It’s not everyday you walk your first Emmys red carpet with a nomination—much less in a custom, one-of-a-kind gown created by designer Brandon Blackwood. But that’s exactly what Sheryl Lee Ralph did tonight.

The Abbot Elementary actor wore a body-hugging strapless gown complete with a daring high slit with orange inner lining. The star, who’s up for best supporting actress in a comedy series, paired the dress with one of Blackwood’s signature trunk bags covered in dazzling heat-stamped orange crystals. The bling didn’t stop there, though—Ralph incorporated cascading crystals in her braid and on sparkling tennis bracelets. They say diamonds are a girls best friend, and after this look, I see why.

“I flew straight from Tokyo to L.A. to meet Sheryl with the dresses,” Blackwood exclusively tells Glamour. The look took four days to make. “We did two sketches and ended up making two dresses. The dress is black velvet lined with duchess satin. It’s our first gown ever.” The designer’s handbags have been a hit among his A-list clientele, including rapper and certified icy girl, Saweetie, and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Naomi Smalls. If his bags are any indication of the clothing that may be to come, it’s going to be nothing short of spectacular.

“Black is anything but basic. It is classic. It is chic. It is timeless,” Sheryl Lee Ralph told red carpet reporters.

Ralph was previously a Glamour College Woman of the Year—an honor she’s proud of to this day. During a luncheon hosted by Glamour and Tory Burch, Glamour‘s editor in chief Samantha Barry presented the actor with a nostalgic momento—a framed issue of Ralph’s article inside the 1975 issue.

“I was a sophomore at Rutgers College, and when I found out that I won, it was a big deal because Rutgers was a historically male college, so I was in the first class of women,” Ralph told guests. “And winning this made all the men on campus wonder, ‘What the hell is going on?’ The president of the university invited me down and he said, ‘For the first class of women, for you to make a global statement, we are so proud that we made the right choice.’”

Originally Appeared on Glamour