Solange has managed to brighten up a particularly grey Friday by dropping her latest album overnight, called When I Get Home.
It’s the highly anticipated follow up to her 2016 album A Seat at the Table. Just like her sister Beyoncé, Solange is generally known by her first name only – which is a true sign of star power.
Solange has been actively making music for almost as long as her older sister, and since the early 2000s she carved out her own unique style both in music and fashion.
Here’s a look at why she’s one of the most exciting style icons of today…
She’s not afraid of the avant-garde
For the last two years, Solange has been one of the stand-out looks at the annual Met Gala.
This is the kind of event that suits Solange, because her style already errs towards the artistic and avant-garde. In 2017 she wore a Thom Browne outfit that somehow made a black puffer jacket appropriate for a formal event. It came complete with a long train and shoes made to look like ice skating boots.
Unlike many other attendants that year, Solange was bang on theme, which was meant to reflect the outlandish and experimental style of Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garcons.
Solange might have even topped this look with last year’s outfit, when the theme was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. Wearing a sculptural Iris Van Herpen dress and thigh high boots, the look was completed with a du-rag and halo headpiece.
She received reams of praise – many applauded her for bringing some ‘black girl magic’ to a Euro-centric theme. In fact, before the event, she tweeted: "I feel heavenly in black."
This exemplifies Solange’s style in general: she like experimenting with architectural and interesting outfits and always with a mind to celebrate blackness.
She makes monochromatic dressing interesting
If we told you Solange largely prefers a black and white palette for her outfits, you could be forgiven for thinking that sounds quite dull.
While Solange’s style can be described as somewhat minimalist – particularly with the colour scheme – she constantly plays around with silhouettes and unusual cuts, making her wardrobe unlike anything else you see on other celebs.
Even when she’s not wearing monochromes, Solange errs towards block colours and often pale shades like the iconic pink in the Cranes in the Sky music video.
The singer has a strong sense of personal style – her former stylist Shiona Turini told the New York Times she’s more of a fashion collaborator, saying: "She doesn’t need a stylist. She has the final decision on anything. And there is no way me or anyone else is going to get her to wear something she doesn’t want to wear."
She balances between masculine and feminine
In an era where gender is becoming more fluid, particularly in fashion, Solange is well and truly leading the charge.
She often switches between floating, delicate dresses and sharp tailoring, showing how versatile her style is.
In an interview with Fashionista, Solange admits she used to be obsessed with fashion, but when she was making the record A Seat at the Table she moved away from that, and became much more interested in her personal style.
"Once I kind of made that decision to really kind of do this for me, my style has evolved and changed so much over the last 10 years, and I think that’s one of the most fun things about being a girl is getting to experiment and have fun and be light and express yourself through that," she says.
Her hair and beauty looks are constantly pushing the boat out
One of Solange’s stand-out songs from the last album is Don’t Touch My Hair, which explores the meaning of hair for black women. She went natural a while back and is seen as an icon for reclaiming her hair – which for black women can be a highly political subject.
Solange’s hairstyles are often evolving – from afros to braids and everything in between. She tells the Evening Standard braiding is an "act of beauty, an act of convenience and an act of tradition" which is "its own art form".
In terms of beauty, Solange is far from the kind of celeb who has honed a go-to look and sticks with that – she’s constantly switching things up and surprising us. She can often be seen with graphic make-up or glittering eyeshadow – and just take a look at the incredible piece of face jewellery featured on her latest album cover.
Solange shows that fashion and beauty are things to be played with – and if you don’t like something, you can just change it the next day.
