Tracee Ellis Ross made a statement on the red carpet at the 2025 WWD Style Awards in Los Angeles on Friday. The “Black-ish” star and six-time Emmy-nominated actress wore a look courtesy of Alaïa for the high-profile fashion event as awards season begins. Her look featured a black turtleneck bodysuit embellished with an allover grommet eyelet. She paired it with a fringe leather belt and a white Le Teckel bag, also from Alaïa.
Tracee Ellis Ross at the 2025 Golden Globes WWD Style Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Jan. 03 in Los Angeles.
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Ross was the recipient of the first Hollywood Trailblazer honor at the WWD Style Awards.
“Women’s Wear Daily, thank you so much for looking at my Instagram and for legitimizing my shopping habit, ” she said during her acceptance speech.
The actress also dedicated the award to stylist Karla Welch, with whom Ross has collaborated for years. “Although we know that I have a shopping habit, when I dress myself in my daily life, my red carpet is articulated through the beautiful collaboration with the amazing Karla Welch.”
Tracee Ellis Ross at the 2025 Golden Globes WWD Style Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Jan. 03 in Los Angeles.
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Ross often utilizes her platform and decades-long career in Hollywood to promote a more egalitarian culture. Through her fashion choices, she made an impact on and off the red carpet.
“Style is the confidence that your bones give you to let your heart sing, your soul dance, and your feet walk your own path. It is the way you dress and it’s the way you live. And if there’s any trail that I blazed, I hope it’s paved with the footprints of my humanity, my service, my wholeness, my accountability, my gratitude, my joy and my delight. And in a world that is attempting to steal so much of our freedom and censor our expression, I think that 2025 is the perfect time to be free in your expression and their joy,” she said during her speech.
Tracee Ellis Ross at the 2025 Golden Globes WWD Style Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Jan. 03 in Los Angeles.
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“Do not wait for events to wear your pretty clothes. You are the special occasion. Whip them out for the market, put out a red lip when you work out, and just be your inner song,” Ross said.
The actress is also the founder of Pattern Beauty, a line of haircare products designed for curly, coily and tight textured hair. Ross launched the brand in September 2019.
“For me, how I dress myself is really a form of expression, and it’s one of the ways that I wear my insides on my outside,” Ross recently told WWD. “It started as an armor, a way that I would feel protected, and now it’s just one of the ways I express myself and it brings me so much joy. I really feel like there’s an importance to how we express ourselves, particularly in the world that we’re living in. How I dress is one of the ways that I show up in the world and tell people how I want to be responded to.”
Women’s Wear Daily honored the fashion and beauty tastemakers, muses and legends whose creativity, craft and style create magic on the red carpet at the inaugural WWD Style Awards presented Friday in Los Angeles. Honorees included Tracee Ellis Ross, Anna Sawai, Wes Gordon, Kate Young, Chris Appleton, Pati Dubroff, Iván Pol and Jamie Taylor.
