-Ahh!
"Tracee, do you take fashion to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do, I do!"
Oh, my goodness. Thank you, Tyler.
Thank you for your friendship, for your style, and your willingness to be yourself.
It is inspiring, and I love it.
Thank you to the magazine industry, where I worked in the fashion departments of "Mirabella"
and "New York Magazine" back in the '90s.
To Thierry Mugler and Azzedine Alaia for an 18th birthday party that etched me in fashion history.
The handful of stylists -- It wasn't a birthday party.
I went there. That's a long story.
Thank you to the stylists I've worked with throughout my career and, of course, the glorious Karla Welch,
who has been my collaborator in rule-breaking for the past few years.
And I got to tip my hat to designers.
Thank you for letting me inhabit your sublime creations.
People's Choice. Yes. People's Choice.
I cannot thank you enough for validating my shopping habit
and for validating little teenage Tracee, who begged her mom for a seasonal clothing budget.
Spoiler alert -- I did not get it.
Speaking of which, thank you to my father for paying for those chestnut suede Ralph Lauren jeans
that I tricked him into buying me when I was 14,
for his impeccable style and for being my humor twin.
And then, obviously, I have to thank the icon herself, my mom.
Not only for her great parenting and...
[ Cheers and applause ]
not acquiescing to my very many whimsical and outrageous requests and tantrums, if I'm being honest,
but also her example, her sense of style, her epic closet,
and her glamour that introduced me to the power of fashion.
After she would finish a show and the curtain would fall, I would go on stage as a little girl, and I would collect
all of the beads that had fallen off of her sparkly dresses so that I could have pieces of the magic,
seeds of the fashion dreams that I was cultivating for myself.
When I started paying my own bills, I did not have enough money to buy the clothes that match the taste level
I was accustomed to stealing from my mom's closet, the best fashion playground of all time.
My love of vintage clothing sustained me on a budget.
Thank you, Salvation Army and the Rose Bowl Flea Market.
Second-hand clothing helped me understand that style has nothing to do with money.
It's the way you put things together.
Style is the how, not the what.
I spent years playing dress-up in my closet as a way to find some freedom or some power, and the more that I discovered
who I really was, the more I was able to hone my creative expression through clothing.
I wear my insides on the outside,
and if featuring Black designers at the American Music Awards helps someone see the power of Black artistry
or if joining the call to wear black at the Golden Globes
led to solidarity with women saying time's up on sexual harassment, then you heard me loud and clear.
If fashion is the thing...
[ Cheers and applause ]
If fashion -- Hello, all you virtual lovelies.
If fashion is the thing that draws you in, then use it as a tool for transformation.
So put on your Birkenstocks, your Stan Smiths, your Jordans, your kitten heels, or your Mary J. Blige boots...
a white pant suit, a sweatsuit, or a sparkly dress with the beads flying off.
Use fashion as an entrance.
Let your clothes be your superhero cape...
allowing you to the best you you can be.
Activate the clothes through your joy and commitment to the world that you want to see.
It doesn't matter if you wear black-tie or a Black Lives Matter T-shirt,
but suit up and show up, because our action creates our destiny,
our joy creates space for our freedom.
GASenate.com.
Donate. Get involved. Stay engaged, people.
We've got work to do. Thank you! I am a fashion icon!
[ Cheers and applause ]