- Travon Free honored victims of
police brutality with hisOscars outfit. - The director wore a custom Dolce and Gabbana suit inscribed with victims' names.
- His stylist Tara Swennen described it as "a look that helps make a difference."
Travon Free made a powerful statement about police brutality with his outfit at the Oscars on Sunday evening.
The actor and director walked the red carpet in a custom Dolce and Gabbana suit inscribed with the names of people in the US who had been victims of police brutality.
The inside of the jacket featured the names Eric Garner, Daunte Wright, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice, The Independent reports.
Free and his co-director Martin Desmond Roe won the Best Live Action Short Oscar for their film, "Two Distant Strangers," which tells the story of a man who is forced to relive a fatal run-in with a police officer after getting stuck in a time loop.
The pair wore matching suits, customized Nike sneakers, and David Beckham sunglasses to the event. They also wore custom lapel pins in honor of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi Bryant.
Free and Roe's stylist, Tara Swennen, posted a photo on Instagram alongside the caption: "Thank you so much to all of the designers who collaborated with us on this - and a special thank you for helping create a look that helps make a difference:) #FashionForGood."
Swennen added that Dolce and Gabbana had made a donation to Fix SAPD, a grassroots organization in San Antonio fighting for police accountability through a ballot initiative known as Proposition B.
Free spoke about police brutality during his acceptance speech.
"Today the police will kill three people. And tomorrow the police will kill three people. And the day after that, the police will kill three people because on average the police in America every day kill three people, which amounts to about a thousand people a year. And those people happen to disproportionately be Black people," he said.
Free went on to reference the James Baldwin quote: "The most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other people's pain."
"So I just ask that you please not be indifferent. Please don't be indifferent to our pain," he said.
Free wasn't the only person to speak on the topic during the award ceremony in Los Angeles.
Regina King opened the 93rd Academy Awards by saying she "may have traded in my heels for marching boots" if Derek Chauvin's verdict had been different last week.
The former Minneapolis police officer, who knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest in May last year, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter.