This wardrobe emergency could have gotten someone sent straight to the principal.
“Abbot Elementary” star Sheryl Lee Ralph stunned on the 2022 Emmy Awards red carpet on Monday in a sleek, strapless black velvet gown with an orange lining — But she almost suffered a serious fashion faux pas.
Ralph revealed that she was almost stuck twinning unintentionally on the red carpet. “A designer gave my co-star and me the same sketch for the same gown,” the sitcom star told Associated Press.
She only found out about the situation while on set when said co-star Lisa Ann Walter showed Ralph her own outfit plans — an off-the-shoulder green gown with puff sleeves and a gold belt buckle that she did end up wearing to the September, 12 award show.
“Up until five days ago I had no gown, I had nothing,” Ralph said. “Brandon Blackwood heard about my plight through Roberto, the stylist, in New York.”
Ralph, 65, said Blackwood “stepped up,” and “was in Japan and started rendering the gown on his Pacific flight.”
The designer — who creates handbags and small accessories and only recently entered footwear with one pair of custom shoes — made his “first gown ever” for the occasion, according to Instagram.
Fans called the combination “legendary” and raved “she looks gorgeous as always.”
Her stylist Roberto Johnson also had a full circle moment, as he wrote on his Instagram Stories, “A day after my 15th migrating to the USA anniversary i can say that [sic] Ive styled an Emmy winner!”
Ralph, who plays longtime teacher Mrs. Barbara Howard on the ABC show and wowed when she accepted her award with a song, accessorized her look with a Brandon Blackwood mini bag, of course, and diamond choker and long braid bedazzled with crystals.
Ralph was praised for her inspirational acceptance speech after taking home the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
“To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t couldn’t come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like,” she told the audience.
Follow our up-to-the-minute coverage of TV’s biggest night:
The scene stealer made history as the second ever black woman to win after Jackée Harry’s win for NBC’s “227” in 1987.
