Sandra Oh's custom Emmys jacket had a special message honoring Black Lives Matter weaved into the fabric
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Anneta Konstantinides
Sep 22, 2020, 00:34 IST
Sandra Oh attends the 2019 Emmys.VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images
Sandra Oh sent a powerful message through her fashion during the virtual 2020 Emmys on Sunday.
Oh wore a custom KORELIMITED bomber jacket with the words "Black Lives Are Precious" written in Korean.
The reversible jacket also had the dashes of the Korean flag and the national flower of Korea embroidered on the front, paying homage to Oh's heritage.
Oh's jacket and matching mask are now both available for purchase on KORELIMITED.
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The 2020 Emmys may not have had a red carpet, but Sandra Oh still sent a powerful message through her awards show fashion.
A post shared by Elizabeth Saltzman (@elizabethsaltzman) on Sep 20, 2020 at 7:31pm PDT
Oh told Vogue UK's Hayley Maitland that she chose the word "precious" because "the literal translation of Black Lives Matter is impossible in Korean" due to the way the characters are read from top to bottom and right to left.
The "Killing Eve" star also revealed that she chose the jacket's royal purple hue because it's "a super Korean color and brings a certain mindset for me," and noted that the bomber also has the dashes of the Korean flag and the national flower of Korea.
A post shared by KORELIMITED OFFICIAL (@korelimited) on Sep 20, 2020 at 9:31pm PDT
The products come in both lavender and black (the lavender bomber has a cropped fit, while the black jacket is unisex) and a portion of the proceeds will go towards the nonprofits Campaign Zero and Black Girls Code — both of which Oh had chosen to support.
Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality were spreading across the US, and Oh said she knew she wanted to wear "fashion that's important and sends the right message."
"These are unusual times," she told Vogue UK. "And, in a lot of ways, it's been an extremely creative one. We're having to reconsider the whole system of awards shows and fashion and red carpets. Everybody's used to having relationships and fittings with designers of certain prominence — and this shift has forced me to reflect on who I am and how I express myself through clothes."
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"After George Floyd's death and the protests that followed, I felt that as an Asian-American, a Korean-American person, I wanted to express my support for the Black community in a way that felt personal to my community," she added.
One of Oh's friends told her about designer Matthew Kim's brand KORELIMITED, which is based in Los Angeles. Oh then reached out to her stylist, Elizabeth Saltzman, and said she wanted to work with Kim for her Emmys look.
KORELIMITED shared more details about the collaboration on its blog, revealing that the brand wanted to create something that would "bolster visibility" of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The brand said it was also excited to work with Oh and was inspired by "her fearlessness."
"In the past, Oh mentioned the importance of preserving her identity as a woman of Korean descent in the less-than-diverse entertainment industry," the post read. "As our brand name stands for 'Keepin' Our Roots Eternal,' we found the idea of working with someone who shares a similar vision with us as a brand an amazing opportunity to create something unlike anything we had done before."
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Representatives for Elizabeth Saltzman and KORELIMITED did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
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