Beyoncé Turns 45, and the Early Archive Is the Best Gift

The birthday itself is reason enough, but the timing hands us something better: a look back at Beyoncé before she was the institution she is now, back when the fame was brand new. Her ’90s and early-2000s run is the kind of era-defining stretch stylists still study, precisely because so little of it looks dated. Forty-five candles in, that early footage reads less like nostalgia and more like proof of a throughline.

With reporting from Vogue.