Tessa Thompson Adds Khaite Suede to Her Textured Awards Season Lineup at Sundance

Tessa Thompson added Khaite suede tailoring to her textured awards-season lineup at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Park City on Friday night.

At Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley, the “Hedda” star arrived in Khaite’s Saraphina jacket and Clover pant from the label’s resort 2026 collection in the Toffee Suede colorway, styled by Karla Welch. She posed with “Hedda” director Nia DaCosta, to whom she presented the Vanguard Award for Fiction during the gala during the festival’s first edition since Redford’s death in September 2025.

The Saraphina jacket, a lambskin suede piece, brought Khaite’s sharp tailoring to the carpet. The jacket featured peak lapels, welt pockets and an elongated placket finished with dark buttons. Thompson wore it buttoned through the torso, which set a straight line through the body before the hem broke past the hips. Long sleeves and a notched collar kept the structure clear against the warm toffee tone.

Matching Clover trousers in the same suede completed the suit, sitting at the waist and falling into a straight, full-length leg that covered most of her shoes. She wore black pointed-toe pumps in scale-textured leather, which added a glossy contrast to the matte fabric. A black Aureum Collective Cassandra clutch — an elongated croc-embossed style with a structured top handle and tassel — brought in one more tight texture.

As for jewelry, Thompson opted for Completedworks’ The Depths of Time earrings along with stacked silver rings. Her hair was braided and pulled back with two curls left at the front, and her makeup stayed neutral with a soft glossed lip.

Khaite’s resort 2026 collection, which Emily Mercer wrote in WWD amped up Catherine Holstein’s “exploration of playfulness and ’90s boho-meets-grunge references,” leaned heavily on surface and fabrication. The Saraphina jacket and Clover pant landed among the season’s suede pieces in a lineup that balanced precise tailoring with softer finishes. The jacket already has something of a celebrity fan-base, too; Dakota Johnson wore the same toffee suede style in New York in June 2025, shortly after the runway show.

For Thompson, the Khaite suit fit into a recent run of fabric-forward looks. Earlier in January, she wore a fringed black tweed skirt suit from Chanel’s spring 2026 ready-to-wear collection in New York, followed by a sequined green Balenciaga gown on the Golden Globes red carpet, where she was nominated for her performance in “Hedda.” At Sundance’s Redford tribute, the toffee suede tailoring added another entry to that sequence.