Beyoncé may be yeehawing it up at the forefront of the cowboycore revival but she might’ve met her match, hatwise at least. Beyoncé cowboy hat, meet giant JAY-Z knit hat.
JAY-Z looks pretty darn good these days, like the slick suit he wore to the 2024 Grammys and casual streetwear he repped as Bey’s Super Bowl wingman. But, most recently, he even topped himself, looking wildly dapper at the premiere of Mea Culpa, a Netflix and Tyler Perry movie starring Kelly Rowland, former Destiny’s Child member and certified Beyoncé Friend.
It may have been a particularly chilly Manhattan night but JAY-Z looked like he had not a care in the world. Or at least not a care once he got dressed in trim wool suit, crisp white shirt, and skinny black tie with clean boots to match.
The fit of the suit was noteworthy enough, making him look like the ever-cool and unattainable popular kid at an Hedi Slimane-hosted party, but JAY-Z’s big, chunky beanie sealed the deal.
This is a power hat, a towering chapeau so massive that it practically comes with its own zip code and it takes a real power dresser to pull it off.
Though JAY-Z is a mogul married to a fashion icon but he’s not as well-known for his own style. He always looks good and clearly has an interest in clothes (remember Rocawear?) but how can you compete with Queen Bey?
That’s not even his fault.
But as JAY-Z and Bey step out in public, JAY’s maturely smart streetstyle becomes increasingly hard to ignore. He also recently designed a collab with his company Roc Nation and Moncler, so this whole fashion biz thing has clearly been latent in him all along.
And then there’s PUMA, where JAY-Z is overseeing basketball. Even given all the A$AP Rocky-led hijinks, more of JAY-Z design acumen would not be amiss.
Either way, nice to see JAY-Z as the style star that he is. Even Beyoncé, who attended with him, couldn’t entirely steal his thunder.
Not that she didn’t look great, obviously, but his outfit was a perfectly understated example of dressing with taste and confidence.
Hopefully he took it all in, because once Bey drops her album in March, the spotlight is deservedly going back to her. But this is a good reminder: don’t sleep on Hov.
