Celebrities wore white roses to the Grammy Awards for a very important reason

'We come in peace but we mean business'

Awards season has served as a platform for political protest this year, with high profile figures using the televised ceremonies and red carpet appearances to call out sexual harassment and abuse.

Last night’s Grammy Awards was no exception.

The past few months have been consumed by a shocking wave of sexual harassment allegations against high profile figures, from disgraced Hollywood heavyweights Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, to jailed Olympic sports Doctor Larry Nassar - who just last week was sentenced to 175 years in prison for abusing over 160 women and girls.

The high profile allegations not only revealed the shocking extent of the mistreatment of women, they also prompted global movements, from the #metoo campaign seeing women call out their attackers, to the more recent Time's Up campaign seeing a call for immediate change.

In a nod to the Time's Up movement and the past watershed year for women, the music industry applied an unofficial dress code to last night's Grammys - and it proved very effective.

Nominees, hosts and big time music names took to the red carpet wearing white roses in symbolic protest, and while not everyone joined in on the movement - ahem Chrissy Teigen and Beyonce - so many attendees took part that New York florists are said to have actually run out of white roses.

While most celebrities pinned a white rose to their lapels, some sported white rose corsages or embroidered the floral pattern into their outfits and some like Miley Cyrus chose to simply carry a flower.

However they did it, it certainly made an impact, with Janelle Monae announcing in a call for change, 'We come in peace, but we mean business.'

That's an empowering start to the week.