Kerry Washington was honoured with the Style Influencer award at the Accessories Council's 18th Annual ACE Awards. Also being honoured was Scandal's costume designer, Lyn Paolo, who is responsible for making Olivia Pope such a style icon.
Just last month Washington and Paolo released their first Olivia Pope-inspired collection for Limited. In her acceptance speech, the actress talked about the vision she and Paolo have for the famed character and how Olivia Pope is changing the way people view women's wardrobes at work.
"When Lyn and I first met, we had a very simple shared goal when we read the script: we knew that there had never been a woman like this seen on television before, and we wanted to redefine what power dressing looks like for a modern woman. We wanted to create a way of dressing that embodied empowerment but was also feminine and womanly, a way that you could tell someone was a woman and tell that she was powerful, and you didn’t have to separate those two ideas," Washington said.
As any fashionista knows, no outfit is complete without the right accessories. Washington says it is these accessories that take Olivia Pope's outfits to the next level.
"We often talk about the final five minutes in our fitting, which is that moment when the look is OK, it’s a great suit, it works, and we look at each other, and we look in the mirror and we say 'It’s not quite there.' And how we take it from acceptable to exceptional is with the help of all of you guys, whether it’s a Prada purse or Olivia’s Concerto Movado or gloves or necklaces or my Monique Pé©an ring, whatever it is, your accessories allow us to define this character, and that’s been such a gift to us."
Other award recipients include Deborah Lloyd of Kate Spade for Brand of the Year, Elle magazine's Editor-in-Chief Robbie Myers for the Marylou Luther Journalism Award, and Flo Rida for Style Ambassador.
