They got it from their mama! In addition to their musical artistry, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles are both known for their impeccable sense of style. But fans of the famous sisters know that that taste is likely inherited from their mom, Tina Knowles Lawson (who likes to be called Miss Tina, thank you very much). The former hairstylist, 63, picked up her skills from her own mother, Celestine Ann Beyincé, who was a seamstress in Galveston, Texas. While Destiny’s Child rose to fame in the late ’90s, Miss Tina took it upon herself to sew costumes for the up-and-coming girl group, which started out performing for customers at her Houston hair salon.
“They looked a little crazy sometimes, but people always wondered what they were going to wear next,” the designer, who is now married to actor Richard Lawson, said in a New York Times profile. (She divorced Beyoncé and Solange’s father, Matthew, after 33 years together in 2009.) Tina continued to design Destiny’s Child costumes for their appearances, performances and music videos, and even launched the House of Dereon, an affordable clothing line for young women, in 2004.
Still, the sisters have no regrets on taking a chance with their earliest styles. “My mother has always been invested in making women feel beautiful,” Beyoncé, 35, told the Times, “Whether it was through someone sitting in her hair chair or making a prom dress for one of the girls at church. And her art collection always told the stories of women wanting to do the same.”
While Miss Tina is focusing on penning an autobiography and opening up a Los Angeles–area acting workshop for impoverished youth this March, she still manages to find time to design. She crafted some of Solange’s A Seat at the Table looks, including a purple “connected” dress and a fringed golden jacket, which Solange, 30, wore in her “Cranes In the Sky” music video. She also created Solange’s performance gown for President Barack Obama’s farewell White House fete on January 6.
“The day I had kids, I thought, ‘I might screw everything else up, but not this,’” Lawson said. “Now that they’re grown women, it’s like, ‘It’s my turn.’”
