Sheryl Lee Ralph was a vision in a jewel-encrusted purple gown at the 2023 Golden Globes. Having selected the hue for its association with royalty, she complemented the weighty Jason Rembert design with a sleek waist-length blowout, lilac eye shadow, and Natalie Mills jewelry. Earlier in the day, during an Instagram takeover, Ralph joked that the dress must weigh 20 pounds. Altogether, it took 960 hours to make.
In the running for best supporting actress in musical-comedy or drama TV series, the 66-year-old is nominated alongside Abbott Elementary costar Janelle James as well as Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown), Hannah Einbinder (Hacks), and Julia Garner (Ozark).
Last year Ralph debuted handbag designer Brandon Blackwood’s first-ever gown—a strapless velvet number with an orange satin lining and a high slit—on the Emmys red carpet. For added bling, she paired the look with a bedazzled waist-length braid and eye-framing face gems.
“Black is anything but basic,” Ralph said of the dress Blackwood created for her in a mere four days. “It is classic, it is chic, it is timeless: It is far from basic. It is black.”
Notably, Ralph is a former Glamour College Woman of the Year—an honor she’s proud of to this day. During a luncheon hosted by Glamour, editor in chief Samantha Barry presented the actor with a framed issue of Ralph’s article inside the 1975 issue.
“I was a sophomore at Rutgers College, and when I found out that I won, it was a big deal because Rutgers was a historically male college, so I was in the first class of women,” Ralph told the other guests. “And winning this made all the men on campus wonder, ‘What the hell is going on?’ The president of the university invited me down and he said, ‘For the first class of women, for you to make a global statement, we are so proud that we made the right choice.’”
