--- title: Beyoncé's BET Awards Bodysuit Took Three Weeks To Make description: Designer Julien Macdonald revealed that it took three weeks to make Beyoncé's embellished bodysuit for her BET Awards' performance. canonical: https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T18:40:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:03.309Z og:title: Beyoncé's BET Awards Bodysuit Took Three Weeks to Make og:description: Only the best for the queen og:url: https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9acfa5a8cb106918/69889aaba988ca56a56b8816/beyonce-bet-awards-bodysuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2016 BET Awards - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beyoncé's BET Awards Bodysuit Took Three Weeks to Make twitter:description: Only the best for the queen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9acfa5a8cb106918/69889aaba988ca56a56b8816/beyonce-bet-awards-bodysuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beyoncé's BET Awards Costume Took Three Weeks and 30,000 Swarovski Crystals to Make > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=33d6a9ea-822a-4bd3-99b4-a9c40d7e9307&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 5, 2016 6:40 PM UTC  Beyonce performs onstage during the 2016 BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater on June 26, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/BET/Getty Images for BET) Beyonce performs onstage during the 2016 BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater on June 26, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/BET/Getty Images for BET) Kevin Winter/BET—Getty Images for BET  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 5, 2016 6:40 PM UTC [Beyoncé](http://time.com/4306335/beyonce-lemonade-questions/)‘s electrifying [performance with Kendrick Lamar at this year’s BET Awards](http://time.com/4383201/beyonce-kendrick-freedom-bet-awards/) was, to use her own term, flawless. One of the highlights of her performance of “Freedom,” however, was watching her dance in a pool of water while clad in a sparkling, fringed bodysuit that apparently took three weeks and hundreds of thousands of crystals to make. In an interview with [_Grazia Daily_](http://lifestyle.one/grazia/fashion/news/beyonce-bodysuit-julien-macdonald-interview/), designer Julien Macdonald revealed that not only did the intricate garment take three weeks to make, but also that he didn’t know that Bey would be wearing the bodysuit for her performance until he saw watched the awards. To create the distinctive costume, Macdonald concepted with [the _Lemonade_ singer](http://time.com/4370269/beyonce-lemonade-love-drought-jay-z/), getting input from her via Skype. Unsurprisingly, Beyoncé was very involved in the creative process. “She’s very opinionated about what she wants. She said to me: ‘I want you to think of Africa, and something I could wear dancing to an African beat,'” Macdonald said. “It’s a bodysuit with about 30,000 black caviar Swarovski crystals. The imagery on the body itself is taken from African tattoos and body paint, and then it’s got a silk and Swarovski fringe. It takes up to 3 weeks to create something like this – night and day working on it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/"},"headline":"Beyoncé's BET Awards Costume Took Three Weeks and 30,000 Swarovski Crystals to Make","datePublished":"2016-07-05T18:40:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:03.309Z","description":"Only the best for the queen","url":"https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Music","Beyonce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9acfa5a8cb106918/69889aaba988ca56a56b8816/beyonce-bet-awards-bodysuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9acfa5a8cb106918/69889aaba988ca56a56b8816/beyonce-bet-awards-bodysuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 BET Awards - Show","caption":"2016 BET Awards - Show","creditText":"Kevin Winter/BET—Getty Images for BET","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393694/beyonces-bet-awards-bodysuit-julien-macdonald/","name":"Beyoncé's BET Awards Costume Took Three Weeks and 30,000 Swarovski Crystals to Make"}}]}] ```