Receiving the WWD Style Award for Hollywood Trailblazer is validating for the lifelong fashion lover Tracee Ellis Ross.
“It’s justification that my shopping has been worth it,” Ross said.
The actress has been fashion obsessed ever since she was a toddler, posing for a photo in her mother Diana Ross’ high heels while clutching her favorite stuffed Tweety Bird.
Tracee Ellis Ross at the Schiaparelli fall 2023 couture show on July 3, 2023, in Paris.
WWD
“That was just the beginning of me ravaging my mother’s closet,” she said.
“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 added. “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.”
While many fashion lovers are collectors, Ross buys to wear. Her sense of style — “eclectic, colorful, elegant, glamorous, sexy, and a little bit utilitarian” — hasn’t changed over the years. She’s just gone from shopping at the Salvation Army to Bottega Veneta as she earned her own money.
“I was a vintage girl for years and years. I didn’t have a stylist for years. Even red carpet, I look back and that was clothing that I’d found or had salvaged or redone or vintage. Now I’m not a vintage girl because I actually can buy the clothes that I always wanted, and I talk about it all the time on my social media accounts, but I really care for my clothes,” she said. “I was told young, my mom was like, ‘you can spend money on your clothes, but you got to take care of them.’ And so I’m a handwash girl. I’m not a collector. I mean, don’t get me wrong, my closet could probably be considered a collection, but I don’t really get rid of things. I still wear things from high school. My style has not evolved.”
Tracee Ellis Ross at the 2021 Met Gala.
Lexie Moreland/WWD
Those favorites include high-waisted and wide-leg pants and trousers, blazers, tuxedo jackets and sneakers.
“None of that has really changed, but my ability to buy what I dream of is different,” she said.
Growing up the daughter of Diana Ross, who taught her the enduring appeal of “big hair and glamour,” immersed Ross in the fashion world early on. When she was a teenager she made her runway debut in Thierry Mugler’s famous 1991/1992 “Butterfly” show, followed by Mugler’s motorcycle show.
“On that trip, I stayed with Azzedine Alaïa for a night, and he allowed me to go through his racks from the show and choose clothes. I still have all of them. I cannot get them over my knees, but [I still have them],” she said. “I wore them all through college, those were my go-to’s. They were a high-waisted biker short in green with a long-sleeve G-string bodysuit that went underneath with buttons that was the most beautiful outfit. I had it in gray, green and chocolate brown. I still have all that.
Tracee Ellis Ross at New Museum Gala held at Cipriani South Street on April 3, 2024, in New York.
Lexie Moreland/WWD
“Recently, I wore the gray look. I could still get in that,” she added. “It doesn’t look quite the same — it looked better when I was a skinny 20-year-old who was just skin and bones. Just a bony little thing with a tush.”
Ross first started making money as an actress on the show “Girlfriends,” which premiered in 2000.
“We never knew if we were going to get picked up for the next year, so when we got picked up from the first season to the second season, I started a tradition which was buying myself a very special dream gift — and it was usually a fashion gift — in between the seasons,” she recalled.
Between the first and second seasons, she’d been coveting the brown Vivienne Westwood pirate boots Kate Moss had worn.
Tracee Ellis Ross at the Kering Foundation Caring for Woman Dinner on Sept. 12, 2023, in New York.
Lexie Moreland/WWD
“At the time, in order to get the pirate boot, you had to go into the store, trace your foot on a piece of paper, tell them your size, and then they would make them for you,” Ross said. “And then I had to wait for them, which made it even better. It was like waiting for the treasure to arrive.”
When the show was picked up for the next season, her fashion purchase was a red patent leather oversized Louis Vuitton Vernis tote.
Tracee Ellis Ross at the Harper’s Bazaar Cocktail Party during New York Fashion Week held at Le Veau d’Or on Sept. 4, 2024, in New York.
Nina Westervelt/WWD
“It is huge. It’s the best beach bag, and it’s gorgeous. I mean, I would’ve carried it as a purse if I could have, but it was luggage-sized and it would’ve been overkill,” she said. “Now people use that huge Hermès [bag] and just walk around with it like a purse. I probably could definitely put it on my shoulder now, but at the time, I think people would’ve thought it was insane. And I’ve done crazier for the sake of fashion.”
