Last week, the British Fashion Awards were held in London and Tracee Ellis Ross was out here looking like a whole salad; because she be dressing, damn it. This year, Tracee hosted the BFA's and proved once again that she's not new to this elevated style shit, she's true to it. Growing up as the daughter of Diana Ross, Tracee learned early-on what it truly means to live on the fly. In a previous interview, she explained:
"There were beautiful things everywhere, but there was a sense of taking care of and cherishing beauty. And also of not taking things too seriously. You could be climbing all over my mom's head while she'd be sitting in an interview, putting your handprints on everything."
As Motown royalty, it's only right that she inherited Queen Diana's eye for style, but according to Tracee, her passion for fashion first began as a defense mechanism. In a recent interview with CNN, Tracee explained:
"For me, fashion started as a way to protect myself — to have a bit of control over how the world perceives me. And I think, for many, that's still the case. I think fashion has evolved for me personally into a form of creative expression."
While we stan a cutely covered queen, Tracee says that her wardrobe isn't for the paparazzi. For her, fashion is a way to express the joy and self-love that she had on the inside, outwardly. She told British Vogue:
"I'm partnered with a joyous stylist, Karla Welch. When I have an event coming up, I'll send her inspiration pictures or we'll come up with a theme, but mostly I just wear what makes my heart sing."
Tracee and her stylist, Karla, are known for hitting us with the heat every damn time she hits the red carpet, but the truth is, sis is fly AF everywhere she goes.
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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