Fur, diamonds and very little else: superstar returns to i-D

Beyonce has gone back to i-D, and she brought very little with her. The superstar, 45, posed in a fluffy white fur shrug, an oversized white cowboy hat and not much else for a special edition of the fashion magazine, her first i-D cover in 20 years.

And in the interview that goes with it, she let slip the secret of her own wedding: most of the guests had no idea they were at one.

The shoot marks the UK launch of Cécred, the haircare brand she founded with her mother, Tina Knowles. i-D unveiled the cover on Oct. 26, and the full interview went online this week.

Photographer Blair Caldwell shot it, with Shiona Turini on styling and longtime hairstylist Neal Farinah doing her hair with Cécred products.

In one shot, according to The Sun, the fur is wrapped around her chest and her bare legs are on display. In another she stands with her arms folded across it, gazing straight at the camera.

Then she ditches the fur altogether for a pair of blue jeans, wet-look blonde curls tumbling over her shoulders and one arm across her chest as she tilts her head back.

The wedding nobody knew about

The magazine asked about her favourite look her mother ever made. Beyonce didn't pick a stage costume.

"My favourite dress my mother designed was my wedding dress," she told i-D. "It was gorgeously simple and made with her love."

Then came the twist. "We had a very small wedding in our home," she said. "We told the guests we were having a party, and no one knew they were coming to our wedding but our parents and a few friends."

She and Jay-Z married in 2008, and wearing her mother's design meant more to her than any big fashion house, she said: "more important than any designer dress."

The couple share three children: Blue Ivy, 14, and nine-year-old twins Rumi and Sir.

'Not the face or model'

For a woman wearing a fur shrug on the cover, she was very clear about one thing. "I'm the founder, visionary, and sole investor," she said, "not the face or model for this brand."

In the beginning, she said, it took "some conditioning from the world's perception of how to launch a brand founded by someone like me". Her goal was a brand so good that even her critics would buy it. "Because it works," she added.

Her mother says she nearly drove the team mad getting there. "We tried to launch it two years earlier, and Beyonce, you know, she's a perfectionist," Ms. Tina said.

Every product went to Beyonce, who tested it on herself, her friends and her daughters. "If one person didn't have an excellent experience, she would give it back to me. She drove us crazy," her mother said.

The magazine's last Beyonce cover was for her 2006 album B'Day, and she named that era's updo as her favourite hair look of all time.

Her first hair experiment went less well. "One day I decided to cut my own hair," she said. "I think I may have cut the whole ponytail off and also cut bangs!"

She walked in holding the ponytail. "I said, 'Mom, put this back on please.' And she was like, 'I can't.'"

These days her kids have their own style. "Rumi's favourite place to shop right now is Ross and TJ Maxx these days," she said.

She also gushed about London, from the drive to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for her shows to the British singers she loves, naming Raye, Olivia Dean and Sienna Spiro.

Cécred is now on sale at Space NK stores across the UK.