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CAN YOUSAY

SEXY?Destiny’s Child surecan! Reunited after

three years, Beyoncé,Kelly and Michelletalk about lifelong

friendship and showyou how to work

some of the hottestdresses of the season.

Photographs by Mark Abrahams

“We saw these dresses and were like, ‘Whoa!’ ” says KellyRowland.“I love that they’re similar but not matching. And

the different styles work for each of our body types—that’s exciting!” If you’re wearing busy prints like these, keepaccessories to a minimum. From left: ON BEYONCÉDress,

Missoni; sandals, Dolce & Gabbana. ON KELLY Dress, Missoni;sandals, Gina. ON MICHELLE Dress, Missoni; sandals, Gina.

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hen Beyoncé Knowles,Kelly Rowland and

Michelle Williams ofDestiny ’s Child went

their separate ways in2001 to pursue solo careers,

word was the R&B phenom-enon was over, kaput, done—

divorced, pop music–style. Butthe women of D.C. swore theirs

was just a short-term separation;they vowed they’d eventually get back together tomake more music. They have kept their word—anew album, Destiny Fulfilled, and the first singlefrom it, “Lose My Breath,” were just released. It is,says Knowles, “a powerful record.” Adds Rowland:“We’ve grown so much. We’re women now.”

To say the best friends who sold 40 million recordstogether—and rocketed into stardom with female-power songs like “Inde-pendent Women Part 1,”“Bootylicious” and “Sur-vivor”—have been busyin the past few yearswould be an understate-ment. Knowles, 23, hit thebig screen and moved intothe single-name statusreserved for pop culturephenoms when her 2003album, Dangerously inLove, went triple plat-inum and earned her fiveGrammy Awards. Row-land, 23 (who grew up living with Beyoncé’s fam-ily), also dabbled in filmand released a solo album;a single from it, “Dilem-ma,” featuring a duetwith Nelly, hit number one. And Williams, 24, starredon Broadway in Aida and released two solo albums.

“It was a good thing for us to each go out and doour own thing,” says Williams. “When you’re in thestudio by yourself, you have to grow musically andlearn to depend on yourself. So when we got back to-gether, we knew how we each wanted to sound.”

W

“I grew up a plain Jane, but now I’m drawn rightto these Gucci dresses!” says Williams. “The way they fit! The color!” Look for similar hothues at all price points at the mall—especiallychic now with metallic sandals. From left:ON MICHELLE Dress, Gucci; sandals, ManoloBlahnik. ON KELLY Dress, Gucci; sandals,Manolo Blahnik. ON BEYONCÉ Dress, Gucci;sandals, Dolce & Gabbana. All jewelry here and on following pages: Lorraine Schwartz.

There is nothinglike having

your sisters withyou. It makeseverything so

much more funand exciting.

—BEYONCÉ KNOWLES

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Recorded sporadically over most of just a monthlast summer—“the first day we didn’t get anythingdone; we just talked and laughed and felt like wewere home,” says Knowles—the album is aboutlove, self-esteem, loyalty and growing up. “We’renot singing about anything we haven ’t gonethrough,” says Williams. Adds Knowles, “It’s a greatalbum for women. It makes you proud to be a wo-man because it makes you feel like you can go

through anything andbe OK. It’s comforting.”

But most important,the album is a testa-ment to friendship.“There is nothing likehaving your sisters withyou,” says Knowles. “Itmakes everything somuch more fun, enjoy-able, exciting. There’ssomeone there to helpyou keep the energy up;to catch you if you’refalling. That’s why I’veloved being in thisgroup since I was nineyears old. It doesn ’tseem like work; it seemsmore like fun.”

Rowland’s eyes immediately well up when she’sasked to describe her relationship with Knowles andWilliams. “They’re my blessings, definitely,” she ex-plains, wiping away the tears. “Our relationshipsare deeper than Destiny’s Child. We’ll still be witheach other when we’re having babies; we’ll be ateach other’s weddings.”

“Oh, we’ll be Destiny’s Grannies!” says Williamswith a whooping laugh. Then, turning serious, sheadds: “We know that what we have is real. I mean,I learned how to be cute, to be funky, from thesegirls. We are glad, glad, glad to have each other!”

—MARYELLEN GORDON

“We’ve outgrown having to dress exactly alike,”says Knowles. “We want things that reflect

our personalities but that still have some harmony. Like these dresses; they’re beautiful together.” From left:

ON KELLY Dress, Walter; sandals, Manolo Blahnik.ON BEYONCÉ Dress, A.B.S by Allen Schwartz;

sandals, Dolce & Gabbana. ON MICHELLE Dress,Laundry by Shelli Segal; sandals, Dolce &

Gabbana. See Go Shopping for more information.

Editor: Maggie Mann; Hair: Kimberly Kimble for margaretmaldonado.com; Makeup:

Mally Roncal for Contact; Makeup: RudySotomayor for Epiphany Artist Group Inc.;

Manicure: Deborah Lippmann for JGK.

We’ll beDestiny’s

Grannies! Whatwe have is real.

We are glad, glad,glad to have each other!

—MICHELLE WILLIAMS