Beyoncé’s neon green look by Gaurav Gupta makes the saree a global mainstay

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if an artist like Beyoncé is embarking on a ‘world tour’, the ‘world’ includes only Europe and North America—never India, where even that one Coldplay concert has lost its novelty. However, there is a way for those of us back home to still feel connected to a live performance happening thousands of miles away: the clothes. More specifically, the clothes on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour. The singer just wore a Gaurav Gupta look in Atlanta, Georgia, in what’s turning out to be a long-term, cross-cultural collaboration between the two. Gupta’s forte has always been his swirling structures and statuesque drapes—an art he perfected during his ‘Hiranyagarbha’ AW 23/24 show at Paris Couture week. Beyoncé’s look was straight from the runway: she wore the Neon Green Athena Saree, a hooded, asymmetric structure that draped and flowed down from the midriff. She styled it simply, with neon green heels and a silver wrist cuff.

When Beyoncé wore the saree at her Atlanta show, Gupta made an ecstatic announcement, his second in two days: “I have always been fascinated and enamoured by the history of the saree and the more than 600 different ways it is traditionally draped in India. We, at Gaurav Gupta, are deeply inspired by this almost mythological tradition of drape and have tried to interpret and innovate with it in our own sculptural ways. Eternally grateful to Hema of Maison Bose for creating magic as always”. Hema Bose, who facilitated the collaboration, made a similar announcement, stressing that the look “marks a significant relevance of cultural appreciation of India’s traditional design”. Looking at a Gaurav Gupta piece is like looking at an ancient Greek sculpture in its stately and untouchable glory—which makes it perfect for Beyoncé, who is just as untouchable in her might and power.