When I saw this this picture from Schiaparelli’s most recent collection, I thought, “That is interesting art, but almost no one in the world can wear a metal bird sculpture on their head and truly own it, including possibly this model.”
Tracee Ellis Ross obviously felt a tremor in the Force that she could not ignore:
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It looks so good on her. I mean, obviously, this is a perfect magazine-style photo, and not dinner at the Cheesecake Factory or whatever, where MAYBE it would seem more out of place on her (but only MAYBE). But please treat yourself to the second slide, in which she is laughing and having a ball. She’s equally authoritative in both. Tracee Ellis Ross can wear that and not only make it seem easy, but she herself is still the most compelling thing in the photo. Her outfit is a total scrolldown — I assume half the reason she’s laughing is that she needed a team of four to get her into those shoes, and that she’s imagining trying to walk an actual red carpet in what sincerely might feel like high-fashion cement shoes. But the bird? She OWNS the bird.
She wore it for the virtual NAACP Image Awards, and for good measure deployed a second outfit, this time by Alberta Ferretti:
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I sincerely love this whole thing. When we used to see her in the front rows at Fashion Week, usually supporting her friend Tracey Reese, she was delighted to see everyone who crossed her path and would dance in her seat to the music and generally seemed like an absolute gas. So I imagine her now as the friend who’d invite you over and be like, “What? You could TOTALLY pull off the bird! Try it on! Oh, and then try the hat with the claw necklace! Okay, you stay and get changed and I’ll bring the blender and the margarita supplies up in here.”
