In her own words: \u201cShe coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Beyonc\u00e9 dropped the cryptic two-word tease in advance of her latest tour, the phrase quickly became one of her fans\u2019 favorite ways to express their excitement for her next move.<\/p>\n
So when it was revealed that she was going to attend this year\u2019s Met Gala as an event co-chair, red carpet watchers saw the potential for much more than a simple party appearance.<\/p>\n
In the past week, speculation making the rounds online has been imaginative: Will she be dropping her first single in two years? Will she use the occasion to announce an album? A tour? Perhaps Blue Ivy will be accompanying her? (That last one is unlikely, as minors typically aren\u2019t allowed in<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Whatever it is that will or won\u2019t be announced, it has been 10 years since Beyonc\u00e9 attended the event, a starry fund-raiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s fashion-minded Costume Institute, and her fans are starved to see her in something besides a polished Instagram post.<\/p>\n All eyes will be on the pop star to see how she interprets this year\u2019s dress code, \u201cFashion Is Art.\u201d<\/a> Over her seven previous Met Gala appearances, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s ensembles have evolved from minimal elegance to more bold and daring garments with the help of a longtime stylist and a Givenchy creative director.<\/p>\n Below, a look through Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Met Gala history, and where the appearances fit into her singular career trajectory.<\/p>\n 2008<\/p>\n Superheroes: Fashion and FantasyArmani Priv\u00e9<\/p>\n Beyonc\u00e9 attended her first Met Gala<\/a> in May 2008 wearing a blush pink strapless Armani Priv\u00e9 gown with a sweetheart neckline and a train that resembled a cape \u2014 a nod to that year\u2019s spring Costume Institute exhibition, which examined the parallels between fashion and superheroes.<\/p>\n At the time, the Marvel cinematic universe was in its infancy \u2014 the first \u201cIron Man\u201d film was released just three days earlier \u2014 and the global recession was on the horizon. It was also six months before Beyonc\u00e9 released her third studio album, \u201cI Am \u2026 Sasha Fierce,\u201d and just one month after Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z were married in a private ceremony<\/a> in TriBeCa.<\/p>\n Her understated, elegant look by Giorgio Armani, who was an honorary chair of the event, preceded the release of her smash hit \u201cSingle Ladies (Put a Ring on It),\u201d which helped propel her into an entirely different tier of superstardom.<\/p>\n 2011<\/p>\n Alexander McQueen: Savage BeautyPucci<\/p>\n After finishing up her \u201cI Am \u2026\u201d world tour and creating her own management and production company, Parkwood Entertainment, Beyonc\u00e9 returned to the Met Gala carpet three years later wearing a black Emilio Pucci mermaid gown with gold embroidery, black sequins and a keyhole cutout across her chest.<\/p>\n The look was in honor of the evening\u2019s larger theme celebrating Alexander McQueen<\/a>, the British fashion designer who died at 40 and was acclaimed for his provocative women\u2019s wear collections. Because of the dress\u2019s fishtail design, Beyonc\u00e9 at times struggled to walk up the red-carpet stairs upon arrival. So with the help of Jay-Z and Ty Hunter, her stylist at the time, she was finally able to make her way inside.<\/p>\n Later that year, Beyonc\u00e9 would also release her fourth studio album, \u201c4,\u201d and announce her pregnancy while performing at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beyonc\u00e9, who was rehearsing for her next tour and wasn\u2019t originally planning to attend the 2012 gala, decided at the last minute that she wanted to go, her former stylist told WWD<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLiterally within a day or a couple of hours all of that happened \u2014 and it ended up being one of her most talked-about looks,\u201d he told the magazine in 2017.<\/p>\n The look in question was a sheer, embellished Givenchy gown with a black and purple feathered train. That year\u2019s exhibition put the iconoclastic designs of Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada<\/a>, two Italian fashion designers, in conversation.<\/p>\n This would be the first of five Givenchy gowns she would wear to future Met Galas, and an early peek into what would become a close relationship with the Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, the house\u2019s creative director until 2017.<\/p>\n 2013<\/p>\n Punk: Chaos to CoutureGivenchy<\/p>\n A few months after headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, Beyonc\u00e9 served as honorary chair at the 2013 gala, which looked at the sartorial impact of punk culture since its emergence in the 1970s.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough punk\u2019s democracy stands in opposition to fashion\u2019s autocracy, designers continue to appropriate punk\u2019s aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive forcefulness,\u201d Andrew Bolton, now the Costume Institute\u2019s curator in charge, said in a statement<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n Teaming up with Givenchy again, the pop star wore a custom gown with fiery detailing, a strapless corset bodice and matching elbow-length gloves and thigh-high boots.<\/p>\n 2014<\/p>\n Charles James: Beyond FashionGivenchy<\/p>\n Charles James was a visionary 20th-century Anglo-American couturier who took sculptural and mathematical approaches to designing his ball gowns and would describe his style as many things, including \u201ca high form of eroticism.\u201d<\/p>\n Rising to the occasion for the 2014 Met Gala in his honor<\/a>, Beyonc\u00e9 arrived wearing a sheer black Givenchy ensemble with black sparkly embellishments, a deep plunging neckline and a cinched waist. Her hair, which was pulled back into a bun, was covered by a black netted veil.<\/p>\n She was accompanied by her husband, and her sister, Solange Knowles, was also in attendance. The three would go on to make headlines after Solange got into a physical altercation with Jay-Z, as the three rode in an elevator together after the gala. Footage of the ordeal was later leaked to the public, causing rabid speculation about the state of Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n Beyonc\u00e9 arrived at the 2015 gala wearing a head-turning, custom-made gown that was almost entirely sheer, adorned only with carefully placed multicolored Swarovski crystals.<\/p>\n That spring\u2019s exhibition, which examined how Chinese art and film have influenced Western fashion design, resulted in some of the most memorable Met Gala looks to date, including Rihanna\u2019s canary yellow robe gown<\/a> by Guo Pei and Sarah Jessica Parker\u2019s Philip Treacy headpiece.<\/p>\n That year\u2019s Met Gala also highlighted the growing power of social media, marking the first time #MetGala was a worldwide trending topic<\/a> on Twitter, with around 1.5 million tweets posted with the hashtag, according to the museum.<\/p>\n With her and Jay-Z\u2019s last-minute red carpet arrival and one year after the elevator incident, all eyes were on them as they made their way inside.<\/p>\n 2016<\/p>\n Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of TechnologyGivenchy<\/p>\n Less than a month after the surprise release of \u201cLemonade,\u201d Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s sixth album, on which she recounts an emotional journey through marital betrayal, she arrived to what would be her final Met Gala for a decade.<\/p>\n