'A team of six sewed for 100 hours in two weeks'

London designer Roksanda Ilinčić tells Joe Bromley what it was like to dress Beyoncé for her spectacular shows this week

- Joe Bromley

ROKSANDA ILINČIĆ discovered her dress would be Beyoncé's billowing blue opening look on the London leg of her Renaissance Tour just after the 40,000-strong audience did. "The loudest crowd so far" screamed from every corner of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and blasted it over social media.

"It was a very, very big surprise," Ilinčić says, still elated the day after Monday night's concert, the first of five shows in the capital. "The looks were all submitted before the tour started, and then it's up to the team and Beyoncé herself to decide what is worn when. We actually didn't know when the moment was going to happen."

The Serbian designer, 47, was not there but, as luck would have it, a gaggle of her design team were. "We were with them on FaceTime watching everything and just being super, super proud. Living the dream really."

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for them all. The London Fashion Week stalwart - a staple of the schedule since launching her label in 2005 - only received the call for custom looks from Beyoncé's stylist Karen Langley a month and a half ago. A team of six powered through 100 hours of sewing  in two weeks to get the job done.

"It was quite a quick turnaround, I must say. For bespoke pieces the timelines are longer but they had a very precise idea of what they wanted, and what the tour would be about. Now it's easy to understand all of them, but at the time it was just words and explanations," she says. "Futuristic elements, beautiful gowns, something that should really make a big impact on the stage." Ilinčić certainly delivered that brief.