(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEYONCE: We snapping. Pretty please?
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour kicked off this week in LA.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEYONCE: We want to welcome you to the Beyonce Cowboy Carter Act II.
FADEL: It's a celebration of all things country - Beyonce style. The music and the fashion.
DILLIAN FRELOW: Whenever you go to a Beyonce show it's like going to the Met Gala. So you have to make sure you show up correct.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Beyonce fan Dillian Frelow, better known on social media as Dillian The Celebrity, and he says dressing to the nines is a must.
FRELOW: I laid out my clothes. Every single piece that I was wearing was custom made all the way from that top of the hat all the way to the bottom of the boot.
MARTIN: And it seemed like every fan had their own take on a cowboy card or aesthetic.
CACHÉ MCCLAY: There were a lot of cowboy hats, cowboy boots. Denim on denim.
FADEL: That's Caché McClay, USA Today Network's Beyonce reporter. She was there opening night. McClay says Western wear is hot right now thanks, in part, to the album.
MCCLAY: We saw a spike in searches for cowboy core items like cowboy hats and fringe and Western fashion.
MARTIN: Mercedes Mats (ph) is the founder of a luxury cowboy hat brand. Her custom-made hats go for $285, and she keeps selling out.
MERCEDES MATS: 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.
MARTIN: She credits none other than Beyonce herself.
MATS: She is the music, the movement and the moment, period.
FADEL: In the two weeks after the song "LEVII'S JEANS" came out, it boosted Levi's sales by $1.2 million according to the data company Launchmetrics. Dillian The Celebrity says upscale brands are also hitching themselves to the Beyonce wagon.
FRELOW: I mean, look at Louis Vuitton. They got people that has probably never even seen a cow wearing a cowboy hat, you know what I mean?
MARTIN: Beyonce fan Bree Geiger (ph) has a concert ticket for this summer, and she's excited.
BREE GEIGER: I think it's definitely welcoming me into cowboy culture in the sense of honoring ancestors and the history of it and kind of honing on the culture that it is, like, American culture.
MARTIN: So, Leila, you know I'm going to ask - do you have any cowboy gear?
FADEL: Nothing. Do you?
MARTIN: You know I do. But - OK, so just remember this advice from Dillian The Celebrity.
FRELOW: Just go get your looks ready, girl, and go to the rodeo.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN'"
BEYONCE: (Singing) Riding through just to put my eyes on you. You are the superstar. Everybody's driving old new cars
MARTIN: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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