Selma Blair Sewed a Hidden Message Into Her Red-Carpet Cardigan

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Selma Blair delivered a wonderful speech as she accepted Glamour’s 2023 Daring to Disrupt Award, presented by Ally, but she started speaking before she even got to the stage, letting her clothes lead the conversation on the red carpet.

The actor and disability advocate, who has been open and vocal about life with multiple sclerosis (MS), wore a hand-sewn Lingua Franca sweater with the names of several prominent disability activists embroidered on it—an all-too-fitting move that harkens back to Natalie Portman’s 2020 Oscars cape embroidered with the names of snubbed female directors.

Blair and her icy blonde bob certainly wore the sweater well with a navy lace gown, diamond cuff earrings, and of course, her iconic diamond-encrusted cane.

Daring to Disrupt Award

Since going public with her MS diagnosis in 2018, the actor and activist has found purpose in advocacy. Now, with unshrinking honesty, she talks her new accessible fashion collaboration, a return to acting on her terms, and what finding love again might look like.

Among the names woven into the sweater’s exterior were Alice Wong, founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project; Sinéad Burke, CEO of the accessibility consultancy Tilting the Lens; Keely Cat-Wells, disability rights activist and CEO of Making Space; president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities Maria Town; Andraéa LaVant of LaVant Consulting; KR Liu, nationally awarded disability advocate and head of brand accessibility at Google; and the late Judy Heumann, widely known as the mother of the disability rights movement.

Selma Blair has always been a fan of fashion, and her MS diagnosis only deepened her interest in the medium. Last year she signed on as chief creative officer of Guide Beauty, which creates accessible beauty tools, and launched an accessible collection with Isaac Mizrahi.

“Disability does not seem escapist,” she told Glamour about the venture. “But I love clothes. I love pretty people doing pretty things.” Clearly, activism and style are one and the same.

On Tuesday, November 7, Blair’s friend and former costar Chloë Grace Moretz introduced her to a crowd that included fellow Women of the Year such as Brooke Shields and America Ferrera. Blair was visibly moved by the moment as she accepted her award.

“Let me compose myself,” Blair began. “I don’t get out much.”

She continued, “It’s been an amazing journey because now I have come to think of disability as an olive tree whose branches extend to find a light in each other, to offer peace and hope and healing. Disability crosses all divides. It knows no borders. It is part of being alive, a great peace offering. If we are blessed enough to age, we all become disabled…. It is my great honor to be part of a community of women who disrupt everyday.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour