothes for the priests and the nuns and made uniforms for the students in exchange for my mother’s education. She then passed this gift onto my mother and taught her how to sew. 

“Starting out in Destiny’s Child, high-end labels didn’t really want to dress four black country curvy girls, and we couldn’t afford designer dresses and couture.

“My mother was rejected from every showroom in New York.”

“But like my grandmother, she used her talent and her creativity to give her children their dreams. My mother and my uncle, God rest his soul, made all of our first costumes, individually sewing hundreds of crystals and pearls, putting so much passion and love into every small detail. When I wore these clothes I felt like Khaleesi. I had an extra suit of armour. It was so much deeper than any brand name.”