Solange Channels a Storybook Character for Veuve and Jacquemus’s Storybook Dinner

You can read the trend reports, follow the runways, and browse all of the Pinterest mood boards, but if you want to be a true style original, you have to be open to inspiration from the most unexpected places. Just ask Solange. She showed up to Veuve Clicquot and Simon Porte Jacquemus’s pre-New York Fashion Week dinner on September 9 channeling her current fashion icon: Viola Swamp, the grumpy substitute teacher from Harry Allard and James Marshall’s classic children’s book Miss Nelson Is Missing!

The musician’s outfit came directly from the Jacquemus runway. The fashion brand, along with Veuve Clicquot, celebrated their new collaboration on the champagne house’s La Grande Dame 2018—so they transformed the Central Park Boathouse into Le Pique-Nique Sur L’Eau (that is, “the picnic on the water”) for the night. Solange was joined by Julia Roberts (who had a mini-family reunion with her niece, Emma Roberts, at the event), model Imaan Hammam, and The White Lotus’s Charlotte Le Bon. Prior to dinner prepared by chef Alexia Duchêne, musical alumni of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect gave a miniature concert while floating in rowboats on the lake. The champagne—which was served in tulip glassware, not flutes, as Solange pointed out to W—flowed like water. Below, we caught up with the “Cranes in the Sky” artist to discuss unexpected style inspirations, dressing for energy, and her interest in glass design.

Tell me about what you’re wearing tonight.

I took a break from suitwear for quite a while. For a long time, that was my comfort place. That was where I felt the most empowered, the most myself, the most strong, and the most feminine, actually. Then I was like, “I don’t need to see another lapel for two years.” Now I actually miss the suiting, and I have been eyeing this suit forever. I love the way that Simon plays with proportions and how he can take something like the classic suit and give it more shape, more volume, and more geometry. I feel great.

How do you know when an outfit feels right to you?

I dress for the energy that I want to step into—and that changes. Sometimes I am in a more thotty mood. Sometimes I’m about business, and that calls for a different energy. Right now, my style icon is the substitute teacher from Miss Nelson Is Missing, Viola Swamp. Now, Miss Viola Swamp? She could dress her ass off. She would give you a nice silhouette, a green and yellow knit sock, a very exaggerated pointy-toe shoe, and textured hair. The look is so cemented in my mind. She was witchy and the kids were terrified of her, and they started to behave. So lately, if I look in the mirror and I’m like, “Wow, Miss Swamp might rock this,” then I feel like I achieved the right outfit.

Are you always finding unexpected style influences like that?

I think so. There is an energy right now that I’m pulling from that’s similar to Viola Swamp, where I’m like, “I’m here to get y’all in line!”

I like the idea of style being pulled from your cultural experience as opposed to trends.

I look to a lot of paintings. I’ve referenced Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in a lot of my videos. Biblical characters are also my style icons.

What tips would you have for us ahead of fashion week?

I would say if you can, pick your poison. I feel very inspired when I’m going to things and engaging with things that are important and urgent to me. Then I’m able to sit and reflect on the things that I’ve seen, the textures I’ve experienced, the colors, the shapes, and the energy. Sometimes when you do too much of that, it all starts to blend into one another.

Tonight was such an amazing opportunity to be in nature, to watch the sunset, to hear live music. I have also been working on glassware for the last few years, so I was interested to learn more about the stemware of champagne. I learned tonight, we’ve been doing it wrong all this time. The champagne flute is actually not very good for airing out bubbles. As someone who is embarking in a new world of design and specifically glassware for spirits, I’m kind of blown away. I’m always trying to balance the idea of functionality with beautification, so that was enlightening to me, and it’s something I will take with me as I continue to stretch and grow as a designer.

Can we expect your own champagne glass design one day?

We just might.